The same strategy three times in a row? There was no missing this.
Isn’t God gracious? When He needs to get through to us, He makes it clear. I was feeling discouraged. Apathetic. Lethargic. Frustrated by what I saw around me, but feeling helpless to effect change. I didn’t feel like getting up early and praying. Did it do any good anyway?
For me, the “Aha!” moments almost always come in the context of ordinary, daily, mundane faithfulness. The daily prayers. The Bible reading. The ordinary obedience. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some spiritual highs, some kick-your-teeth-in conferences and mountaintop moments, but more often than not my Father reveals Himself to me in the mundane.
My daily Bible reading was in 2 Chronicles. The kings at this time were a mixed bag. Not awesome, not quite awful. They were guys like Abijah, Asa, and Jehoshaphat. Not necessarily heroes of the faith, but not known for wickedness either.
Kinda like me. I can identify with guys like this.
First, I find Abijah. Ordinary dude reigning in Judah. But the terrible king Jeroboam comes after him, sets an ambush, and there’s an army against them from behind and before, and Abijah is basically sunk. There’s no way out. He’s far outnumbered.
But then they made a brilliant battle move. They cried out.
“And they cried out to the LORD, and the priests blew the trumpets. Then the men of Judah raised the battle shout, and when the men of Judah shout, God defeated Jeroboam … God gave them into their hand.” (2 Chron. 13:14-16)
In their weakness, in the overwhelm, in the outnumbered hopeless situation, they cried out to God.
Next up is Asa. Again, a decent king. Then Zerah the Ethiopian came against them with a million men. Yikes! A million men coming after you. They were hopelessly outnumbered, but in the hopelessness Asa must have remembered the wise battle strategy of his father Abijah and …
And Asa cried to the LORD his God, “O LORD, there is none like you to help, between the mighty and the weak. Help us, O LORD our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come out against this multitude. O Lord, you are our God; let not man prevail against you.” So the LORD defeated the Ethiopians before Asa. (2 Chron. 14:11-12)
Seems to be a pattern.
Sadly, later in Asa’s life, another army comes against them, but instead of crying out to God Asa decides to use his own resources. He takes the silver and gold from from the house of the LORD and used it to get help from the King of Syria. It works, humanly speaking, but God is grieved, saying,
“Because you relied on the king of Syria, and did not rely on the LORD your God, the army of the king of Syria has escaped you. Were not the Ethiopians and Libyans a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet because you relied on the LORD, he gave them into your hand. For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.” (2 Chron. 16:7-9)
We often hear that last verse quoted, but it’s interesting that the context (what defines a heart that is blameless) is those who rely on the LORD.
Blamelessness and helplessness go hand in hand.
The mightiest warriors are the loudest criers.
The best battle strategy is to cry out and rely on the LORD.
Later, Asa’s son Jehoshaphat does the same thing. He makes a number of stupid decisions in chapter 18, but when sure disaster strikes and they are facing the Moabites and Ammonites, when there is really no hope for their victory, he goes for the tried and true battle strategy of his grandfather Abijah and father Asa:
“Then Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to seek the LORD and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.” (2 Chron 20:3).
I won’t quote it all but this is actually one of my favorite chapters in the whole Bible. You can read the whole crazy story here. In an unlikely strategy, the worshippers go first into battle, and God destroys their enemies.
YAHWEH for the win!
Where are you overwhelmed? Prayer is the ultimate expression of humble dependence. Prayerlessness is the ultimate expression of proud self-reliance.
Let’s employ the best battle strategy.
Let’s cry out and rely on the LORD our God.
Onward! Thanks for reading.