Unity, Worship And Relying On God In Hard Times.

You know how you can get excited about something, so much that when you try to tell people all about it, it just comes out as over excitement?!?!?! Well, I’m excited about this chapter, it’s really cool. So I’ve tried my best to make this part a ’preach’ that’s will be understood, and that it will get you excited too!

Read 2 Chronicles 20 v 1-29

Jehoshaphat was the King of Judah for 25 years; he was the 4th king after Solomon, whose reign ended 61 years before. It says in 2 Kings 3, that he was respected by Elisha, which seems to be a big achievement for any King of Judah or Israel. He followed his father as king of Judah, and didn’t do a bad job, as far as Judah’s kings went. He tried hard to keep the people walking in God’s way, although he didn’t destroy the high places that had been set up a long time ago.

This passage is about worship, it’s about unity and it’s about relying on God.

- It starts by telling us that Judah are in a bit of trouble. They are about to be attacked by a vast army. Jehoshaphat is alarmed; it’s totally unjust. He says in verse 10 and 11, how its historical fact that the Israelites had shown kindness to those who were about to turn on them. And now they were coming to steal what the Israelites had been given by God.

- Unlike Ahab, Israel’s king at the time, who worshipped Baal and turned Israel away from God, Jehoshaphat turned to the Lord about this situation, and instructed the people of Judah to do the same. As a country, they unified and sought God about their troubles.

Verse 4 says that the people of Judah came together. Everyone – men, women and children – stopped all that they were doing and brought their situation to God.

Victory doesn’t come from fighting our enemies; it comes from giving into God.

This shows Jehoshaphat and his people’s dependence on God. He didn’t just call men and soldiers to be around him, he called everyone to unity, and seek God with one voice.

This unity brings strength, and the petition that they put to God was forceful – everyone being of one voice and one mind. (Matthew 18v20, “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."

How often, when we are alarmed by troubles that suddenly come our way, do we go elsewhere before we reach God? (HOSEA – SILLY WITLESS DOVES, FIRST TO EGYPT THEN ASSYRIA) – Like Jehoshaphat, in difficult times we should seek to put Christians around us, who will seek God with us and show their faith to us,

People were getting serious with God. Problems can do that can’t they? We suddenly realise just what life can throw at us, and we don’t like it. We have two ways we can go – the first way – which seems the easy option when a situation creeps up on us – is to run away from it, and sometimes it’s our automatic response. And the second way is to bring our circumstances before God and let him deal with them.

Then Jehoshaphat stands up in front of the whole country and speaks faithfully about his God. This does three things:-

1. It gives his people a path to follow and shows his leadership of the country is based on God’s will for them.

2. Secondly, it strengthens his people, encouraging them by remembering all that God has done for them and that it is in their history that they go to God in times of trouble, so he’s using experiences to confirm that his faith is in God.

3. And thirdly, he is lifting up God, acknowledging his power and presence and authority over the situation that they find themselves in.

- Jehoshaphat goes on to say that this world just isn’t that fair. Which is true, so many circumstances occur which we feel that we don’t deserve.

When we get situations just almost ‘appear’ on us, it brings confusion; it causes us to question a lot of things that we thought were safe. It may be that we are comfortable thinking that what we have is there to stay, and we don’t have to work to keep it. Or perhaps we have become complacent with what we have been given. If it is tugged away from us slightly, we might sit up and take notice, and realise its value to us.

Our inheritance is safe, but sometimes we need a reminder of who gave it to us, and what He went through to make sure we got it. He went through heartache with the Israelites to give them what he promised them, and he did the same for us, when he let his son die on the cross.