2 Armies Destroyed By Song
(II Chr. 20:1-30)
I’m thankful for the invitation to be here and try to learn some more biblical truths with you in these next few meetings we have together. Thankful to your elders here for their good job in leading, and I’m glad you got Bob and Allison working here with you, and I know that you’re happy to have them here too.
The Jewish king’s of the Old Testament are a fascinating study to me. When I read the stories of the epic battles they have fought…they have all the elements of a modern day Hollywood blockbuster movie. There are the godly heroes (fiercely and intensely obedient), there are the people longing to be delivered from their enemies…there are the immense battle scenes where hundreds of thousands of soldiers meet in a chaos of blood, swords, and shields…and there’s always the dark side of things, where the good people of the story make mistakes that eventually cost them dearly. But no matter how gruesome the battle, no matter how great the army…there is always a moral to all these stories. There’s always a lesson to be learned.
So, we start out this series of epic battles with the evidence that this is the case: Rom. 15:4: “Whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” WHATEVER battle…whatever person…whatever scene we find in the OT has a lesson for us to learn! There are always morals to the stories written down by God’s hand in the OT Scriptures. I Cor. 10:6&11, in speaking about Israel, Paul says that things that they went through…they went through to be an EXAMPLE for us! Now, if God says, in one place, that it’s good for us to learn from the stories of the OT…that’s one thing. BUT TWICE, God has said that all the things that are written down for us in the OT, we are to learn from. What happens if your mom tells you to pick up your room once? I don’t know about you, but I remember that Mom better not have to tell you twice, because if she has to tell you twice…you ain’t gonna like how she says it the second time! So, if God told us to learn from the stories of the OT TWICE, then we better listen to the stories of old, and learn how to better our lives because of them.
We begin in II Chronicles 20. A little background info. Israel was intended by God to be a theocracy. God was the King. He was the one who made the decisions…God was the One who ruled, and God was the One who was the King. And as long as all the people followed the Lord with a single heart, and with right motives, the nation would enjoy great blessing. But the people failed in this relationship with God, and as soon as men like Moses and Joshua passed on….the people did that which was evil in the sight of God. After a lot of anarchy, disorder, and divisions (recorded in the book of Judges over a 400+ year period), God relented, and gave them kings to rule over them.
God knew this was coming, and He had already set up Laws for the future kings of the people in the Law of Moses in Dt. 17:14-20:
"When you come to the land which the LORD your God is giving you, and possess it and dwell in it, and say, 'I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me,' "you shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses; one from among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not set a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. "But he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for the LORD has said to you, 'You shall not return that way again.' "Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself. "Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the one before the priests, the Levites. "And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes, "that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.”
Clearly, God had in mind that these kings were going to be servants and shepherds of the people. They weren’t in to build empires for themselves. They weren’t there to try to grow a massive army. The military power of the Jews was going to come directly from the Lord. This is one of the reasons that making foreign alliances with the other nations around them was forbidden: 1). Because God was gonna handle it, and 2). Because those other nations would compromise the Jews spiritually with their idolatry and pagan worship. God was going to be their strength, their force, their might. He was their sword and their shield!
The books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles (which we’re going to be spending the majority of our time) walk us step by step through the lives of the Kings of Israel and Judah. Who was the first king of Israel? King Saul flunked the course of king, as King #1. Who was next? King David then emerges as the "man after God's own heart" because of his deep repentance when his sins were made known to him-and there were many, many sins. After David, who do we have? Solomon started pretty well, but failed BADLY on several points when it came to the Law of Deuteronomy 17.
So much for the first 120 years, so after the first 120 years (and after the death of Solomon), the kingdom did what? divided. What were the two kingdoms called? Northen (Israel), southern (Judah). Now…nthing, NOTHING good (at all) is recorded about any of the nineteen kings of the Ten Northern tribes (called "Israel"). They were hauled away into captivity by the Assyrians after a little over 200 years. Northern kingdom, not-so-good.
Most of the 19 kings of the Southern tribes (Benjamin and Judah) were BAD guys as well. (This should give us a lot to think about when it comes to our Christian nation of today…there’s not going to be a lot of good people in the office…the same was true for God’s own chosen people, so you think it’s going to be different here?!). Anyway, a few of the "good" kings of Judah actually were able turned things morally and spiritually around…but only for a little while. Even these good kings were flawed, and their plans to reform the people, and get them back to God, inevitably, fell short.
In each case we’re going to study, the spotlight is always on the king, or leader. It’s what the king does in relationship to God that determines how the nation goes. The character of the kingdom is largely determined by the character of the king. When the king walked with God in obedience and humility, and worshiped and obeyed God…God's blessing was with them. This explains why there was never a blessing for the northern kingdom because they didn’t ever have any godly kings.
But in the southern kingdom, in the house of David, there was victory and prosperity when godly kings appeared from time to time. The rains came at the right times…the crops grew. The economy flourished. There was victory over their enemies, even when the enemies came against them in millions. There was always victory when the king walked with God.
But when the kings disobeyed and worshiped other gods, immediately famines broke out, droughts came, and invasions occurred. The land fell into difficult and extremely serious conditions. But when the kings were in obedience, they were always types of Christ – like David, Solomon, Hezekiah, Joash, and Jehoshaphat. They exemplified the sovereign, kingly reign of the Lord. But when they were in disobedience, they were illustrations of how sinful men can be.
I. JEHOSHAPHAT
And now, the rest of the story...the account of King Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat was the fourth king of southern kingdom of Judah, and he was a great King. He made his fair share of mistakes, but we’re not going to touch on those this morning.
In II Chr. 20, Jehoshaphat finds himself suddenly and unexpectedly invaded by a massive army of Moabites, Ammonites, and probably Edomites (the others of v.1). This army of invaders was moving slowly along the shore of the Dead Sea just 20 miles from the doorstep of Jerusalem. Twenty miles was all that separated this vast multitude of soldiers from Israel. That’s the distance from here to Hardin. They were less than a day’s march away! This would have been some fearfully overwhelming news for the King, and for his country.
APPLICATION: “Overwhelmed!” In the dictionary it means ’to be submerged under the weight of something. To be overtaken by a superior force. Or to be overpowered by your thoughts and feelings.’ There is not a person in this room that will go through life and not feel overwhelmed at some time! There will be times that you will be overwhelmed with happiness and joy, like at the birth of your children or grandchildren…like when you get married to a beautiful, young Christian woman named Kacie for three glorious years, or when put on Christ in baptism. But there are also times you are going to be overwhelmed with sorrow…overwhelmed with grief…overwhelmed to the point that you want to scream out: "Enough is enough! I can’t take this anymore?!!!"
We can be overwhelmed by any number of things. Some of you are overwhelmed with your work. You have so much going on, and so much going on at home that you don’t feel like there’s enough time in the day and you’re stressed out to the max! You have so much on your plate that you literally feel submerged under the weight of it. You feel overpowered.
And some of us, maybe just a few of us, can be overwhelmed by worry and fear. I know that none of you worry about anything so we don’t need to dwell on this, right? You never have any fears when it comes to the future, or fear of what may happen to your family, or fear of what other people may think about you. We, sometimes, feel so overwhelmed with these feelings of worry and fear that it can even interfere with the quality the lives we live for the Lord. So, what do we do? What do we do when we’re overwhelmed? What do we do when worry envelops our lives and we seem to be paralyzed with anxiety and stress?
Well, King Jehoshaphat was afraid…he was in dreadful awe of what was going to happen, and he had good reason to be! He had a very good reason to be stressed out! He had an army made up of 3 armies standing at his back door! He felt the weight of the situation bearing down on him…he felt the terror…he was probably questioning in his mind: WHAT AM I GOING TO DO? I’M AFRAID!” But verse 3 tells us what we need to do: “He set his face to seek the Lord.” And that’s what we need to do when any situation arises in life that causes us to be worried or stressed…seek the Lord!
APPLICATION: Now, there’s nothing wrong with being alarmed. Sometimes God wants us to be alarmed so that He can have our undivided attention. But sometimes, people respond by panicking. They say "I can’t believe this is happening to me! I’m not going to be able make it!" And then the person either quits, or they run away, or (this is what happens most often) they try as long as possible to avoid having to deal with the situation. They just hope that it goes away. Kind of like what the Israelites tried to do with the giant, Goliath of Gath. They blew him off for 40 days…he’s sitting there challenging the entirety of GOD’S CHOSEN PEOPLE FOR 40 DAYS! He’s sitting there in defiance of the God of Heaven! How could they let it go on for 40 days? The same way that we can…hoping the problem will solve itself…hoping that it would just go away! And it doesn’t work that way. A problem is put before us, so that it can get solved! Why is a math problem given to you on a test? So it can be solved! But more times than not, we use the wrong formula to solve it!
Like when, sometimes, we respond to overwhelming situations by trying to handle everything ourselves. Now, guys know this better than the ladies do. Can’t get the car to start, “I’ll fix it, step aside, maa’m, I got this,” and you know you don’t know a thing about. Leaky faucet…call a plumber NO WAY! Guys. What do you try to do? “I’ll fix it!” When problems arise, more times than not, we try to solve that problem by ourselves…without help. That’s not how it works! How did Jehoshaphat go about solving this little problem of 3 armies on his doorstep? How did HE go about getting rid of his stress? He did it all by himself, didn’t he? NOPE!
STORY: He proclaimed a fast throughout all of Judah…and from every city in his kingdom they called upon the Lord for deliverance. He got everybody to pray….he got everybody to help! They gathered together their infants, their children, their wives and they called out to the Lord in one unified voice. He prayed in verse 6: O Lord God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven, and do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, and in Your hand is there not power and might, so that no one is able to withstand You?...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 ON YOU!” (v. 12)
APPLICATION: When we start feeling overwhelmed by the worries of life…when we start to feel overcome with anxiety, don’t try to fix it yourself! We have to stop trying to fix it ourselves! We need to stop worrying about those things that are out of our hands! That’s what God’s hands are there for! “Cast all your care upon Him, for He cares for you!” Quit focusing your eyes on the things that you can’t change by yourself, and focus your eyes on the Lord, just like Jehoshaphat!
Life can be stressful, and it’s going to be! Tragedies will come…lives tend fall apart sometimes. There are deadlines, unrealized expectations, problems you have with other people, stacks of phone calls to return, taking one kid to the 6 o’clock practice, and the other to another 6 o’clock appointment on the other side of town. And bills, who can forget bills. It’s sooooo much to handle! And sometimes it becomes too much. And just when you thought that the worst was past, an army of something else shows up on your doorstep! Life can be stressful.
An article in Sports Illustrated offers some insight into this type of thing when they talk about a well known term in sports…the stress fracture. “A stress fracture begins when the shocks and strain of playing a game create microscopic cracks in the outer layers of bone – usually in the legs and feet. If the pounding continues and those crevices, which often go undetected, and they aren’t allowed to heal, they can enlarge. When the cracks become large enough to cause pain, they are stress fractures.”
Did you catch what that just said? If THE POUNDING continues, and the leg doesn’t have time to heal…the pain will increase and the stress fracture will enlarge. That’s exactly what happens in life! If life’s pains go unhealed they will enlarge. If you constantly have stress and anxiety and worry…then your life’s headed for a fracture.
Stress is what King Jehoshaphat must have felt when the people came to him and said, “Sir, there are three nations about to attack us, we don’t know what to do.” Stress is what our nation’s leaders must have felt when the people came and said, “Sir, two planes just attacked and hit the World Trade Center towers, we don’t know what to do.” But stress can’t be allowed to take over our focus when it comes to God. Our eyes have to be on HIM! SEEK HIM!
A little boy was in his sandbox outside. He was busily in the process of creating roads and tunnels for his toy cars when he discovered a big rock in the middle of the sandbox. The boy dug around the rock, managing to dislodge it from the dirt. He pushed and pushed the rock across the sandbox with his feet. He was a very small boy and this wasn’t a small rock. And when he finally got it to the edge of the sandbox….he couldn’t roll it up and over the little wall.
But he was determined, so the little boy pushed and pushed, and shoved and pried, but every time he thought he had made progress the rock fell back into the sandbox. Again the little boy pushed and shoved, until he smashed his chubby little fingers under the rock, and He burst into tears of frustration.
All this time the boy’s father was watching from the living room window as the drama unfolded. At the moment the first tear fell, a large shadow fell across the boy in the sandbox. It was the boy’s father. Gently but firmly he said, “Son, why didn’t you use all the strength you had available?”
The little boy shouted back, “But I did, I did. I used all the strength I had!” “No, son,” corrected the father kindly. “You didn’t use all the strength you had. You didn’t ask me.” You have more strength than you know, but so much of the time we fail to ask for strength from above! Don’t try to do it all yourself!
BACK TO THE STORY: The Lord hears the sincerity of the people’s hearts…He hears the distress of their voices, He hears their cries, and He answers through Jahaziel. He says, “Do not be afraid, and do not be dismayed at this great army, for the battle is not yours, but God’s. Tomorrow…you will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, and stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord…Tomorrow, go out against them, and the Lord will be with you.” (20:15-17).
The next day Jehoshaphat gathers his people and tells them: “Have faith in the Lord your God and you will be upheld…have faith and you shall prosper!” (20:20). The armies of Israel then march out of Jerusalem, but they aren’t led by war horns and trumpet calls…they’re not led by the biggest and bravest soldiers…they’re not led by the strongest shields and the strongest swords… they’re led by singers of praise (v. 21). These singers took their positions at the front of the ranks. A vast army of murderous invaders approaches in the distance…an army of 3 nations that had come to drive them out of the land, and they are going out to meet them with songs of worship to God. They sing out for the victory they know He will give. They sing out in faith, knowing that the Lord is there with them! They sing: “Give thanks unto the Lord! His love endures forever! Give thanks unto the Lord!” (20:21)
And as that choir of Israelites sang out with all their might…the Lord began His delivering work. Out of their sight…beyond the gates of Jerusalem, in the valley of Tekoa, the army of the Edomites begins to fight with the armies of Moab and Ammon. The Lord had set an ambush among them…they turned on each other, and all the armies began to fight against one other until they destroyed each other.
All the while, the armies of Israel sing their way to the appointed place of battle…they sing continually, praising the Lord, until they come to the tower/high place which overlooks the valley of Tekoa. There they stop…and I can see them standing there in awe, looking at dead bodies lying across the ground as far as the eye can see. There wasn’t even a single man of the invading army left. “NO ONE ESCAPED!” (24). And the spoils which the invaders left, took 3 days to pick up, and after all was said and done… Jehoshaphat praised God.
People, we sing for the same reasons that Israel sang…we have been given the victory. The battle has already been fought…the price has been paid, and that price was the shed-blood of our Lord on the hill of Calvary. We sing because He has already won! We sing because He has made us more than just conquerors…He has made us joint-heirs together with Him.
Through faith in His word we know that He is fighting our battles for us…we know that He is working for our good…and we know that whatever battles may lie ahead…the only way that we can ever hope to overcome is through His power. For this…we sing His praise! For this, we sing the same song that the people sang in II Chr 20:21: “Praise the Lord, for His mercy endures forever!”
Christ has overcome! He has all things under His feet, and now He looks for you to willingly surrender your heart, your life, and your soul to Him. He wants you to take your place among the ranks of his army, and ever sing His praises until death is swallowed up in victory. Will you join the ranks of the righteous? The victory is yours for the claiming! Your marching orders have been given….so step up and take your place in the Lord’s army.