#63. King Mesha and the Moabites
Now Mesha king of Moab was a sheepbreeder, and he regularly paid the king of Israel one hundred thousand lambs and the wool of one hundred thousand rams. But it happened, when Ahab died, that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.
II Kings 3:4-5 NKJV
What do Eglon, Balak, and Mesha have in common? They were all kings of Moab.* Moab has a long and well chronicled history in the Bible. The father of the Moabites was Moab, the son of Lot’s oldest daughter who committed great sin with her father after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.** The Moabites played a role in the wandering of the Israelites in the wilderness before they entered the Promised Land. King Balak desired to curse Israel through Balaam his sorcerer, only to have Israel blessed and Moab eventually destroyed (though not before Israel’s men sinned with Moabite women).
After Israel entered the Promised Land, Joshua died and the Israelites rebelled against the Lord by worshipping the abominations (false gods) of the nations surrounding them. The Moabites ruled over Israel with a heavy hand multiple times in Judges as Israel rebelled against God. During the days of Saul, Israel was constantly warring with surrounding nations, the Moabites, Ammonites, and Philistines but in the days of King David, the Moabites were subdued and became servants of Israel and King David. Nevertheless, Solomon built a high place in Israel for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, and for Molech, the abomination of Ammon,*** which caused Solomon and all Israel to sin. Throughout the history of the kings of Israel and Judah the Moabites were a constant military enemy and the god(s) of Moab were a constant evil temptation causing Israel to commit idolatry. Moab’s wickedness in Scripture is directly tied to its false gods and the Lord devotes nearly two whole chapters in Isaiah (15 & 16) to tell of its utter destruction.
It was during the days of Ahab that the Moabites were either defeated or formed an alliance / treaty with Israel under the terms of which Moab paid Israel 100,000 lambs and the wool of 100,000 rams each year. In Ahab’s day, it seemed Moab had its eye on Judah and was focused on destroying king Jehoshaphat, which of course it was not able to do (II Chron. 20). But when Ahab died, Mesha broke the treaty and rebelled against Jehoram, King of Israel. This is the political context in II Kings 3.
However, by the grace of God, we do not need to end this devotional regarding the Moabites only in terms of Moabite abominations. While abominations were the memorial of Moab, the Lord has His remnant among all nations, tribes, and tongues. At the end of the time of the Judges, some Israelites went to live in Moab, including a man named Elimelech from Bethlehem-Judah and his family. He and his two sons died in Moab but not before both his sons married Moabite women, one of whom was named Ruth. Ruth married Boaz and gave birth to Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of King David. Directly in the family line of Jesus Christ was none other than a Moabite whose name titles one of the 66 books of the Bible.
Yes, the Moabites were wholly given to sin and all manner of abominations, little different from our present day. But sin and evil cannot hinder Christ’s glorious work of salvation, for He saved Ruth the Moabite and used her mightily in His kingdom.
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*See Judges 3:14 (Eglon); Numbers 22 (Balak); and II Kings 3:4 (Mesha).
**Genesis 19:37.
***I Kings 11:7.
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