We are going to learn about some ditch diggers tonight and hopefully some things we can learn from this story from the life of Elisha.

Recall that King Jehoram saw the Moabites rebel against the tax of sheep they were required to give to him yearly. He decided he was going to do something about it and asked King Jehoshaphat of Judah if he would like to go along for the adventure. They decided to go through Edom so the King of Edom was also brought on-board for the war adventure against Moab. They went out one week’s distance into the wilderness with their armies and found no water. King Jehoram figures that God is going to deliver them all into the hands of the Moabites, but King Jehoshaphat asks if there is a prophet of God around. Elisha is mentioned and all three kings trot over to his place to ask what can be done.

As we learned last week, Elisha would have nothing to do with King Jehoram because of who he was and what he represented - rebellion against God. Only because Jehoshaphat was there did Elisha take the time, after listening to some good music, to tell them the word of the Lord. That is where we pick it up tonight.

2. I wonder how often we as God’s people consider some work that is being proclaimed as needing to be done for the Lord is just going to be a total waste of time? Why do that - you’ll just be wasting your time. Why give to that missionary who will be going to that place and to those people? They probably won’t listen to him and what he has to tell them. The missionary may have even thought that at first when his/her heart was stirred to go there, but they knew it was the Lord guiding them so they prepared to go where the Lord was sending them.

3. God has often called upon His people to do things that, at first, didn’t seem to make any sense at all. He told Noah to build an ark when there had never been a need for such a big boat before. He told Moses to stretch forth his arm and staff over the Red Sea so the children of Israel could pass over on dry land and He did what the LORD told him to do. He told Joshua to tell the people to march around Jericho each day one time and then seven times on the seventh day and the wall of the city would simply fall down. What a crazy way to take a city, but it worked. There are probably many others, but the point is that God often asks people to do different things that no one else would do and then wait on Him to provide or work.

1. Why do this crazy thing? We’re just wasting our time down here in this valley digging ditches. This is just busy work to keep us doing something. I’m sure some of the soldiers said things like that.

2. People want to have a reason for everything. We want to know that there is going to be a return on our labor. If it looks pointless then why do it?

3. I’m reminded of Namaan who was told to dip himself seven times in the Jordan River and became upset because there were cleaner waters back home in his country. He was convinced by a servant to do it anyway and he was sure glad that he did, but at first it didn’t make any sense to him.

4. We need to take to heart that God commanded that the ditches be dug and that should have been good enough, and it seems it was for they did dig the ditches. We must never forget that God never gives a command for which there is not a good reason behind it. Whether we see the and enjoy the benefit of doing what God has command matters not - we are to do as the Lord has commanded - even if the means of seeing it happen are off our radar screen.

1. God could have sent rain or brought water in some other manner, but He chose to use the assistance of the Israelites in digging these ditches. Did God need their help? Not really, but God chose to work in that way. They got to enjoy the blessing of obedience to God and then seeing Him work through what they had done.

2. God is still in the business of using human agency to accomplish His work of salvation in this world. Could God save a person without anyone coming to them? I’m certain He could, but he has chosen to use believers through the preaching of the gospel to save these people.

3. Are we willing to let the Lord use us in an endeavor that looks strange and maybe hopeless and that may not see results right away?

1. Commentators have tried several ways to explain what this verse is saying. Some say that there would or was a rain and wind storm so distant from them and the Moabites that none of them knew about it, but the water was coming and God knew it would come here. On the other hand, it could be understood as just that there would be no rain or wind but God would fill those ditches with water.

2. This is what they had come to Elisha for in the first place - water. God was going to provide water for the men and the beasts. They would be filled with water.

3. Notice that God was not just going to put a little water in some of the ditches they had dug. No. He was going to fill the whole valley with water. Every ditch dug would be filled.

4. Is there a lesson we can glean from that? I think so. God fills up what has been prepared ahead of time for filling. If we want to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God for service and to go forward in service for Him, we had better prepare ourselves ahead of time to be used by Him. Ditches that are not there cannot be filled - so to with believers.

5. Notice at the beginning of verse 18 that Elisha tells the three kings before him that the supplying of the water is but a light thing for the LORD. What we consider impossible is always possible with God. The water showed up in the morning during the time when the meat offering was offered to the Lord by the troops from Judah.

1. God now promises a great victory over the Moabites. The full details of how this happened are found in verses 20-24. I guess nobody went over to check out whether it was really blood or not. If they had they would have found it to just be water. This water had not been there the night before, so it took them by surprise.

2. They were also told how they were to sack the land of Moab. Jehoram had thought that God was going to use Moab to defeat the three kings, but as it turns out, God was going to use the men of Israel to judge the land of Moab because of their idolatry. The cities were destroyed, the tree cut down, stopped the wells of water, and stones were thrown back on the fields from which they had been carefully removed for planting purposes. We here in Potter County who are gardeners understand the problem of stones getting in the way of planting.