2 Kings, Chapter 3 - Dig The Ditches | Prophets of Israel Daily

Shalom friends. Welcome back to the Prophets of Israel Daily. This is the second book of Kings, chapter 3, brought to you by the Land of Israel Network at the landofisrael.com. Yesterday, Jeremy, you said goodbye to Elijah, the prophet of fire, fire on Carmel, a chariot of fire to carry him home. From his personality to his medium, Elijah was the prophet of fire. And the first thing his disciple Alicia does for the people is heal the waters of Jericho. The water, right? Yaram, son of Akav, is king in Samaria. Now, he did evil, but not like his father and mother. He tore down Akav's pillar of Baal. Uh, that was definitely a good thing. But Yurovam's golden calves, those he clung to, or at least he allowed them to be. half a chuva, you know, half a return, half a repentance. Uh, Mesha, king of Moab, who's been paying Israel a fortune in lambs and wool, sees an opportunity in the transition of power and stops paying the moment a dies. So, Yharam calls on Yahos, king of Judah, to go to war with him. And Yoshafar answers, I am I am as you are. My people as your people. My horses are your horses. The exact words he said to Akav before Ram Gilad where he was nearly killed, mistaken for Akav by Aav's own design. I'm wondering why Oshaf did this again. But either way, now he says them to Akav's son. They take the the long way through the wilderness of Adom who they have an alliance with with the king of Edom alongside. After seven days circling that desert, the water runs out and the king of Israel cries out, "Alas, Hashem called these three kings out here to hand them over to Moab. This whole war was his idea, and the moment the water runs out, it's God's plot against him." Yhoshaphat asks a different question. The one he asked Akav uh in the court, you know, surrounded by 400 yesmen. You remember that whole piece? He said, "Is there no prophet of Hashem here?" And one of the servants answers, verse 11, Alicia, son of Shafat, is here who poured water on the hands of Elijah. Alicia who poured water on the hands of Elijah, he's the one. One king says, "God brought us here to kill us." The other says, "How about this for an idea? Let's ask Hashem." And look how they describe Alicia, not as the man who split the Jordan, right? An army is dying of thirst. And the name that comes up is the man known for pouring water. You know, I think that that's really actually an important point. And in some ways, there's a principle behind that. Serving a Torah scholar is greater than learning from him because the verse doesn't say Alicia learned from Elijah. It says he poured water on his hands. And I think the idea there is that some Torah doesn't really fit in a book. Cabala, the prophetic tradition of Judaism means received. It passes handto hand. How your teacher washes before he eats. how he speaks to the person that no one else notices. And you can just see, you know, who remembers that it's the servant of a wicked king in the camp of Akav's son. And what they remembered about Alisha isn't the miracles. It's the picture of water that he used to wash his hands. >> That's right. That's right. And so the so the three kings go down to the prophet and Alicia looks at the son of Aav and he says, "What do I have to do with you?" Right? Go go go go go to the prophets of your father and your mother. If not for Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, I wouldn't even look at you. So, three armies alive tomorrow because of one man in the camp. It seems like Jehoshaphat's big heart got him into this desert and his righteousness appears to be the only reason any of them are going to walk out of it. And then verse 15, and now bring me a musician. And it was as the musician played that the hand of Hashem came upon him. Right? A musician like now in a valley with no water. So our sages noticed Alicia just got angry. Ra Lakish teaches that when a prophet gets angry his prophecy leaves him. And he learns it from Alicia right here. I mean there's other examples I can think of through the through the Tanakh, but this is really a very powerful one, right? He lost his temper with a son and the line to Hashem went quiet. So how does he get it back? Music. It's actually from this verse that we learn that theina the divine presence doesn't rest on a person who's within a spirit of sadness or anger or laziness, you know, only out of the joy of a mitzvah. And music very often resuscitates that, revitalizes that, you know, and um and I think about that a lot. You know, how many times have I been right and indignant and angry and just completely cut off? And I think that this is a truth many of us can recognize from our own lives. It's true. And but I I want you to know the sages bring this verse somewhere else and it really fits the season that we're in now. On the night of Sukkot, the temple held the celebration of the water drawing. And the Jerusalem Talmud asks why was it called Shiva? Why was it called the drawing? Because from there they drew Ruakodesesh, the Holy Spirit. And Jonah, the son of Amiti, came up for the festival, walked into that celebration, and the Holy Spirit rested on him because it rests only on a joyful heart. And the proof is Alicia and his musician right now. And so our tradition says that Jonah was Alisha's own student. And so the student found prophecy at that celebration of water and joy. And the sages learned how from his teacher, the prophet of water, calling for music in a dry valley, it all just fits. >> Right. Right. Yeah. And the hand of Hashem comes upon Alicia and he saysim, "Make this valley full of ditches, ditches upon ditches. For thus says Hashem, you will not see wind and you will not see rain, yet that valley will be filled with water." Right? Ruach and Gisham, wind and rain. Now, right now during the time of this recording, when we're recording this right now, the from the end of Sukkot until Passover, three times a day, we pray Mashem who makes the wind blow and the rainfall. And here, Hashem says, "You won't see the wind. You won't see the rain. The valley will fill anyways, but first dig. Seven days without water." And the prophet hands them shovels. Dig in a dry riverbed in the sun. Every ditch is a prayer you make with your back. And keep in mind the amount of dehydration that they're going to go through to dig this. It's like there's no turning back at this point. They're putting it all in. And of course, it's Alicia who says this, the man Elijah found behind a plow, right? Anyone who works this land knows you clear the channels and clean the sistns before the rains. You can't catch water that you didn't make room for, that you didn't create the vessels for. And I think the the ditches are the measure. Hashem fills what you dig. And the next morning, as the offering went up, water comes pouring in from the direction of Adom and the land fills. Right? The text could have stopped at morning. Instead, it marks the hour the priest stood at the altar in Jerusalem. Elijah's fire fell on Carmel at the hour of the offering. Too, right? Fire for the master, water for the disciple, two prophets in the northern kingdom, two miracles, and both somehow synchronized with the altar in Jerusalem. And now look at Moab's side. They're masked at the border at dawn. The sun hits the water and from where they stand the valley is red. Verse 23. And they said, "This is blood. The kings have surely fought and struck one another down. And now to the spoil." To the spoil Moav. The water came from Edom. It looked Adam red. They called it dam blood. They saw exactly what they wanted to see. You know, Arya, I think about why that's what they saw. Israel and Judah had fought each other for generations. And Edom hated them both. Three kings like that in a desert with no water. Of course, they killed each other. And so, our enemies have been making that bet for about 3,000 years. And eventually, you know, the Jews always come out on top. 3 years ago on October 7th, which is right around this time, they made that bet again. They watched us shouting at each other in the streets for months and they were sure we were going to devour each other, that we were finished. And what they never understood is what happens to the people of Israel when the enemy is inside the camp. When Moab charged in, Israel stood up, united, and struck back. And that morning was devastating beyond words. But the people they thought were tearing each other apart turned out to be one body. And so they were wrong about who we were then. Who we are now. The enemies of Israel are always wrong about who Israel is. >> That's true. And that's beautiful. They were wrong, you know, and they received a rude awakening. Israel drives Moav back, city after city, just as Alicia said, down to one last fortress. And then the chapter ends hard, right? Messa, the king of Moav, did the unimaginable. Verse 27. And he took his firstborn son, who would have reigned after him, and offered him as a burnt offering on the wall. And there was a great wrath upon Israel, and they withdrew from him and returned to the land. Right? Messa puts his own son on the wall, sacrificed him a burnt offering. It's hor horrific. The Torah calls it an abomination, right? The sages debate whether King Mesha of Moab offered this to his idol or to God. Either way, they read that wrath is falling on Israel because of Israel. I mean, just think about the picture. a pagan king on the wall giving up everything sacrificing that which he loves the most in the world for what he worships and below him an army whose king couldn't give up two golden calves the fundamental question we need to ask ourselves is if people give everything for what is false are are we prepared to give everything for what is true we look at our enemies and he does that it's it shines a reflective mirror upon us anyway. So the water came for Jehoshaphat, the victory came through Alicia the prophet. But while a miracle can win you a battle, it cannot do your chuva for you. And so the chapter ends they returned to the land. Shuv, you know, return the same root as chuva. And my friends, I think we are the you will not see wind, you will not see rain generation. I think we're that generation. Maybe we are we're we were waiting for thunder, for a chariot of fire, for some unmistakable moment when Hashem would split the heavens and everyone would finally understand. Instead, Hashem handed his people shovels. They came back to the land that had waited for them for 2,000 years and they dug and they planted and they built. Jeremy, your grandfather was one of these men. They fought. They drained the swamps. They died of malaria. They raised children. They dug ditches in a dry valley. And the water came. Not with a storm that anyone could point to. Not in the way anyone expected, but the land filled. 60 years ago, there was not a single Jewish family living in these hills here. Today, they are filled with Jewish children frolicking through the vineyards. We have returned to the land. And I believe with all my heart that this time we're going to return all the way. We're not going to stop with the half chuva of Yoram. We are going to keep returning with courage and with joy and with sacrifice until we return completely to Hashem, the God of Israel here in the land of Israel in the rolling hills of Judea. Because these years these years have already shown what this generation is made of. We've sacrificed beyond what we ever imagined we could sacrifice. How many have buried their children, Jeremy? How many have left their families for months on end, for years now to fight? We've given everything to defend this land and this people and the name of Hashem in the world. So no, the miracle will not do our chuva for us. But I believe the shovels are already in our hands and this time we are digging all the way. I really believe that. So dig the ditches, my friends. Bring the music back. The water is coming. Kazak Vamatz. Um, every week live from Judea, we have this beautiful fellowship. People from all around the world are coming. Come see if it's for you. Join us at the land ofisrael.com. Israem will see you tomorrow for chapter 4 with Jeremy.