2 Chronicles chapter 20 is the story of King Jehoshaphat and the children of Israel being attacked by a joint union of the Moabites, the Ammonites and the Meunites. Military intelligence revealed that a large number of soldiers were coming and in fact were already near. It is certain that the enemies of King Jehoshaphat and the children of Israel planned to take the City by surprise and by shear numbers to overwhelm them. But as the passage unfolds we see that the first thing that King Jehoshaphat did was to go to God in prayer. In his prayer to the Lord, he reminded God of how they were obedient when they first occupied the city and they didn't fight with the Moabites, Ammonites or Meunites. Then he reminded God of the promises that God had made to the Children of Israel to give them the land. Not only did he pray separately in his very own "war room" but he then evoked corporate prayer by assembling the people together. In the midst of the people King Jehoshaphat proclaimed God's promises and God's preeminence. Then the Word was confirmed by Jahaziel who assured the King and the people that the battle was in fact not even theirs to fight or win, but it was the Lord's. After that the King lead the people in corporate worship and praise. The next day they arose with praise in the mouths. The Bible says the King even appointed a choir to sing about the greatness of God and about His everlasting love. The Bible goes on to say that as soon as the Children of Israel started singing and praising loudly, God set up ambushes for their enemies so that they were confused and instead of fighting the Children of Israel they fought each other and annihilated each other in the melee. After the fighting King Jehoshaphat and the Children of Israel spent three days collecting the spoils.
This story should serve as encouragement for us that the answer is not in our physical efforts, but in our prayer, praise and worship or our spiritual fight. We often say that prayer and praise together are a lethal combination, but this testament makes that point clear. The fact is that once King Jehoshaphat turned his face to pray, putting God first, all of those would be enemies were already defeated.
God has already defeated the enemy in our lives. We are already victorious! How do we know? Because if He did it before, which we know He did by this passage, then He will do it again. King Jehoshaphat had a lot of choices. He could have become afraid. He could have called in advisers. He could have starting calling in favors. He could have commanded to assemble the armies. He would have been within his rights to do any of those things, but the example that he set was that he immediately turned to God in prayer.
When we are facing enemies to our peace, to our success, to our well being, to the promises that God has already set in place for us and to our destiny, our first action should be to turn to God in prayer. Our second response should be to give God praise for who He is and for what He has already done. Like David at Ziklag, we have got to remember how God strengthened our hand before. I call that the rewind praise. Then we have got to look forward to what God is about to do. I call that the fast forward praise.
Remember that after the Moabites, Ammonites and Meunites had turned on and destroyed one another, the Children of Israel were able to benefit by collecting the spoils. The Bible is clear that the wealth of the wicked is laid up for the righteous. You may feel that an untenable situation has come upon you and that you are surrounded on every side, but God may in fact be setting you up to be the benefactor of someone else's confusion and failed plans to attack you or to bring you down. I'm certain that when King Jehoshaphat originally set his face to pray to the Lord he wasn't thinking about how the enemy would be defeated or if there would be spoils to collect. No. He was clearly focused on the task of communing with God, praising Him and reminding Him of His promises.
So today, know that whatever battle you face naturally our job is to take it to God spiritually for we wrestle not with flesh and blood. Our real weapons, which will never be defeated, are our prayer, praise and worship.
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