King Jehoshaphat was generally a good leader for Israel’s Southern Kingdom during the days before the Babylonian exile.
In fact, one of the most intriguing, inspiring and instructional accounts in the Old Testament is recorded in 2 Chronicles 20 and involves Jehoshaphat’s obedience to God regarding worship as warfare.
A coalition of Moabites, Ammonites and Meunites decided that the Southern Kingdom should be destroyed and the land split among the attackers.
These were nasty, pagan people that the Lord had prevented Israel from destroying while enroute to the Promised Land. Centuries later, the ungodly coalition was is no mood to abstain from war out of appreciate for past mercies.
So the massive army of “-ites” moved toward Jerusalem.
Jehoshaphat learned of the pending attack, of course, and immediately took up a special offering to hire a thug-filled, mercenary army to protect him and his people, right?
Wrong.
Jehoshaphat instead called the people together for a time of fasting and prayer.
And as a contingent of the people stood in the Jerusalem temple courtyard, these are the words he said:
King Jehoshaphat was generally a good leader for Israel’s Southern Kingdom during the days before the Babylonian exile.
In fact, one of the most intriguing, inspiring and instructional accounts in the Old Testament is recorded in 2 Chronicles 20 and involves Jehoshaphat’s obedience to God regarding worship as warfare.
A coalition of Moabites, Ammonites and Meunites decided that the Southern Kingdom should be destroyed and the land split among the attackers.
These were nasty, pagan people that the Lord had prevented Israel from destroying while enroute to the Promised Land. Centuries later, the ungodly coalition was is no mood to abstain from war out of appreciate for past mercies.
So the massive army of “-ites” moved toward Jerusalem.
Jehoshaphat learned of the pending attack, of course, and immediately took up a special offering to hire a thug-filled, mercenary army to protect him and his people, right?
Wrong.
Jehoshaphat instead called the people together for a time of fasting and prayer.
And as a contingent of the people stood in the Jerusalem temple courtyard, these are the words he said:
“Lord, the God of our ancestors, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you. Our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend? They have lived in it and have built in it a sanctuary for your Name, saying, ‘If calamity comes upon us, whether the sword of judgment, or plague or famine, we will stand in your presence before this temple that bears your Name and will cry out to you in our distress, and you will hear us and save us….Our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you. ‘” (vv. 6-9, 12)
What followed this time of prayer and fasting is similar to the experience of Gideon and his 300 men who worship their way to victory as the enemy soldiers turned on each other and the pagan army was destroyed from within.
Jehoshaphat and the people started singing over and over the words, “Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.”
Can you imagine the effect upon your faith if at one moment, you feared you were going to be slaughtered by an evil army but then, the next day, the army is dead and left behind are all of its possessions for the blessing of you and all of those with you?
Never underestimate the power of worship, my friend.
I’m not suggesting that a repeated shouting of “Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever” in a bankruptcy attorney’s office is going to immediately restore your finances or that chanting these words will instantly still the voices of gossipers at work who have it out for you.
What I am suggesting, however, is that your worship and mine tells God where our hearts are and, more importantly, where His place is within our hearts.
And when God sees our desire for His help — even to the point of praying and fasting and completely relying upon His intervention to address our problems — He promises to get involved in ways that can only be attributed to Him.
Want more intercession power of God flowing into your life? Then do what Jehoshaphat did — pray more, fast more and definitely worship more, particularly when your human nature is telling you to fight the battle yourself.
As always, I love you
Martin
