{"id":7461,"date":"2016-03-18T00:05:24","date_gmt":"2016-03-18T07:05:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=7461"},"modified":"2016-03-17T12:02:31","modified_gmt":"2016-03-17T19:02:31","slug":"miracle-in-the-desert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2016\/03\/18\/miracle-in-the-desert\/","title":{"rendered":"Miracle in the Desert"},"content":{"rendered":"

But Jehoshaphat asked, \u201cIs there no prophet of the LORD here, through whom we may inquire of the LORD?\u201d <\/p>\n

An officer of the king of Israel answered, \u201cElisha son of Shaphat is here. He used to pour water on the hands of Elijah.\u201d <\/p>\n

Jehoshaphat said, \u201cThe word of the LORD is with him.\u201d So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him. <\/p>\n

Elisha said to the king of Israel, \u201cWhy do you want to involve me? Go to the prophets of your father and the prophets of your mother.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d the king of Israel answered, \u201cbecause it was the LORD who called us three kings together to deliver us into the hands of Moab.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u00a0Elisha said, \u201cAs 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 pay any attention to you.\u00a0But now bring me a harpist.\u201d <\/p>\n

While the harpist was playing, the hand of the LORD came on Elisha\u00a0and he said, \u201cThis is what the LORD says: I will fill this valley with pools of water. 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. \u00a0This is an easy thing in the eyes of the LORD; he will also deliver Moab into your hands. 19\u00a0You 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.\u201d (2 Kings 3:11\u201319)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Since Joram worshipped Baal and had priests and prophets of Baal working for him, the prophet Elisha couldn\u2019t understand why Joram didn\u2019t just seek guidance from them. Joram\u2019s insistence on hearing from Elisha indicated that he understood Baal was useless. Like his father Ahab, he didn\u2019t take Baal as seriously as he did the one true God, Yahweh.<\/p>\n

God does not speak very loud. Elisha\u2019s master, the prophet Elijah, had once discovered that God did not speak in earthquakes, but instead in a \u201cstill small voice.\u201d Elisha was angry. He did not like Joram\u2014a wicked king, and he did not like the king of Edom, a pagan king. Following the example of King Saul, who had David play music when he felt bad, Elisha listened to music in order to calm himself and get himself out of his bad mood long enough that he could focus on listening to God instead of his own raging thoughts.<\/p>\n

So Elisha finally heard God and shared God\u2019s plan with the three kings\u2014who believed God and acted accordingly. Moab was defeated and put back in its place, though the Moabite king survived after he sacrificed his own son as a burnt offering.<\/p>\n

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But Jehoshaphat asked, \u201cIs there no prophet of the LORD here, through whom we may inquire of the LORD?\u201d An officer of the king of Israel answered, \u201cElisha son of Shaphat is here. He used to pour water on the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7461"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7461"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7463,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7461\/revisions\/7463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}