Chapter 3

Sort of a "restart" like Chapter 1.  Jehoram becomes King after Ahab, and reigns 12 years.  He was an evil King but not like his parents.  He did tear down the pillar of Baal, but continued the worship of the golden calves. 

The King of Moab, who had been paying tribute to Ahab, rebels when Jehoram becomes King and refuses to pay.  So Jehoram goes to put things right.  He asks Jehoshaphat to come with him and Jehoshaphat agrees.  The King of Edom also goes along.  While marching to Moab they run out of water.  They think Moab will take them captive since they lack water.  They call for a prophet and it turns out that Elisha is with them.  (This is a later battle than the one against Hazael and Syria where Ahab was killed.  This specifically says Moab, and it says that Jehoram, son of Ahab, was king of Israel.  So this battle is after the one where Ahab was killed.  Seems Jehoshaphat learned nothing about allying himself with the north.)

2022 - This verse:

15 But now bring me a musician." And when the musician played, the hand of the LORD came upon him. [2Ki 3:15 ESV].  Isn't this wording interesting.  Elisha asked for music, and somehow, while the music played, the hand of the Lord came on him.  Would that happen if God didn't like music?  And doesn't t his encourage us to have spiritual music playing in the background?

Elisha says that the dry stream bed will be filled with water so that they can all drink.  He also says Moab will fall, and gives detailed instructions on what is to be done.  All the big towns are to be sacked, the springs are to be plugged up, the big trees are to be cut down, and rocks are to cover the best of the land in Moab.  Basically, they are going to send Moab back to the stone age.

2022 - Conquerors in those days made rebellion a serious offense.  These actions - denying water and decent farmland to Moab, would have forced the people there to immigrate elsewhere.  Moab would be depopulated for a long time to come.  An army can drop a lot of rocks on good land.  A few farmers will take years to remove them and start over.  We don't do war this way anymore.  Does that make us more moral, or less?

They do these things.  The way it reads to me is that they get the King of Moab cornered in a town called Kir-hareseth, and are winning that last battle.  The King of Moab tries to break through the lines, but is pushed back.  So this King takes his oldest son, who would be king in his place, and offers him as a burnt offering on the wall of the town.  He kills his own son, the next King of Moab.  There is this wording as to the effect of the sacrifice:

27 Then he took his oldest son who was to reign in his place and offered him for a burnt offering on the wall. And there came great wrath against Israel. And they withdrew from him and returned to their own land. [2Ki 3:27 ESV]

Perhaps the Moabites, seeing that their King was cornered into sacrificing his own son, grew angry, and fought with abandon, and the Israelites decided to retreat.  Chemosh was god of Moab.  Maybe Israel thought Chemosh was fighting for Moab because of their wrath and fierceness.  This would not have been unusual for people who themselves worshiped golden calves.  Maybe they thought Moab's idols were more powerful than their golden calves.  In any case, they retreated, leaving the King of Moab alive.