and he said, “Yahweh, the God of our fathers, aren’t you God in heaven? Aren’t you ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in your hand, so that no one is able to withstand you. Didn’t you, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it to the offspring of Abraham your friend forever? They lived in it, and have built you a sanctuary in it for your name, saying, ‘If evil comes on us—the sword, judgment, pestilence, or famine—we will stand before this house, and before you (for your name is in this house), and cry to you in our affliction, and you will hear and save.’ Now, behold, the children of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom you would not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned away from them, and didn’t destroy them; behold, how they reward us, to come to cast us out of your possession, which you have given us to inherit. Our God, will you not judge them? For we have no might against this great company that comes against us. We don’t know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”
All Judah stood before Yahweh, with their little ones, their wives, and their children.
Then Yahweh’s Spirit came on Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, the Levite, of the sons of Asaph, in the middle of the assembly; and he said, “Listen, all Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, king Jehoshaphat. Yahweh says to you, ‘Don’t be afraid, and don’t be dismayed because of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s. Tomorrow, go down against them. Behold, they are coming up by the ascent of Ziz. You will find them at the end of the valley, before the wilderness of Jeruel. You will not need to fight this battle. Set yourselves, stand still, and see the salvation of Yahweh with you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Don’t be afraid, nor be dismayed. Go out against them tomorrow, for Yahweh is with you.’ ”
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv7, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17 He groundeth his prayer upon God’s power, whereby he…
He groundeth his prayer upon God’s power, whereby he is able to help, and also on his mercy, which he will continue toward his, forasmuch as he hath once chosen them and began to show his graces toward them.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv6–17 2Ch 20:6 And said, O LORD God of our…
2Ch 20:6 And said, O LORD God of our fathers, [art] not thou God in heaven? and rulest [not] thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand [is there not] power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?
Ver. 6. Art not thou God in heaven? &c.] The choice of fit attributes, whereby to represent God to the soul in prayer, doth notably help faith and cause fervency.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv7, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 i.e. To whom thou hast engaged thyself by covenant…
i.e. To whom thou hast engaged thyself by covenant to be his friend, and the friend of his seed for ever, and therefore we trust thou wilt not forsake us his posterity.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v14 We have here God's gracious answer to Jehoshaphat's prayer;…
We have here God's gracious answer to Jehoshaphat's prayer; and it was a speedy answer. While he was yet speaking God heard: before the congregation was dismissed they had assurance given them that they should be victorious; for it is never in vain to seek God. 1. The spirit of prophecy came upon a Levite that was present, not in any place of eminency, but in the midst of the congregation, Ch2 20:14. The Spirit, like the wind, blows where and on whom he listeth. He was of the sons of Asaph, and therefore one of the singers; on that office God would put an honour. Whether he was a prophet before this or no is uncertain, most probably he was, which would make him the more regarded. There needed no sign, the thing itself was to be performed the very next day, and that would be confirmation enough to his prophecy. 2. He encouraged them to trust in God, though the danger was very threatening (Ch2 20:15): "Be not afraid; you have admitted fear enough to bring you to God, do not now admit that which will drive you to God, do not now admit that which will drive you from him again. The battle is not yours; it is not in your own strength, not for your own cause, that you engage; the battle is God's: he does and will, as you have desired, interest himself in the cause." 3. He gives them intelligence of the motions of the enemy, and orders them to march towards them, with particular directions where they should find them. Tomorrow (the day after the fast) go you down against them, Ch2 20:16, Ch2 20:17. It is fit that he who commands the deliverance should command those for whom the deliverance is to be wrought, and give the necessary orders, both for time and place. 4. He assures them that they should be, not the glorious instruments, but the joyful spectators, of the total defeat of the enemy: "You shall not need to strike a stroke; the work shall be done to your hands; only stand still and see it," Ch2 20:17. As Moses said to Israel at the Red Sea (Exo 14:13), "God is with you, who is able to do his work himself, and will do it. If the battle be his, the victory shall be his too." Let but the Christian soldier go out against his spiritual enemies, and the God of peace will tread them under his feet and make him more than a conqueror. 5. Jehoshaphat and his people received these assurances with faith, reverence, and thankfulness. (1.) 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 favour, and saying with faith, Be it unto us according to thy word. (2.) They lifted up their voices in praise to God, Ch2 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, Psa 60:5.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv6–17 And said, O Lord God of our fathers,.... Abraham,…
And said, O Lord God of our fathers,.... Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whose covenant God he was:
art not thou God in heaven? that dwellest and rulest there, and dost whatever thou pleasest in the armies of it:
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and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the Heathens? being King of kings, and Lord of lords, all the world over:
and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee? his power being infinite, unlimited, and uncontrollable, and so not resistible by finite creatures, at least not so as to be stopped and overcome.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv7, 12, 13, 15, 16 Abraham - To whom thou hast engaged thyself by…
Abraham - To whom thou hast engaged thyself by covenant to be his friend, and the friend of his seed forever. 9. The sword - Or rather, the sword of judgement or of vengeance, that is, war, whereby thou punisheth thy people for their sins.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 15, 17 Verse 6. Jehoshaphat stood] What an instructive sight was…
Verse 6. Jehoshaphat stood] What an instructive sight was this! The king who proclaimed the fast was foremost to observe it, and was on this occasion the priest of the people; offering in the congregation, without form or any premeditation, one of the most sensible, pious, correct, and as to its composition one of the most elegant prayers ever offered under the Old Testament dispensation.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv6, 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15 2Ch 20:6-7. And said, O Lord God, &c. —…
2Ch 20:6-7. And said, O Lord God, &c. — Jehoshaphat himself was the mouth of the congregation to God, and did not devolve the work upon his chaplains. For though the kings were forbidden to burn incense, they were allowed to pray and preach. Art thou not God in heaven, &c. — Which none of the gods of the heathen are. Is not thy dominion supreme, over kingdoms themselves, and universal, over all kingdoms, even those of the heathen, that know thee not? Art thou not our God? — In covenant with us? To whom should we seek, to whom should we trust for relief, but to him whom we have chosen for our God, and who has chosen us for his people? Who gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend — To whom thou didst engage thyself to be his friend, and the friend of his seed for ever, and therefore we trust thou wilt not forsake us, his posterity.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv6, 10, 14, 15 Jehoshaphat’s appeal is threefold:
Jehoshaphat’s appeal is threefold:
(1) to God omnipotent 2Ch 20:6;
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(2) to “our God;”
(3) the God especially “of this house” the temple.
2Ch 20:7
Abraham thy friend - Historically, this is the first use of this remarkable expression, afterward repeated (marginal references). The ground of the expression is to be found principally in Gen 18:23-33, where Abraham spoke with God as a man with his friend (compare Exo 33:11).
2Ch 20:8, 2Ch 20:9
The appeal recalls Solomon’s prayer (marginal references), which God had formally accepted by sending down fire from heaven to consume the accompanying offering.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv7, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16 All, or the greatest part. Heb. "drive out the…
All, or the greatest part. Heb. "drive out the inhabitants." H.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv6, 14, 16 And said, O Lord God of our fathers--This earnest…
And said, O Lord God of our fathers--This earnest and impressive prayer embraces every topic and argument which, as king and representative of the chosen people, he could urge. Then it concludes with an earnest appeal to the justice of God to protect those who, without provocation, were attacked and who were unable to defend themselves against overwhelming numbers.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv6, 14, 16, 17 6-12. This prayer should be compared with that of…
6-12. This prayer should be compared with that of Asa, (2Ch_14:11,) and parts of Solomon’s at the dedication of the temple. 2Ch_6:28-31.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 6. O Lord God] R.V. O LORD, the God;…
6. O Lord God] R.V. O LORD, the God; cp. 2Ch_21:10; 2Ch_21:12.
art not thou God] cp. Jos_2:11.
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rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen?] R.V. art not thou ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? Cp. Psa_22:28.
is there not power] R.V. is power. Cp. 2Ch_14:11 (Asa’s prayer).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv6–17 (6) Art not thou God in heaven.—So Psa_115:2-3. Jehovah,…
(6) Art not thou God in heaven.—So Psa_115:2-3. Jehovah, the Worship of Israel, is no limited local or tribal deity, but God over all. (Comp. also the first clause of the Lord’s Prayer.)
And rulest not thou over all the kingdoms?—Comp. 1Ch_29:12 (David’s prayer), “and Thou reignest (rulest) over all; and in Thine hand is power and might.” This and next sentence should be rendered affirmatively, as in that place. (Comp. also Psa_47:8 : “God reigneth over the heathen.”)
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So that none is able to withstand thee.—Vulg., “nec quisquam tibi potest resistere;” LXX., καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν πρὸς σὲ ἀντιστῆναι. Literally, and there is none against thee to stand up. For this construction, comp. Psa_94:16 : “Who will stand up for me with (i.e., against) workers of wickedness. (Comp. also Psa_2:2; and the last words of Asa’s Prayer, 2Ch_14:11.) Syr. and Arab., “and I am standing and praying before thee.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv6, 7, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 Vers. 6-12. The recorded prayers of Scripture are indeed…
Vers. 6-12. The recorded prayers of Scripture are indeed what they might be expected to be, model prayers, and the present a model instance of the same (see homiletics). The prayer before us invokes the one God "in heaven;" claims him the God "of our fathers;" recites his universal authority above, below; pleads his former conduct of.the "people Israel," in especial his stablishing of that people in their present land; most touchingly recalls his covenant of condescending, everlasting "friendship" with Abraham, the grand original of the people (Gen_18:17-19, Gen_18:33; Exo_33:11) makes mention of the consecration of the land by the sanctuary, and in particular of the very service of consecration and the special foreseeing provision in that service for a crisis like the present (1Ki_8:33-45; 2Ch_6:24-35 2Ch_7:1) and then (vers. 10, 11) states pointedly the case and complaint with its aggravations Deu_2:4, Deu_2:8, Deu_2:9, Deu_2:19; Num_20:21; and (Jud_1:11:18) with a parting appeal, confession of their own weakness, ignorance, and dependence unfeigned, commits the cause of the alarmed people to God. Our eyes are upon thee. So, with a multitude of other passages, that supreme pattern one, (Psa_123:2.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv12, 15, 17 For we have no might against this great company.
2Ch_20:12
For we have no might against this great company.
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Embarrassment
I. There are embarrassments concerning our country.
II. Many good men and women are often greatly embarrassed about the divine inspiration of every sentence in the Bible.
III. Some of us are at times much embarrassed by the circumstances of life. Like a man who looks out of a railway carriage at night and sees nothing, so some of us often look towards to-morrow and see no light. This fear of to-morrow is the wet-blanket of the Christians life. Act rightly now; do your duty to-day, and never mind to-morrow. (W. Birch.)
Moral courage
I. There are often terrible crises in mens lives when moral courage is required. Most men are brought at times to a crisis when they are ready to exclaim, We know not what to do.
1. In the course of secular work. A great company of worldly anxieties.
2. In the course of personal moral culture. Old habits, lusts, propensities.
3. In the process of philanthropic labour.
II. The only source of true moral courage is trust in God. To trust Him is to trust--
1. Love.
2. Wisdom equal to every emergency.
3. Power that can make the weakest mighty. (Homilist.)
The helpless Church and the mighty God
I want to take this as a text to preach the experience of the people of God.
I. An appropriation of God. O our God.
II. The enemy to be judged. Wilt Thou not judge them? The Christian has many enemies, internal, external, and infernal, but self is the greatest enemy the people of God have. Self must be brought under judgment.
III. The sinners powerlessness. We have no might. We are spiritual insolvents. Perfect poverty: all true disciples of Christ must be brought into this state. Like Mary, we have nothing to pay, according to Christs parable, and yet we are pardoned. That is the gospel.
IV. The churchs perplexity. Neither know we what to do. This is often the condition of the Church.
V. Faiths invigorating look. But our eyes are upon Thee. (J. J. West, M.A.)
Jehoshaphat, face to face with one of lifes great emergencies, our model
Say we not well, that prayer is a model for presidents, princes, kings, and rulers for all time? But it has wider applications. The King of Judah is confronted by a great and startling peril;--what does he do?
I. Let us rather mark what he does not do.
1. He does not underestimate his danger. There are some men who think it wisdom to pooh-pooh a difficulty. Jehoshaphat is not one of them. He is at the farthest remove from foolhardiness or a rash contempt of the impending peril. The men who under-estimate risks are not the wise men or the safe men, morally, politically, or spiritually. There are many of this easy-going--if you please, buoyant--disposition who decline to look probable defeat or disaster in the face. They deprecate your fears, advise you to trust to luck, to go on and take the chances with a stout heart. They are willing to do it in politics, suffering the Ship of State to take her chances among the unknown shoals and rocks! They do it in religion. They discount heavily the Divine requirements, the Divine warnings, the Divine hatred of sin, the tremendous Divine penalties pronounced upon it; for them these all mean nothing or very little.
2. So neither did Jehoshaphat over-estimate them. His was no panic fright. Seen through the atmosphere of our fears, a man may become a monster. The King of Judah certainly discerned the danger and appreciated it to the full, but his brave and trustful spirit was as far as possible removed from panic, desperation, or despair. Jehoshaphat, confronted by a danger which seemed certainly to insure the ruin of his throne and kingdom, declines to regard the case as by any means hopeless, refuses to believe that the Lords arm is shortened that it cannot save, or His ear heavy that it cannot hear. Who says Moab and Ammon are stronger than God? Any peril is over-estimated of which men cry: There is no help for him in his God!
3. Again, if Jehoshaphat does not underestimate or over-estimate his dangers, so neither does he place any false reliance upon human power--his resources, his aids, or himself. Some men trust God when they are bereft of every other ground of confidence, but not till then. They brave it out till ruin stares them in the face, and then run to cover. Not so Jehoshaphat. The nation had scarcely known a more prosperous and potent reign than his. He had a great army at his command, and, it would appear from the record (2Ch_17:12-19), could bring upward of a million of men into the field, a drilled and organised militia capable of effective service in emergency. Many a man in his position, and with such military and national resources behind him, would have given God altogether the go-by, and chosen, like Napoleon Bonaparte, to trust in the heaviest battalions.
II. Turning from this negative to a positive view, we ask, then what did he do? Where was his real confidence? If ever there was a man who offered effective and ample illustration of the Psalmists words--Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God--that man was Jehoshaphat of Judah. What then did he do? He turned to God! And observe how he did this.
1. It was publicly done. The King of Judah made no secret of his dependence on the King of kings. He proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah--And out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord--And all Judah stood before the Lord, with their little ones, and their wives, and their children.--And Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem, and said. What announcement of national and personal need and reliance upon Jehovah could be more distinctly open and unreserved than this?
2. And it was as humble and self-renouncing as it was public in its character. National grief is an affecting spectacle. You have it here: All Judah, their little ones, their wives, their children, stood before the Lord. While speaking in their name, Jehoshaphat exclaimed: O our God we have no might against this great company, neither know we what to do. Lowly-mindedness and self-abasement in a whole people, as certainly as in a man, goes far to secure--as truly as it solicits--the Divine favour.
3. Jehoshaphats plea for Judah was further marked by an unreserving trust in God. With Jehoshaphat Jehovah is all and enough. Art not Thou God in heaven, and rulest not Thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in Thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand Thee? Never a thought here of limitation, or weakness in Him; never a suspicion that He is unable or unwilling to rescue those that trust in Him to the uttermost. No association of His name with any other. He is not to be a helper, a partner, a contributor. He is to be all, to do all! The royal, the national reliance on Jehovah is entire.
4. This brings us to note finally that Jehoshaphats plea is marked by the fullest recognition of the Divine Sovereignty and Providence. A writer, quoted in one of our leading weeklies, says that, No secular history would be read in our schools to-day or in the schools of any enlightened community in which the fortunes of nations were represented as controlled by special Divine intervention. The man who wrote that sentence would, we fancy, have been treated with rather scant courtesy if he had chanced in the court of Jehoshaphat.
5. More than this, the King of Judah appeals to the Covenant. Now God loves to be plied with His own promises and reminded of the gracious relations He occupies to us. The Psalmist founded a claim to Divine help and mercy upon the ground of a godly parentage: O Lord, I am the son of Thine handmaid. Our best resource, our true help, is not in alliances, in circumstances, in capacities, in luck, in others, in ourselves, but ever and only in the name of the Lord. (W. T. Sabine, D.D.)
Leaving the vote with God
Sir Fowell Buxton, who shared with Wilberforce the labours which secured the emancipation of the slaves in the West Indies, ascribed their triumph directly to the power of prayer. Writing to his daughter when all was over, he said, I firmly believe that prayer was the cause of that division (vote in the House of Commons}. You know how we waited upon God for guidance, with these words in our hearts, O our God, we have no might against this great company that cometh against us, neither know we what to do; but our eyes are upon Thee; and the answer, Ye shall not need to fight in this battle; stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. You will find the whole story in 2Ch_20:1-37. Turn to my Bible; it will open of itself to the place. We had no preconceived plan; the course we took appeared to be the right one, and we followed it blindly.
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v12 2 Chronicles
2 Chronicles
A STRANGE BATTLE
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2Ch 20:12.
A formidable combination of neighbouring nations, of which Moab and Ammon, the ancestral enemies of Judah, were the chief, was threatening Judah. Jehoshaphat, the king, was panic-stricken when he heard of the heavy war-cloud that was rolling on, ready to burst in thunder on his little kingdom. His first act was to muster the nation, not as a military levy but as suppliants, ‘to seek help of the Lord.’ The enemy was camping down by the banks of the Dead Sea, almost within striking distance of Jerusalem. It seemed a time for fighting, not for praying, but even at that critical moment, the king and the men, whom it might have appeared that plain duty called to arms, were gathered in the Temple, and, hampered by their wives and children, were praying. Would they not have done better if they had been sturdily marching through the wilderness of Judah to front their foes? Our text is the close and the climax of Jehoshaphat’s prayer, and, as the event proved, it was the most powerful weapon that could have been employed, for the rest of the chapter tells the strangest story of a campaign that was ever written. No sword was drawn. The army was marshalled, but Levites with their instruments of music, not fighters with their spears, led the van, and as ‘they began to sing and to praise,’ sudden panic laid hold on the invading force, who turned their arms against each other. So when Judah came to some rising ground, on which stood a watch-tower commanding a view over the savage grimness of ‘the wilderness,’ it saw a field of corpses, stark and stiff and silent. Three days were spent in securing the booty, and on the fourth, Jehoshaphat and his men ‘assembled themselves in the Valley of Blessing,’ and thence returned a joyous multitude praising God for the victory which had been won for them without their having struck a blow. The whole story may yield large lessons, seasonable at all times. We deal with it, rather than with the fragment of the narrative which we have taken as our text.
I. We see here the confidence of despair.
Jehoshaphat’s prayer had stayed itself on God’s self-revelation in history, and on His gift of the land to their fathers. It had pleaded that the enemy’s hostility was a poor ‘reward’ for Israel’s ancient forbearance, and now, with a burst of agony, it casts down before God, as it were, Judah’s desperate plight as outnumbered by the swarm of invaders and brought to their last shifts-’we have no might against this great company . . . neither know we what to do.’ But the very depth of despair sets them to climb to the height of trust. That is a mighty ‘But,’ which buckles into one sentence two such antitheses as confront us here. ‘We know not what to do, but our eyes are upon Thee’-blessed is the desperation which catches at God’s hand; firm is the trust which leaps from despair!
The helplessness is always a fact, though most of us manage to get along for the most part without discovering it. We are all outnumbered and overborne by the claims, duties, hindrances, sorrows, and entanglements of life. He is not the wisest of men who, facing all that life may bring and take away, all that it must bring and take away, knows no quiver of nameless fear, but jauntily professes himself ready for all that life can inflict. But there come moments in every life when the false security in which shallow souls wrap themselves ignobly is broken up, and then often a paroxysm of terror or misery grips a man, for which he has no anodyne, and his despair is as unreasonable as his security. The meaning of all circumstances that force our helplessness on us is to open to us Jehoshaphat’s refuge in his-’our eyes are upon Thee.’ We need to be driven by the crowds of foes and dangers around to look upwards. Our props are struck away that we may cling to God. The tree has its lateral branches hewed off that it may shoot up heavenward. When the valley is filled with mist and swathed in evening gloom, it is the time to lift our gaze to the peaks that glow in perpetual sunshine. Wise and happy shall we be if the sense of helplessness begets in us the energy of a desperate faith. For these two, distrust of self and glad confidence in God, are not opposites, as naked distrust and trust are, but are complementary. He does not turn his eyes to God who has not turned them on himself, and seen there nothing to which to cling, nothing on which to lean. Astronomers tell us that there are double stars revolving round one axis and forming a unity, of which the one is black and the other brilliant. Self-distrust and trust in God are thus knit together and are really one.
II. We see here the peaceful assurance of victory that attends on faith.
A flash of inspiration came to one of the Levitical singers who had, no doubt, been deeply moved and had unconsciously fitted himself for receiving it. Divinely breathed confidence illuminated his waiting spirit, and a great message of encouragement poured from his lips. His words heartened the host more than a hundred trumpets braying in their ears. How much one man who has drunk in God’s assurance of victory can do to send a thrill of his own courage through more timorous hearts! Courage is no less contagious than panic. This Levite becomes the commander of the army, and Jehoshaphat and his captains ‘bow their heads’ and accept his plan for to-morrow, hearing in his ringing accents a message from Jehovah. The instructions given and at once accepted are as unlike those of ordinary warfare as is the whole incident; for there is to be no sword drawn nor blow struck, but they are to ‘stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.’ They are told where to find the enemy and are bid to go forth in order of battle against them, and they are assured ‘that the battle is not theirs, but God’ s.’ No wonder that the message was hailed as from heaven, and put new heart into the host, or that, when the messenger’s voice ceased, his brother Levites broke into shrill praise as for a victory already won. With what calm, triumphant hearts the camp would sleep that night!
May we not take that inspired Levite’s message as one to ourselves in the midst of our many conflicts both in the outward life and in the inward? If we have truly grasped God’s hands, and are fighting for what is accordant with His will, we have a right to feel that ‘the battle is not ours but God’ s,’ and to be sure that therefore we shall conquer. Of course we are not to say to ourselves, ‘God will fight for us, and we need not strike a blow,’ Jehoshaphat’s example does not fit our case in that respect, and we may thank God that it does not. We have a better lot than to ‘stand still and see the salvation of God,’ for we are honoured by being allowed to share the stress of conflict and the glow of battle as well as in the shout of victory. But even in the struggles of outward life, and much more in those of our spiritual nature, every man who watches his own career will many a time have to recognise God’s hand, unaided by any act of his own, striking for him and giving him victory; and in the spiritual life every Christian man knows that his best moments have come from the initiation of the Spirit who ‘bloweth where He listeth.’ How often we have been surprised by God’s help; how often we have been quickened by God’s inbreathed Spirit, and have been taught that the passivity of faith draws to us greater blessings than the activity of effort! ‘They also serve who only stand and wait,’ and they also conquer who in quietness and confidence keep themselves still and let God work for them and in them. The first great blessing of trust in God is that we may be at peace on the eve of battle, and the second is that in every battle it is, in truth, not we that fight, but God who fights for and in us.
III. We learn here the best preparation for the conflict.
When the morning dawned, the array was set in order and the march begun, and a strange array it was. In the van marched the Temple singers singing words that are music to us still: ‘Give thanks unto the Lord, for His mercy endureth for ever,’ and behind them came the ranks of Judah, no doubt swelling the volume of melody, that startled the wild creatures of the wilderness, and perhaps travelled through the still morning as far as the camp of the enemy. The singers had no armour nor weapons. They were clad in ‘the beauty of holiness,’ the priestly dress, and for sword and spear they carried harps and timbrels. Our best weapons are like their equipment.
We are most likely to conquer if we lift up the voice of thanks for victory in advance, and go into the battle expecting to triumph, because we trust in God. The world’s expectation of success is too often a dream, a will-o’-the-wisp that tempts to bogs where the beguiled victim is choked, though even in the world it is often true; ‘screw your courage to the sticking point, and we’ll not fail.’ But faith, that is the expectation of success based on God’s help and inspiring to struggles for things dear to His heart, is wont to fulfil itself, and by bringing God into the fray, to secure the victory. A thankful heart not seldom brings into existence that for which it is thankful.
IV. We see here the victory and the praise for it.
The panic that laid hold on the enemy, and turned their swords against each other, was more natural in an undisciplined horde such as these irregular levies of ancient times, than it would be in a modern army. Once started, the infection would spread, so we need not wonder that by the time that Judah arrived on the field all was over. How often a like experience attends us! We quiver with apprehension of troubles that never attack us. We dread some impending battlefield, and when we reach it, Jehoshaphat’s surprise is repeated, ‘and, behold they were dead bodies, fallen to the earth.’ Delivered from foes and fears, Judah’s first impulse was to secure the booty, for they were keen after wealth, and their ‘faith’ was not very pure or elevating. But their last act was worthier, and fitly ended the strange campaign. They gathered in some wady among the grim cliffs of the wilderness of Judah, which broke the dreariness of that savage stretch of country with perhaps verdure and a brook, and there they ‘blessed the Lord.’ The chronicler gives a piece of popular etymology, in deriving the name, ‘the valley of blessing,’ from that morning’s worship. Perhaps the name was older than that, and was given from a feeling of the contrast between the waste wilderness, which in its gaunt sterility seemed an accursed land, and the glen which with its trees and stream was indeed a ‘valley of blessing.’ If so, the name would be doubly appropriate after that day’s experience. Be that as it may, here we have in vivid form the truth that all our struggles and fightings may end in a valley of blessing, which will ring with the praise of the God who fights for us. If we begin our warfare with an appeal to God, and with prayerful acknowledgment of our own impotence, we shall end it with thankful acknowledgment that we are ‘more than conquerors through Him that loved us’ and fought for us, and our choral song of praise will echo through the true Valley of Blessing, where no sound of enemies shall ever break the settled stillness, and the host of the redeemed, like that army of Judah, shall bear ‘psalteries and harps and trumpets,’ and shall need spear and sword no more at all for ever.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v14 The Miraculous Overthrow of the Enemies
The Miraculous Overthrow of the Enemies
v. 14. Then upon Jehaziel, the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, came the Spirit of the Lord in the midst of the congregation, putting a wonderful prophecy into his mouth;
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v. 15. and he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou, King Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s; it was He whose honor was at stake, and who would take steps to defend it.
v. 16. Tomorrow go ye down against them; behold, they come up by the cliff of Ziz, the ascent of Haziz, the pass which led from the lowlands of the Dead Sea to the valley near Tekoa, southeast of Bethlehem; and ye shall find them at the end of the brook, before the wilderness of Jeruel, for to that point this large, flat valley extends.
v. 17. Ye shall not need to fight in this battle, it would be fought and won without their swords and bows; set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem, the deliverance which they would experience. Fear not nor be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord will be with you.
v. 18. And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, in grateful acknowledgment of the announcement made by God through His prophet; and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the Lord, worshiping the Lord, joining the king in his act of thanksgiving.
v. 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, in an anthem of praise flowing from the conviction of faith that the victory was even new gained.
v. 20. And they rose early in the morning and went forth into the Wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, in an address delivered to the people at some convenient place, probably near the gate of the city from which they set forth, Hear me, O Judah and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem! Believe in the Lord, your God, placing their trust in Him in unwavering faith, so shall ye be established; believe His prophets, as the bearers of His messages, so shall ye prosper.
v. 21. And when he had consulted with the people, advised them, exhorted them to confidence in God, he appointed singers unto the Lord, to lead the procession as it was led forth to the valley, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, the holy beauty and glory of Jehovah as the one true God and Savior, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the Lord, for His mercy endureth forever, probably Psalms 136, which sets forth the great deeds of God.
v. 22. And when they began to sing and to praise, in a singular service of worship based upon faith in the victory promised to them, the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir which were come against Judah, and they were smitten. It seems that certain divisions of the invading hordes, eager for booty, had determined to waylay any forces that might come along. When these attacked their own confederates, however, the result was a wild self-slaughter of the invading army, every man regarding his neighbor as a traitor and an enemy.
v. 23. For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, the Meunites, utterly to slay and destroy them; and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, when practically the entire force of the Meunites was annihilated, everyone helped to destroy another, the wild slaughter continued, because they were all crazed with the lust of blood.
v. 24. And when Judah, the procession which had left Jerusalem in the morning, came toward the watch-tower in the wilderness, on a rise of ground not far from Tekoa, where they could overlook the entire valley, they looked unto the multitude, they watched for the approaching hordes, and, behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth and none escaped, the entire hostile army was exterminated.
v. 25. And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away the spoil of them, they found among them in abundance both riches with the dead bodies, costly dress-goods and garments, and precious jewels, which they stripped off for themselves, more than they could carry away, an immense booty, for the nomadic tribes carried all their costly possessions with them. And they were three days in gathering of the spoil, it was so much. Thus the victory came to Jehoshaphat without the use of arms, as a gift of God’s goodness, in return for the simple trust which he and the people had placed in Him alone. The same almighty God is the Refuge of His children today.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv8, 10, 12, 14, 16 for your name
for your name
Here Yahweh is represented by his "name." AT: "for you" or "to honor you" (See: Metonymy)
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the sword
The "sword" represents war. AT: "war" or "battle" (See: Metonymy)
before this house
This refers to the temple.
your name is in this house
Here Yahweh's presence is represented by his "name." AT: "your presence is here in this house" (See: Synecdoche)
translationWords
holy place
name
sword
judge
afflicted
save
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv10, 14 20:10 Mount Seir was another name for Edom (see…
20:10 Mount Seir was another name for Edom (see Gen 32:3 and the study note on Gen 25:25).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.