Please open your Bibles this morning to the Book of Kings, the Book of Kings, 2 Kings, chapter 3. You'll find that on page 357 of most Pew Bibles. If it's not there, it's on page 271, 2 Kings, chapter 3. We return this morning to our series following the ministry of the prophet Elisha. And up to this point in our series, our attention has been focused on Elisha in his relationship to Elijah. We anticipated Elisha's ministry in the word of God to Elijah on Mount Horeb in 1 Kings chapter 19. And then in 2 Kings chapter 2, we considered Elisha's anointing as Elijah's successor. And how he came into Israel wielding the word of God, the double-edged sword of the Lord. And in our text today, we begin to see Elisha in a broader context. His place in the history of Israel as he begins to be involved in the political intrigue of the divided nation of Israel. If you remember, it's because King Solomon had sinned against God by chasing after the gods of his many wives. that the Lord tore the kingdom, the promised land, into two. Ten tribes to the north in Israel, two tribes to the south in Judah. We're told in 1 Kings chapter 11 that it was for the sake of David his servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which he had chosen, that he split this nation. He did it for the sake of his redeeming purpose that would come eventually through David, through Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Savior. But from the very beginning of that split, Israel to the north was defined by the sin of Jeroboam, who set up golden calves at Bethel and at Dan, as we've considered before, so that his people would worship there instead of going to Jerusalem. All the kings of Israel continued in this sin. But there was a season of particular wickedness in Israel when King Ahab came to the throne. In the name of national security and foreign trade, Ahab made alliances. He made an alliance with a Phoenician king who had access to the sea and he married his daughter. You know her name, Jezebel. And with Jezebel came the worship of Baal into the kingdom of Israel. Not only did she bring it in, but Ahab embraced it. He promoted it. According to 1 Kings chapter 16, Ahab did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him. He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam, that's worshipping the golden calves, but he also married Jezebel and began to serve Baal and worship him. He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. And if that wasn't bad enough, the wickedness of Ahab was not confined to Israel, but it began to seep into Judah and it did so through another alliance. King Ahab made with the king of Judah, Jehoshaphat. He married off Jehoshaphat's son, Jeroboam. He married Ahab's daughter, Athaliah. And this formed an alliance that resulted in one of the few periods of peace between Israel and Judah. But it was a poisonous peace. It was a peace that was perilous to Judah and to the line of David in particular. And therefore, it was perilous to the line of Christ, yet to come. In chapter 16 of 1st King, we also hear that Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel before him. The Lord was angry with Ahab and he raised up two prophets, Elijah and Elisha. He raised them up for a specific purpose which will unfold as we go through this first part of 2nd Kings. For the purpose of undoing Ahab's house and removing that wickedness from Israel and from Judah. And our text this morning is the beginning of how that all plays out in Elisha's ministry to Israel. So we turn our attention now to the Word of God, 2 Kings chapter 3, to consider what we can learn here today. Hear now the Word of God. Joram, son of Ahab, became king of Israel in Samaria in the 18th year of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and he reigned 12 years. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, but not as his father and mother had done. He got rid of the sacred stone of Baal that his father had made. Nevertheless, he clung to the sins of Jeroboam, son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit. He did not turn away from them. Now Misha, king of Moab, raised sheep, and he had to supply the king of Israel with 100,000 lambs and with the wool of 100,000 rams. And you should know that was on a yearly basis. But after Ahab died, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel. So at that time, King Joram set out from Samaria and mobilized all Israel. He also sent this message to Jehoshaphat, king of Judah. The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you go with me to fight against Moab? I will go with you, he replied. I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses. By what route shall we attack, he asked, through the desert of Edom, he answered. So the king of Israel set out with the king of Judah and the king of Edom. After a roundabout march of seven days, the army had no more water for themselves or for the animals with them. What, exclaimed the king of Israel, has the Lord called us three kings together to hand us over to Moab? But Jehoshaphat asked, Is there no prophet of the Lord here that we may inquire of the Lord through him? An officer of the king of Israel answered, Elisha, son of Shaphat, is here. He used to pour water on the hands of Elijah. Jehoshaphat said, The word of the Lord is with him. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him. Elisha said to the king of Israel, What do we have to do with each other? Go to the prophets of your father and the prophets of your mother. No, the king of Israel answered, because it was the Lord who called us three kings together to hand us over to Moab. Elisha said, As surely as the Lord Almighty lives whom I serve, if I did not have respect for the presence of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, I would not look at you or even notice you. But now bring me a harpist. While the harpist was playing, the hand of the Lord came upon Elisha, and he said, This is what the Lord says. Make this valley full of ditches, for this is what the Lord says. You will see neither wind nor rain, yet this valley will be filled with water, and you, your cattle, and your other animals will drink. This is an easy thing in the eyes of the Lord. He will also hand a Moab over to you. You will overthrow every fortified city and every major town. You will cut down every good tree, stop up all the springs, and ruin every good field with stones. The next morning, about the time for offering the sacrifice, there it was, water flowing from the direction of Edom, and the land was filled with water. Now all the Moabites had heard that the kings had come to fight against them, so every man, young and old, who could bear arms was called up and stationed on the border. To the Moabites across the way, the water looked red, like blood. That's blood, they said. Those kings must have fought and slaughtered each other. Now to the plunder, Moab. But when the Moabites came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and fought them until they fled. And the Israelites invaded the land and slaughtered the Moabites. They destroyed the towns, and each man threw a stone on every good field until it was covered. They stopped up all the springs and cut down every good tree. Only Kir Haraseth was left with his stones in place, but men armed with slings surrounded it and attacked it as well. When the king of Moab saw that the battle had gone against him, he took with him several hundred swordsmen to break through to the king of Edom, but they failed. Then he took his firstborn son, who was to succeed him as king, and offered him as a sacrifice on the city wall. The fury against Israel was great. They withdrew and returned to their own land. Here ends the reading of God's word. A rich story, it assumes a lot of us as readers to understand what's going on, but it does introduce us in verses 1-5 to the main players that we need to keep our eyes upon as we consider this episode, all of them fools in their own way, hence we've titled the sermon, When fools rush in? Well, the first and major player is Joram, king of Israel. The NIV calls him by his shortened name to help us distinguish him from his brother-in-law, who married his sister Athaliah, Jeroboam. I'm sorry, Jehoram. These names get old. There's Joram and Jehoram. Like in a teacher's class, children, your teachers will give two children with the same name, a short name and a long name, Rich and Richard. These guys have the same name, but your NIV has it as Joram. If you're reading the ESV or the King James, you're going to find Jehoram. Don't be confused. This is Joram of Israel. Joram's father Ahab and his brother Ahaziah both died in what people might call accidents. Ahab died from a random shot of a bow in battle. It killed him. Ahaz died from a fall off the penthouse porch at the palace and was injured and it killed him. But the truth is that neither of these were accidents, these were divine appointments by the will of the Lord and confirmed by his prophets. If you look in 1 Kings chapter 22 and 2 Kings chapter 1, you will see what the prophets had to say to these men before they die. Both had openly worshipped the false god Baal and both of them paid with their lives. And it appears from our opening verses that Joram learned something from their deaths. We're told in verse 2 that he got rid of the sacred stone of Baal that his father had made. Now, he did not destroy it. He just put it away. He put it in the garage, so to speak. Out of sight, out of mind, hopefully, of the Lord, like a little child who holds something behind their back, thinking you as a parent won't see. He was a fool. And yet he still clung to the sins of Jeroboam. He was still wicked in his heart. The second and pivotal player is Jehoshaphat, who's just mentioned in these opening verses, the king of Judah. And if we consider what's come before, Jehoshaphat has a long history with Ahab's household. Not only had he joined it in an alliance by the marriage of his son, Jehoram, to Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab, he fought with Ahab against Syria on the day that Ahab died. He was there with him. And he did business with Athaliah. He built a whole fleet of ships that were destroyed in the harbor before they ever left. He had twice witnessed the lightning of the Lord come against the house of Ahab and you would think that he'd be wise enough to figure out that the hand of the Lord was not in favor of Ahab. But he didn't. All in all, however, 1 Kings chapter 22 tells us that he was a relatively good king. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, we're told, at least in most things. he tolerated pagan worship on the hilltops of Israel that was not a good thing and he was committed to this covenant with Ahab yet he did enjoy the Lord's favor and the Lord did answer his prayers as we will see and the third player is Misha, king of Moab who served the Lord's purposes for Joram he's really the foil in the story Ahab had made him a vassal which means he had lordship over him And in exchange for economic opportunity in Israel and in exchange for military protection, Misha had to pay a tribute every year of sheep and wool. But when Ahab died in Syria by that random arrow shot, Misha figured that the tide was turning and he rebelled against Israel and started looking towards Syria. And nothing had been done from that day until now the day that Joram takes the throne and he's ready to do something about it. So we look in verse 6 and thereafter we find how these fools, these three main players, all rush in. And they all rush into their own destruction. Joram rushed in first. We read in verse 6, so at that time, without delay, King Joram set out from Samaria and mobilized all Israel. Snap decision. As soon as he had the power, he was on the road. Proverbs 14, verses 16 and 17 say that a wise man fears the Lord and shuns evil, but a fool is hot-headed and reckless. A quick-tempered man does foolish things. And Joram showed himself to be a fool. He did not fear the Lord. He clung to evil. He was hot-headed and he was reckless. And he did not count the cost of this war that he was about to wage, nor did he develop a strategy for how he was going to wage it. He just mustered the troops and he hit the road. And he went to Judah. And there Jehoshaphat joined Joram in this fool's errand. Verse 7 tells us that Joram sent this message to Jehoshaphat, king of Judah. The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you go with me to fight against Moab? And without hesitation, it seems, Jehoshaphat said, I will go with you. So why would Jehoshaphat do such a thing? Go into this fool's errand. No plan. Just answer the king. It's because he had made a covenant with Ahab. He had answered Ahab the very same way he answers Joram here today when he was asked to fight with him against Syria. He said, I am as you are. My people is your people. My horses is your horses. We are one. We're united. There was no thinking about it. They were committed by marriage, so to speak. But Jehoshaphat's commitment to the house of Ahab had become more important than his commitment to the Lord in the time between Ahab and today. And in this he showed himself foolish. Before going into battle with Ahab, 1 Kings 22, he did say, first, we must consult the Lord. And he did. He didn't heed the counsel, but he did at least consult the Lord. And here he did not bother, like Joram, to ask the counsel of the Lord. He just decided to go. Instead, they turned to each other for counsel. One of them said, what way should we go? What route should we take? The other one answered, well, we should go through the desert of Edom. A choice had to be made. They had to go east. And between them and Moab was the Dead Sea. So they either had to go north and around, or south and around. Now, if they went north, they'd bump into Syria, which wasn't very friendly right now. And even if Syria left them alone, they'd hit Moab at their strongest border. And if they went south, they'd go through Edom, a vassal of Judah, where they could pick up troops and supplies before they hit the weakest border of Moab. So it sounded like a no-brainer. We should go south. We don't need to consult the Lord. We're just going to go south. But in their foolish haste, it seems they didn't plan very well for this march to the south, the march that would take them through mountains and the desert before they reached Moab. I was reminded before worship this morning that many of you men were at the desert shootout this weekend, yesterday. The march that they took the men through from Jerusalem to Moab was the equivalent of marching from Escondido to the Salton Sea, right through where you men were. Now imagine how you would feel after you marched that far without water. or at least with the water you could carry on your back. Because they didn't seem to plan ahead for that march, so we read in verse 9, the king of Israel set out with the king of Judah and the king of Edom. And after a roundabout march of seven days, the army had no more water for themselves or for the animals with them. They had arrived at the border exhausted, dehydrated, and in no condition to fight the war that they thought they were there to fight. And if they were expecting to surprise Moab by coming in the back door, that was lost too because Moab knew they were coming. Verse 21 tells us that the Moabites heard and they assembled every man who could bear arms and they were already standing at the border. Solomon rightly observed in Proverbs 26 verse 12, Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There's more hope for a fool than for him. And wise in their own eyes, Joram and his allies had found that rather than being poised for victory at the border of Moab, they were set at the threshold of destruction. They had no defense. And it was at that moment where they came to the end of themselves, when they realized that where they had taken themselves, all was lost, that their hearts, who they really were, were exposed. Joram, who had tried to hide his evil heart by putting away an evil thing. His evil heart was now exposed. And by his fruits, we can know him. He despaired and he became angry at God. He says, what? Has the Lord called us three kings together only to hand us over to Moab? Rather than blame himself or his own foolishness, Joram blamed the Lord God he despised. Who else could he blame for having no water? and Jehoshaphat well he'd forgotten the Lord and he had too easily fallen in with Joram on this fool's errand he had sacrificed truth and righteousness for the sake of an alliance that promised personal or political gain he'd given up the Lord for the sake of Ahab and his family but now at this moment of extreme difficulty when he'd reached the end of himself his heart of faith is revealed he is a believer by his fruits we can know him yes he should have consulted the Lord before he left Jerusalem but now at the eleventh hour he didn't continue in that neglect he turned to the Lord and asked is there no prophet of the Lord here that we may inquire of the Lord through him he knew he had nothing more to offer and he turned to the Lord. Our hearts, people of God, are likewise exposed each and every day by the circumstances of this life, of your life, of my life. And I would dare say that few of our circumstances are as severe as theirs, but there are plenty that are plenty severe, as you full well know. But as we consider this account, we can see that it demonstrates to us that it's not the nature of the circumstances that determine how we respond. It's not the nature of the circumstances. It's the nature of our hearts that determine how we respond. And the nature of our hearts is determined by whom we belong to. If you're like Joram, and you belong to yourself, We will despair and we'll curse God in our troubles. But if we're like Jehoshaphat and we belong to the Lord, we have faith in his Messiah from Jehoshaphat, faith in Christ looking back, then more and more we will be humbled and we will trust and we will turn to God in our troubles. It's the nature of our hearts that determines how we respond. Well, back to our particular fools here today. Foolish King Joram of Israel and Jehoshaphat, who was with him, had rushed into their own destruction. The justice of God was seen to demand that they would pay the price. They would get what they deserved. That they would die. But instead, when Jehoshaphat sought the Lord without hesitation, the Lord intervenes. And he intervenes to save. He shows them mercy. You see, in spite of the foolishness of these kings, The Lord was already prepared to save. Apart from their knowledge, and certainly not by invitation, the prophet Elisha had shown up in the camp. He had joined the march when they left Jerusalem. Probably from Samaria. Because it was an officer of the king of Israel who answered, Well, Elisha, son of Shaphat, is here. He used to pour the water on Elisha's hands. Now, somehow, Jehoshaphat knew of Elisha, and he offered this endorsement. He said, The word of the Lord is with him. So we know right away, Jehoshaphat knew right away that the Lord had clearly provided. But the nature of that provision had yet to be seen. And then an interesting thing happens. The prophets in that day were generally called before the kings. The kings asked them to come. And in the moment of desperation, when they had nothing left to turn to, the king of Israel, Jehoshaphat, and the king of Edom went down to Elisha. And the wisdom of Elisha is seen even before he speaks. Because in the fear of the Lord, he feared no man, not even these three kings arrayed before him. And this is a truth, people of God, that we can embrace ourselves. That when God is big, and he is feared above all in our lives, people are small. No matter their status, their power, their wealth, their influence. With Elisha, God is big. And these kings are small. And in verse 13, Elisha addressed the king of Israel, the cause of their trouble. And he says, what do we have to do with each other? Go to the prophets of your father and go to the prophets of your mother. Be gone. Elisha did not answer this fool, Joram, according to his folly. He exposed his self-deceit. He exposed him that he had no covenant standing with God or with his prophet. Just because he put that stone away didn't mean anything. His heart was still turned against the Lord and he had no relationship. He could be gone. Well, Joram was desperate to save himself and he played the alliance card. He says, Jehoshaphat, he's with me. And so is the king of Edom, by the way. You know, it was, after all, the Lord who called the three of us together to be handed over to Moab. You know, it's all for one, it's one for all. If I'm going to die, they're going to die. And if they're going to live, I'm going to live. Pretty good argument, actually. And Elisha responded with an oath. He said, as surely as the Lord Almighty lives, whom I serve, if I did not have respect for the presence of Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, I would not look at you or even take notice of you. Indeed, if it were not for Jehoshaphat, the only king he addressed by name at this point, Elisha would do nothing for the king of Israel. But indeed, he did do something for the king of Israel. He called for a harpist to accompany his prophecy. Now, this is not a strange request if we remember that David had long before established the accompaniment of harps, lyres, and cymbals for the prophecy of the prophets of the Lord. This was not a strange request that needs a lot of consideration. It just was a normal thing to do. And we're told that while the harpist was playing, the hand or the spirit of the Lord came upon Elisha. And Elisha spoke the word of God. And he said to the people, he began with his command, he says, make this valley full of ditches. And the reason for the command is revealed in verse 17. You will see neither wind nor rain, yet this valley will be filled with water, and you, your cattle, and your other animals will drink. And then finally, in verse 18, Elisha concludes, this is an easy thing in the eyes of the Lord. In fact, the language here is kind of a contrast. He said, this is such an easy thing in the eyes of the Lord. He'll also give you Moab. Here, free gift. You see, for all their exertions, the kings could do nothing to help themselves escape their trouble. And yet, with ease, the Lord would provide them the water they needed. And he would do so in a way that was unseen. Not only to them, but to their enemies, Moab, at the border. This was an invisible blessing. In fact, this promised water would not only revive Israel, it would serve to deceive Moab and to bring him in for defeat. The victory over Moab that the Lord promised to Elisha in verse 19 would be overwhelming. You will overthrow every fortified city and every major town. You will cut down every good tree, stop up all the springs and ruin every good field with stones. Not only would Moab be defeated in this battle, they would be rendered incapable of mounting war for some time in the future. They would have to turn all their efforts to economic recovery. They'd have to plant new trees and wait for fruit. They'd have to dig new wells for water to drink and for water to water the fields that they would have to clear all over again of all the stones. Now Proverbs 12, verse 15 says, The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice. And Israel showed some wisdom that day. And therefore they showed some faith, expecting the Lord to fulfill his promise about bringing water to the armies of Israel dug ditches. Exhausted as they were, dehydrated as they were, they dug ditches. And isn't this the picture of walking by faith in this life? Rather than walking by sight, by sight they would look around, it's hopeless, we might as well sit down and die. We might as well give up. But by faith they've been given a promise. And by faith, in confidence of that promise, expectation of that promise, they got to work doing what the Lord had already told them to do. To dig ditches. And it's no different for us, people of God. We want the promises of God that are all yes and amen in Jesus Christ. And we don't sit in our cubby and we don't sit in our privacy of our own home to wait for those to pour down upon us. The Lord has given us what He would have us be doing as we wait upon the Lord. expecting Him to answer. We came to worship this morning. Did you come expecting? Did you come in faith? Did you come to attend this ordinary means by which the Lord would deliver to you His grace through the preaching of the Gospel? That He's promised to work faith and to strengthen faith an extraordinary benefit through an ordinary means? That's what Israel did. They exercised faith. And having spoken through Elisha, then the Lord acts to fulfill His word. During the night, an unseen storm pours rain in the mountains of Edom to the southeast. I'm sorry, the southwest. Out of sight. Couldn't be seen, couldn't be heard. And the rain poured down and it filled those valleys, those wadis that when flash floods that came pouring down to the Dead Sea. You hear those here in Southern California. Flash flood warning. Flash flood warning. And the skies are clear. Well, it's because it's raining in the mountains. And that's what happened at Edom that day. It rained. And that water came rushing through and it disappeared as quickly as it came except for what was trapped in the ditches. And in verse 20 we read that the next morning about the time for offering the sacrifice there it was. Water, flowing from the direction of Edom, and the land was filled with water. Water promised, water delivered, at a time that reminded them that the favor of God was tied to the sacrifices in his temple in Jerusalem. And in a way that portrayed the victory that was at hand. For just as the waters rushed in from Edom and were trapped in those ditches, so also would Moab rush in and be trapped in that valley. The stage was set. The trap was baited. And when the Moabites saw the sunrise reflect off the water, they thought they were seeing blood. Now, I hope that makes you pause for a second when you read something like that in the Bible. You think, how in the world would they jump to that conclusion? That's the first thing I would think of if I saw red in the valley is blood. You ever think that? Well, let's look at their logic. They had good reasons for saying what they said. I mean, they lived there. They knew that valley was dry. And they'd seen no rain or no wind. They had no evidence to say that it was wet. It couldn't be water. It looked red. So what else could it be but blood? And they concluded that the kings must have fought and slaughtered each other. So it's covered with blood. Now, why would they think such a thing as that? Is that what we think when we go into war against someone, that they're just going to demolish themselves and not fight back? We have to remember, this is where, when we extract Elisha out of the whole narrative of kings, we've lost a piece of history here. A piece of Moabite history. Because they themselves had experienced what they thought had happened to Israel. In 2 Chronicles chapter 20 records how when they last went to war with Judah, Moab, along with Ammon and Mount Seir. Three kings united against Judah. They went into battle. They were ready to go. They were on the threshold of the battle lines. And you know, the next thing they found themselves doing was slaughtering each other. All three of those armies rose up against one another and they killed each other. And they all went, those who survived went home. They never fought Judah. The strangest thing they'd ever seen. But here it was again. Now, we know from Scripture that God had confused their minds and raised them up to do this, but they didn't know what hit them, and they drew that conclusion. They saw a red valley, they saw the armies that they knew were in trouble, and they concluded they must have killed each other. Thus deceived in their own minds and greedy for plunder, they rushed in, and they were cut down. And when they realized that they'd been trapped and they'd been snared into the hand of Israel, they turned and they ran for home, and Israel pursued them just as the Lord had promised. and he had them accomplish all that he promised they would do to Moab. They advanced as far as Moab's greatest fortress in the south, Kir, Haraseth, up on a high plateau, and it stopped them. They couldn't break its walls. That particular fortress, they say, stood clear into the Middle Ages. But they didn't stop attacking. They surrounded the city and they had slingers, slingshotting stones into the city. Now, when I first read that, I think, what danger is that? I mean, I've played with slingshots. These guys' slingshots would shoot rocks about this size at 100 to 150 miles an hour. They were deadly. And they were assaulting the city. And all looked lost. The king was not comfortable, king of Moab was not comfortable in his fortress. He knew he was in trouble. The battle was turning against him and so he made a break for it. He took 700 swordsmen and he went out against Edom trying to break through the line so he could escape. But he failed and he went back to the city and we are told in verse 27 that he took his firstborn son who was to succeed him as king and he offered him as a sacrifice on the city wall. We're not told why he did it. And there's volumes of speculation as to why he did it. But we are told the effect. It ended the battle right then and there. According to verse 27, and the fury against Israel was great, they withdrew and returned to their own land. You see, the Lord had saved Joram and his allies through an overwhelming victory of Moab, but he did not give them complete victory. The complete victory they'd hoped for. He did not give them that. And he sent them home. And we've come to the end of the story, and we're left asking a lot of why questions, like why did he sacrifice his son? But none of these why questions is bigger or more important than this one. Why did the Lord intervene to save wicked King Joram of Israel? Along with Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and his vassal, of course. But why did he intervene to save wicked King Joram of Israel from the certain destruction his foolishness deserved? Why? Well, the reason our text offers is that he did it for the sake of his anointed. He did it for the sake of his anointed. we began this morning by remembering that the Lord divided the kingdom of Israel in two for the sake of David, his servant, and for the sake of Jerusalem, which he'd chosen. And we close remembering that the Lord intervened to save Joram and the others for the same reason. Elisha says as much in verse 14. This is a key verse in this story. Verse 14, he says, If I did not have respect for the presence of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, I would not look at you or even notice you. What Elisha said was, were it not for Jehoshaphat, king of Judah. Not because of Jehoshaphat the man. We've already seen he was fallible and foolish and fallen like we are. But because of Jehoshaphat the king, the king of Judah, the Lord's anointed to sit on the throne of David, through whom his Messiah would come. You see, Jehoshaphat had not only put himself in danger by coming to this battlefield with Joram, he had endangered the entire line of David by his alliance with Ahab's household. We'll see that unfold in the weeks ahead. It was for the sake of his anointed that God intervened to save. And so it was for the sake of David, the Lord's anointed, that the Lord had promised a kingdom forever, that the Lord delivered Jehoshaphat. And it was for the sake of Jehoshaphat, the Lord's anointed, that the Lord delivered Joram. It was a package deal. In order to save Jehoshaphat, he had to save Joram. And it was ultimately for the sake of Jesus Christ, the Lord's anointed, who descended from David according to his humanity through the line of Jehoshaphat and on down. David's greater son, who would come in the flesh to save his people from their sins. to live the life of perfect wisdom that's demanded in our place, to die the death that we deserve for our sinful foolishness, and to rise from the dead so that we, through saving faith in Him, you and I and all who believe on His name, alone for their salvation, that we might share in His anointing forever and ever. Indeed, for the sake of the Lord's anointed Jesus Christ, the Lord continues to intervene even today to save fools like you and like me who apart from His saving grace would run headlong to our own destruction in our sin. See, today is the day of salvation as it was for Joram and Jehoshaphat that day. Look to the Lord's anointed and be saved. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this account that we have from the record of kings. An account, Father, that to us can at first be obscure and confusing. And yet, Father, through it you have revealed your purpose. Your purpose for your anointed. Promised to David. Promised through David and his line. Promised to come in fulfillment in Jesus Christ our Lord. We thank you, Father, that you intervened at that moment in history. at that place and at that time to secure the line of David through which our Lord Jesus Christ did come, did live, did die, and did raise from the dead. Lord, for our sake, to the glory of your name, help us, Lord, to draw encouragement from the fact that you are involved in the history of redemption in a very particular and ongoing way. And that just as you were involved in the life of Joram and Jehoshaphat, on that battlefield that day through Elisha, your prophet. You are involved in our lives even today. We pray, Father, that in our trials we would look to you. That we would recognize our sin, repent and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, your anointed, for whose sake you take notice of us. For apart from him we would all be lost. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.