The war with Moab and Ammon, Jehoshaphat’s prayer
20
📚And it happened after this that the children of Moab and the children of Ammon, and with them others besides the Ammonites, came to war against Jehoshaphat.2 📚Then someone came and told Jehoshaphat, saying, “A huge horde is coming against you from beyond the sea 📖, from Syria; and, see, they are in Hazazon Tamar, that is, Engedi”. 3 📚And Jehoshaphat was afraid, and set himself to seek 📖 the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. 4 📚And Judah gathered together to ask the LORD for help. They came out of all the cities of Judah to seek the LORD.
5 📚And Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the LORD, before the new courtyard, 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 are not power and might in your hands, 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 your friend Abraham 📖 forever? 8 📚And they have lived in it, and have built you a sanctuary 📖 in it for your name, saying, 9 📚‘When disaster comes on us, like the sword, judgment, or plague, or famine, if we stand before this house, and in your presence (for your name is in this house) and cry out to you in our trouble, then you will hear and help.’
10 📚“And now, see, the children of Ammon and 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 📚see, they reward us by coming to drive us out of your possession, which you have given us to inherit.
20:11 Compare with Ps 83.⚜
12 📚O our God, will you not judge them 📖? For we have no power against this huge horde that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do. But our eyes are on you 📖”.
20:5-12 This prayer is a good example of how a godly leader should look to God in time of danger and need, and rely on God alone.⚜
13 📚And all Judah stood before the LORD, with their little ones, their wives and their children.
14 📚Then the Spirit of the LORD came on 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 middle of the congregation,
Jehoshaphat defeats Moab and Ammon
15 📚and he said, “Listen, all Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you King Jehoshaphat. Thus says the LORD to you, ‘Do not be afraid or dismayed because of this large horde; for the battle is not yours, but God’s. 16 Tomorrow go down against them. Look, they will come up by the cliff 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. Take up your position, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD with you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid or dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, for the LORD will be with you.’ ”
20:15-17 2 Chron 32:7-8; Ex 14:13-14; 1 Sam 17:47. There were times when God’s servants had to fight. At other times they watched God fight for them.⚜
18 📚And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem prostrated themselves before the LORD, worshipping the LORD. 19 📚And the Levites of the children of the Kohathites, and of the children of the Korhites, stood up to praise the LORD God of Israel with a very loud voice.
20 📚And they got up early in the morning, and went out into the wilderness of Tekoa; and as they were going out, Jehoshaphat stood and said,
“Hear me, O Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem. Believe 📖 in the LORD your God, and you will be established. Believe his prophets 📖, and you will succeed”.
21 📚And when he had conferred with the people, he appointed singers for the LORD to praise 📖 the beauty of holiness 📖 as they went out before the army, and to say,
“Praise the LORD;
for his mercy continues on
forever”.
22 📚And when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set an ambush against the children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, and they were struck down. 23 📚For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, to kill and destroy them completely. And when they had finished with the inhabitants of Seir, each one helped to destroy another.
24 📚And when Judah came toward the watch tower in the wilderness, they looked toward the horde, and saw that they were dead bodies fallen to the earth; and no one escaped. 25 📚And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away their plunder, they found among them a great quantity of riches and precious jewels, which they stripped off for themselves, more than they could carry away; and it was so much they spent three days gathering the plunder.
20:22-25 Here we see something of the results of faith expressed in songs of praise.⚜
26 📚And on the fourth day they assembled in the valley of Berachah, for there they praised the LORD. Therefore the name of that place has been called the Valley of Berachah 📖 to this day.
27 📚Then they returned, each man of Judah and Jerusalem, and Jehoshaphat in front of them, to enter Jerusalem again with joy, for the LORD had caused them to rejoice over their enemies. 28 📚And they came into Jerusalem with lyres and harps and trumpets to the house of the LORD.
29 📚And the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries, when they heard that the LORD fought against the enemies of Israel. 30 📚So the kingdom of Jehoshaphat was at peace, for his God gave him rest all around.
Final years of Jehoshaphat
31 📚And Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah. He was thirty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Azubah. She was the daughter of Shilhi. 32 📚And he walked in the way of his father Asa, and did not depart from it, doing what was right in the sight of the LORD. 33 📚However the high places 📖 were not taken away, for the people still had not prepared their hearts for the God of their fathers.
34 📚Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, first and last, see, they are written in the book of Jehu, the son of Hanani, who is mentioned in the book of the kings of Israel.
35 📚And after this Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, allied himself with Ahaziah king of Israel, who acted very wickedly. 36 📚And he allied himself with him to have ships go to Tarshish. And they made the ships in Ezion Geber. 37 📚Then Eliezer, the son of Dodavah of Mareshah, prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, “Because you have allied yourself with Ahaziah, the LORD has destroyed your work”. And the ships were destroyed, so that they were not able to go to Tarshish.
20:35-37 1 Kings 22:48-49. Jehoshaphat had married his son Jehoram to Athaliah, daughter of Ahab (2 Chron 21:4-6; 2 Kings 8:17-18, 25-26). Although he had already been warned against an association with the house of Ahab and had accepted the warning (2 Chron 19:2-4), he now establishes a business association with Ahab’s wicked son Ahaziah. A tendency to bad alliances was a weakness in Jehoshaphat’s character, as it has been in many people since. We should be on our guard against it (2 Cor 6:14-18). It can result in spiritual disaster. If we want God’s blessing on our projects they should be undertaken and carried forward in God’s way.⚜