What would have ended up as the valley of defeat turned out to be a valley of blessing (Beracah). Find out how…
As followers of Christ, we constantly struggle against the strategies of the evil one. It is apparent that there is always a battle being waged against us. But the good news is we can defeat the enemy. The Battlefield Series is a 4-part series in which we study about various strategies we can adopt to defeat the enemy by studying Biblical examples – Real battles that used real techniques and proved to be victorious as we read in the Scriptures.
In the last post, we learned about David’s simple yet powerful strategies against Goliath to help defeat the enemy. If you haven’t read this article yet, you can check it out by clicking on this title, “The Battlefield Series: David vs Goliath”.
In this post, we will study 2 Chronicles chapter 20, where we see a great army defeated by King Jehoshaphat of Judah using a unique battlefield alignment that was employed never before .
Three familiar arch-enemies of Israel – the Ammonites, Moabites and the Meunites rise agains
t the King of Judah forming allies and have reached the wilderness of En Gedi.
Keep in mind that En Gedi was the area also assigned within the territory of the tribe of Judah (Joshua 15:21,61-62).
Which meant just one thing – the army was already closing in on the city of Judah and there was not much time left to do anything at all!
King Jehoshaphat was gripped with fear. The next few steps he took determined the fate of his nation. Let’s see how he responded to this:
- He seeked the LORD in prayer – As frantic as he was, Jehoshaphat refused to be dejected and quickly seeked the Lord’s help. He believed in Jehovah and His mighty acts. He knew that:
“With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Matthew 19:26 (NKJV)
The amplified Bible puts it this way: “He set himself (determinedly, as his vital need) to seek the LORD” (2 Chronicles 20:3).
In a difficult situation, when we feel helpless and overwhelmed with fear, we must first pray to the Lord to give us guidance rather than accepting defeat and sinking into the mire of hopelessness. Act fast and get on your knees before God.
For surely there is a hereafter, and your hope will not be cut off.
Proverbs 23:18 (NKJV)
2. He proclaimed a nation-wide fast
Jehoshaphat quickly proclaimed a fast throughout Judah to make sure that he got the Lord’s attention.
Fasting is a powerful tool that every Christian must employ to take one’s petitions before the Lord. It expresses our earnest desire to receive a response from God. It can break strongholds of the enemy and turn around an unfavorable situation into favorable one. When God sees that we sacrifice our daily needs during the fast and come before His presence, He is more than willing to help us.
3. He assembled the people at the temple of the Lord
He got his people to be active participants of this issue. Jehoshaphat knew that since the nation was slipping into a crisis, he had to involve the people of his nation
to appeal together before the Lord.
Corporate prayer or praying together as a family or as a group is always powerful.
This is clear in the following verse:
19 “Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”
Matthew 18:19,20 (NKJV)
In the temple of the LORD:
- They magnified the Lord’s greatness and praised His mighty deeds done in the past.
- They reminded God of the promise He had given them that they could always come to His temple for help.
- They spoke of their current situation and asked for His intervention.
- They spoke of their helplessness and their complete dependency on God.
When a nation comes together in unison to appeal before the living God, do you think God will be silent?
In the continuing verse, God speaks through the Jahaziel, a descendant of the Psalmist, Asaph comforting and reassuring His people that He will fight this battle for them:
“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.”
2 Chronicles 20:15 (NKJV)
4. The worshippers go before the army
King Jehoshaphat aligns the army in a unique way. After having consulted with the people, he appoints worshippers dressed in their priestly attire to walk the front-line before the army giving thanks and praises to the Almighty God.
When we worship the Lord in the toughest phase of our life and give thanks to Him, praising His greatness, it not only brings us close to the Lord but He is pleased by our attitude and intervenes in our situation (Philippians 4:6).
Look what happened next:
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.
2 Chronicles 20:22,23 (NKJV)
Quite insane, if you think of it. Judah’s adversaries started fighting amongst themselves and there was a great slaughter in the enemy’s camp. No one had escaped.
And when Judah’s army had reached the camp they were astounded to see corpses of their adversaries lying all around.
They collected their spoil and praised God in the Valley of Beracah on their way home. They had won the battle. If it weren’t for God’s intervention, Judah wouldn’t have survived to see daylight.
Let’s recap on the strategies of King Jehoshaphat:
Remember, your battle belongs to the Lord and He will fight for you just the way He fought for Judah.
Hope you found this post useful. Let me know what you think about it in the comment box below. In the next post, we will see how God used Moses to humble the whole of Egypt!
Coming up in a fortnight!
(Picture courtesy: free bible images)
