God’s strategy was clear . . . the worshipers went first into the battlefield, and . . . the Lord miraculously defeated their enemies. - Mike Harland(1)
If the Lord has ever asked you to do something for Him and you struck out early, then this message is for you! We’re going to find out that whenever we struggle with God, it’s not because the Lord has failed to keep His promise, but because we have slacked off in worshiping the Lord and in keeping our eyes fixed solely on Him.
This morning, we’ll examine an account in the life of the Old Testament character Jehoshaphat. He was the son and successor of Asa, king of Judah, and his name means, “Yahweh establishes justice.”(2) Hebrew names often determined a person’s life-direction, and Jehoshaphat’s destiny was to be utilized by the Lord to establish God’s justice within the kingdom.
Jehoshaphat fortified Judah against Israel to the north, and against its notorious leader King Ahab; and he set himself to the task of cleansing the land of idolatry (1 Kgs 22:43). In the third year of his reign he sent out priests over the land to instruct the people in the law of the Lord (2 Chr 17:7–9), and as a result of his actions he enjoyed a great measure of peace and prosperity, and the blessings of God rested on the people.(3)
Do you realize that when you start getting serious about the Lord and His work that Satan will begin attacking you? Allow me to share from The Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: There’s a tale that a demon once instructed his subordinates on an ancient and very effective piece of satanic strategy. He told them, “Insert yourself into the simple situations which call for plain and obvious duties, and complicate them, and complicate them again, until at last no one involved in them can make sense of the confusion.”(4)
Satan loves to make situations which require simple faith and obedience complicated and confusing in order to get us off track; and in this morning’s message we’ll observe how the devil complicated Jehoshaphat’s task of reform in Judah, and how he tried to rob him of his peace and prosperity.
We’ll also examine how Jehoshaphat was able to overcome confusion, doubt, and ultimately defeat; and discover how believers can win against the devil and overcome his spiritual attacks. This morning we’ll learn four helpful keys on how we can defeat the enemy through our worship.
Seek God When the Enemy Attacks (vv. 1-4)
It happened after this that the people of Moab with the people of Ammon, and others with them besides the Ammonites, came to battle against Jehoshaphat. Then some came and told Jehoshaphat, saying, “A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, from Syria; and they are in Hazazon Tamar” (which is En Gedi).
And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. So Judah gathered together to ask help from the Lord; and from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord (2 Chronicles 20:1-4).
The first key to overcoming spiritual attacks through our worship is to seek God when the enemy attacks. Jehoshaphat was doing a good thing in Judah by sending priests throughout the land teaching people the law of the Lord, and by casting down idols; and here we see trouble coming upon Jehoshaphat immediately. The Bible doesn’t come right out and say that Satan was the culprit, but from what we know about the devil and many of his schemes we can presume that he was behind this event. Satan always seeks to foil God’s plans by attempting to frighten believers, and by instilling doubt within their hearts.
The people who had arrived to attack Jehoshaphat were from Moab and Ammon, and a few other places (2 Chr 20:1). These would-be attackers, if you look down in verse 10, were the people that God “would not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them and did not destroy them” (20:10). Judah was being assaulted by the same nations they had spared en route to Canaan from Egypt.(5) In other words, the people who came against Jehoshaphat could have been considered allies.
Satan likes to turn allies and friends against us. If you’ll recall, he used one of Jesus’ friends, Judas Iscariot, to betray Him to be crucified. Whenever a friend turns on us it can be one of the most hurtful experiences of our life, and when we’re hurting the worst is when we often think irrationally and begin to blame God for the bad things that are happening to us. In such a time it can be easy to forsake the Lord and the task that He’s set before us.
God wanted Jehoshaphat to do something great for Him, but then the devil tried to cause him to doubt and abort his mission. One commentator (Joyce Meyer) sheds some light on how Satan uses doubt to foil many God-sized dreams:
God places dreams and visions in the hearts of His people; they begin as little “seeds.” Just as a woman has a seed planted into her womb when she becomes pregnant, so we become “pregnant,” so to speak, with the things God speaks and promises. During the “pregnancy,” Satan works hard to try and get us to “abort” our dreams. One of the tools he uses is doubt; another is unbelief.(6)
This process of doubt and abortion can be observed in the animal kingdom. Animal Planet once aired a program which showed a pregnant Panda bear with a missing paw. The bear doubted and worried that she would be unable to take care of a cub, and so her body would naturally abort her cub every time she conceived. Satan does the same thing to our mind. He will tell us that we’re insufficient to handle the Lord’s assignments, and he’ll cause us to doubt until we abort our mission.
Satan succeeded in making Jehoshaphat afraid (2 Chr 20:3). Usually what happens when a believer becomes afraid is he will resort to “reason” for a solution. He will rely on his own understanding instead of God’s infinite wisdom, and that’s how problems start. A believer can actually reason himself out of God’s will if he’s not careful.
Jehoshaphat feared but, unlike many people, he kept his head on straight and relied on God instead of himself. We read how he asked the Lord for help and sought Him desperately (2 Chr 20:4), setting an example for all of Judah to follow, and an example for believers today.
Confess Your Weakness and His Strength (v. 12)
“O our God, will You not judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You” (2 Chronicles 20:12).
The second key to overcoming spiritual attacks through our worship is to confess our weakness and God’s strength. The Lord’s desire is to deliver us from the enemy, but He can’t do so until we let go of the reigns. We have to be willing to turn the control over to God. We let go by humbling ourselves as Jehoshaphat did, and admitting that we have no power or control by ourselves. We must be willing to “let go and let God.”
We allow the Lord to work in our life by fixing our eyes solely on Him, as Jehoshaphat did. We have to stop trying to figure things out through human logic and effort, and let God’s grace work in our life. The Lord’s free gift of His help in time of need - His grace - will only work in our life when we let go, seek God’s face, and ask for His guidance.
Charles Ryrie provides an example of how grace works in our life: “If you offered to give one dollar to a man whom you knew needed one hundred dollars . . . [and] he rejected your one dollar gift, you would doubtless consider his refusal sufficient grounds for declining to give him further assistance. If, on the other hand, the needy man accepted the one dollar gift gratefully, you might try to give him more.”(7)
This is similar to how God’s gift of grace works in our life. The Lord will actually refuse to help us if we push Him aside and attempt to do our own thing, because we’re telling Him that we don’t want His help; that we’ve got it all figured out on our own. However, if we look only unto God, then we’re showing our dependence on Him as a little child, and He will gladly rush in to provide us help.
Confess That the Battle Is Not Yours (vv. 13-17)
Now all Judah, with their little ones, their wives, and their children, stood before the Lord. Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly. And he said, “Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the Lord to you: ‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s’.”
“‘Tomorrow go down against them. They will surely come up by the Ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the brook before the Wilderness of Jeruel. You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!’ Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord is with you” (2 Chronicles 20:13-17).
The third key to overcoming spiritual attacks through our worship is to confess that the battle is not ours. By the Spirit of the Lord, Jahaziel proclaimed, “Do not be afraid nor dismayed . . . for the battle is not yours” (2 Chr 20:15), and also, “You will not need to fight in this battle” (20:17). God was going to grant the Israelites victory, and they wouldn’t have to win the fight all on their own through their own efforts.
So, why is it important to stand still and allow the Lord to fight on our behalf? The reason why is because, “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood,” according to Ephesians 6:12. The struggles we face in life might appear to be the result of the physical world; however, we must keep in mind that the things we can see with our own two eyes are only an illusion.
Many of the trials we encounter will occur because of the actions of people; however, even though it “appears” that the struggle is with people, the Bible plainly says that believers do not wrestle against flesh and blood. There are spiritual forces at work behind the wrong choices that people make.
Paul stated, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh” (2 Cor 10:3). We are not wrestling against people, but against the spiritual realm; therefore, we need a spiritual being to serve as our advocate and helper, and the only one who’s capable of the job is Jesus Christ. Those who know and follow Jesus are on the right side of the battle, because He is Lord!
Simply Worship the Lord (vv. 18-22)
And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem bowed before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. Then the Levites of the children of the Kohathites and of the children of the Korahites stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with voices loud and high.
So they rose early in the morning and went out into the Wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.”
And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the Lord, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying: “Praise the Lord, for His mercy endures forever.”
Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated (2 Chronicles 20:18-22).
The fourth key to overcoming spiritual attacks through our worship is to simply bow down and worship the Lord. Have you ever heard of a military strategy where worshipers were sent out to stand on the frontline of battle? If you were a general leading an army into combat, would you consider worship as your first line of defense? Jehoshaphat did just that, and we read that when the people of Israel began to sing and to praise, that the Lord defeated their enemies (2 Chr 20:22).
Jehoshaphat and all of Judah bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord (2 Chr 20:18). Whenever we worship God, we ascribe to Him the position of value and worth, because that’s what the word worship means. He becomes of utmost importance and value in our life, to the point that all other matters fade into obscurity and the Lord becomes our sole focus and heart’s desire. When God becomes our point of focus then we’ll begin ignoring Satan and all the fiery darts (Eph 6:16) that he hurls at us.
There’s hardly anything that bothers someone more than being ignored. If we want to strike back at Satan for all the pain and confusion that he’s caused us, then we need to begin worshipping the Lord and ignoring the devil. Satan can only harm us when we listen to his lies and focus on them; however, if we’ll ignore him and concern ourselves only with the things of God, then the devil can’t get to us as easily.
Time of Reflection
Now, the one prevailing truth that remains constant throughout our text is submission to the will of God. If we apply Jeremiah 29:11 to our lives, it tells us the Lord wants to prosper us and not harm us, and to give us a future and a hope. However, we – all on our own – lack the necessary skills to navigate life’s storms to achieve this future and hope. The Lord is our Master Helmsman and He knows the safest course of passage, and we must learn to rely totally on Him.
When we’re feeling lost and void of direction in life, then we need to look unto “the bright and morning star” (Rv 22:16), Jesus Christ. If we’ll look unto Him, focus on Him and worship Him, then He will be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path (Ps 119:105); and the Lord will keep us safe and fight our battles.
Are you focusing on Jesus and giving Him your full devotion and your entire heart, and are you worshiping and honoring Him daily with your life? The Bible says that if we will worship and trust in the Lord, then He will be our help and shield (Ps 115:9); and He will cover our head in the day of battle (140:7).
If you’re a believer sitting here today, then ask yourself whether you worship the Lord on a daily basis. If not, then you need to start seeking Him afresh. Also, if you do not know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, then I wish to extend an invitation for you to trust in Him today, and leave here forgiven of your sins, having the security of eternal life.
NOTES
(1) Mike Harland and Stan Moser, Seven Words of Worship (Nashville, TN: B & H Publishing Group, 2008), pp. 134-135.
(2) Paul J. Achtemeier, Harper's Bible Dictionary, first edition (San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row, 1985), p. 452.
(3) Easton’s Bible dictionary, on CD-ROM (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1897, 1996).
(4) P. L. Tan, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations (Garland TX: Bible Communications, 1996), illustration # 783.
(5) J. F. Walvoord, The Bible Knowledge Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1983-1985).
(6) Joyce Meyer, Battlefield of the Mind (Tulsa, OK: Harrison House, 1995), p. 108.
(7) Charles C. Ryrie, Holy Spirit (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1965), p. 63.
