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Jehoshaphat, the King Who Believed God
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Jehoshaphat was a man of courage. For years he had been
strengthening his armies and fortified cities. He was well prepared
to meet almost any enemy. Yet in this crisis he did not put his trust
in human strength. Only by a living faith in God could he hope to
gain the victory over these heathen who boasted of their power to
humble Judah in the eyes of the nations.
“Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and pro-
claimed a fast throughout all Judah. So Judah gathered together to
ask help from the Lord.” Standing in the temple court before his
people, Jehoshaphat poured out his soul in prayer: “O Lord God of
our fathers, ... do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations,
and in Your hand is there not power and might, so that no one is
able to withstand You? Are You not our God, who drove out the
inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel? ...
‘And now, here are the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount
Seir—whom You would not let Israel invade when they came out of
the land of Egypt, but they ... did not destroy them—here they are,
rewarding us by coming to throw us out of Your possession which
You have given us to inherit. ... We have no power against this great
multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but
our eyes are upon You.’”
Verses 3, 4, 6, 7, 10-12
.
For years Jehoshaphat had taught the people to trust in the One
who had so often saved His chosen ones from destruction, and now
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he did not stand alone: “All Judah, with their little ones, their wives,
and their children, stood before the Lord.”
Verse 13
. Unitedly they
pleaded with the Lord to put their enemies to confusion:
O God, do not keep silence; do not hold Your peace or be still,
O God!
Even now Your enemies are in tumult. ...
They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation; ...”
against You they make a covenant. ...
Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever;
let them perish in disgrace.
Let them know that You alone, whose name is the Lord,
are the Most High over all the earth.
Psalm 83, NRSV