Bushwhacking the Bushwhacker
Bushwhacker:
1. The secret name of the press corps during the Bush administration.
2. What a wife calls a husband after he trims the bushes in the front yard.
3. A sneak attack from the woods.
A bushwhacker comes from the civil war, when small groups of individuals would sneak into the other sides territory and attack civilians unprovoked. They came from the woods thus they were called bushwhackers. It is a sneak type attack. In our message today we are going to look at a group that came to sneak attack the people of Israel and God turned around and sneak attacked the attackers! So our message is about turning the tables on the enemy, bushwhacking the bushwhacker.
We will discuss the Onset of the Onslaught, Power Filled Proclamations, The Divine Directive, A Radical Response, Worshipping Warriors and closing with a Tremendous Turnaround.
Our text is 2 Chronicles 20:1-30 (Read text)
The Onset of the Onslaught:
2 Chron 20:1 It came about after this...
It came about when? After this. What does "after this," refer to?
Leading a revival and putting Israel’s house in order.
2Ch 19:4 And Jehoshaphat dwelt at Jerusalem: and he went out again through the people from Beersheba to mount Ephraim, and brought them back unto the LORD God of their fathers.
In the natural it would be normal for Jehoshaphat to expect good things to come his way after leading his nation in a revival. Many Christians have been surprised by a spiritual attack following close on the heels of revival, a financial attack after a sacrificial gift, (despite all the promises of TV preachers!), in general things going very wrong immediately after your did something very good. The truth is, that sometimes right living invites bad enemies. Here is the exact same truth a little later in the book of 2nd Chronicles:
2Ch 32:1 After these acts of faithfulness Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah and besieged the fortified cities, and thought to break into them for himself.
"After these acts of faithfulness..." Our mind tries to finish the sentence saying, "God opened up the windows of heaven and blessed their socks off." That isn’t what it says, it says the king of Assyria came and invaded... Success is often followed by severe testing. The good news is that if you stand up for God, He will stand up for you. As we follow this story we will see how the plans the enemy had were completely derailed. But first, let’s spend a moment talking about the power of words to influence us.
Power filled Proclamations
2Ch 20:2 Then some came and reported to Jehoshaphat, saying, "A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, out of Aram and behold, they are in Hazazon-tamar (that is Engedi)."
Then came some and reported... Words are containers, they can contain fear, anger, lust, jealousy, greed.
They can be like a package that upon opening releases good or bad. In this case we read that, "Jehoshaphat feared..." Illus: the ten spies in the book of Exodus. Joshua in recounting the story says:
Joshua 14:8 "Nevertheless my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt with fear; but I followed the LORD my God fully. How did they make the heart of the people melt with fear? Simply by the words they spoke, those words released fear throughout the whole camp of Israel.
The words the spies shared caused the peoples faith to melt away. They were just words, but they released a storm of fear. Words can melt our faith away, or motivate our prayers upward. They can be a vehicle that brings faith to our heart, or stirs up great fear in our flesh.
Words are containers, be careful what you listen to or you could wind up intoxicated with unbelief from the devils brew.
It is very interesting the biblical wording of Jehoshaphat’s response to the report of danger:
2Ch 20:3 And Jehoshaphat was afraid and turned his attention to seek the LORD; and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.
He was afraid, but he was very smart in the way he dealt with those fears, he turned his attention to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast. You will have a much easier time in life if you learn, as this king did, to cast your cares on the Lord instead of carrying them around with you. This is especially true if you are trying to deal with something that is beyond you. Listen again to what Jehoshaphat says:
2Ch 20:12 "O our God, wilt Thou not judge them? For we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on Thee." In other words he is saying we don’t have the power to deal with this, and we are clueless on how to respond, so we are looking to You for help. When faced with something like that it is utter folly to attempt to carry a weight your shoulders weren’t made to bear. Remember the words of the hymn? "O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer."
Words can pull you down, or push you to heaven, and you - you alone decide for yourself the effect you will let them have on you. Follow Jehoshaphat’s example, it is a good one. Verse 12 is one of the very few times in scripture the word, "but," is used in a positive way, "...but our eyes are on Thee". Most times in the bible it is used as an excuse for failure, here it is used as an incitement for success.
The Divine Directive
He speaks prophetically through a Levite and gives very precise instructions to Jehoshaphat and the people:
1. Do not fear. God knows that fear can cripple, faith does not mean there is no fear, it means we act in spite of fear. We tell our fears to take a back seat, that they are not in control, that they will not direct our actions but our faith in God and His word will be our guide.
2. Nor be dismayed. The Hebrew word translated dismayed is khawthath and it means to be shattered, broken or dismayed. It describes something that is a non-working condition. In other words don’t let your concerns shut you down. Keep praying, keep searching His word, keep seeking His help.
3. Then God says, it is not your fight its Mine. Which is followed by, "tomorrow go down against them." It is interesting God says the fight is His, but we need to go and get closer to enemy like we are going to fight them. God often says He is going to do something, but He doesn’t mean He is going to do it in a vacuum, He uses people. He told Moses that He had heard the cries of the children of Israel and was come down to deliver them, and then He says: Ex 3:10 "Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt." So which is it? Is He doing it or are we? Both. We show up and He does the hard stuff. God could do it all by Himself way better than He ever could with us "helping" Him. Yet He chooses to use us, it is a scary wonderful privilege. You get to work with the King of Kings, but He can’t be hurt by the enemies arrows and you can. A mortal and a God working side by side. It is a scary wonderful privilege.
4. He then gives 3 quick but important instructions: Station yourself (elaborate) Stand (elaborate) See the salvation of God. #3 is dependent upon the successful completion of parts 1 and 2.
5. Finally, He repeats the admonition to neither be fearful nor afraid. God knows the biggest problem the people face is not without, it is within. It is not their enemies, but their fears. 3 times in Joshua 1 God told Joshua to be strong and of good courage. Since God cannot lie, He should never need to repeat Himself, but He does because He knows how deep seated fears can be.
A Radical Response
2Ch 20:18 And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with [his] face to the ground: and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the LORD, worshipping the LORD.
2Ch 20:19 And the Levites, of the children of the Kohathites, and of the children of the Korhites, stood up to praise the LORD God of Israel with a loud voice on high.
This response is incredible for several reasons. First is they praised the Lord before they had the victory. Remember Jehoshaphat heard a report, became afraid and then told everyone to gather for a time of fasting and prayer. Can you imagine the rumors that must have been flying through the camp? The report that 3 armies had merged and were coming against them had to cause great concern in some and probably great fear in others. Yet when they hear the word of God about the matter they immediately bow to the ground and start worshiping God for the good news that He would fight for them. Anyone can shout after the walls of Jericho come down, faith is shouting before they come down.
2ndly it is one of the very rare times in scripture that the Jewish people acted in faith. We read in Hebrews 4 of God being displeased with an earlier generation because they didn’t mix the word heard with faith. So then the revival Jehoshaphat led in chapter 19 is much more substantive than it appears on the surface. Jesus rebuked a group of people saying, "...My word has no place in you." (Jn 8:37) But here we have a group of people who hear a promise of victory and so receive it that it chases fear out of their heart, and in its place praise springs forth. This is an awesome example of receiving the word as a little child, and not like some religious skeptic who has to have God prove He really means what He says.
I also find it interesting that v. 20 says they arose very early in the morning and obeyed the Lord’s command. I once heard a preacher define obedience as immediate compliance with the initial prompting of the Holy Spirit. In other words real obedience is when you obey immediately. When I tell my kids to do something and they say they will do in in a little while, what they are in fact saying is that they are going to disobey me until they are good and ready. They were told to, "go out tomorrow...", and they arose very early in the morning and went forth. Not only did they respond by accepting the promise so completely that it produced praise, but they also set out to obey in the most timely fashion possible. We could learn a lot from this group of people.
Worshipping Warriors
2Ch 20:21 And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the LORD, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the LORD; for his mercy [endureth] for ever.
Jehoshaphat’s plan was to put the band in front of the army. I wonder what the flute players thought of this idea? What is so awesome about this, is that, this is the plan they all came up with! He consulted with the people and this is what THEY decided to do! More amazing is the fact that the band went along with the idea. Could you imagine putting the church’s worship team in front of Seal Team 6 to take out Bin Laden? This shows the complete confidence this people had in the word of God, and part of me wonders if they did this in light of Psalm Ps 149:6 [Let] the high [praises] of God [be] in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand; there are many who believe, and I am one of them, that praise is just as much a weapon as a sword is. When we bless those who curse us we are in effect heaping coals of fire on their heads (Ro. 12:14-20), so then it is no stretch to say that praise is something that somehow is like a great bomb going off in the enemies camp.
2Ch 20:22 And when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten.
v.22 The Lord sent ambushments. In other words He sneak attacked the sneak attackers, or He bushwhacked the bushwhackers. Imagine if you will 3 skinny guys are tip toeing and sneaking up on you with small sticks in their hands. They are laughing and joking among themselves about how they are really going to get you. Then out of seeming nowhere 3 giant angels, with huge clubs in their hands tap them on the shoulder from behind and say, "have we got a surprise for you." That is essentially what happened in our story, only the numbers were much bigger than groups of 3.
The Tremendous Turnaround
They went from worrying to worshiping, from fear of losing everything, including their lives, to gathering up so much spoil it took them 3 days to collect it all. God has the ability to rapidly change circumstances, so much so that we could become like the Jews in Psalm 126 the change was so radical, so incredible... "Ps 126:1 It seemed like a dream, too good to be true, when GOD returned Zion’s exiles." (Message version) Thou hast turned my morning into dancing for me. That is a tremendous turnaround, like the widow woman who was facing the enslavement of her two sons in 2 Kings 3, she went from the lowest of lows to the highest of highs in just a few hours time. God can turn things around just as quickly for you as He did for these others.
It is important to note, in the situation here in 2nd Chronicles, and in the story in 2 Kings, both of these individuals, though afraid, turned to the Lord in their hour of need. 2 Ch 20:3 And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. 2 Ch 20:12 "...but our eyes are on Thee". They went from worrying to worshiping, and then to gathering up so much spoil it took them 3 days to collect it all. Once again in the life of God’s people it can be said, "Thou hast turned my morning into dancing...." (PS 30:11) That is a tremendous turnaround.
So how did they get there, To the place of tremendous turnaround? First we learned that often in life we will get the opposite reaction than that which we were expecting when we are serving God. Secondly we learned to use our fears as motivation to propel us to God, and then to bring them in check so that they don’t cripple us. We also learned we should have child like faith, and believe the word of God when faced with a great challenge. When you get into trouble, get into the word! Finally we learned that singing praise to God is a powerful weapon that motivates God to act on our behalf.
As we close are you sure that God is on your side, or said another way that you are on His side?
Are you concerned about a possible impending disaster?...
