2 Kings 3:20

And it came to pass in the morning there came water by the way of Moab.

Defeat of the Moabites

I. The threefold preparation for this miraculous interposition.

1. The preparation of supplication. The kings, in their need, “inquired of the Lord” (2 Kings 3:11) by means of His prophet. The act implies an application for the help of Jehovah. Preparation for the reception of special blessing by means of supplication is a law of God’s kingdom. The prayer of the leper made way for Christ’s miraculous healing (Matthew 8:2); the beseeching entreaty of the Syro-Phenician woman brought down the blessing she desired (Luke 7:24). The supplication (Acts 2:14) of the Early Church was the preparation for the descent of the Holy Spirit. Supplication is the placing of the wood in order upon the altar in readiness for the descent of fire from heaven.

2. The preparation of the prophet’s mind for the reception of the Divine direction. “When the minstrel played, the hand of the Lord came upon him” (2 Kings 3:15). The soul that has to bear the message of God to others needs to rise into some degree of harmony with the mind of God, to partake in some measure of the holy calm which belongs to Him. Music prepares the heart of the good man to receive, and hence to be the bearer of special help from the Divine Spirit.

II. The miracle itself. That the flowing in of the water was miraculous is evident because it came without rain, where there were no natural springs, and in fulfilment of Elisha’s prophecy. In the New Testament the supernatural Divine workings are classified into “signs, wonders, miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost.” (Hebrews 2:2).

III. The twofold effect of the miracle. It was the occasion of life to one army and of death to the other. The one was brought about by the supernatural interposition, the other by a natural, though mistaken, inference. The cloud that was the help of Israel at the Red Sea, became the destruction of the Egyptians. (Sermon Outlines.)

Attracted by grace

I noticed on one of our streets during the frost, when the pipes were all congealed and frozen and waterless, that the water authorities opened the main pipe early in the morning. The inhabitants got up that frosty morning, they turned the tap, but no water flowed. Then the neighbours began to tell one another that in a certain street the main pipe was flowing, and the bairns got their pitchers and buckets and flagons, and the women put their shawls over their heads in their hurry, and the domestics were sent out with the utensils from the kitchen. The cry had gone out that the water was flowing, and on that frosty morning they gathered round the main pipe. What brought them? Just the real flowing of real water. That was the reason of the crowd. If Christians were to experience freshly and literally and truly the grace of God, thousands would flock into every assembly in the city, and in the land, just drawn and won by the reality of the grace of Christ. (J. Robertson.)