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Joram, who was king of Israel
now, was a very wicked man. He was like his father Ahab, and his
mother Jezebel, and his brother Ahaziah. The king of Moab rebelled
against Joram; so Joram went to fight against him, and asked Jehoshaphat
to go too. Jehoshaphat had done wrong before when he helped Ahab,
and now he did wrong again; for he said to Joram, "I will go with
thee." The Bible says, "If sinners entice thee, consent
thou not." Proverbs 1:10. God's people ought not to love
the company of the wicked. We may be kind to them, and pray for
them, and try to do them good; but we must not be too often with
them. Perhaps they may tempt us to forget God, and to love the world
and sin. We ought to try always to be with good people, who will
teach us what is right. Jehoshaphat was a weak man; and he forgot to
ask God to give him strength to resist temptation. Joram,
and Jehoshaphat, and their armies, began their journey, and came into the
wilderness of Edom. But there was no water for them in the
wilderness; and soon they all began to suffer from thirst very much, and
Joram said, "We are come here to fall into the hands of the king of
Moab!" Joram had no friend to comfort him in his sorrow; but
Jehoshaphat remembered that he had a friend in Heaven who could help him
in all his troubles. Jehoshaphat truly loved God; and now he
remembered his sin, and asked for pardon. And then Jehoshaphat gave
very good advice to wicked Joram. He said, "Let us ask one of
God's prophets what we must do. God can help us in our
trouble." One of Joram's servants said, "Here is Elisha,
the servant of Elijah." Then Jehoshaphat said, "He is a
prophet of the Lord: let us go to him." So the two kings
went to Elisha to ask him what they must do. But when the prophet
saw Joram, he looked upon him very gravely, for he knew what a wicked man
he was, and asked, "Why hast thou come to me? Go to the
prophets of Baal; they are the prophets of thy father and they mother;
thou lovest Baal, not God: go to him." Joram answered,
"We are in great trouble; we are suffering from thirst in this
wilderness, and soon Moab will come and destroy us." Then
Elisha said, "Because of Jehoshaphat, I will attend to thee; but I
cannot look upon thee alone, nor see thee. Thou art an enemy of God;
but Jehoshaphat is His friend and servant." Then Elisha
commanded a minstrel to play to him; and while the minstrel was playing,
God's spirit came upon Elisha, and taught him what he must say to the two
kings. He said, "Thus saith the Lord, make this valley full of
ditches. You shall not see wind, nor rain; but the valley shall be
filled with water. And I give the Moabites into your
power." This was a very wonderful promise, but not too powerful
for God to perform; nothing is too wonderful for Him. The
next morning, Jehoshaphat, and Joram, and their armies, saw water rushing
along to the wilderness where they were. They knew not how the water
came; but they watched it flowing on, and at last all the valley was
filled, and all the country round. God had, many years before, given
His people Israel water from a rock. He had made a river in the
wilderness for them, and now He could bring water into the wilderness
again. These were miracles God alone could do. All things obey
Him. The animals, and the sun, and the moon, and the trees, and the
grass, and the rain, and the seas, and the rivers,—all these things
belong to God, and He can do what he pleases with them. He commands
the sun to shine, and the rain to fall, and the waters to flow; and they
all obey. We cannot tell how God does these wonders; for we
understand very little of His power and His works. But we know that
all He does is wise and good; we know that He will give His people all
they need, and He will keep them in all dangers, and help them in all
their troubles. And now the
Moabites made ready to go to the battle. They rose very early in the
morning; the sun was shining brightly upon the water in the valley, and
made it look red like blood. The Moabites did not know what a
wonderful thing God had done; they did not understand that he had sent
water into the valley to refresh His people. So the Moabites looked
in wonder at the red water, and at last they said, "This is
blood. The kings must be slain; they have smitten one another; and
now we will go and take the spoil." The Moabites were very
foolish to think this. When God leaves wicked people to think for
themselves, and to trust to their own wisdom, they often do and think very
foolish things. The Moabites came to the camp of Israel to take the
spoil; and then they found that the kings and their armies were not dead,
but all ready to fight. The Israelites rose up directly, and drove
away the Moabites, and followed after them, and smote them. The king
of Moab tried to conquer Israel, but he could not; and he was in great
trouble, because they besieged the city where he was; and he had none to
help him. He did not know the true God, Israel's God; the god he
worshiped was an idol named Chemosh. The Moabites thought that their
god Chemosh was pleased with blood; and they often sacrificed their
children to him in times of trouble. The king of Moab had a son; and
now, in his difficulty and danger, he took his poor son, and carried him
to the top of the walls, and sacrificed him there to Chemosh, his
god! The wicked king thought that this might make Chemosh help him,
and give him power to conquer Israel. When the Israelites saw what
the king had done, they went away, and returned to their own land.
They must have felt thankful that their God was a God of love, not a God
like Chemosh, pleased with blood and cruelty.
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