GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
2 CHRONICLES 20:5-12
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5 Then Jehoshaphat stood up in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem at the temple of the LORD in the front of the new courtyard. 6 He said: “O LORD, God of our fathers, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can stand against you. 7 Didn’t you, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel? Didn’t you give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend? 8 They have lived in it and have built a holy place in it for your Name, saying, 9 ‘If disaster comes upon us, whether the sword of judgment, or plague, or famine, we will stand before this temple, and before you– for this temple bears your Name– and we will cry out to you in our distress, and you will hear us and you will save us.’
The people gathered with their king to pray in the outer courtyard of the temple, the only place suitable for large numbers of people to gather and still be considered to be within the temple itself. We can compare it with the covered colonnades where Jesus liked to teach (John 10:23), but those were part of the Second Temple. Here in Solomon’s temple it was undoubtedly something similar. But why call it the “new courtyard”? This is the only reference to the newness of such a place in the Old Testament. Therefore, Professor Keil must be correct when he says that “It is here called the new court probably because it had been restored or extended under Jehoshaphat or Asa.”
Throughout his public prayer, the king addresses God as “our God.” He is teaching his people at the same time that he prays, that all of Judah should think of the LORD as “our God,” and not as the old God when they were under Moses and David, or one of many choices (as the pagans would have them believe), but as the one and only true God.
Jehoshaphat’s prayer has seven parts:
1, God’s place over all. He is “the God of the heavens,” and he “rules over all the kingdoms of the nations.” There is no God greater than the LORD, and in truth there is no god at all besides the true God. This is why he is over all; there is no other. Only he can say, “I am in Israel; I am the LORD your God, and there is no other” (Joel 2:27), and again, “I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God” (Isaiah 45:5). The king is confessing his faith by affirming the First Commandment: “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3; Deuteronomy 5:7).
2, God drove out the nations. God is not merely a God in theory, a mysterious force for people to trust in with no tangible evidence of his existence. He is the God who brought his people out of Egypt (Exodus 20:2), and who drove out the nations of Canaan so that his people could live there in safety and peace. He said, “I will drive out the nations before you and enlarge your territory” (Exodus 34:24). And he promised: “I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way” (Exodus 23:28). God told his people where he wanted them to be; the place he prepared for them. And then he did what was necessary to set them there. Jehoshaphat seamlessly weaves the truth of the past among God’s own promises and actions as he prays about the immediate future. It is a model for our prayers.
3, This holy place for God’s name. The king confesses that the temple of Solomon is “for God’s Name.” That is to say, for hearing God’s holy word, and for praising and praying to God. To praise his holy Name is to praise God himself (Psalm 103:1).
4, To stand before God’s temple is to stand before God himself. Their act of prayer was an act of faith and repentance, and therefore these words were absolutely true. They were indeed standing before God’s throne, as if the entire nation were inside the Most Holy Place with their hands covering their eyes and their words spoken in awe and begging for nothing but mercy over their sinfulness. To pray is to come, invited, to God’s throne. We pray to give him glory. We pray to show our faith. We pray to ask for help. We pray to ask his help for other people.
5, “You will hear, you will save.” There is no hesitation in the king’s prayer. He does not blaspheme by wondering whether God exists, or wondering whether God hears, or wondering whether God will help. He confidently states, for the whole nation to hear: “you will hear us and you will save us.”
One other item before we move on. Jehoshaphat described Judah’s troubles as coming from “the sword of judgment, or plague, or famine.” This threefold judgment is quoted many times by Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and even in the Book of Revelation (6:8), but it first came from the mouth of the prophet Gad, as a chastisement for one of David’s sins. He was given the choice of three years of famine, three months of losing in a war, or three days of the sword of the Lord, what are together described as “days of plague in the land.” Jehoshaphat is recalling David’s faith as well as his leadership. His choice had been to fall into the hands of the Lord (1 Chronicles 21:12-13). This was how this temple arrived in this place in the first place.
10 “But now here are men from Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, whose territory you would not allow Israel to invade when they came from Egypt; and so Israel avoided them and did not destroy them. 11 See how they are repaying us by coming to drive us out of the possession you gave us as an inheritance. 12 O our God, won’t you judge them? For we have no power to face this vast army that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you.”
6, “You commanded Israel not to drive out the Ammonites and Moabites or the people of Edom (Mount Seir). But here they are attacking us.” As God’s people approached the Promised Land, God gave his command through Moses: Do not attacked or provoke three nations that were off-limits, because they were descended from the line of Abraham. These were the people of Mount Seir, that is, the Edomites (Edom or Esau was Jacob’s brother, Deuteronomy 2:4-5); and also the Moabites (2:9) and Ammonites (2:19). Moab and Ammon were descended from Abraham’s nephew Lot and his daughters (Genesis 19:37-38). The Israelites had indeed avoided them and did not attack them, even going far out of their way into Canaan when those nations would not help them.
7, “Judge them. We don’t know what to do, but we look to you.” The prayer of the believer does not always tell God what to do, but asks God for help. Jehoshaphat’s words are especially instructive for every Christian: “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you.”
Here in the king’s words we find the Third Petition of the Lord’s Prayer: “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” We pray this to show that we believe that the will of the devil, or his evil angels, or wicked men, do not have control over the world and the universe where we live. Such wicked beings can only wreck, ruin, harm and kill, but they cannot build anything or make anything better. They cannot give anyone any peace, but they cause only fear, hatred, division, cursing, and blasphemy, They work to destroy faith. So “Your will be done” is our prayer for protection and defense. “The Lord will repulse and beat down all that the devil, tyrants, and heretics can do against the Gospel. Let them all rage and do their worst, let them plot and plan how to suppress and exterminate us so that their will and scheme may prevail. One or two Christians, armed with this petition, shall be our mighty fortress, against which the others shall dash themselves to pieces” (Luther). Arm yourself with faith, trust, the word of the Almighty God, and pray to him. He is your helper, and he is with you always.
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 20:5-12 Jehoshaphat’s prayer