Saturday, February 5, 2011

We are supposed to do what??????

II Chronicles 20 contains a fascinating war story and a heap of lessons....let's give close attention to this story.

The chapter starts out that the children of Moab and the children of Ammon and others come up against King Jehoshaphat to war against him.  King Jehoshaphat is a good King, a Godly King.  When King J. heard this he feared, but in his fear he set himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.

the Living Bible reads like this vs 3.  And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.

vs 4 we read that the multitudes in the city and even the surrounding cities came to participate in this prayer and fasting.

King J. stands in the midst of the people and begins to pray this:  "O Lord God of our fathers, are not thou God in heaven?  and rules 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?  Are not thou our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend forever?  And they dwelt therein and have built thee a sanctuary therein for thy name saying, if, when evil cometh upon us, as the sword, judgement, pestilence, or famine, we stand before this house and in thy presence for thy name is in this house, and cry unto thee in our affliction and thou thou will hear and help.  

Jump to vs 12 which says, " O Our God, wilt thou not judge them, for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us, neither know we what to do but our eyes are upon thee."

The Lord keeps His promise and replies "The Lord saith unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours but God's.  vs17-Take your places stand quietly and see the incredible rescue operation God will perform for you.  Don't be afraid or discouraged, Go out there tomorrow, for the Lord is with you.

That is a story that will give you chills- but the most amazing battle plan has yet to be laid out by God...let's go to vs 21 to read this:  King J determined that there should be a choir leading the march, clothed in sanctified garments and singing the song "His Loving Kindness is Forever"  as they walked along praising and thanking the Lord.  And the moment they began to sing and to praise, the Lord caused the armies of Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir to begin fighting among themselves and they destroyed each other!  Not one single enemy escaped that day!  I encourage you to read the rest of this story.  But I want us to talk about this part of the story.

Since the 9/11 attacks almost 10 years ago, we have been engaged in a war.  We don't have to be the soldier facing it first hand to have some idea of the terror of war.  Not only do you risk being killed by enemy fire, you also risk being captured by the enemy and tortured without mercy!

There is another war that Christians have always faced and that is the war between darkness and light, good and evil, God and Satan.  Satan is merciless and he will endure in battle for the souls of the lost and for the joy of the saints until the day he is finally bound and cast into hell- HALLELUJAH!

In our frail humanness, we have fears.....so did King J!  The question is what are we doing with the fear?  Are we hanging on to, handing it the victory?  Or, are we, like King J, taking it to the Lord.  Are we setting ourselves to seek the Lord through prayer and fasting and enlisting others in this time of seeking the Lord.  King J made a choice, prayer and fasting was not the last thing he did when all hope was lost.  It was the first thing he did, for he knew without it he had no hope.   He did not wait for his mental and physical strength to be drained before he sought God.  He clearly understood he had no strength except the strength that would come from God!

During this time of prayer he did something that I believe is  powerful.  He remembered the times when God brought the victory time and again.  He spoke out the faithfulness of God in the past and since God never changes, King J knew that faithfulness would still remain in the same way and no less than it did for those in the past who experienced it.

When Satan comes at us with his lies about our Heavenly Father and His ability and promise to care for His children, we need to remind ourselves and the devil that God's faithfulness has yet to fail even one of His prized possessions.  Satan is a liar!!!

King J heard from God and he was obedient to God even when the battle plan did not make sense to the human mind.  This is the part of the story that just causes me to laugh every time and just stand in awe of our God.  God put the choir in front of the soldiers.  This choir was to lead the soldiers into battle singing praises to the Lord.

Let's think about this....as we were preparing for war after 9/11 can you imagine a 5 star general, an expert on war tactics coming to the table, sitting down with the President and the other generals and advisers with the battle plan of placing a choir on the front lines!?!  What do you think would be the expressions on the faces of others in the room....they probably would think it was some kind of joke.

As strange as the battle plan sounded, King J did just that and we read what happened.  God confused the enemies to the point that they turned on each other and killed one another.  Not one escaped alive!

Lessons learned:
1.)  When we are fearful, we need to take it to the Lord even to the point of fasting and seek His wisdom in our situation.
2.)  We need to enlist a trusted friend (s) to join us in this time of seeking God
3.)  We should look back on the past faithfulness of God in the lives of others and in our own life, and
proclaim that the same God who delivered in the past will deliver again.  We must know that the battle belongs to the Lord because He is our Father and we are His children.  This is a promise from our Father!
4.)  We must acknowledge our weakness and His strength  and focus our eyes on Him not on what is going on around us.  As King J said "Neither know we what to do but our eyes are fixed on You"
5.) We must follow the battle plan that God lays out even when we can't humanly understand it.-
6.)  We must enter the battle praising the Lord....listen to this song written quite a while ago- it says it best
To God be the glory