2 Kings 3 – https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Kings%203&version=ESV

So you got into an argument with your mom, or your wife, or your friend. You dug yourself into a hole that you couldn’t get out of and then, in humiliation and anger, you tried to blame it on them. Sound familiar? It certainly was to Jehoram, King of Israel except he did it to God.

It wasn’t that he wanted to go to war against Moab. Obviously God wanted to judge Moab. It was that Jehoram (and apparently not Jehoshaphat either) didn’t bother to ask God what they should do. Then Jehoram foolishly took a “circuitous” route through the desert with a massive number of soldiers and animals. What did he think was going to happen? It was obviously his fault they had run out of water. So he blamed God. He even blamed God right to Elisha’s face.

Here’s where the salt comes in. Elisha said, “As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand, were it not that I have regard for Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would neither look at you nor see you.” Jesus said to believers “You are the salt of the earth.” He didn’t mean that we give the world better flavor. He was talking about salt as a preservative. That’s exactly what is being said of Jehoshaphat. If it weren’t for him, God wouldn’t have helped them. If it weren’t for believers in the world, God would destroy the whole thing. But what makes salt salty? Jesus said that salt without it’s saltiness is good for nothing. Jesus makes you salty. Faith in the forgiveness of sins is what sets you apart. That is the reason that God is preserving this world, to bring people to faith in His work for us. That is the reason that He pours out His blessings on this sinful world, because there are believers in it.

Jehoram deserved the blame and the punishment for the hole that he had dug. But for the sake of Jehoshaphat, for the sake of the faith that he had in the one who took the blame for Him, God blessed.

Don’t blame God for your sins. Trust in Jesus for forgiveness – be salty.

In Christ
Pastor Ude