Today's Sufficient Grace

2 Kings 3:26–27 (ESV),

²⁶ When the king of Moab saw that the battle was going against him, he took with him 700 swordsmen to break through, opposite the king of Edom, but they could not. ²⁷ Then he took his oldest son who was to reign in his place and offered him for a burnt offering on the wall. And there came great wrath against Israel. And they withdrew from him and returned to their own land.

The sacrifice of the crown prince to their god, Chemosh in order to gain favor incites great indignation. [1]  "Sickened by the maddened spectacle of senseless human sacrifice, the allies lifted the siege and returned to their homes." [2]

The contrast with the Gospel is stark.  One cannot help but be reminded that God offered His one and only Son outside the walls of Jerusalem.  Instead of the crowd being indignant they promoted such and event.  They cried, "Crucify him."  “None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” (1 Corinthians 2:8, ESV).

Yet there is another side to this: “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:4–5, ESV)

 

 

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1.  Most commentaries, however, see the wrath as a reference to a stunning indignation over such a gross act that it caused the three armies to go home. “Wrath” is the Hebrew qetsep, can mean indignation and in this context even “righteous indignation.” “Against,” the Hebrew preposition u^l, “above, upon, against, beside, concerning, over,” could be used with a word like “wrath, indignation” to express great feelings of emotion by emphasizing the person or persons who are the subject of the emotion and who feel the emotion acting upon them, i.e., great indignation came upon Israel, they were appalled by this act so much so they turned and went home--stunned.  (https://bible.org/seriespage/7-victory-over-moab-2-kings-316-27)

2. Expositor's Bible Commentary, The, Pradis CD-ROM:2 Kings/Exposition of Second Kings/6. The eras of Jehoram of the northern kingdom and Jehoram and Ahaziah of the southern kingdom (2:1-9:37)/b. Jehoram and the Moabite campaign (3:1-27), Book Version: 4.0.2