Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.wartracebaptist.org/sermons/73281/2-chronicles-20/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] Coming to the book of 2 Chronicles. Very rich text that we have for us this evening found in 2 Chronicles chapter 20.

[0:11] ! But I almost feel like Brother Barnett ought to deliver this message to us. Because Brother Barnett did a much better job delivering the message of this passage at our last getting together as a church retreat.

[0:28] He acted out this passage in such a phenomenal way of Jehoshaphat winning the battle by praising before the fight.

[0:39] And it was wonderful. And now when I read this passage I can only think of Brother Barnett as King Jehoshaphat and I believe Brother Bocass was playing the ukulele and they were singing and praising.

[0:51] Listen, there are things you don't know about the church unless you go on our family retreats, okay? So some of you are like, what in the world is he talking about? And we gave people, we were in groups, and we gave each one of them kind of a random event either in history or in scripture.

[1:07] And they had to act it out and the rest of us had to try to guess what it was. Of course, Carrie and I knew what everybody had because we were the ones. So this was one of the accounts. It's one of the just kind of accounts in scripture that was there.

[1:18] And it was pretty amazing to see that. So I'm so excited about being able to get together and look at this text with one another because it is not one that is mentioned anywhere else in scripture. It's very unique to this portion.

[1:30] It is not found in the parallel passages of 1 Kings as it speaks of Jehoshaphat. But it's a passage which is so rich that we'll see this evening in 2 Chronicles chapter 20.

[1:42] Let's pray and then we'll get right into our text with one another. Father, thank you so much just for the grand privilege it is of gathering together with your people this evening. We thank you for the opportunity we have of reading your word.

[1:55] We thank you for the joy of fellowship. We thank you for what encouragement it brings to our hearts, what blessing it is to our souls. And Lord, we pray that as we open up scripture with one another, you would speak to us.

[2:07] We pray that the truth of scripture would resonate within our hearts and minds. We pray that it would draw us closer to you. Lord, as we seek to follow you in all that we do and we seek to know you in a greater and a grander way.

[2:19] We pray that you be magnified through our study of it. We ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. 2 Chronicles chapter 20. We will look at the chapter in its entirety. It is a little bit of a lengthy chapter, but it bears reading in one setting.

[2:33] Now it came about after this that the sons of Moab and the sons of Ammon, together with some of the Munites, came to make war against Jehoshaphat.

[2:43] Then some came and reported to Jehoshaphat, saying, A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea out of Aram, and behold, they are in Hazazan Tamar, that is, in Gedi.

[2:55] Jehoshaphat was afraid and turned his attention to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. So Judah gathered together to seek help from the Lord.

[3:06] They even came from all the cities of Judah to seek the Lord. Just a little side note before we keep going on. We know that there was a fast proclaimed in other portions around the world.

[3:19] When Jonah went to Nineveh, Nineveh's king proclaimed a fast. But as far as scripture is concerned, this is the first king proclamation of a fast for the nation.

[3:29] It's not the first time the king fast, but the first time the king proclaimed a fast for the nation of God's people. And it is in response to what's going on here. So anyway, so he proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.

[3:43] Verse 5. Then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem in the house of the Lord before the new court, and he said, O Lord, the God of our fathers, are you not God in the heavens?

[3:55] And are you not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in your hands so that no one can stand against you. Did you not, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it to the descendants of Abraham, your friend, forever?

[4:13] They have lived in it and have built you a sanctuary there for your name, saying, Should evil come upon us, the sword or judgment or pestilence or famine, we will stand before this house and before you for your name is in this house and cry to you in our distress, and you will hear and deliver us.

[4:30] Now behold the sons of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom you did not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt. They turned aside from them and did not destroy them.

[4:41] See how they are rewarding us by coming to drive us out from your possession, which you have given us as an inheritance. O our God, will you not judge them? For we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us, nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on you.

[4:59] All Judah was standing before the Lord with their infants, their wives, and their children. Then in the midst of the assembly, the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jehaziel, the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaniah, the son of Jeel, the son of Metaniah, the Levite of the sons of Asaph.

[5:14] And he said, Listen, all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat. Thus says the Lord to you, Do not fear or be dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God's.

[5:27] Tomorrow go down against them. Behold, they will come up by the ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the valley in front of the wilderness of Jerul. You need not fight in this battle.

[5:38] Station yourselves, stand and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not fear or be dismayed. Tomorrow go out and face them, for the Lord is with you.

[5:51] Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. The Levites from the sons of the Kohathites and from the sons of the Korites stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with a very loud voice.

[6:07] They rose early in the morning and went out to the wilderness of Tekoa. And when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Listen to me, O Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Put your trust in the Lord your God, and you will be established.

[6:19] Put your trust in his prophets and succeed. When he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who sang to the Lord and those who praised him in holy attire. As they went out before the army and said, Give thanks to the Lord, for his loving kindness is everlasting.

[6:34] When they began singing and praising, the Lord sent ambushes against the sons of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so they were routed. For the sons of Ammon and Moab rose up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, destroying them completely.

[6:49] And when they had finished with the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another. When Judah came to the lookout of the wilderness, they looked toward the multitude, and behold, there were corpses lying on the ground, and no one had escaped.

[7:01] When Jehoshaphat and his people came to take their spoil, they found much among them, including goods, garments, and valuable things, which they took for themselves more than they could carry. And they were three days taking the spoil, because there was so much.

[7:15] Then on the fourth day, they assembled in the valley of Barakah, for there they blessed the Lord. Therefore, they named that place the valley of Barakah until today. Every man of Judah and Jerusalem returned with Jehoshaphat at their head, returning to Jerusalem with joy, for the Lord had made them to rejoice over their enemies.

[7:33] They came to Jerusalem with harps, lyres, and trumpets to the house of the Lord. And the dread of God was on all the kingdoms of the lands. And when they heard that the Lord had fought against the enemies of Israel, so the kingdom of Jehoshaphat was at peace, for his God gave him rest on all sides.

[7:49] Now Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah. He was 35 years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem 25 years. And his mother's name was Azubah, the daughter of Shohai. He walked in the way of his father Asa and did not depart from it, doing right in the sight of the Lord.

[8:04] The high places, however, were not removed. The people had not yet directed their hearts to the God of their fathers. Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, first and last, behold, they are written in the annals of Jehu, the son of Hananiah, which is recorded in the books of the kings of Israel.

[8:19] And after this, Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, allied himself with Ahaziah, king of Israel. He acted wickedly in so doing, and he allied himself with him to make ships to go to Tarshish.

[8:31] For they made the ships in Azangeber. Therefore, Eleazar, the son of Dodovohu of Marashah, prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, Because you have allied yourself with Ahaziah, the Lord has destroyed your works.

[8:46] So the ships were broken and could not go to Tarshish. I know it's a long chapter, but 2 Chronicles chapter 20. I want you to see, gaining the victory through praise.

[8:57] Gaining the victory through praise. It's a rich passage in which we find no other record of it in all of scripture but here. Jehoshaphat is one of those kings in which the book of Chronicles gives us much more information than is disclosed to us in the book of Kings.

[9:17] The record of Jehoshaphat's reign is very narrow in the book of 1 Kings. And the book of 1 Kings ends with the account that we find here at the end of this chapter, that is the building of the ships.

[9:28] We'll get to that in just a moment. But the battles that are fought and the victories that are gained by faith and the praise that goes before him, these are not disclosed anywhere else for us than here in the book of 2 Chronicles.

[9:44] Now we know, we want to kind of reset ourselves every now and then, that the chronicler is writing to the people who have came out of Babylonian captivity. And he is writing to not a large group of people, but a very small majority that really responded to the decree of King Cyrus that whoever wanted to could return and rebuild Jerusalem.

[10:04] And this small remnant has come back and they've reestablished themselves. They are not yet independent. That is, they're still under the reign of the Persian Empire. They won't gain their independence for some time during the Maccabean Revolt later on, which is the intertestamental period.

[10:20] But at this time, they're not an independent people. They're still dependent and they're still kind of under the reign of someone else, but they're redefining who they are. The temple has been reconstructed, though much smaller than Solomon's temple.

[10:33] The walls have been rebuilt by this time by Nehemiah. The teaching of the word of God has been declared by Ezra and the Levites and the scribes that gained with Ezra, which I'm so excited, by the way, to get to the book of Ezra.

[10:44] I love the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. But those things have already happened. So more than likely, the grandchildren of the remnant that returned are who the intended audience of the chronicler is writing 1 and 2 Chronicles.

[10:58] Now, with that in mind, we understand that he is writing to a people who are trying to still understand who they are as the people of the Lord. And they're not the biggest nation.

[11:09] They never were. They're not the mightiest people. They don't have David before them fighting the battles and slaying all the kings. They don't have Solomon and all of his splendor and glory. They're just a small remnant that is really living with anticipation, waiting on the coming king of the seed of David, waiting on the one that the rod of iron would not depart from his hand.

[11:34] And they still want to know who they are as the people of God and how they can face the enemies around them. And this is more than likely why the chronicler records events such as this, because these things are not unique.

[11:47] The people of God have faced battle after battle after battle after battle against really impossible odds. And yet God has delivered his people historically and shown his greatness and his splendor.

[11:59] And what's going on after the Babylonian captivity is God is still preserving his covenants. He's still maintaining his people because we're still marching towards the gospels where we find Christ coming.

[12:14] And the preservation of that covenant according to the word of God. And even today we understand the reality that God keeps his word. So when we read accounts like this, we see not necessarily just the uselessness of man, but the dependence and the glory of God.

[12:34] But I want you to see here how we gain the victory through praise. First, we notice that there is the fear that grips us. It says, now it came about after this.

[12:46] After what? After Jehoshaphat had been rebuked for his alliance with Ahab, after he had been spared in that battle in which Ahab dies, after he responded correctly to that rebuke from that prophet, unlike his father Asa, Jehoshaphat responds properly.

[13:04] He begins to do reforms. He begins to lead the nation of Israel to do what is right. He sends teachers and instructors of the law around the people of Judah and even all of Israel because there are a mixed multitude of the Israelite people there in the southern kingdom.

[13:20] And he is teaching them the word of God. So at this time where he's really not doing anything else, the attack comes. This is not an attack that is due to disobedience or to rebellion.

[13:32] This is not an attack of judgment. But after these things, when he seems to be on the right track, this alliance of nations gathers around and they're coming around, if you were to look at it on a map, they're coming from east of Jerusalem, going down around the Dead Sea and going to come up around the Dead Sea and kind of hide behind the mountain range there to get to what will later be called King's Highway and make their pass through Ziz.

[14:00] It's called in this passage, which would be the pass of the trade route, and they will attack the unsuspecting people. And word hears of this multitude, and they bring that word back to Jehoshaphat, and it tells us that he is afraid because he realizes that on his own, much like when he had to face the battle with the Ethiopians who were reigning in Egypt at that time, here is a battle he knows he cannot win.

[14:26] Here is a battle that he knows that he is powerless against. Here is a battle in a multitude which is coming in which he realizes that he is terrified of this reality.

[14:38] But notice what it tells us. Because this great multitude is coming against him, and Jehoshaphat was afraid. Because, make no mistake about it, the people of God face an enemy that is more powerful than they are.

[14:57] Now pay attention to what I'm saying. The enemy is more powerful than they are. But it is not more powerful than the one they rely upon.

[15:15] This is why we find the New Testament principle, greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. It is okay to have this fear grip us of the enemy that is more powerful.

[15:31] As a matter of fact, I think we make too lightly. We swing either to two extremes in dealing with the enemy in which we face. Either we give him more power and more ability than he deserves, or we don't give him the respect that is due in our own weakness.

[15:50] It is the reality that he could not confront this enemy on his own, and it says, he was afraid and turned his attention. Much is told about us when we pay attention to where we turn our attention when the battle is about to begin.

[16:11] He turned his attention to seek the Lord. He did not turn his attention to seek an alliance with anyone else. He did not turn his attention to reinforce his army with the people of the north, because he's already been rebuked for that.

[16:25] He does not turn his attention to seek an alliance with another neighboring nation. It says that he turns his attention to seek the Lord and proclaims a national fast.

[16:37] And calls all of Judah and the people from the cities around Jerusalem gathering together. Notice it's the men, the women, the children, and even the infants standing and seeking the Lord.

[16:48] Why? Because it was a holy fear of their inadequacy before the enemy that was confronting them. We notice the fear that grips us.

[17:00] There are times when we need to stand in the reality that the enemy we face is greater than we are on our own strength.

[17:13] And it ought to impel us to give attention to seeking the Lord, rather than giving attention to trying to fortify ourselves.

[17:26] How we respond to the attacks of the enemies is a very telling thing of what's going on in our heart. So we notice this fear. Secondly, we notice the fact that sustains them.

[17:39] The facts that sustains them. Because fear is not the end of the matter. It is just the beginning, right? It is this dread of the enemy, the battle that we're facing, that moves us to the facts that sustain us.

[17:52] It's okay to have a reverence and a respect for the reality that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and the forces and spiritual darkness of the air, right? Things which are powerful.

[18:03] Things which are real. Things which are quite often unseen and even unimaginable. And it is a wrestling, not against flesh and blood. For we can handle flesh and blood, but against the principalities and the powers of the air.

[18:18] Which imply that their realm is a realm outside of our ability. And so we don't live in fear. It is the fear that moves us to turn our attention to seek the Lord. And it is there that we have facts that sustain us even in the midst of that fear.

[18:33] Because then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem. In the house of the Lord before the new court. Probably the court that was built. One of the two courts that was built by Solomon. But was rebuilt during the reign of Jehoshaphat.

[18:46] Just back in the 19th chapter. And here we see that he is there. Look at what he does. Notice this. Jehoshaphat doesn't begin his declaration with who the enemy is.

[18:59] As a matter of fact. The only mentioning of the enemy comes at the end of all of the proclaiming of the facts. Too often we say, oh God, look at this.

[19:12] Look at this. Look at this battle I'm facing. Look at this battle I'm facing. Look at this battle. And all of our focus and all of our attention is on the battle. But he turned his attention to seek the Lord.

[19:27] And he begins to proclaim facts. These questions imply the answer of yes. Oh Lord, the God of our fathers. There is the first fact.

[19:39] That is the covenant name of God. The God of our fathers. The God in which we are in a covenant relationship with. Are you not God in the heavens? The God of our fathers. Now there's a lot in that.

[19:49] Just the other day I was at the store. Maybe I'm becoming a little bit of a Bible geek. And it's okay to be that way. And I noticed a tattoo on an individual's arm. Not that I'm against that. But it just had the word God there.

[20:00] And I was like, okay. That's cool. I wish I would have talked to him. But I didn't have a chance to really have a lot of conversation with him. But I wanted to ask him, which God? Is this like Jehovah Nisi?

[20:11] Is this, you know, Jehovah Shalom? The Lord is our peace. The Lord is my banner. Jehovah Jireh. The Lord is my provider. Or is this just Elohim? The generic God. Which God are we talking about?

[20:22] Because the names of God matter, right? The names of God imply that we have a relationship with him. Because even as Paul says, there are many gods, lowercase g, among men. But there is but one supreme God, right?

[20:35] So notice here in this one passage. He says, O Lord. That's the covenant name God. The God of our fathers. The ruler of our fathers. He says, are you not God Elohim in the heavens? And he begins to proclaim different things about him, right?

[20:48] You are the God in which we are in a covenant relationship with. You are the God in which you are the grand ruler and creator of the heavens. And you live there. And then he goes on. Are you not the ruler of all the kingdoms of the nations?

[21:01] Again, he's just declaring facts. Power and might are in your hands so that no one can stand against you. And then he says, did you not, O God, give us this land? You removed the inhabitants of this land and you gave it to us.

[21:13] What is he doing? He is declaring the facts of not only who God is, not only where God is, but what God has done. Right?

[21:25] God, you gave us this land. So what is he saying? We don't inhabit this land because we took it by our power. We are here because you gave it to us. And then he goes a little bit further.

[21:37] And God, did you not tell us not to attack the sons of Ammon or the sons of Moab because they're descendants of some of the family outside of Abraham and Lot and some of Lot's descendants.

[21:48] And God told them not to. You go back and you read those in the writings that follow Deuteronomy and the numbers and the book of Leviticus and all that other. God says, don't go through there, right? And so what is he doing?

[21:59] He's reminding God, God, you told us not to do it and we didn't do it. Now look what they're doing. This is the only mentioning of it, right? Notice what he does. He begins to declare the facts of who God is, where God sits, what he has done, and what he has told them.

[22:20] And he's, for lack of a better way of saying it, holding God to his word. God, you gave us this land. You told us to leave these people alone.

[22:30] Now these people are coming to attack us. We didn't attack them because you said not to. We're here because you want us here. Now, God, this is an enemy, and he ends it like this.

[22:44] We do not know what to do. We are powerless. This is another fact, by the way, that is worth stating. I don't have the ability to fight this battle. And I don't know what to do.

[23:00] But our eyes are on you. He says, Lord, you've done all this. The whole reason we're here is because you put us here.

[23:13] And now, because of what you have done, there's an enemy coming against us we cannot defeat. Friend, listen.

[23:24] In our walk with Christ, one thing that we notice in Scripture is that Christ often puts his people in impossible situations.

[23:34] It was Christ who put his disciples in a boat and told them to go to the other side. And they rowed for four hours in the midst of a stormy sea.

[23:46] And then Jesus walks to them on the waves of that sea. It was Christ who waited until Lazarus was dead and buried for four days in the grave. And it says he did that because he loved them.

[24:00] So he didn't put Lazarus in an impossible situation. Nobody did. Lazarus is two sisters. Christ often puts his people in impossible situations.

[24:14] So that they can say, there's nothing I can do. But my eyes are on you. And it is the fact that sustains us.

[24:27] I'm here because you put me here. And now something's coming against me. I cannot handle. But my eyes are on you, Lord.

[24:39] It is the fact that sustains us. Number three. Notice the faith that moves us. I'll look at this. It's the goodness and greatness of God.

[24:51] As Jehoshaphat declares all these things, it says, and they were just still. They were standing. Because, by the way, when you say, Lord, I'm looking to you, then that's enough.

[25:01] I don't know how long the moment of silence was. I know me and I know my personality. If it was more than like 30 seconds, I probably would have started talking again.

[25:12] God, I said I'm looking, but it's okay to be silent and to be still. I've had to learn that. Lord, I'm looking to you. And God says, okay, then just look. Because God is faithful, right? In fact, I read it today in my daily reading that he calls us by our name and he speaks to us and he speaks into our hearts and he speaks into our lives.

[25:33] Here's this nation of people and they're all standing and waiting. The enemy's coming. The enemy's still coming. The enemy's still real. But they're not looking at the enemy.

[25:44] They're looking at God. And then it says, and the spirit of the Lord God fell upon a man. Fell upon the right man, by the way. He's a man of the Levitical tribe, the people that would wait upon the temple.

[25:57] So the spirit of the Lord came. It tells us that he fell in the midst of the assembly. Then in the midst of the assembly, the spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel.

[26:10] So now we have God speaking through a man, through the spirit, the word of God. And the word of God was declared to the people of God as they waited.

[26:27] It's a beautiful thing. God had a word for their problem, right? The word of God spoke directly to the problem that was before them. And the word of God spoke through the spirit of God.

[26:39] As the spirit of God moved the man of God, he declared the word of God. We call that scripture. And he declares this word. Don't be afraid.

[26:51] For the battle is not yours. That would be a good place. Glory, hallelujah, the battle is not mine. For the Lord is going to fight your battle. And at that moment, if we're not careful, all of us say, whew, I'm glad that's over with and done.

[27:02] And then just, whew, I'm glad God's going to take care of it. The battle is not mine. He's going to fight it. But be careful there because just because the battle is not ours, it doesn't mean we don't have to do anything.

[27:16] The battle is not yours for the Lord is going to defeat your enemies. But go out tomorrow and face your enemies. It was the faith moved by the word of God.

[27:31] He says, for the battle is not yours, but God, tomorrow go down against them. He says, tomorrow go down. And then it says again in verse 17, you need not fight this battle. Station yourselves.

[27:42] Stand and see the salvation of the Lord. So they have to do something. And then it says again, do not fear or be dismayed. Tomorrow go out and face them. Three times there. The word of God tells them they're not going to fight the battle, but they have to go to the battle.

[27:56] They have to go. They have to move towards the conflict. The word of God was clear. But the word of God was going to move them to do something.

[28:10] We talked about that Sunday. Just a little bit that the word of God always moves the people of God to action. And they were moved by faith. Because the entire time that God is declaring his word to them, the enemy is still marching.

[28:29] And he tells them to go to Ziz, which is the cut through the mountains in which the army will be coming. By the way, the last time Jehoshaphat saw the great deliverance of the Lord, he also went on the offensive to the Ethiopians.

[28:40] The only other time, right? He went out of the city. So notice here that these great victories in Jehoshaphat's life are not victories of defense. They are victories of offense.

[28:51] Too often, the people of God say, I'm sorry, that was a little loud. The people of God say, well, I'm just going to sit back and do something. Well, sometimes God wants us to get up and go to something and watch the deliverance that comes from him.

[29:05] He wants the church to be on the offensive. And they have to get up. And it tells us, and I love this, verse 20, they rose early in the morning and went out.

[29:18] Now, before they rose early in the morning, after hearing the word, they fell on their faces, prostrate, even the king, praising God. Except for then the Levites get up and they begin to sing praises loudly with their voice.

[29:32] But early in the morning, they didn't delay. They went out. They moved by faith. So much so that on their way, Jehoshaphat encourages them to be strong in the Lord, to be established.

[29:46] And they would be established by God. And he consults with them, talks with them. And he gets those people that were singing loudly the night before. He says, hey, you loud singers, come up here.

[29:59] He puts them in holy array. When I read this, by the way, it reminds me when we go to the book of Revelations and we see Christ coming on the white horse and the saints with him, clothed in the righteous robes of the saints, which are white.

[30:11] And they're in their holy array. And they're in their garments. They're not wearing armor. And they go before the people. You don't have swords and clubs and shields and spears.

[30:26] And you don't have any of that going in the front. They're leading the way with praise. They're going to the battleground by faith.

[30:38] And they're praising God by faith according to his word. Now notice, there's one little thing there. If we're not careful, we miss it. Verse 22. Because you say, oh, God's already defeated their enemies.

[30:50] Not yet. Look at what verse 22 says. When they began singing and praising, the Lord set ambushes.

[31:03] When they began singing and praising. The ambushes against the enemy didn't come until they responded by faith.

[31:17] When they began singing and praising. Then. Historically, the Jewish people declare here that God sent his angels. To bring confusion into the camp. We don't have that. That's outside of biblical authority.

[31:29] But in biblical authority, what we have is we have. That God comes down and he brings such confusion within the camp. That they begin fighting amongst themselves. And that they gather together.

[31:40] And they defeat the people from Seir. And then they look at one another and say, okay. And then they fight one another. And they slit. Everybody kills each other. And not a soul is left. But that happened when they started singing and praising.

[31:56] It's the faith that moves them. Fourth. It's the favor he shows us. By responding obediently to the word of God and praising God, even in the face of the enemies of God, God defeated and delivered them from these enemies.

[32:15] But that's not the end of it. Because when they get to the lookout. And they look over the valley. And notice what the word of God says. The word of God tells them to go to the pass of Ziz, which is a high point.

[32:26] And he says, and they would see them at the head of the valley. They did not say, the word of God did not say, you would see them coming. It says that you would see them, right? And so they get to that point. And they see them. And they're a bunch of dead thems laying down there in the valley.

[32:37] I know that's not really a beautiful picture to look at. But that's exactly what they see. They see them. But to them, they see, are all defeated enemies. And they're all laid out before them. Corpses and corpses and corpses, it tells us.

[32:49] But God's not done. Because the deliverance from the enemy is just the beginning of God's work among his people. Think of God's deliverance of the Israelite people out of Exodus.

[33:01] God didn't just set them free from slavery. Right? He didn't just set them free. He didn't call the captives and go out. Because what we know is by the time they get to Mount Sinai, they're given instructions on how to build this tabernacle.

[33:16] And they build this tabernacle. And in this tabernacle, there are furnishings. And there are materials that slaves wouldn't have. There are tortoise skins dyed red.

[33:27] There's purple thread. There's gold in abundance. There's acacia wood. These are things that slaves don't have. They knew how to make bricks. But the way they got these things is that before they left, God had caused such a dread and a fear to fall upon the Egyptians that God told his people to plunder their neighbors.

[33:49] Right? To go to them and say, give me your gold earrings. And give me those nose rings. And give me all this fine linen. And give me that tortoise skin. And give me this acacia wood. So they plundered them without killing them.

[34:00] And they carried all these things out of Egypt with them. God knowing that they would need them later on to build this tabernacle. But they were enriched by their deliverance. Here, God defeats the enemies.

[34:12] But then it says, and they go down and they start collecting the spoil. And there's much spoil. More than anybody could carry. As a matter of fact, for three days, they carry the spoil away. Three days.

[34:26] Notice the favor he shows us. God doesn't defeat and remove the enemy. God enriches his people with the defeat of the enemy.

[34:39] When we are set free from slavery. And Christ redeems us. Our names are recorded. In the annals of heaven.

[34:53] And we are given an inheritance. And a crown. And a place. Not only at the marriage supper of the Lamb. But read the book of Revelations. We're given a place upon the throne.

[35:04] With the Lamb. To he who overcomes, I will grant to him that he will sit upon my throne. We are made co-regents with him.

[35:15] Not equal to him. But with him. For those who have been faithful in a little will be entrusted with much. And we will reign with him on high. We are enriched by the deliverance from the enemy.

[35:30] His riches are our gain. God won the battle. But the people carried the riches off for three days. On the fourth days, they went to a valley.

[35:42] They named that valley Praise. Barakah. There they blessed the Lord. And Barakah means blessing or to be praising. And they went into Jerusalem praising God with musical instruments.

[35:56] They went into the temple praising God and worshiping God. Look at the favor he shows us. But we can't leave this passage here.

[36:08] Because the fifth and final thing that we notice is the failure that plagues us. It is the failures that plague us.

[36:20] Jehoshaphat reigns righteously. He does wonderful things. But even in the midst of the reign of Jehoshaphat, when so many reforms are brought about, when so many grand deliverances of God are brought about, we know that they're still marching towards the Babylonian captivity.

[36:36] The captivity that will be the disciplinary hand of God. We know that God is still leading them to judgment. Why? Because it tells us that the high places were still in existence there.

[36:49] Why were the high places still there? It says they were not removed for the people had not yet directed their hearts to the God of their fathers. In spite of this, the people of, under Jehoshaphat's reign were still worshiping at the high places and still worshiping false gods.

[37:07] And their hearts were still not completely directed towards the God of their fathers. God knew that. There's a failure. Even though he continuously delivers them and enriches them and brings them grand things against the impossible task, there will be a day where he will call them to account of that.

[37:22] But it's not just the people's failures because then there's this little caveat there at the end of Jehoshaphat about the building of ships and his alliance. He got in trouble for an alliance that he had with Ahab, but then he makes an alliance with Ahab's son, Ahaziah.

[37:37] This is after this. After this great deliverance, Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, allied himself with Ahaziah, king of Israel. He acted wickedly and so doing. Why? What was he doing? Well, I think that this is here accurately for us because we have just seen for three days they carry spoil without number away from a battle.

[37:55] They did not fight. But this account is recorded for us at the end of 1 Kings in the 22nd chapter there at the very end of it. And it only tells us that these ships were to go to Tarshish.

[38:07] They were ships of Tarshish built somewhere else. Sure, we see it here. They were kind of fitted together in Tarshish, but they were going somewhere beyond Tarshish.

[38:18] They were going to Ophir. Now, if you know anything about Scripture, there's something in Ophir. They were to go to Ophir to look for gold. And Jehoshaphat thought, maybe I can enrich myself the way the rest of the world's enriching themselves.

[38:41] Maybe just a little simple partnership, a little business deal with Ahaziah. We'll go to Ophir. We'll get a little gold. We'll bring it back.

[38:54] Before the ships even begin their journey, they're destroyed. Now, if you read 1 Kings, you'll see that the ships were destroyed. Then Ahaziah came and wanted to make an alliance.

[39:06] And he said no. So it looks a little bit better there than it does here. But when you reconcile the two, more than likely what happened is that Jehoshaphat was already beginning the construction of the ships.

[39:16] And said, well, I need more money, so I'm going to go to Ophir and get some gold. And he begins to make these ships. And then Ahaziah comes and says, why don't we do this together? And it seems like a partnership deal, right? And all of a sudden, in the midst of making that partnership, the messenger of the Lord comes and declares judgment.

[39:32] And the ships are broken up while they're still at port. And then, thankfully, Jehoshaphat says, no, we're not going to do it. I'm not going to do it again. But it's the failure that keeps plaguing him.

[39:46] But it's kind of ironic, isn't it? That he was just given riches untold from a battle he didn't fight. But the moment he tried to gain it the world's ways, he couldn't even start.

[39:57] Too often, we're not content with what God has provided us. And we keep pushing forward and keep pushing forward.

[40:09] And God has to bring us to these moments of desperation where we see that the victory is really gained through praise. Not through positioning, but through praise.

[40:21] And we find that recorded for us here in 2 Chronicles chapter 20. Thank you, my brothers. Thank you.