GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
2 CHRONICLES 20:1-4
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2 Chronicles began with Solomon ascending to the throne of his father David (1:1-17). This was followed by the account of Solomon’s reign and especially the construction of the temple, up to the time of Solomon’s death in 930 BC (chapters 2-9). Solomon’s kingdom was torn away from his son Rehoboam (10-12), who was briefly followed by Abijah (ch. 13) and Asa (14-16). In Abijah’s time, the border between the divided kingdom was enforced on account of a battle in which Abijah and the people of Judah cried out to the Lord for help and defeated King Jeroboam I of Israel (about 911 BC, 13:18-20), and certain borders towns were clearly established as belonging to Judah (including Bethel). His son Asa built up those and other cities and won a victory against an army from the land of Cush (northeastern Africa).
Now we find ourselves in the middle of the account of King Jehoshaphat. This king did many excellent things to support the faith of the people and their devotion to the true God. He destroyed pagan worship places and sent out Levites and other teachers to proclaim the word of God to the people in their cities and towsn (17:7-9). However, Jehoshaphat showed that he had a soft spot for the Israelites to the north, and he even joined in a battle on the side of Ahab, king of Israel. When Ahab was killed, Jehoshaphat escaped with his life and showed his repentance by resuming his endeavor to destroy the pagan worship places and to teach the people (some of the high places were not destroyed, however).
It was now sometime around the year 853 BC. Jehoshaphat was in his mid-forties, with more than ten years experience as king, and a new challenge now rose up in the south…
20:1 After this, the Moabites and Ammonites with some of the Meunites came to make war on Jehoshaphat. 2 Some men came and told Jehoshaphat, “A huge army is coming against you out of Edom, from the other side of the Sea. It is already in Hazazon Tamar” (that is, En Gedi). 3 Jehoshaphat became frightened, and he resolved to seek the LORD. He proclaimed a fast throughout all of Judah. 4 So the people of Judah came together to seek help from the LORD. They came from every city in Judah to seek him.
En Gedi is an oasis on the west bank of the Dead Sea, just at the sea’s widest point, approximately halfway down the western shoreline. There is a freshwater spring there and a series of small waterfalls that have always been a welcome attraction for visitors. En (or Ein) Gedi means “Fountain of the (Goat) Kid.” It is surrounded by groves of date palm trees from which its other name comes, Hazazon Tamar or “Place of the Date Palms.”
It was there at En Gedi that an army of considerable size, from three nations, were gathered to attack Judah. Normally the people of Judah had nothing to fear from that quarter, since armies generally came from the north through the Jezreel Valley, or south along the King’s Highway that ran through Philistia, or possibly at some ford across the Jordan. But this time, three of Judah’s old enemies had assembled on the west side of the Dead Sea and were bivouacked at En Gedi.
I think that it is most likely that they has marched up from the south along the shoreline of the Dead Sea, perhaps a mile or so inland, and they had halted at the oasis. Someone might think that they came across the Sea in boats, but unless they were incredibly fortunate, this doesn’t seem very probable. On the Saturday before Easter, 1848, Lieutenant William F. Lynch and his party, who were making the first American naval survey of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea, crossed the Dead Sea at about 8:00 in the morning, encountering very light wind (from the southeast) but dangerously high swells on the water. Their boats (loaded with equipment and men) “rolled unmercifully.” Without a doubt this invasion from Moab had taken place at just about the same time of year (1 Chronicles 20:1) with similar seaborne difficulties, albeit two thousand seven hundred years previously. Lynch was impressed by the terrible desolation all around the Dead Sea. He wrote on Good Friday: “The curse of God is surely upon this unhallowed sea!” Then, standing below the waterfalls of En Gedi (or actually at the outlet of a stream just a mile or two north), he reflected on the position as a strategic location and also its theological significance. A deep gulch, the Wady Ta’amirah, empties into the Dead Sea there just north of En Gedi, having flowed there from Bethlehem. Lynch’s pen flowed with the faith of the Christian man: “Thus on the one side is the sea, the record of God’s wrath; on the other the birthplace of the Redeemer of the world.”
Jehoshaphat’s reaction to this frightening assemblage of enemies was to seek God’s help. Before he called a single soldier to attention he fell to his knees in prayer. The spiritual training he had begun throughout the land bore fruit right away. The people responded to their king by joining him for prayer in Jerusalem. Together they lifted up their hearts to God.
What does King Jehoshaphat teach us here? Acting as prophet and king at the same time, he proclaims to all believers that when troubles assail us, we can and should turn to God in prayer. What a blessing that we can do this! “I will do whatever you ask in my name,” our Lord says, “so that the Son may bring glory to the Father” (John 14:13). And we confess: “God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer” (Psalm 66:19).
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – 2 Chronicles 20:1-4 Gospel leadership