Unsung Heroes At The 'battle Of The Ditches'!

Introduction: Ask any veteran or anyone who served in the military for the strangest duty they ever performed and you may get some interesting replies! The soldiers in this story were asked (!) to put down their swords and take up some shovels in order to dig a lot of ditches!

This story also has one unsung hero in particular, plus a lot of others somewhat later. Let’s take a look at this first unsung hero and what he did.

Text, 2 Kings 3:9-12, KJV: 9 So the king of Israel went, and the king of Judah, and the king of Edom: and they fetched a compass of seven days' journey: and there was no water for the host, and for the cattle that followed them. 10 And the king of Israel said, Alas! that the LORD hath called these three kings together, to deliver them into the hand of Moab! 11 But Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the LORD, that we may inquire of the LORD by him? And one of the king of Israel's servants answered and said, Here is Elisha the son of Shaphat, which poured water on the hands of Elijah. 12 And Jehoshaphat said, The word of the LORD is with him. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him.

In the context, the nations of Judah, Israel (the ten northern tribes) and Edom, incredibly, had joined together to make war against Moab, which was east of the Jordan River. They had gone for several days without water and that spells disaster for just about anyone. Sometimes it’s hard to go without water for a couple of hours, let alone for perhaps a day or two.

It got so bad that the king of Israel even expressed a fear that the LORD had brought these three nations to this point just to hand them over to Moab! When Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, heard this, he promptly asked, “Isn’t there a prophet of the LORD here?” He may have remembered back when he had offered to assist Ahab, king of Israel at the time, in the Battle of Ramoth-Gilead, or, the Battle of “Let’s Kill the King (see 1 Kings 22 or 2 Chronicles 18)” and sought the word of the LORD!

He needed it then, and he needed it now, but nobody seemed to know where any of the LORD’s prophets were residing—except for one unknown servant of the king of Israel, of all people! This man apparently heard the conversation and was bold enough to mention, “Elisha the prophet is here with us (paraphrased).” Jehoshaphat paid Elisha one of the highest compliments ever by saying, “The word of the LORD is with him”. I hope the same could be said of me some day.

Well, the kings might have been glad to know Elisha was there, but clearly Elisha was not very anxious to see the three kings. His reply to the king of Israel (verses 13-15) may seem to be rude to us, but it was a rebuke to the king of Israel. The king (Jehoram, verse 1) worshiped the golden calf and who knows how many other pagan deities. One wonders how many times Elisha had ministered to this king, only to see no fruits of repentance or anything else!

Even so, the LORD intervened and gave Elisha a message to the three kings.

Text: 2 Kings 3:16-17, KJV: 16 And he said, Thus saith the LORD, Make this valley full of ditches. 17 For thus saith the LORD, Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, that ye may drink, both ye, and your cattle, and your beasts.

In verses 4-8, this combined force of Israelites, Judeans, and Edomites were marching against Moab. The direct route would have been across the Jordan River, much as Israel’s ancestors had done many years before when they crossed into Canaan and took up their promised land. But to cross at the most logical place would not be the best strategy. Case in point: Moab would only need to post a few archers and other troops and as the “Army of The Three Kings” attempted to climb out of the Jordan Valley, it’s anybody’s guess how many men would become casualties.

Thus, they took the roundabout route through “The Valley of Edom (exact location uncertain)”. The Edomites were part of this force and the other kings may have thought, “They know the way through the wilderness” and all we need to do is follow. Follow they did, but right into a terrible situation: as mentioned, no water for man or beast. And whether they could not find water, or if there was no water to find, they were in trouble. They knew it, too.

We may never know how much, if anything, the situation had to do with the LORD’s message. But the message was clear: “make this valley full of ditches”. We’re not told much of the details like how deep, how wide, how long, etc. for each ditch but we do know two things for certain. First, the soldiers became the unsung heroes for digging these ditches. One wonders what kind of tools, if any, they had but the second thing is clear: the next day, there was water, water, everywhere for man and beast and cattle to drink (verse 17).

We can appreciate the word fitly spoken by that unsung servant and hero who alerted the kings of Elisha’s presence. We can also appreciate the effort the soldiers put into digging a valley full of ditches. They obeyed, the LORD provided, and these kings won a great victory!

Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV)