Triumphant Over Tragedies

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)