The Week In Review

II Chronicles 20
Taught at Langley Avenue Church of God
Wednesday, July 18, 2007

II Chronicles 20

Verse 1-4 After this, the Moabites and Ammonites with some of the Meunites came to make war on Jehoshaphat. Some men came and told Jehoshaphat, "A vast army is coming against you from Edom, from the other side of the Sea. It is already in Hazazon Tamar" (that is, En Gedi). Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the LORD, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah. The people of Judah came together to seek help from the LORD; indeed, they came from every town in Judah to seek him.

We see no mention of war and then suddenly battle is upon Jehoshaphat. We do not know why the enemy forces are ganging up on him, but they are. The interesting part is this, in order for the enemy armies to have access to Judah; Israel had to grant them passage through their land so they could get to Judah to attack.

What does that mean? Image what this is telling us. Jehosphaphat had just been willing to give his life for his brother, his people, his blood; Israel (read chapter 18). He even went into battle for them. He had even risked disobeying God for this alliance. He had disobeyed God to go into battle with Ahab. And now the very people that Jehoshaphat thought would stand with him were against him. This very people whom he thought would be his alliance, were in fact the avenue the enemy was using to attack him and this brought stress, and fear to him. In our time, we can say the same things, the hardest battles we face are not the ones against us from an unknown force, but when it is from the ones we love, the ones we have faith in, the ones we have an expectation of support from. Those that we have placed faith in and given our allegiances to, are sometimes the ones the enemy uses as the source to try and defeat us.

Due to this fact, Jehoshaphat said there is a multitude coming against us and he was afraid. He might have been afraid because he had no one he could seek to come and go to battle with him. Israel, whom he thought would be as he was to them, is in fact a source for the enemy. And so he sees all that is coming against him and he is afraid.

What does that mean? We expect the enemy to attack, and we also expect that we will have some difficulties from time to time. However we are sometimes caught unaware when battles come upon us quickly without warning and especially when the enemy advances from areas we least expect. This can cause us to become doubtful and begin to look at the attack and become overwhelmed by the size of the situation. But, Jehoshaphat didn’t stay in that state long, for he set himself to seeking the face of God.

He declared a fast for all of Judah. This reminds us that even though we are caught off guard by our situations and circumstances, we must regroup quickly and not become immobilized by fear, but quickly seek the face of the Lord. Jehoshaphat was a man who sought the Lord. We see the difference in these two kings, Ahab sought the Lord, but he didn’t heed the words, for Jehoshaphat in fact told Ahab to seek God’s directives.

Verse 5 through 12 – Then Jehoshaphat stood up in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem at the temple of the LORD in the front of the new courtyard and said: "O LORD, God of our fathers, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you. O our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend? They have lived in it and have built in it a sanctuary for your Name, saying, 'If calamity comes upon us, whether the sword of judgment, or plague or famine, we will stand in your presence before this temple that bears your Name and will cry out to you in our distress, and you will hear us and save us.' "But now here are men from Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, whose territory you would not allow Israel to invade when they came from Egypt; so they turned away from them and did not destroy them. See how they are repaying us by coming to drive us out of the possession you gave us as an inheritance. O our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you."

Jehoshaphat seeks God and prays for God’s intervention. His prayer was not one of doom and gloom. In verse 6 he gives the attributes of God. He talks about God’s power, his ability to withstand whatever comes. Verse 7 & 8 he prays about the past victories and talks about their trust in him. Verse 9, he reaffirms that when anything comes against us, we stand before this house, in other words, when we are faced with difficulties, we will come to you, and we will put our faith in you. He doesn’t even mention his problem until verse 10 of this prayer. So he didn’t jump in and begin to talk about the problem, but he begins this prayer praising God.

In verse 12 he acknowledges his weakness and also his strength. We need to stop jumping into prayer giving God our laundry list of what’s wrong and ask him to fix it, without first giving him the honor and praise he deserves from our lips. Verse 13 – All the men of Judah, with their wives and children and little ones, stood there before the LORD.

All come to worship, even the children. What a way to show our children how to battle spiritually. The children were allowed to become part of the prayer, praising and seeking God for the answer to this battle that faces them. For the battles that we face are not only against us, but also against all that are in our household. As parents we do not have to share everything with the children, but there are times when the battles we face will become evident before our children and we can do a great service to them by showing them how to seek God. What a testimony these children had. They were able to see that when God says he will do something miraculous, he will. They prayed and God gave them victory over their enemies. So we can do the same, we can put in “action” what we preach about before our children.

Verse 14 – Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jahaziel son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite and descendant of Asaph, as he stood in the assembly.

Because they sought God, God sent the answer. The prophet gave the message from God. This answer given was an unusual answer. There are times when we face unusual battles and the answers we get will be unusual answers. Yet we must trust what the answer tells us to do. It is also important to understand that we cannot rush God to answer. He has to bring us to the place were our trust in 100% in him and not in others, or ourselves. And at that moment, he will send the answer.

The current posting of this lesson can be found on the Williams Innovative Network (W.I.N) site, http://home.comcast.net/~inhisword/site/