What can hinder us from living our full potential?

When I was considering a teaching career, I was fighting fears over the idea. A friend from church told me of a woman who was a talented musician but never pursued a musical career because of performance anxieties. She spent her life working as a secretary instead. My friend’s point was that sometimes fears are too hard to overcome. While it was reassuring to think that I may not have to face mine, I was also horrified. It seemed such a waste! There may be circumstances outside our control that stop us living our full potential, but often there are internal reasons that hinder us from running the course to the end. In our reading, we encounter something similar when Jehoram, Israel’s king, goes out to fight Moab (a vassal state that rebelled; 2 Kings 3:4-6). Although the prophet Elisha conveys God’s message of victory (2 Kings 3:18), Israel retreats at the last hurdle and returns home (2 Kings 3:27). Why could they not achieve what God had promised?

God’s grace despite a compromised life

First, we are dealing with a king, Jehoram, who lives a compromised life. He is not as bad as his father, Ahab, who spread the worship of the Canaanite god, Baal, far and wide. The sacred pillar of Baal, where he would have been worshipped, is removed (2 Kings 3:2), but Jehoram continues in Jeroboam’s sins, which involved the syncretistic worship of the Lord through the image of the golden calf (2 Kings 3:3; 1 Kings 12:28-33).[1] When Moab rebels, Jehoram calls Judah for help,[2] and determines a course of action without ever consulting God (2 Kings 3:4-9). The armies circle south of the Dead Sea (through Edom’s territory that is largely desert) to attack Moab on its less fortified border on the south. However, when the enterprise goes awry with no water for the troops (v.9), Israel’s king blames the Lord (2 Kings 3:10, 13). Nevertheless, God will show His power and grace through the miraculous provision of water that will fill the depressions in the valley floor (2 Kings 3:16),[3] and through victory over Moab (2 Kings 3:18-19).

Biblemapper [source]

Why Israel retreats

The morning sacrifice is when Israel symbolically recommits itself to God for the new day, so it is appropriate for God’s power to be revealed at this time (2 Kings 3:20, 22-24). Yet quite another sacrifice leads to an unexpected turn of events. Kir-hareseth, the last city standing is thought to be modern Kerak, which lies on a plateau with deep ravines around it. Unable to break out of the siege (2 Kings 3:26), the king of Moab sacrifices his son and heir in desperation (2 Kings 3:27), so his god’s anger may be appeased.[4] But why does Israel retreat and whose is the wrath mentioned (v.27)? Usually, wrath without a subject is an oblique reference to God’s judgment in the Bible,[5] which suggests that Israel had sinned. Given how enmeshed they were in pagan perspectives, they may have believed in the efficacy of the human sacrifice by Moab, offered in full view of the armies on the city wall (v.27 cf. Mic 7:6-7). If so, then Israel retreated because they did not believe that their God was more powerful than Moab’s god, Chemosh. God’s wrath then is not the cause of the retreat but is evoked by their unbelief. However, inherent in their withdrawal is also God’s judgment because they will not overcome the enemy.[6]

What hinders our potential for God

Israel’s story demonstrates that it is possible to have encounters with God, to experience His grace and power in our lives, yet remain unchanged by Him. The potential is there to achieve what God has intended for us, yet our unbelief in God’s power to act or the conviction that our hurdles are too overwhelming can stop us from living to our full potential. It may be that we are too fearful to speak out for God when He wants to use our testimony. We may hide in a corner doing little in God’s work because we feel inadequate. It may be that we recognise character traits in ourselves that work against God’s will, but we cannot face our internal ‘demons’ or trust that the Lord can help us overcome them. Yet, as Hebrews puts it, ‘without faith it is impossible to please God’ (Heb 11:6). This is not an abstract belief or a vague hope but a trusting response in obedience to God’s promises in Scripture.[7] May we not shrink back but move forward with God’s help and allow our lives to be transformed.

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[1] The NASB uses ‘gods’ in 1 Kings 12:28 but the reference to the exodus suggests that Jeroboam still conceived of the god he worshipped as Yahweh, Israel’s God, albeit represented by the golden calf. The Hebrew elohim is a plural noun and can mean ‘gods’ or ‘God’ (there is no distinction between upper and lower case in biblical Hebrew so only context can determine the meaning).

[2] Jehoshaphat made peace with Israel (1 Kings 22:44) and it is likely that it was as part of this agreement that he married his son to one of Ahab’s daughters (2 Kings 8:16-18). Given their alliance, Jehoshaphat was twice drawn into giving assistance to Israel (1 Kings 22:4; 2 Kings 3:7). Edom was a vassal state of Judah with an appointed governor (1 Kings 22:47) and was in turn obliged to support Judah.

[3] The Hebrew here is not an imperative (i.e. a command) but an infinitive absolute ‘(to) make’, a Hebrew grammatical form not known in English. It is sometimes used instead of a finite verb (e.g. ‘I make’, ‘he makes’). The emphasis is on the verbal idea rather than on the agent or circumstances of time, etc. An infinitive absolute may also convey an immediacy or be used in hurried speech. The Hebrew of 2 Kings 3:16 reads, ‘this valley (to) make pools and pools [i.e. receptacles for water]’. That this is not meant as a command is also evident from the fact that no action by the troops follow.

While the desert region in Israel and around is prone to flash floods and this may be a natural explanation of what happened, the point is that God times it and is responsible for it. Indeed, it is described as ‘a slight thing’ (2 Kings 3:18), a trifling matter for God to arrange.

[4] Defeat in battle was often linked to the anger of a nation’s god. It was thought that giving what was most precious (human sacrifice) would appease the god and turn the battle.

[5] The alternatives are that the wrath is Chemosh’s, or Moab’s. If Chemosh’s wrath is meant, it would suggest that the human sacrifice was efficacious in appeasing his anger against Moab and aroused it against Israel instead so that this pagan god caused them to retreat. It is, however, unthinkable that the biblical writer would attribute so much power to Chemosh. Alternatively, the anger is Moab’s for the terrible sacrifice they had to make, which strengthened their resolve to fight until Israel gave up. Although plausible, the lack of a subject (whose anger?) suggests to me a theological statement about God.

[6] Our sense of the last sentence is that the wrath caused the departure but the relationship between the two clauses (the wrath and the retreat) is not spelt out. The biblical writer often emphasises God’s sovereignty and control by placing these theological statements in prominent position.

[7] I want to emphasise, however, that this is not an open invitation to fulfil our every whim for health, wealth and prosperity (‘if you only had faith, you would be healed, have the latest luxury car, house, etc.’). This approach is a mockery of what the Bible describes about the heroes of faith in Hebrews, whose faith was about fulfilling God’s plan and purpose for the sake of the world God wanted to save, not for their own benefit. Moreover, they often suffered hardship as they entrusted themselves to God (Heb 11:35-38) and their obedience only reaped partial reward in this life (Heb 11:13, 39).

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