Immerse: Kingdoms Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 238
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IMMERSE
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KINGDOMS
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| 2:20–3:11
Elisha said, “Bring me a new bowl with salt in it.” So they brought it to
him. Then he went out to the spring that supplied the town with water
and threw the salt into it. And he said, “This is what the Lord says: I have
purified this water. It will no longer cause death or infertility.” And the
water has remained pure ever since, just as Elisha said.
Elisha left Jericho and went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the
road, a group of boys from the town began mocking and making fun of
him. “Go away, baldy!” they chanted. “Go away, baldy!” Elisha turned
around and looked at them, and he cursed them in the name of the Lord.
Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of them.
From there Elisha went to Mount Carmel and finally returned to Samaria.
Ahab’s son Joram began to rule over Israel in the eighteenth year of King
Jehoshaphat’s reign in Judah. He reigned in Samaria twelve years. He did
what was evil in the Lord’s sight, but not to the same extent as his father
and mother. He at least tore down the sacred pillar of Baal that his father
had set up. Nevertheless, he continued in the sins that Jeroboam son of
Nebat had committed and led the people of Israel to commit.
King Mesha of Moab was a sheep breeder. He used to pay the king of
Israel an annual tribute of 100,000 lambs and the wool of 100,000 rams.
But after Ahab’s death, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Is
rael. So King Joram promptly mustered the army of Israel and marched
from Samaria. On the way, he sent this message to King Jehoshaphat of
Judah: “The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you join me in
battle against him?”
And Jehoshaphat replied, “Why, of course! You and I are as one. My
troops are your troops, and my horses are your horses.” Then Jehoshaphat
asked, “What route will we take?”
“We will attack from the wilderness of Edom,” Joram replied.
The king of Edom and his troops joined them, and all three armies traveled along a roundabout route through the wilderness for seven days. But
there was no water for the men or their animals.
“What should we do?” the king of Israel cried out. “The Lord has
brought the three of us here to let the king of Moab defeat us.”
But King Jehoshaphat of Judah asked, “Is there no prophet of the Lord
with us? If there is, we can ask the Lord what to do through him.”