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Episode 613: In this episode, we discuss the biblical narrative found in 2 Kings chapter 3. We explore the story of Elisha, the prophet, and the kings of Israel, Judah, and Edom as they face a dire situation in battle against Moab. The kings are desperate for guidance, and Jehoshaphat suggests consulting a prophet. This leads to a discussion about Elisha's role and the significance of music in prophetic ministry, as he requests a harpist to play while he receives a message from God.
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You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Bible. Guys. We're back. We're back, better than ever. Oh man, we are better than ever. Can you imagine? Yeah, you imagine how much better we would be than ever? If what? I don't know, Well, you know, I think I'm just hoping. I think I told you this, be honest. One of my favorite phrases of one of the trainers at our church, because there's a gym there's an HFP Heritage Fitness Project is as you're working out and you're like sweating, and you're like and you're like, you know, losing motivation, he goes, he goes one. Percent better today. Everybody's one percent better today, And so it's like, wow, that's a great phrase. You don't have to work out times. I know, I know, and you are better than you will. Yes, that's correct, which means you can triple yourself in a year. Or not, but yeah or not. I like that. I like the sentiment. Yeah, the sentiment's good. So we don't know, we're better than ever today, but we're going to give it our best shot. We are, that's correct. So we're going to start. With a yawn. Yeah, apparently so lighting. We just said better than ever and he starts yawning like I couldn't. Carry any load lighting if you know me, Yes, any low lighting makes me on. Yeah. Okay, so this is who's most likely most likely? And we love this segment. Yes, So the goal is just to read the question. We'll take turns of reading them, and. Then we'll just have to decide who's most likely to do this Jeff or Chris? Yes, okay, I'll go the first. Go first. Who's most likely to be the first one to sign up to go skydiving? We've already done this one like this about skydiving before, so it has to be me. Yeah, Well, because you went skydiving. Well, I've gone three times and your insurance prevents you. From Yeah, insurance won't let me do it. Yeah, we have a key man policy and it specifically forbids me from skydiving right now. Because I wanted to go with my son when he turned eighteen, I couldn't go. Yeah, and I've done it three times, and honestly, the last time I went, the last. Time I went crazy. The last time I went, I remember literally jumping out, and as I'm jumping out, I remember thinking to myself, this would be the last time I do this. Yeah, I've done this three times, two twice before. It was almost like uh huh yeah, literally, I can't believe that I felt that. Way, Wow, but I did. Yeah. There are times of chime. Okay, who's most likely to go back to school and get their PhD in something random? That would definitely be you. Yeah, you know what. I was accepted in a doctoral program this year and then paused and decided not to do it. Oh well yeah, yeah, So I went through the whole process, and then the day I was supposed to register, yeah, for classes, I decided not to. It's just my schedule is so hard. I couldn't imagine adding yep, that extra work to it. Well, it's actually why I stopped my master's degree. Yeah. I was working for to get my master's when my kids were young, and it was so unbelievably difficult that I realized that my masters wouldn't at the church current church I was at. It wouldn't pay me anymore, It's not that type of church, and it would just be bragging. Right, So I got my master's and it was like, it was like, why am I doing this? I'm pretty sure? Like, you know, knowledge is good obviously, Yeah, but I can gain knowledge without working my tail off like this, right, I'd. Have to think. So I like to think I's equivalent. Yeah, well here thirty years later, right, So but yeah, so I passed on one this year. But yeah, that's good. Okay. Number three, who's most likely to climb Mount Everest? I already know immediately who this is. That's definitely you. I think climbing Mount Everest is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. It is so dumb. Well, hey, a lot of people died doing it. It's hence the dumb right. I told you I have no compassion. But you know, I saw the movies, you know, people like they go up and then they freeze and then they die, and are people. Are like, oh, that's so sad. I'm like, that's what they deserve. That's what they deserve because because they have the courage to try to do something nobody else can do. Would you think was gonna happen? Well, some people make it, some people do but guess what, Oh did you hear about the tragy amount Everest, would you think was going to happen? Yeah, okay, and you signed up for it, so so believe it or not. I'm not a big fan of thin air. Yeah, right, So I don't like to do that. Like we were in Chad night, were in the h in right on the border of Tibet in China, and the village that we were in, it was all Tibetans, was at a little over eleven thousand feet it was eleven or twelve thousand feet, and just walking around because we were only there for two days and so you don't really have much time to acclimatize at that at that point, and so then there was a out of breath. Yeah, so just kind of huffing and puffing a little bit. And there was a fifteen hundred year old or older, yeah, fifteen hundred year old temple at the top of this hill in this village, and I'm looking at it, going I want to go see it, right, right, And so we get about a third of the way up on the stairs and I'm like, ah, I don't want to go see it that bad, right right right, And it was just it was just the thin air. So I'm not a big fan of thin air, but I do have a desire to do the trek to base Camp Foreverest. Oh. And that's like a. Ten day hike from LASA and you go up over eighteen thousand feet before you get to the end of it, and it takes like ten days to do. And it's bucket list before I turn fifty five, which means I only have a year and a half left, two years. I don't think you're going to do that. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna find a way. I already I already have the sherpa. He's a friend of mine. Yeah, and he told me he'd put it together if I would go. So I got it. I got yeah. Yeah, So twenty twenty five is the year I'm gonna get to where I can do it. I have a bad knee, so that's my one issue. But if I can get that fixed, and I think I want to do it. Yeah, I've done pair of sailing, I've done rock climbing, I've been repelling. Hire a helicopter and fly up there that I could do that too. There you go. But yeah, I've done skydiving, I've done I've done some crazy things for some reason. I do not want to fight nature. Okay, that's that's what I don't want to do. Don't want to fight. Don't want to bend it to your will. Okay. Who's most likely to start a petting zoo in their backyard? You are? You are? Be me? You are. Yeah. And by the way, my wife would love it. And I'm not just talking about love love. I mean love, love, love, love love. She would love it. Okay. You know, we have deer in our backyard. Our deer come and my wife puts together these little bird feeders and they love the corn out of the bird feeder, and then the squirrels do too. And at one point in time she was spending like three hundred dollars a month to feed the deer. And I said, and I said, I said, have you totaled it up? She's like, no, I didn't total it up. I told her. And she's like, oh, I better stop that. Yeah. I'm like I think you better, yeah yeah. And man, those deer were fat. Yeah, we stopped because who can afford that? That's a car payment? Almost all right? And then finally, how about this one? Who's most likely to become a part time superhero. You are, I am too. You are. Yeah, that's me running around the Cape Crusader. Yeah, running around your long John's with a towel around your neck. I wonder if it's I wonder if it's implying superpowers, because I don't think I would do it without superpowers, right, because. I wouldn't do it like Batman style. No, because I hate Batman. You know that, I hate him so so the hates a strong word. That's a strong word. You know what. You know what I don't like about Batman. He's the most believable of the superheroes. Well, that's what my wife would say. Yeah, my wife actually likes the non powered superheroes. I like Batman, I know. You do know the thing I don't like about Batman is. That they make him do unrealistic things and he's only a guy. Like did you see the the beginning of the of what's the Justice League movie? When he's when he's when he's dragging behind this car. He's just a guy, bro, He's just a guy. There's no way he could possibly do the things that they had him do. Oh no, I saw it in the movie. He did it. Yeah, it was crazy speaking of not being able to possibly just being a guy could possibly do these things. Elisha does a ton of miracles, and the people start recognizing this, and even the kings start to pay attention to him. So it's possible for just a guy, he's just right, just a guy to do amazing things. And so does he say, like I'm Batman, So does he say. I'm Elisha, I'm a prophet, I'm a profit. So in Second King's chapter three, there's a war between Israel and Moab. At this point, King Misha of Moab was a sheep breeder. He used to pay the King of Israel an annual tribute of one hundred thousand lambs and the wool of one hundred thousand rams holy Cow. But after Ahab's death, the King of Moab rebelled against the King of Israel. So King Joram promptly mustered the army of Israel and marchik from Samaria. On the way, he sent this message to King Jehashaphat of Judah, the King of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you join me in battle against him? Jehosaphat replied, why, of course, you and I are as one. My troops are your troops, and my horses are your horses. And then Jehashuapad asked what route will we take? We will attack from the wilderness of Edom Joram, who replied the King of Edom and his troops joined them, and all three armies traveled along a roundabout route through the wilderness for seven days, but there was no water for the men or the animals. What should we do? The King of Israel cried out, The Lord has brought the three of us here to let them King of Moab defeat us. But King Jehoshaphah and to Judah asked, is there no prophet of the Lord with us? If there is, we can ask what the Lord what to do through him. One of King Joram's officers replied, Elishah's son of Sefat is here. He used to be elijah personal assistant. Jehashaphat said, yes, the Lord speaks through him. So the kings of Israel, Judah and Edom went to consult with Elisha. Why are you coming to me, Elisha asked the King of Israel. Go to the pagan prophets of your father and mother. But King Joram of Israel said no, for it was the Lord who called us three kings here, only to be defeated by the King of Moab. Elisha applied, as surely as the Lord Almighty lives, whom I serve, I wouldn't even bother with you, except from my respect for King Jehashapada Judah. Now bring me someone who can play the harp. While the harp was being played, the power of the Lord came upon Elisha, and he said, this is what the Lord says. This dry valley will be filled with pools of water. You will see neither wind nor rain, says the Lord. But this valley will be filled with water. You will have plenty for yourselves and your cattle and other animals. But this was only a simple thing for the Lord, for he will make you victorious over the army of Moab. You will conquer the best of their towns, even the fortified ones. You will cut down all their good trees and stop all their springs, and ruin all their good land with stones. The next day, at about the time when the morning sacrifice was offered, water suddenly appeared. It was the flowing It was flowing from the direction of Edom, and soon there was water everywhere. Meanwhile, when the people of Moab heard about the three armies marching against them, they mobilized every man who was old enough to strap on a sword, and they stationed themselves along their border. But when they got up the next morning, the sun was shining across the water, making a pier red to the Moabites like blood. It's blood, the Mobites exclaimed, the three armies must have attacked and killed each other. Let's go, Madam Moab and collecked the plunder. But when the Moabites arrived at the Israelite camp, the army of Israel rushed out and attacked them until they turned and ran. The army Israel chased them into the land of Moab, destroying everything as they went. They destroyed the towns, covered their good land with stones, stopped up all the springs, and cut down all the good trees. Finally, only kure Har Harrisath and its stone walls were left, but men was slings surrounded and attacked it. When the king of Moab saw that he was losing the battle, he led seven hundred of his swordsmen in a desperate attempt to break through the enemy lines. The king of Eden but they failed. Then the king of Moab took his oldest son, who would have been the next king, has sacrificed him as a burnt offering on the wall. So there was great anger against Israel, and the Israelites withdrew and returned to their own land. But I know, there you go, I know, so you know, I love thee the note on the Life Application Study Bible that talks about when it says I ruined they ruined the land with stones, it meant that they scattered stones across the land so that it wouldn't be fit for plowing, because you can't plow with stones. So they would have people just take all the fields that were you know, valuable, a valuable commodity. It was, you know, they were you know, plowed, they were fertile, they were ready to grow crops. And but that's what that means. They would take stones and they would just mess up all and again what it is is, you know, it seems very harsh obviously, but Ahab would have been completely powerful and because of his strong rule, he was actually he had conquered Moab, and so they paid tribute to Ahab because of his absolute strength and power. But when ahab died. We've seen this before, right, when when when a president changes hands, he goes from a strong president to a president that appears weak. Right, all of a sudden, we we have war in Russia. So so anyway, the point is is that that's that's what's happening. And so he's uh, he's he's going against uh, you know, and he's rebelling, and he's saying, I'm not going to pay this tribute. I'm gonna in fact, I'm gonna go to war. I'm going to break and gain our freedom again. And uh. And what Israel is doing and what God is helping Israel do, is making a statement that says, you're not going to defeat or rise up against the the nation of the God of Israel. So this is a statement about about the people who serve God. It's not just a statement about kings and power. It's a statement about don't mess with God is what it is right. And so therefore they're like, Okay, if you want to rebel against us, then you're. Going to pay. So they filled all the wells. They so they got shovels and and and or whatever they were using, I suppose filled with rocks, and so they're so they're filling the wells to where they basically. Made the land not unusable. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, and uh. And by the way, another thing about the life application study Bible is uh, as soon as you see one map, you understand everything, right. So so this is as many people understand, the Sea of Galilee's on the northern part of Israel, the Dead Seas on the southern part of Israel, and then the Jordan River sort of connects the two, and so Moab is on the east side directly east do east of the Dead Sea, and so and so then the the wilderness of Edom is actually just south of the Dead Sea, right, So they would have gone from the from the west side of the Dead Sea down underneath the Dead Sea and then up to Moab on the other side. That's right. Is that cool? Yeah? And so that would be in what is modern day Jordan now. Yeah, which which, by the way, you were there like a couple months a. Yeah, I'll be there again shortly. But yeah. So that's as you're heading from Aman down towards Petra. Is that this is on the way, although Petra didn't exist in these days. This is eight hundred and fifty years before Jesus and Petro was was going on in the time of Jesus that those Navitaeans were about the same time as Jesus. So but anyways, this is a pretty rugged area and a rough area, and these Moabites are wicked people, evil people. So a lot of times people ask man Alive, it just seems unreasonable that, you know, God would would fight all these tribes around Israel all the time, and that God would would help Israel wipe them out, and it just seems okay. So when this Moabite king, after he's done fighting the Israelites and realizes we're probably going to lose, he sacrifices the crown prince in a burnt offering right on the wall in front of everybody. Right, so, no wonder God goes after these people. I don't know that the average reader, as you plow through the Old Testament, a lot of times we miss those because that's one sentence, right, right, That was one sentence. The king of Moab took his oldest son who would have been the next king, and sacrificed him as a burno offering on the wall, and then just keep going one sentence. Right. So, every once in a while you'll hear somebody go, you know, one of the big arguments I listened to. I think it was Christopher Hitchins, one of the main atheist you know, philosophers, and he goes, you know, I don't like the God of the Old Testament because he commitsed genocide right in the Bible whatever. And I'm like, I don't know that. You and I can comprehend how unbelievably and completely evil these people were. Yeah, their culture was such that the people after that, it says, so there was great anger against Israel. Now look what you made me do. Look what you made our king do. They were not horrified at what their king did. They were horrified at what Israel was doing. Right. So Israel comes in and goes, hey, you're not paying your taxes anymore. The only reason why we let you live is because you give us one hundred thousand sheep and one hundred thousand coats of wool from the rams, and you stopped paying. We're coming to collect. Right, that's just a government thing. Those are two governments working things out. You stop paying, there's consequences. That's that This king, this evil king, gets up and sacrifices his son in a burnt offering on the wall, the web, the city, the would be king. He sacrificed the crown prince. That's right in front of the people. And the people are not mad at their king. They're mad at Israel. Because they probably believe in that sacrifice. They were totally saturated with evil in every way. Now here's a king willing to sacrifice his son and the burn offering in front of everybody. But what we know about the worship this was Chimash was the god that he would have been worshiping there, but the gods of Bail and Molek and all these other gods Ashtereth. The sex issues, the sexual issues in worship were as evil as these human sacrifices were evil and the full on hedonism, although hedonism was more of a Greek thing. But this self indult legence was so incomprehensibly evil to us that this is why God goes No, you have to get rid of them. They're all completely permeated with this idea. They will never change, their children will never change, their great grandchildren will never change. Right, That's what God's because God's not bound by time he's able to look into time and go, it's never it's only going to get worse. And God says the planet is better if we stop it now, then to let it keep getting worse and worse and worse and worse and worse. And so I look at this and go, dude, anybody who who could co sign what this king just did deserves what the Mobiites get, right. We can't let that go unchecked. And that's just from a regular citizen. But God in his holiness looking at this and going, these people are only evil continually. Everything they think to do is evil. Yeah, And you know we have to understand as well. In the Old Testament, even even back in David's time, when David was given the assignment of going to war in conquering countries, it. Was the same thing. It was the same Joshua, same thing. Yeah, same thing. So it's not just in this instance, it is it is a theme throughout the Old Testament, right, And so yeah, I think it's a great point. Yeah. And so these people are mad at Israel, They're not mad at their king. It just it blows my mind here on these things. So anyways, the the issue I think too and we kind of blew past. It was Elisha's like, why are you coming to me? Right? And it is interesting to me. You've got these. You've got the wicked King of Israel, Joram, You've got the wicked King of who's the other one that they went to get help. Joseph about the third king? Yes, either there's a third third king, the king of they're both god less, well they have gods, but they're not following the true God. And Jehosaphat goes, well, we need some help. Let's go find a prophet. You don't have any prophets, and like, oh, yeah, there's that Elisha guy. He's here. Yeah. Well, one of the notes just glanced down while you were talking, and one of the notes says, you know, why didn't Jehosaphat bring his own profit? Right? And so it just goes to show you that, you know, there there there was a decline towards the end of Johosaphat's reign and so and so you know here he is looking for one as opposed to bringing one into battle, right, and yet yeah, yes, of course he's the one that recognizes Elisha's authority. Elisha announces the only reason why he's even entertaining this is because of his respect for Josphat. So obviously he is a still godly king. But the fact that that Jospat didn't have one ready, right, Like, he didn't have one. He didn't he didn't say, Hey, we're not going to go into battle without these fifty prophets, right right, or this, you know, or these three prophets or whatever. He has to go look for one, which is pretty crazy. Right. And and by the way, Elisha says, who has a harp? Yeah? And so Elisha, oftentimes it was not uncommon for music to be played behind a prophet, right, And so think about this dramatic unveiling. You know, God's gonna bring you water. There's gonna be no wind or rain, but there's just gonna be water. In the harp's playing, you know. And there's this dramatic, you know, unveiling of what God is saying. I would have liked to have been there for that. Yeah, that's a regular occurrence where prophets in music are going together, right in this throughout the Bible, I had seen a note in there. First Chronicles twenty five to one is another place where the prophets and music go together. It happens many many times in the Bible, and this is one of the reasons why I think it conditions your heart to hear from God in a way that you know, when when you and I just do everyday stuff, there's the logical mental engagement with life and you're just trying to make a decision whatever. But when when you bring out the music you're in leaning into it, you start thinking from the other side of your brain, right, we know that scientifically, you start working on the on the other side, and I think you tend to be more emotionally open as well, and so you're completely open to God. This is why we we lead in worship and UH in our services before we declare the word of God, because that's what prophets do. Prophets come and bring God's word to God's people, right, That's that's their job, that's right. And so before we do that, we always UH spend time in worship, singing, and those two things accompany each other. Hearing from God. And as a matter of fact, you know, in what is it is it Efesians when when God says and don't be drunk with wine, but instead we're in his excess. But be filled with the spirit. Right, And then he says a sign of being filled with the spirit, which remember when when it said earlier and the spirit of God came upon Elijah Elijha. Right, be filled with the spirit. Singing to yourselves and psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. You're singing and making melloy to the Lord. You're giving thanks and making melley the Lord. And so those tend to go together. This, this spirit, the move the spirit of God in you, worship music, declaration of God's word ath tend to be connected together. Yeah, that's great, that's great, pretty incredible. Well, hey, that is our time, so hopefully we will see you tomorrow on the Bible Gus