Fear and Rest: a study on 2 Chronicles chapter 20

¹It happened after this that the people of Moab with the people of Ammon, and others with them besides the Ammonites, came to battle against Jehoshaphat. ² Then some came and told Jehoshaphat, saying, “A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, from Syria; and they are in Hazazon Tamar” (which is En Gedi). ³ And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. ⁴ So Judah gathered together to ask help from the Lord; and from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord.

⁵ Then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, before the new court, ⁶ and said: “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? ⁷ Are You not our God, who drove out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel, and gave it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever? ⁸ And they dwell in it, and have built You a sanctuary in it for Your name, saying, ⁹ ‘If disaster comes upon us—sword, judgment, pestilence, or famine—we will stand before this temple and in Your presence (for Your name is in this temple), and cry out to You in our affliction, and You will hear and save.’ ¹⁰ And now, here are the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir—whom You would not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them and did not destroy them—¹¹ here they are, rewarding us by coming to throw us out of Your possession which You have given us to inherit. ¹² 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 upon You.”

¹³ Now all Judah, with their little ones, their wives, and their children, stood before the Lord.

¹⁴ Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly. ¹⁵ And he said, “Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the Lord to you: ‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s. ¹⁶ Tomorrow go down against them. They will surely come up by the Ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the brook before the Wilderness of Jeruel. ¹⁷ You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!’ Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord is with you.”

¹⁸ And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem bowed before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. ¹⁹ Then the Levites of the children of the Kohathites and of the children of the Korahites stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with voices loud and high.

²⁰ So they rose early in the morning and went out into the Wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.” ²¹ And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the Lord, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying:

“Praise the Lord,

For His mercy endures forever.”

²² Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated. ²³ For the people of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir to utterly kill and destroy them. And when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another.

²⁴ So when Judah came to a place overlooking the wilderness, they looked toward the multitude; and there were their dead bodies, fallen on the earth. No one had escaped.

²⁵ When Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away their spoil, they found among them an abundance of valuables on the dead bodies, and precious jewelry, which they stripped off for themselves, more than they could carry away; and they were three days gathering the spoil because there was so much.

The New King James Version. (1982). (2 Ch 20:1–25). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

(emphasis mine in the verses below)

This passage of scripture is about fear, and what to do when you’re in hot water.

Verses 1 and 2 state the situation. The enemy is just around the corner and they’re coming to do harm. And the enemy’s reputation would determine the fear factor. Can you imagine someone saying to you in modern times, “ISIS is just around the corner and they are coming to do their worst to you, and there are a lot of them?”

“³ And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah”

Verses 3-4: What is the natural, human reaction to a real threat? Fear. Yet, it is not the having of the emotion that shows what you are made of, but what you do with it after that counts. Do you master it or not? Do you give in to it and let it control you, or do you control it, by putting it in its place? Jehoshaphat did it the right way, because after he experienced the fear – he sought the Lord. By doing so, he ran to Someone who could actually handle the situation and do something about it.

Verses 5-6: Jehoshaphat’s prayer to God starts off by reminding God, through rhetorical questions, who He is, and in doing this, Jehoshaphat is actually reminding himself of who God is which provides him a framework to set his emotions on a higher plane than the immediate threat, up to a rock that doesn’t move. By stating these things, he is actually taking down his fear with facts. He says to God in verse 6: “…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?”

By stating these facts, he is reminding himself that God has power over everything and complete control over every situation. These enemies can not withstand God. Nobody can.

“⁷Are You not our God, who drove out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel, and gave it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever.”

Verse 7: In this verse Jehoshaphat is remembering God’s past acts and the very close relationship God has had with them. Jehoshaphat does this through a rhetorical question taking God to task by reminding Him of His previous acts towards Israel, that the land that is currently at stake was given to them by God.

“ ⁸ And they dwell in it, and have built You a sanctuary in it for Your name, saying, ⁹ ‘If disaster comes upon us – sword, judgement, pestilence, or famine- we will stand before this temple and in Your presence (for Your name is in this temple), and cry out to You in our affliction, and You will hear and save’.”

Verse 8-9: He reminds God of His promise to them of what He said He will do for them when they are in trouble.

’ ¹⁰ And now, here are the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir—whom You would not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them and did not destroy them—¹¹ here they are, rewarding us by coming to throw us out of Your possession which You have given us to inherit.

Verses 10-11: Now He finally states the situation again in more detail with all the unjustness of it all, that God had shown these nations mercy in the past and they are indeed coming, to show no mercy on Israel by threatening to take away all that God had given them.

“¹² 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 upon You.”

Verse 12: After all the back drop of the previous verses, in verse 12 comes the plea beseeching God to act on their behalf, and stating fully their predicament of not being able to stand if He doesn’t come through. They remind God that they are helpless and need Him. He either acts or they go under. And the king ends this verse letting God know that they are all looking up to Him in expectation of help. There is a confidence in the plea because even in their helpless state, they can look up and expect help from the most powerful being of all, who is on their side. Jehoshaphat is transferring this case up to the highest court of all and waiting on an answer.

 

Then God gives His response in verse 15:

“¹⁵ ‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours but God’s.’”

God’s response to their appeal was to take over their case completely. It was God’s battle now and they were not to fight, but just to rest in Him.

“¹⁷You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem! Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord is with you.”

Verses 16-17: Verse 16 states the practical orders that God gave them. In Verse 17 God tells them again that they won’t need to fight and they don’t need to fear because He is with them.

Verse 18: Jehoshaphat had the only appropriate response. He “bowed his head with his face to the ground… worshiping the Lord.”

In verses 19-22 they were shown what their part in the battle would be. They were to: praise the Lord with loud voices (v. 19), believe in the Lord (v. 20), and sing to the Lord; praise the beauty of holiness (v. 21).

The result was a complete route, where the enemy started to attack each other until they were completely annihilated while Israel watched on. After that, Israel came in to take the spoil. And another threat was completely taken care of by the Lord because they had sought Him in their difficulty and didn’t remain in their fear.