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Prophets and Kings
afflicted and needy,” and “rid them out of the hand of the wicked.”
Psalm 82:1, 3, 4
.
Toward the close of Jehoshaphat’s reign the kingdom of Judah
was invaded by an army before whose approach the inhabitants of
the land had reason to tremble. “The children of Moab, and the
children of Ammon, and with them other beside the Ammonites, came
against Jehoshaphat to battle.” Tidings of this invasion reached the king
through a messenger, who appeared with the startling word, “There
cometh a great multitude against thee from beyond the sea on this side
Syria: and, behold, they be in Hazazon-tamar, which is Engedi.”
2
Chronicles 20:1, 2
.
Jehoshaphat was a man of courage and valor. For years he had
been strengthening his armies and his fortified cities. He was well
prepared to meet almost any foe; yet in this crisis he put not his trust
in the arm of flesh. Not by disciplined armies and fenced cities, but
by a living faith in the God of Israel, could he hope to gain the victory
over these heathen who boasted of their power to humble Judah in the
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eyes of the nations.
“Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and pro-
claimed a fast throughout all Judah. And Judah gathered themselves
together, to ask help of the Lord: even out of all the cities of Judah
they came to seek the Lord.”
Standing in the temple court before his people, Jehoshaphat poured
out his soul in prayer, pleading God’s promises, with confession of
Israel’s helplessness. “O Lord God of our fathers” he petitioned, “art
not Thou God in heaven? and rulest 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? Art 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, judgment, or 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, then Thou
wilt hear and help.
“And now, behold, the children of Ammon and Moab and Mount
Seir, whom Thou wouldest not let Israel invade, when they came out
of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them, and destroyed them