Moabite Misunderstanding

Synopsis      2 Kings 3:22-4:2     7/30/2019

The three kings had combined the forces of Israel, Judah and Edom. However, they had run out of water for their armies. And so they sought counsel from Elisha. And the prophet had encouraged them.

God miraculously provided a flow of water in the wadi near where the Israelites had camped. As the sun rose, the Moabites saw the water and thought it was blood, since there had been no rain. They wrongly concluded that the three armies had turned on each other.

So, the Moabite men ran headlong into the Israelite camp in a rush to get the booty. However, as they arrived, they found the three armies very much alive. The three armies overtook the disorganized Moabite forces and pursued them throughout the nation – destroying the infrastructure of the nation along the way.

Moabite Misunderstanding

As the sun rose, the water God had sent appeared as red as blood. Additionally, there had been no rain. So, a natural conclusion might be that the water was actually blood.

And no one seems to have challenged this conclusion. So, the Maobites ran headlong into a massacre.

Misunderstanding All We See

It’s in ignorance that I make my most egregious mistakes. And if I’m not diligent with God’s prescription for truth, then I remain ignorant. The Word says, “establish every truth on the basis of two or three witnesses.”

And it doesn’t matter if I choose to remain ignorant because of my pride or if I just lack much experience in life.

However it happens, when I misidentify the circumstances of my life, my sense of value forces action. And the action makes visible for me and all the world what is really going on inside my heart.

This is the gift of feedback. And it’s built into the fabric of our moral life.

Embrace the feedback.

“At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it.” Heb 12:11