Jumpin' (and jivin') Jehoshaphat!

Of the amazing Bible account in II Chronicles 20 about king Jehoshaphat’s mighty choir that went to battle, a website article starts out, “In all of history, this had to be one of the most unconventional ways to try to defend a country under siege. Who ever heard of an army being led by a group of singers and musicians? But sing and play they did!”

The other week, Jordan tied this victory of song, not sword, story into his sermon about the front-line faith employed by the Ephesians. 

“Jehoshaphat, king of Israel of Judah, is being attacked by the Ammonites and Moabites and a couple other ‘ites’,” explained Jordan. “The Ammonites and Moabites are kinfolk of Israel—they’re Lot’s descendants. They hated Israel. They make war, come against Judah, and when they do, Jehoshaphat went in before the Lord and said, ‘Lord, we need to focus on you.’

“All Israel came to the temple to pray. You remember when Solomon dedicated the temple in chapter 7 of II Chronicles, there’s that great verse people often quote: ‘If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.’

“The next verse says, ‘and I will hear them from this place.’ You know where you had to practice II Chronicles 7:14-15? According to the chapter, it’s what you do at Jerusalem at the door of the temple, and verse 15 says that ‘when prayers are made from here I’ll hear.’ You know what Jehoshaphat did? That’s where he had all of Israel.

“And they begin to pray, ‘Lord, remember me?’ The armies are out there. You go back and read II Chronicles 20 this afternoon, would you?

“They say, ‘You’re the Creator God. You own everything. And you gave to Israel through Abraham this land. Lord, we want you to remember your Word. We want you to remember your covenant with us. We want you to remember who you made us. We’re the seed of Abraham. This is your possession; not those people’s. They want to throw us out of your land! Help!’

“And then he ends that thing in verse 12, he says, ‘We can’t help ourselves; we can’t do it. But Lord our eyes are upon you.’ Isn’t that a great verse? ‘Lord, we need help! Look  at all the enemies! We can’t help ourselves; we’ve plead our case. We’ve stood on the Word and now our eyes are on you to see what you’re going to do.’

“One of the guys stood up and says, ‘Forget about it; don’t worry about. I’m a prophet and the Lord’s going to take care of this. You go back and tell Israel they don’t have to fight this battle. They can go home; He’s going to fight for them.’

“Now that’s a good word isn’t it? The Lord’s gonna fight; you’re not gonna have to fight. All those armies out there, forget it, He’s going to take care of them. Then He says, ‘All you got to do is believe me. Just believe me.’

“Jehoshaphat gets his war counsel together. He says, ‘Here’s the deal, guys. They got the guns, they got the bullets, they got the drones. They got all the artillery ready to go out there. The Lord said, ‘Trust Him. We don’t have to clean our muskets; they’re dead meat!’

“And that war counsel said, ‘Let’s take the dare of faith. Let’s just believe the Lord.’ So you know what they did? Before they sent out their army, they gathered up a whole bunch of singers. They got the choir and set them out. The choir goes out worshipping God, and that great thing in the Psalms about ‘Praise the Lord, for His mercy endureth forever,’ that’s what they sang!

“The Ammonites and the Moabites and all the other ‘ites’ look out there and they see that coming, and before they know what to do, the Lord went among them and killed them all so by the time the Israelis got there, they were all dead.

“Now if you see a bunch of dead rich people on the ground, what do you do? It took them three days to collect up all the booty. It took them three days to collect up all the riches and they didn’t lift a hand; all they did was lift their voice in praise of God!!

“You know what they did? They took the dare of faith. That’s stillness and calmness. The fear left because their eyes were upon Thee. Listen, life on the front line is about faith. God is after people who are captured by His eternal purpose; who find out what it is and give their life to doing it.”

******

Paul writes the Ephesians in Eph. 1:15, “Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints,
[16] Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers.”

Jordan explains, “These were people who were notable believers. These were notorious people. They had a reputation and they were living in a notable way. They were functioning as an effective local assembly that reached out across a whole region of Asia with the gospel. Where Paul would go, he’d hear about their faith and their love for Jesus. He would hear about their love for the saints.”