Opening illustration: A wise Bible teacher once said, “Sooner or later God will bring self-sufficient people to the place where they have no resource but Him – no strength, no answers, nothing but Him. Without God’s help, they are sunk.”
He then told of a despairing man who confessed to his pastor, “My life is really in bad shape.” “How bad?” the pastor inquired. Burying his head in his hands, he moaned, “I’ll tell you how bad – All I’ve got left is God.” The pastor’s face lit up. “I am happy to assure you that a person with nothing left but God has more than enough for great victory.”
In Today’s scripture text, the people of Judah were in deep trouble. They admitted their lack of power and wisdom to conquer their foes. All they had left was God! But King Jehoshaphat and the people saw this as reason for hope, not despair. “Our eyes are upon You,” they declared to God [2 Chronicles 20: 12]. And their hope was not disappointed as He fulfilled His promise: “The battle is not yours but God’s” (v. 15). We should get over with the notion of denial to dependence.
Let’s us turn our Bibles to 2 Chronicles 20 and catch up with the story of Jehoshaphat and the people of Judah and try to learn from their lives as how victory is achieved in spiritual battle.
Introduction: The story of Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 20:1-30) shows us how to have confidence in a crisis--not confidence in ourselves (the American way), but confidence in God. As we saw, Jehoshaphat had a character flaw of making wrongful alliances with the godless King Ahab, but he was a man who followed the Lord and brought spiritual reform to the nation (19:4-11). But, then Jehoshaphat was shaken one morning when his intelligence sources came running in with the horrifying news, “A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, out of Aram [or, better, Edom] and behold, they are in Hazazon-tamar (that is Engedi)” (20:1, 2). This meant that this enemy coalition was about 15 miles south of Jerusalem, on the western shore of the Dead Sea. Jehoshaphat’s life and his entire kingdom were on the brink of extinction! Talk about a reason to panic!
So, what did he do? What would you do if you heard some threatening news that affected your future and maybe your life? This godly king did the right thing: He called a national prayer meeting and encouraged the people to trust God in the face of this overwhelming crisis. They did it, and literally won the war by prayer alone, without swinging a single sword! Their story teaches us that ...
We can be confident in a time of crisis if we let our great need drive us to prayer and faith in our great God. The purpose of Ezra to write the Chronicles was ‘To bear witness to the “unity of God’s will for his people.”
How can we be Triumphant over Tragedies?
1. Seek God through Prayer & Fasting [vs. 1–13]:
The enemy was in their backyard and the Israelites absolutely had no hope. This report filled Jehoshaphat with fear, and he resolved to seek help of the Lord. 2Ki_12:18; Jer_42:15, to direct the face to anything, i.e., to purpose something, come to a determination. He proclaimed a fast in all Judah, that the people might bow themselves before God, and supplicate His help, as was wont to be done in great misfortunes; cf. Jdg_20:26; 1Sa_7:6; Isa_2:15. In consequence of the royal appeal, Judah came together to seek of the Lord, i.e., to pray for help, by fasting and prayer in the temple; and it was not only the inhabitants of Jerusalem who thus assembled, for they came out of all the cities of the kingdom. To seek of the Lord, i.e. Help is expressed in the last clause by seeking the Lord. Do we worry about our lack of prayer? Are we sensitive to the Holy Spirit and leading a life in the way God desires it? Do we continue to feast of the world rather than focusing and feasting in our creator – fasting. Today we see very poor prayer life of God’s children. It seems to be dying out slowly. Unfortunately, few Christians take fasting seriously. The world and even the church has discarded (chucked away) the aspect of fasting. If it was of no results, why would the OT saints and the NT apostles practice it? In fact, Jesus had even spoken and encouraged His disciples for it on a number of occasions. Do we run helter-skelter when the enemy (Satan) attacks our lives?
Power of prayer & fasting ~
1. Fasting helps subject our bodies to our spirits. (1 Corinthians 9: 27)
2. Fasting is disciplining the body, mind, and spirit. (Proverbs 25: 28)
3. Fasting is subordinating our flesh-desires to our spirit-desires. (Galatians 5: 17)
4. Fasting helps set the priorities in our lives. (Matthew 6: 33)
5. Fasting is longing after God (feasting on the Holy Spirit). (Psalm 63: 1-2)
Reasons to fast ~
1. Honor God - Matthew 6:16-18, Luke 2:37, Acts 13:2, Matthew 5:6
2. Humble Yourself - 2 Chronicles 7:14-15
3. Discerning Healing - I Corinthians 11:30, James 5:13-18, Isaiah 59:1-2
4. Deliverance from Bondage - Matthew 17:21, Isaiah 58:6-9 (loose bands of wickedness)
5. Revelation - God’s vision and will - Daniel 9:3, 20-21, Daniel 10:2-10, 12-13
6. Revival - personal and corporate - Acts 1:4, 14 / 2:16-21, Joel 2:12-18
7. Repentance - personal failures - Psalm 51: Jeremiah 29:11-14, James 4:8-10
Jesus’ “disciples asked him privately, "Why could we not cast it (the demon) out" And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting,” Mark 9:28-29, Matthew 17: 21.
Consider being a praying church unlike the churches today. No church can pray more than enough.
Illustration: My personal experience in the past. The power and authority given to you by God through the Holy Spirit is can’t be comprehended with our human mind. One needs to have a spiritual mind-set to understand what God is really doing and is about to do. The pagans fast too.
2. Do Not be Afraid or Dismayed [vs. 14–15, 17]:
It is natural to be afraid but supernatural to stand firm without fear in any kind of war-zone. This kind of fearlessness can only come through the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life. Let us not forget the “Word of God” where it says that “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1: 7) And we have received “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4: 7)
Jehaziel announced to the king and people that they need not fear before the great multitude of their foes; “for the war is not yours, but Yahweh’s,” i.e., you have not to make war upon them, for the Lord will do it; cf. 1 Samuel 17: 47.
Are you afraid of difficult situations and tend to crumble when you encounter them? Let us not forget as it says in 1 John 4: 4 “… He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” Relying on God and His power, let us therefore be strong and unafraid.
3. Position Yourselves & Stand Still [vs. 16–17]:
How have we positioned ourselves? Blankets of insulation which we think protect us from dependence on others. We are living in an illusion. Satan makes us realize that we are better off than having God in our lives and our independence and liberty in the world is the key to success.
You have not to fight therein; only come hither, stand and see the help of the Lord (who is) with you. You need do nothing more, and therefore need not fear. Key is dependence on God. Are we able to come before God and tell Him that if He doesn’t do anything in our situation, we are done? Jehoshaphat did it. Will we surrender in humility before God?
Examples: Our non-dependence on anything or anyone. Starts at a very early age in the US. Kids want to do things on their own. But there are times when they need you but deny it completely. We are in the same situation with God our Father and creator.
4. Worship God in Exuberance [vs. 18–21]:
For this comforting assurance the king and people thanked the Lord, falling down in worship before Him, whereupon the Levites stood up to praise God with a loud voice. Levites “of the sons of Kohath, yea, of the Korahites,” for they were descended from Kohath (1 Chronicles 6: 22).
(a) They bowed their heads, Jehoshaphat first, and then all the people fell before the Lord, and worshipped, receiving with a holy awe and fear of God this token of his favor, and saying with faith, Be it unto us according to thy word. [Complete surrender]
(b) They lifted up their voices in praise to God, 2 Chronicles 20: 19. An active faith can give thanks for a promise though it be not yet performed, knowing that God’s bonds are as good as ready money. God hath spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, Psalm 60: 5.
1 Thessalonians 5: 18 “in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
Illustration: Worship draws or attracts the presence of God to be manifested with power. Ref. 2 Chronicles 5: 11 – 14 [Building of the Solomon’s Temple and the worship that takes place there]
5. Believe God for the Impossible ~ victory in spiritual battle [v. 20]:
For Jehoshaphat it was not a matter of admitting that he was dependent but it was an issue of faith. God has spoken and answered ~ But would they believe God. Trust here means believing God blindly. Here believe means that they don’t have to fight but God will do the work. However, they wanted to go out by themselves and fight. Well for glory to God, He would do it on His own. He doesn’t need help from us. We are like grass for Him. Today it is there and tomorrow it is gone. No glory is given to God when we try to do things on our own. We kind of brag about our victories.
Pastor Paul used to say, “When a person is on his back, he has only one place to look ~ up!”
Isaiah 54: 17 “No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, And their righteousness is from Me," Says the LORD.”
Examples (1): Israelites walking through the ‘Red Sea,’ the Jordan and the crumbling of the great wall of Jericho.
Examples (2): Today a number of you sitting here are believing God for the impossible, even we as a church, we believe God for the impossible i.e. for us to grow into a strong body of Christ ~ a force to reckon with that Satan and his forces will have to think a number of times before any attack.
Result: Victory in Spiritual Battle [vs. 22]
Just observe that your victory is always preceded by worship, praise and thanksgiving to our God. We may not like to worship God in the circumstances we may be in ~ but observing God’s Word and the experiences drawn from his people, we see that this is the major key in victory over our spiritual battles. Ref. 1 Thessalonians 5: 18.
Application: A popular T-shirt reads, “Bottom of the ninth, down by three runs, bases loaded, two outs, full count--No Fear!” That shirt is promoting us folk virtue--self-confidence in a crisis. Christians should join Jehoshaphat in rejecting all self-confidence and acknowledging, “O God, we’re powerless and we don’t know what to do, but our eyes are on You!” God is our confidence in the crisis!
Corrie Ten Boom, author of The Hiding Place and survivor of the German concentration camps, used to have people come up to her and say, “Corrie, my, what a great faith you have!” She would smile and reply, “No, it’s what a great God I have!” We can be confident in a time of crisis if we let our great need drive us to prayer and faith in our great God.
Are you in a position where all self-sufficiency is gone? As you turn your eyes on the Lord and put your hope in Him, you have God’s reassuring promise that you need nothing more.
