If only such times would make us cry, “My soul thirsts for You…in a dry and thirsty land” (Ps 63:1).
As 2 Kings 3 opens, Jehoram is king of Israel. The divine assessment is that he isn’t quite as bad as his parents, Ahab and Jezebel, but certainly as bad as Jeroboam “who had made Israel sin” (v 3). Really bad, but not really, really bad. Clearly he wasn’t the kind of company for Jehoshaphat of Judah. Remember how Jehoshaphat almost died by aligning with Ahab? But here we go again. It seems that “Mesha king of Moab” had been forced into an arrangement with Jehoram’s father to pay an annual fee to be left alone—“one hundred thousand lambs and the wool of one hundred thousand rams” (v 4). But when Ahab died, Mesha was done with paying protection money. So Jehoram asked Jehoshaphat to join him to get Mesha back in line. Again the king of Judah joined in an unequal yoke, saying, “I am as you are, my people as your people” (v 7). They headed south around the Dead Sea to outflank Moab. Because they were marching through Edom, somehow the king of Edom also joined them, taking Judah from bad to worse. After seven days’ march, I imagine one king saying to the others, “I assume you brought water?” “No, didn’t you pack it?” This was turning into a death march! Now listen to Israel’s king: “Alas! For the Lord has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab” (v 10). Blame the Lord for your foolishness? But Jehoshaphat—belatedly—asks to hear from God. So Elisha is called in for consultation. He wouldn’t even acknowledge the other two kings if it weren’t for Jehoshaphat. His spirit is so distressed that he has to listen to music first to settle his soul! Then once again God in mercy speaks. How can one solve the problem of dryness? God has the ideal solution.