Not the Whole Picture

Destruction in the world

Fighting in the Middle East again

Death and destruction

Surprising things

Expect God to finally bring judgment on the house of Ahab; but Joram reigned for 12 years

Expect Joram to be evil; but not as evil as his father and mother—could God be slowly changing hearts?

Expect Jehoshaphat to ask about inquiring of the Lord before going to war; but waited until he was in the desert with no water

Expect Elisha to say a word of woe—like Michal did with Ahab and Jehoshaphat in 1 Kings 22, but instead water will flow, defeat Moab

Expect Moab to be defeated, but the fury against Israel was great and they withdrew to their own land without overthrowing the main city

God does surprising things in our World

And I wonder if there are times in our own lives that we are surprised by God’s actions?

Elisha Shares but Not the Whole Picture

Provide Water—this is a simple thing for God to do

You’ll Attack every city

Cut down their trees

Stop up their wells

Throw a rock on every good field

BUT he does not say they will retreat or not take every city

Human Sacrifice?

What was the fury and why was it great?

Seeing desperation of the king, the Moabites fought hard?

Seeing the desperation of the Moabites, the people of Judah and Edom turned against Israel who had devastated this people?

A God who Gives rather than takes

There was a stone with an inscription from Mesha recounting this battle and in it he says he had to sacrifice his son because he felt Chemosh, his god was angry with his land.

Mesha thinks he must give his own son to appease his god

Everything is dependent on him—Mesha must make the gods happy, must sacrifice, must give must appease

But the God of Israel does not operate like that

God is the one who gives of himself

God hates sin and knows we cannot fix it on our own

Instead of demanding our sacrifice, he gives of himself

He takes on the sin of the world, he

We give our lives to God—not to appease a vengeful or get God’s attention

Rather we give of ourselves to a God who gave of himself first in Jesus

And and wonder if we might be surprised again of the Nature of God—the one who gives of himself to take on all the death and destruction and sin in this world