PROPER PLANNING

Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to faithhopegodlove@aol.com In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Joram son of Ahab became king of Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and he reigned twelve 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 Mesha king of Moab raised sheep, and he had to supply the king of Israel with a hundred thousand lambs and with the wool of a hundred thousand rams. 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 only 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 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. When they got up early in the morning, the sun was shining on the water. 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 Hareseth was left with its 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 seven 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.

2 Kings 3:1-27

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Through the course of my nearly 50 years of living, I have made many plans. Some have succeeded. Some have failed miserably. Maybe you can relate.

Through the successes and failures, I have learned one very important lesson…one I feel we all need to learn as well.

The lesson?

When I try and do all my planning on my own, I always find that I mess things up. Any failure that I have experienced, I can tie it to me, myself and I.

Conversely, I have found that when I place the Lord in the midst of my planning…when I use Him as my sole Consultant and Guide, then guess what? I succeed.

Why the difference?

Because when I do the planning, it’s all about my will and way.

But when God is truly in the thick of the decision making process, then His will and way is what prevails. It is the key to being successful…not some of the time…but all of the time.

As we turn to the scriptures, we see how this lesson is played out after Moab, under the rule of King Mesha, revolted against Israel, refusing to pay the required tribute of a “hundred thousand lambs and with the wool of a hundred thousand rams”.

We see where “Joram, son of Ahab”, is king of Israel and scripture makes it a point to underscore that he “did evil in the eyes of the Lord”, clinging to “the sins of Jeroboam” and causing Israel to commit sins. Angered by Moab’s revolt, Joram “set out from Samaria and mobilized all Israel” also sending a “message to Jehoshaphat, king of Judah” asking if he would join in the fight. Jehoshaphat agrees to join forces with Joram saying, “I will go with you…I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses." And after siding with Joram, Jehoshaphat is told that the forces will travel a route to attack that will take them through the “Desert of Edom” and they indeed would be joined by the king of Edom.

So the plan was in place. Joram, Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom would take all their forces and march through the desert of Edom to attack and conquer King Mesha and the Moabites.

Notice anything missing from their plan?

Going back to my earlier words on planning, we can see where God is found nowhere in the planning process before the three kings and their troops head toward Moab.

And not surprisingly, they soon find their plan is failing.

For we read that after a “roundabout march of seven days, the army had no more water for themselves or for the animals with them”. They were sure to perish in the desert unless something changed…and quick.

Almost comically, we see where Joram, the one who had done evil in the eyes of the Lord, cry out, “What!…Has the Lord called us three kings together only to hand us over to Moab?" What makes this so humorous is that neither Joram or the other two kings had asked the Lord about what they should do. They didn’t ask what route He wanted them to travel. They didn’t ask Him what they might need for the battle. Most of all, they didn’t even ask God is He wanted them to attack Moab.

And so there they were, facing sure defeat…not at the hands of their enemy but at the hands of their own poor planning.

How would they survive this?

Well, it took Jehoshaphat to get things going back in the proper direction. For we read where he asks, “Is there no prophet of the Lord here, that we may inquire of the Lord through him?"

Aha! That’s it. Jehoshaphat sees that the only way they are going to get out of the predicament is to turn to the One they should have turned to in the first place…to the Lord.

So who would the kings turn to?

None other than the prophet Elisha who was along on the journey with them. An “officer of the king of Israel” reports about the presence of Elisha and connects him to his Spirit-filled predecessor Elijah. Jehoshaphat also speaks in his favor saying, “The word of the Lord is with him”.

And so the three kings went to Elisha and we get the sense that Joram, king of Israel, speaks to him first. This is because Elisha speaks to him first asking, “What do we have to do with each other? Go to the prophets of your father and the prophets of your mother." Or in other words, Elisha was saying in essence, “You have never come to the Lord before because you, like your father and mother, followed and bowed down before the false gods of Baal. Go back and ask Baal what you should do.”

Well…Joram didn’t like that answer and refused to leave. In fact, to show how completely detached he was from the Lord, he even goes as far to say that it was the Lord who had led the kings and subsequently their men to this place so they could be defeated by Moab. Joram could not face the truth that the three kings and their decisions had placed them in their circumstances…not the Lord.

How often does this happen with us? How often do we not involved the Lord in our plans and then blame Him when the plans we devise fail? Too often, I’m afraid because it’s easier to blame God than to blame ourselves.

Back to the scriptures…

For although Elisha was angry with Joram, he decided to help the kings because of Jehoshaphat, a man who was touted as doing “right in the eyes of the Lord” (1 Kings 22:43). In fact, Elisha tells Joram, “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.” Ouch. Strong words but ones that Joram needed to hear. The Lord doesn’t take kindly to people who only cry out to Him when it’s convenient.

Elisha calls for a harpist and then stated the following as “hand of the Lord came upon” him:

“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 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."

And so the forces of the three kings did as the Lord commanded through Elisha and when the next morning came, scripture tells us that “there it was—water flowing from the direction of Edom”…so much so that the “land was filled with water”.

Friends this is what the Lord can do after we get ourselves in a mess. He can come and renew and restore…bringing fresh water onto the dry landscape of our circumstances to refresh us and draw us back toward Him. And hopefully as we are restored, we learn our lesson and refuse to plan again without Him being involved.

Well, the end result of the quenching waters in the desert wasn’t just about helping the three kings and their men to survive. No...the Lord did so much more than that for Israel.

For we read where the Moabites, having heard that the three “had come to fight against them”, assembled “every man, young and old, who could bear arms” and stationed them “on the border”. And as they “got up early in the morning”, they looked out and, from their vantage point, saw the water looking red like blood and assumed that the kings and their men had turned on one another leading to a slaughter. The Moabite troops advance toward the men of Israel, Judah and Edom, thinking they would be able to easily plunder what was left behind.

But much to their surprise, the Moabites “came to the camp of Israel” and found the Israelites, not dead, but very much alive…and ready to fight, causing the Moabites to flee. The Israelites pursued, “invaded the land and slaughtered the Moabites”, destroying the towns and covering the good fields with stones, thus bringing them to ruin. They also “stopped up all the springs and cut down every good tree”. Even the well protected “Kir Hareseth” was not safe as “men armed with slings surrounded it and attacked”.

In the wake of a defeated plan…one that wasn’t guided by God either…we read where the king of Moab does the unthinkable, taking his firstborn son and offering him as “a sacrifice on the city wall”…an action so heinous that the people of Israel “withdrew and returned to their own land”.

Friends, the Lord is speaking to us powerfully in this message today. Every day, people find themselves in predicaments that were of their own doing…then they either blame God for it or decide to hurt themselves or other close to them when they don’t see any other way out.

Sadly, God was there for them all the time. All they had to do was turn to Him. Just as He helped the three kings who had gotten themselves and their people into a jam, so too can he help you, I or anyone else in accordance with His will and way.

But the overarching message here is to turn to God every time you need to plan anything. Rely on Him to lead you in the right direction…ask and then listen to His counsel…obey Him when He tells you what to do, even if His way is contrary to the way you would go if it were up to you.

Success is all about proper planning. Proper planning is all predicated on having God involved in every phase of it.

Thanks be to God that in Him we have such a Wise and Holy Advisor.

It’s our good news today and every day.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

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