Jehoshaphat: His prayer
And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. So Judah gathered together to ask help from the Lord; and from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord (2 Chronicles 20: 3-4).
2 Chronicles 20 begins with a crisis. Armies were gathering to attack Judah. This was not the first time Jehoshaphat had been surrounded by enemies. In chapter 18, because of his own foolishness, he placed his life in danger. Instinctively he had cried to the Lord, and God had answered his prayer and saved him. After Jehoshaphat’s salvation, he was restored and once more followed the Lord wholeheartedly.
Although Jehoshaphat was afraid, he did not panic. He immediately sought the Lord’s presence. This time, it was not a personal prayer for his own life, but a prayer for the life of his nation. He led the whole country in prayer and fasting to ask for God to intervene in power. I remember speaking with a brother in Otley, West Yorkshire, many years ago. He recalled how thousands of people had gathered in the town to pray for God’s help for their country during the Second World War. Jehoshaphat led his people in prayer (v. 6 ff.). His prayer did not begin with the nation’s need but by declaring the greatness of God, His rule over the nations, His irresistible power and His faithfulness to the promise He gave to His friend Abraham and his descendants. The king speaks to God about the Temple built by Solomon. He recalls a key theme of Solomon’s prayer at its dedication, “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” (v. 9).
Then Jehoshaphat lays out before God the overwhelming power of the enemy they faced, and their own helplessness: “For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do.” But then Jehoshaphat declares their strength, “but our eyes are upon You” (v. 12). This beautiful expression is emphasised by the following verse, “Now all Judah, with their little ones, their wives, and their children, stood before the Lord” (v. 13). At that moment, we see a nation recognising its utter weakness in the face of the vast armies which confronted them. They stood before God in all their vulnerability. At the same time, they stood in all the power of a faith that looked beyond earth into heaven to their Saviour God.
Jehoshaphat made no preparation for war against the armies he faced. His only defence was that which had saved his own life – he cried to God. And he believed that the same simple faith would save a nation. Jehoshaphat gives us one of the most compelling examples of spiritual bravery and trust in the Old Testament. He teaches us what it is to cast all our need upon God, fully believing He would respond, based on who He is. For all his failings, it is Jehoshaphat’s legacy that he saved his nation by simple faith in God. It is a legacy we need to learn from. To trust ourselves, our children and all we have to God’s care in every circumstance of life, looking up to heaven and discovering afresh each day that we are in the heart of our Saviour.
