“Thus saith the LORD, Make this valley full of ditches.”
2 Kings 3:16
The armies of Israel, Judah, and Edom were stranded in the desert without water on a journey that would take seven days; they were on their way battle Moab. I cannot fathom what it must have been like to be in the desert without water on my way to battle. Seems like an impossible situation, doesn’t it? The King of Judah, Jehoshaphat knew that it was time to seek the Lord. Thus, God led them to the prophet Elisha. God used his prophet Elisha to speak to Jehoshaphat, Jehoram (the King of Israel), and the man appointed to step in as the “king” of Edom by Jehoshaphat (1 Kings 22:47 tells us there was no king of Edom at this time).
God told these three kings to make the valley full of ditches, but it would not rain (v.17). If there wasn’t going to be any rain, why would God have them dig ditches? He was going to do the impossible, which was a “light” thing for Him (v. 18). The kings and their armies began digging ditches, preparing for what God was about to do. God was about to do a miracle, about to perform a blessing, and about to fulfill the need of the armies, but they needed to prepare for the blessing. Not only was God going to deliver the Moabites into their hand, but He was also going to give them water. I can only imagine how exhausted, thirsty, and weak these men must have been. Sometimes when you and I are weak, God asks us to do a task that seems impossible to our feeble minds, but He always gives us the strength we need for our God-appointed tasks. The next morning, a meat offering was offered, and the ditches were filled with water. No wind, no rain, no storms, but God filled the ditches with water with what seemed to have been a flash flood from the nearby mountains. If these men wouldn’t have obeyed the command God had given them, they wouldn’t have received the blessing. The ditches had to be built in order for them to receive the water. The people had to prepare for the blessing.
Not only did the digging of the ditches prepare them for God’s blessing, it also provided them protection. As the Moabites were preparing for war, the sun was shining on the water in the ditches, but to the Moabites, it looked as if the water were blood (v. 22). The Moabites thought the three kings had killed each other, so when they came to the camp of Israel, Israel was able to rise up and attack them, causing them to flee. The three kings and their armies “beat down the cities, and on every good piece of land cast every man his stone, and filled it; and they stopped all the wells of water, and felled all the good trees” (v. 25), as verse 19 said they would.
The digging of ditches prepared the armies for God’s blessing and protected them from being defeated by the Moabites. It must have been so hard to dig those ditches in the vulnerable state they were in, as they had not had water in days. Digging ditches is hard work. It can be painful. It is not fun. But digging ditches is worth the blessing, it is worth seeing God perform a miracle, it is worth seeing how God will use those ditches to provide and to protect. If the armies would have allowed their pain and exhaustion to disobey God’s command, they would have missed out on their need being met, they would have missed out on God’s miracle, and they would have not been able to fight the Moabites.
You may feel like you’re digging a ditch right now. You may have a task at hand that feels impossible to complete. You may not understand why you are doing what you are doing. You may be wondering how God could possibly use it for your good and His glory. I want to encourage you to keep on digging. God will give you the strength you need to keep digging. Seeing the blessings, provisions, and protections will all be worth it. Trust His word! Trust His command! Our thoughts are not His thoughts and His ways are not our ways, but they are higher. Take heart my friends, God is with you in the ditch digging.
KNOW(N) Ministries 