(2 Kings) How to Prepare for Blessing — David Guzik

2 Kings 3 and the Historical Setting of Moab

All right, tonight we're going to begin in 2 Kings chapter 3, and I plan on doing chapter 4 as well, but we'll see how it comes. This is a very interesting chapter, chapter 3 of 2 Kings, just from an archaeological perspective.

Most of the events of chapter 3 are recorded in Moabite archaeological records that have been uncovered by archaeologists. Something called the Moabite stone, or sometimes it's called the Mesha Stele.

It was discovered in 1868, and it confirms many of the events of this chapter. Of course, as you might expect, it gives the events a distinctly pro-Moabite spin, as it explains them, but it is a wonderful confirmation of the historical validity of these events and the biblical record.

Anyway, let's just jump right into it here, verse 1 of 2 Kings chapter 3. Now Jehoram, the son of Ahab, became king over Israel at Samaria in the 18th year of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and reigned 12 years.

And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, but not like his father and his mother, for he put away the sacred pillar of Baal that his father had made. Nevertheless, he persisted in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin.

He did not depart from them. Well, we think of this man, Jehoram, the son of Ahab and Jezebel. You have to say, this man came from a family that was far, far past dysfunctional. This man came from a family that was extremely troubled.

His father Ahab was one of the worst kings the northern kingdom of Israel ever knew, and his mother Jezebel was certainly the worst queen that the northern kingdom ever knew. But yet Jehoram, for some reason, was not as bad as his father and his mother.

Even though he was not as bad as them, he was still a wicked man. He was the ninth consecutive bad king over the northern kingdom, which never had a godly king. Since this time of separation in the days of Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, when they split the northern kingdom from the southern kingdom, when they had the ten northern tribes and the two southern tribes, they never had a godly king over Israel.

And so he persisted in these sins, the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. If we remember him, he was the first king of the northern kingdom of Israel. And what he did was not so much the worship of a false god, but what he practiced was the false worship of the true god.

And we see here that Jehoram continued in the same sins. It's very interesting, though, that he does say that he put away the sacred pillar of Baal that his father had made. We might expect him to be complimented for it, but the scriptures don't seem to compliment him.

And later on, we're going to see that this man, Jehoram, meets one of the prophets of God, Elisha. And when he meets Elisha, Elisha is not impressed with Jehoram at all, not one bit. He doesn't even compliment him for putting away the sacred pillar of Baal.

It may very well be that even though Jehoram did clean up things a little bit in regard to the worship of Baal, that even that what he did, he did it with bad motives. So, in these days, look what happens here, verses 4 and 5.

Now Misha, the king of Moab, was a sheep breeder, and he regularly paid the king of Israel 100 ,000 lambs and the wool of 100 ,000 rams. But it happened when Ahab died that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.

The Moabites lived on the eastern side of the Dead Sea, across the river Jordan, in what we would call today modern day Jordan. They were under tribute to Israel. In other words, they kept their own king, they kept their own kingdom, but because Israel had dominion over them, they caused them to pay tribute to them.

And you see the amount of the tribute here, what was it? 100 ,000 lambs and the wool of 100 ,000 rams. But when king Ahab died, the king of the Moabites saw this as an opportunity to escape this taxation that was forced upon him by the king of Israel.

So what does he do? Verses 6, 7 and 8 here. So king Jehoram went out of Samaria at that time and mustered all Israel. Then he went and sent to Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, saying, the king of Moab has rebelled against me.

Will you go up with me to fight against Moab? And he said, I will go up. I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses. Then he said, which way shall we go up? And he answered, by the way of the wilderness of Edom.

So Jehoram, the king of Israel, being wise, says, well, if I'm going to fight against the Moabites, I may as well get as many allies as I can. So let's get the king of Judah to help me. And the king of Judah, I would say unwisely, decides to go into the alliance with the king of Israel and go and attack Moab together.

You see the fellowship that they had there, so to speak. He says, listen, my horses are as your horses, my people are as your people. And he says, let's go. Let's go together and fight against the Moabites.

By the way, Jehoram of Israel, you see here, he asked Jehoshaphat of Judah for military advice because Jehoshaphat was far more experienced in battle than Jehoram was. And so the king of Judah suggested that they attack Moab from the south, going through the very dry desert of Edom along the way.

Now, they could have attacked very easily from the west, just going right across the Jordan River. But he said, no, no, no, that's what they would be expecting. Let's bring a surprise attack and swing around through the south.

They'll never be expecting that. So now verse 9, So the king of Israel went with the king of Judah and the king of Edom, and they marched on that roundabout route seven days. And there was no water for the army, nor for the animals that followed them.

And the king of Israel said, alas, for the Lord has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab. And so the combined armies of Israel, Judah and Edom, as they went through the Edomite land, they picked up the army of Edom as well, they had to travel a considerable distance to bring the surprise attack on the Moabites from the south.

And as they were in the midst of that very dry desert of Edom, they found themselves without water, without a road map, I suppose, without any real direction, and they couldn't do anything. And did you notice what Jehoram's reaction was?

It's really wonderful. It's very telling, isn't it? He says, alas, for the Lord has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of the king of Moab. Now you don't see the king of the Edomites saying that.

You don't hear the more godly man Jehoshaphat saying that. You hear Jehoram saying it. Why? Because he has a guilty conscience. Because of his guilty conscience, he believes that every calamity is the judgment of God upon him.

His own sin made him think that everything that happened in his life, or at least every negative thing, was the judgment of God. And so what happens here? Verse 11. So Jehoshaphat said, is there no prophet of the Lord here that we may inquire of the Lord by him?

So one of the servants of the king of Israel answered and said, Elisha, the son of Shaphat, is here, who poured water on the hands of Elisha. And Jehoshaphat said, the word of the Lord is with him. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Edom, went down to him.

So I want you to notice here, do you get the situation? One of the servants of the king of Israel calls attention to the fact that Elisha is there. Now, let's remind ourselves, where did Elisha and Elisha have their ministry?

Was it in the southern kingdom of Judah? Or was it in the northern kingdom of Israel? It was almost all in the northern kingdom of Israel. And so when they spoke out boldly and prophetically against the corruption of the ruling kings and the idolatry of the kingdom, they were speaking to the kings of Israel, not to the kings of Judah primarily.

And so, it has a suggestion from the servant. The servant says, is there no prophet of the Lord here? Excuse me, Jehoshaphat asks that. Jehoshaphat, the more godly king of Judah. And they want to get some help.

By the way, I want you to notice the difference here. Both Jehoram and Jehoshaphat believed that there was a spiritual or a divine element to their current crisis. Both of them thought God is involved in this somehow.

Jehoram thought, God is involved in this, he's judging me. Jehoshaphat thought, God is involved in this, maybe he wants to help us. Maybe he wants to bring help to us through a prophet. Therefore, Jehoram believed that God was to be avoided because of the crisis.

But Jehoshaphat felt that God should be sought because of the crisis. And so they say, hey, look, there's this guy Elisha around here. And he used to pour waters on the hands of Elisha. By the way, isn't that a wonderful description of the prophet there?

That's him. You know, that's the guy who served his senior prophet. That's the guy who served his mentor. Oh yeah, the guy who poured water on the hands of Elisha. It's a wonderful title for any servant of God.

Elisha was the humble and practical servant of Elisha. That was spiritual service. Let me remind you what I'm saying here. The pouring of water on the hands, that was spiritual service. That prepared Elisha for further spiritual service.

And so what did they do? They go down and see him. I gotta say, I gotta say, this is remarkable humility on the part of these three kings. If you notice that there in verse 12, it says, So the king of Israel, Jehoshaphat, and the king of Edom went down to him.

Is that the way kings normally act? No, what do kings do? They bring people to them. They sit right where they are on their own big rear ends and they say, you come to me. But they very humbly went out and sought Elisha.

This is a good start to this. We're encouraged by seeing these kings humble themselves in front of the prophet. So what happens here, verse 13, Then Elisha said to the king of Israel, What have I to do with you?

Go to the prophets of your father and the prophets of your mother. But the king of Israel said, No, for the Lord has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab. Guilty conscience at work again, right?

And Elisha said, As the Lord of hosts lives before whom I stand, surely were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, I would not look at you nor see you, but now bring me a musician.

Then it happened that when the musician played, the hand of the Lord came upon him. So here the three kings come and they're looking for some kind of answer, some kind of hope from Elisha. And as they knock on his door, he opens up the door and what does he say?

He sees the three kings. I see crowns, you know, right there. And they're all, I think of the three kings. We three, never mind. Just think of that whole situation there. And then, and then Elisha says, What are you doing here?

Get out of here. You don't have any place here. I don't want to see you. It's a Hebrew way of speaking to just say, I don't, what have I to do with you? Get away from me is what he was saying. But yet he looked again and he saw the presence of Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah.

It wasn't that Elisha was against every great or powerful person. He was willing to speak to these three kings for the sake of Jehoshaphat, who was the godly king of Judah. And so he said, OK, I'll speak to you.

I'll see if God has anything to say to you. Now notice, he couldn't just speak off the top of his head. They weren't there to seek just the wisdom of the prophet or his good advice or his life experience.

They wanted to hear what the Lord might say to the prophet. And what did he have to say? Well, he had to say it when the musician came upon him and spoke. Isn't that interesting? When Elisha wanted to become more sensitive to the leading and the speaking of the Holy Spirit, he asked for the service of the musician.

That demonstrates that there is significant spiritual power in music. Now there's a nameless musician here. Look in the text again. Does it tell you anywhere the name of this musician? You don't know him.

But that nameless musician was endowed with God-given talents and he used them for the glory of God and the good of other people. I don't think it ever occurred to that musician, as he's leading worship, as he's drawing music, as he's drawing Elisha into the presence of the Lord through his ministry of music, I don't think it's occurring to him that he's helping to save three armies and to win a battle.

But that's exactly what he was doing. You know, it's an awesome thing. It's an awesome power to lead people before the throne of God in worship. And it's something that those who have the ministry of music should never take lightly.

Never take it casually. Never fall in love with their ability to connect with people and to, you know, lead them and to get them to respond. Instead, they should see it as such a sacred duty before the Lord.

They should keep in their mind this picture of Elisha saying, I want to hear from the Lord. I want to get close to him. Bring me a musician. And so now in verse 16, you have the word from God that came through the prophet.

Preparing for God's Provision by Digging Ditches

He says, And he said, Thus says the Lord, Make this valley full of ditches. I can just imagine, as soon as he says that, the three kings look at each other and they go, Do you have another musician that you can bring here?

What are you talking about? Make this valley full of ditches. But anyway, go on here. Verse 17. For thus says the Lord, You shall not see wind, nor shall you see rain, yet that valley shall be filled with water so that you, your cattle and your animals may drink.

And this is a simple matter in the sight of the Lord. He will also deliver the Moabites into your hand. Also, you shall attack every fortified city and every choice city and cut down every good tree and stuff up every spring of water and ruin every good place, good piece of land with stones.

That's a strange, strange promise from God. He said, You're not going to see wind. You're not going to see rain. Yet that valley is going to be filled with water. And I can just imagine the king said, Well, where's the water going to come from?

No rain, no wind, no nothing. Yet water is going to come to the valley. And then they have this command, Go, go make this valley full of ditches. Now, I want you to get the connection here. God promised to send the water to the valley.

That is something that the kings or the soldiers in their army could not do. But what they could do was they could make the valley full of ditches. They had to dig the ditches to catch whatever God would provide.

They had to dig the ditches before the water came so that they could benefit from it when it came. You see, the dried up river bed that the armies were on was to have a lot of trenches, a lot of holes in it.

They were going to dig foxholes or swimming pools or whatever they were going to drink, dig. But that valley was going to have water come through it and the ditches would hold the water when it came through.

I want you to just picture in your mind what it was like when those three kings returned from their visit to Elisa and told the commanders to have the men dig ditches. Here you have an army dying of thirst in the hot desert sun.

Say, guys, we've just heard from the prophet. Get out your shovels and start digging holes in the hard ground of the desert floor. I tell you what, it's a compliment to these armies that there was not a mutiny.

These thirsty, near-dead men in the middle of the desert didn't look forward to the hard work of digging the ditches in the dry ground, yet that work was essential. I think you have a very, very important principle here for your life and might I say in particular for ministry.

It's that God wants us to prepare for the blessing that He intends to bring. If you listen to Him, if you're able to anticipate His working, then get ready for it. You see, they couldn't send the water, but they could dig the ditches.

And digging ditches was something that the people of God really could do. God didn't ask them to do more than what they could do. When God asks us to prepare for blessing that He intends to bring, He doesn't give you things that you can't do.

He tells you something that you really can do. Listen, if you expect the Holy Spirit to bless something, then you should prepare for that expectation. You should make the valley full of trenches or ditches.

Make ready for the Holy Ghost power. I remember seeing a cartoon many years ago and there's two Eskimos ice fishing. And one's fishing in the ice, you know, and there he is, he's got his fishing rod and the line down the thing and there's a hole dug in the ice and there's another Eskimo there and he's fishing in another hole.

Except his hole, you could fit a motor home through that hole. You know, bring it up through the water. And it's just a very simple cartoon saying, this one is expecting to catch a really big fish and that's why he cut a big hole.

You know, often times, often times God says, according to your faith, that's how I'm going to reward you. You know, you cut a small hole, I'll bring you a small fish. You dig a little ditch, well then you're just going to capture a little bit of water.

But dig the valley full of ditches. You see, I want you to notice this, we say, well, when God sends the blessing, then I'll do it. Maybe that's the way of unbelief for you in this case. You see, the way of faith is to say, God has promised it and we will get ready for it.

God is ready to bless and we're going to be prepared to receive the blessing that He brings. And by the way, he wanted to remind them, if you notice that in verse 19, he said, this is a simple matter in the sight of the Lord.

The kings came to Elijah inquiring about water. What were they interested in? Survival. Oh God, help us survive somehow. Don't let our armies perish in the desert. If we can just make it home, forget about the Moabites.

God says, forget about survival. I want you guys to have victory. It seems all too often today, you run across Christians who really, their main interest is in surviving their Christian life. Oh, just help me make it to the end.

Just let me survive my crisis. Listen, if your eyes are set on survival, it's far too small of a goal. God wants to give you triumphant victory. He wants to make you more than a conqueror. Listen, the same God that can provide water for you in the desert, He'll provide for you victory over the Moabites.

So look at it here now, verse 20. Now it happened in the morning when the grain offering was offered, that suddenly water came by way of Edom, and the land was filled with water. It says that water came by the way of Edom.

Now we're not told exactly, but it really seems like the best reconstruction of this is that God sent an intense downpour of rain in the nearby mountains, far enough away so that they didn't have the wind or the rain or the clouds.

It was far enough away in the mountains, but the mountains were flooded with rain and it caused what we would call a flash flood through the desert of Edom. And these flash floods have been noted in that part of the world and other parts of the world since then.

Rain happens in a high up place from where the torrential downpour, and there's so much water and it has no place to go, it's all run off, and it just comes screaming down the mountains into these valleys and these dry riverbeds, and you have an intense flash flood that sweeps through the valley, and the result of it was right there in verse 20, the land was filled with water.

I want you to notice something. The water was available only because they were obedient to dig the ditches. It was the ditches that they dug that collected the water from the flash flood. If Israel and Judah would have disobeyed God's word and failed to dig the ditches, then the blessing would have passed them by.

The blessing would have come through just the same, but it would have passed them by. They wouldn't have been benefiting from it. God told them to get ready to prepare and to receive to catch this blessing.

I want you to notice something. What God told them to do to prepare for the blessing didn't make much sense to them, did it? I don't think they figured it out. I mean, oh yeah, flash flood's going to come through, and that's exactly how God's going to do it.

No, I don't think they had a clue. All I think they knew is that this is what God told them to do. That they just had to obey. I also want you to notice that the measure of water available to the thirsty men was directly connected to how faithful they were to dig the ditches.

The more ditches they dug, and the bigger that the ditches were, the more water that they had. What did they want? Did they want enough water to drink? One little glass of water? Or did they want a swimming pool to swim in?

It just mattered how obedient they were going to be. Though it was hard, it was unpleasant work, the more they did, the more blessings they received. Something else I want you to see too. The ditches were not the blessing.

And the ditches were not the victory. Though they were essential parts of what God was going to do with the blessing and the victory. When God wants us to do something to prepare for blessing, we shouldn't confuse the preparation for the blessing with the blessing itself.

Without the miraculous blessing of God, those ditches meant nothing. Nothing. Great, you got a bunch of ditches. What good is that? It's nothing without the blessing of God. And so, it's just absolutely wonderful.

You can just see, I've pictured in my mind the soldiers laughing and splashing and almost swimming in ditches that they've done. They're so happy. God has saved them. But that's not the end of it. Look at it here in verse 21.

And when all the Moabites heard that the kings had come up to fight against them, all who were able to bear arms and older were gathered, and they stood at the border. Then they rose up early in the morning, and the sun was shining on the water, and the Moabites saw the water on the other side as red as blood.

And they said, this is blood. The kings have surely struck swords, and they've killed one another, and now, therefore, Moab to the spoil. So when they came to the camp of Israel, Israel rose up and attacked the Moabites so that they fled before them, and they entered their land, killing the Moabites.

Then they destroyed the cities, and each man threw a stone on every good piece of land and filled it, and they stopped up all the springs of water and cut down all the good trees, but they left some of the stones at Kir Haraseth intact.

However, the slingers surrounded and attacked it. Now this shows you how God blesses it when we prepare for blessing in obedience. You might think that it was enough, that it just provided survival for the thirsty army, but God instead, by His own plan, by His own working, said these very ditches that you dug are going to be the instruments of victory against the Moabites.

You see, those ditches caused confusion among the Moabites. They looked upon them, and God probably was doing some funny mind trick upon them, you know, see red, see red, see red, see blood, see blood.

I don't know what God was doing, but whatever it was, they looked upon them and they thought they were convinced that these kings were killing each other, and they rushed down into the battle, and they found themselves slaughtered by the three kings.

You see, God used those ditches in a completely unexpected way to supply the need and to defeat the enemy. And I think it's absolutely amazing, this whole situation. You know what I like about this? I think that, in many ways, it shows us what it's like to be a godly leader.

Leadership Lessons from Digging Ditches

This whole principle of digging ditches. Now I want you to think about this. Like digging ditches here, in 2 Kings chapter 3, leadership is hard work. You're going to go out and dig a ditch? It's not easy.

It's hard work. If you're expecting leadership in the body of Christ to be easy, you're thinking the wrong way. Secondly, I'd say that like digging ditches in this chapter, leadership is done with faith in what God is going to do in the future.

You know, it's like, woo, I'm so happy I get to dig a ditch. It's not like digging the ditch is the end in itself. No, you're doing it trusting that God is going to do something in the future. Like digging ditches, leadership is blessed beyond all reasonable expectation.

I mean, that's how God wants to bless leadership. Beyond what anybody would expect. And I think they would have been happy if the ditches would have just provided water. But it did far more than that.

Like digging ditches, leadership has to use delegation. Do you think those kings dug the ditches themselves? Not on your life. They delegated the work to other people. They were in charge of making sure it was done.

But leadership will use delegation. Like digging ditches, leadership doesn't matter anything without a miracle. That's what they needed. Like digging ditches, the work of leadership often feels like work without a reward.

I can imagine those soldiers felt like that. Digging, digging, digging. Okay, where's the water? All right, it's not here. Digging, digging, digging. It felt at the time like work without a reward. And oftentimes, that's how the work of Christian leadership is.

It feels unrewarded, at least for a season. And like digging ditches, the work of leadership will be criticized or doubted. Do you think that this work got done without any criticism? Do you think there wasn't some officers or some generals in the army saying to the king, you can't make my men do that.

But the kings insisted and it was done. Like digging ditches, leadership means not accepting the present state of dryness. You can't just say, well, we're dying of thirst in the desert and if that's what God wills, then that's what God wills.

No, you just say, no. No, we're dry. We're dead. This congregation, you might say, this whole Bible study, whatever you have, these are like dead, dry bones and I'm not going to have it. God, we're going to get on our faces and seek you until you bring life, until you bring water.

And don't be surprised that when you get serious about doing that, God tells you to dig some ditches. I don't know how. I don't know where. I don't know with what. But don't be surprised if he says, okay, this is how I want you to do it.

This is how I want you to prepare for the blessing. Like digging ditches, the work of leadership often seems unimpressive or unspectacular. Can you imagine? Here's a soldier digging the ditch. Isn't this great?

I'm winning a battle right here. He doesn't feel like that, does he? He feels ridiculous. I'm digging a hole. I'm providing water for a whole army. He doesn't feel like that. Listen, if you're expecting Christian leadership to be this thing, well, every day is an exciting and beautiful challenge.

Wow, isn't it great? It's a new star shining every morning. Listen, a lot of times it just feels like unimpressive or unspectacular work. Like digging ditches, the work of leadership is purposely used and relied on by God.

Let me explain to you what I mean by that. Did God need those ditches to provide water for the army? No. He could have airlifted pallets full of Evian water or something like that. I don't know. He could have done anything.

God could have provided water in a hundred different ways for that army, but He deliberately chose a way that would make them prepare for blessing that would come in the future. That's how God works. Why does He work that?

Because for God, it isn't just about providing the need. It's about drawing you closer to Him. It's about working in your life in that way. And so, this is an important important chapter here, I think, for us.

It shows us a lot about how God wants to work in our life and through our leadership. Anyway, now, on to verse 26. And when the king of Moab saw that the battle was too fierce for him, he took with him 700 men who drew swords to break through to the king of Edom, but they could not.

Then he took his eldest son who would have reigned in his place and offered him as a burnt offering upon the wall. And there was great indignation against Israel. So they departed from him and returned to their own land.

That shows how desperate the king of Moab was following his defeat on the field of battle. He did this to honor his pagan gods and to show his own people how determined he was to prevent defeat. And the radical determination of the king of Moab convinced the kings of Israel, Judah, and Edom that they could not completely defeat Moab.

They felt content with their near-complete victory. And so, Moab was once again put under tribute and they went back home, but it wasn't totally conquered. Now, on to chapter 4 here. Verse 1. A certain woman of the wives of the sons of prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, Your servant, my husband, is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord.

The Widow's Oil and God's Provision

And the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves. So Elisha said to her, What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house? And she said, Your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil.

Then he said, Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors, empty vessels. Do not gather just a few. And when you've come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons, then pour it into all those vessels and set aside the full ones.

So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons and brought the vessels to her and they poured it out. Now it came to pass when the vessels were full that she said to her son, Bring me another vessel.

And he said, There is not another vessel. So the oil ceased. So then she came and told the man of God and he said, Go, sell the oil and pay your debt and you and your sons live on the rest. Beautiful situation here, isn't it?

The woman was a widow of one of the sons of the prophets. She had debts and she had no way to pay the debts. And the legal system in Israel would not allow her to declare bankruptcy. So what could she do?

The only thing that she could do is sell one of her sons into slavery so that he could work off the debt that they owed to the creditors. And so she comes and she appeals to Elisha for help. She says, Hey, your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil.

Now, there is some evidence from the ancient Hebrew that this jar of oil was not a larger supply of oil that was used for cooking, but it was a smaller vessel that held oil for anointing. So we're probably not talking about a big bottle or jar.

We're probably talking about a small bottle. Think maybe in your mind maybe about the size of a perfume bottle. It's a unique word here. Probably the word used for a small anointing flask. So, great. What do you have?

I have this small bottle of oil. What are you going to do with it? All right. He says, fine. Go, knock on the doors of your neighbor's house and collect all the empty vessels you can. I think this is wonderful.

You imagine the position he put this woman into. Small village. Everybody talks with one another, right? Knocks on the door. Hi, do you have any empty bottles or empty things in your house that I can have?

Well, yeah, you can have them, but why? Well, and she has to explain the whole story. Man, that takes faith, doesn't it? Doesn't that take guts to go out and do that? To say, well, you know, Elisha the prophet is going to provide miraculously for all of my needs, and he told me just to collect as many things like this, and I don't know what they're going to do with it, but it has something to do with oil and a lot of oil, and so I don't know what they're going to do.

You see, her way of asking invited all of these awkward questions, but she went out and she did it in faith. Listen, God takes care of his servants, but he almost always does it in ways that stretches their faith.

Can I just say again, let's draw a likeness between the last story we just saw about the provision of water in the wilderness and this. God could have had, you know, a chariot pulled up to this woman.

You just won the Philistine lottery or something like that. I don't know what they had in that day. Oh, here's all this money. Here's this great, oh, beautiful for you. Good for you. Yes, yes, yes, great.

Is that how it worked? No. Not at all. God could have provided for this woman's need in any number of ways, but he deliberately did it in a way that would stretch her faith. And look, honestly, you and I, how do we feel about it when God's stretching our faith?

Oh, no, God, please. No, what are you doing? No, stop, stop, stop. It's wonderful. I love reading about these things in the Bible. It's so great. You know, nice, detached. I love telling you about it.

Well, yes, you know, you have to take that step of faith. Yes, you just have to really trust the Lord. Man, I would rather read about it. I would rather teach about it than have to do it myself any day of the week.