Table of Contents

12 Digging Ditches

“And the land was filled with water” (2 Kings 3:20).

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War often creates unlikely allies, as we’ll discover in our key text for this chapter (2 Kings 3:1-25). The passing of kings and changes in leadership lead to turmoil as well. Upon the death of Ahab, King Mesha of Moab felt it was time to stop paying a tax of 100,000 lambs and 100,000 rams to Jehoram, his son. Responding to this threat, Jehoram teamed up with Jehoshaphat, king of Judah and the king of Edom to go to war against Moab. It wasn’t long before matters became complicated. Carefully consider this chain of events that led to another miracle in the ministry of Elisha. A lack of water- “After a roundabout march of seven days, the army had no more water for themselves or for the animals with them” (2 Kings 3:9). It was tainted water earlier. This time there’s no water at all. This comes as no surprise, since they chose a route through the Desert of Edom to attack. Dial back a few centuries to the wilderness wandering Children of Israel under Moses. At Rephidim, the people suffered from a lack of water and subsequently quarreled with their

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