Jehoshaphat’s Story – Turn to God

“Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah.” – 2 Chronicles 20:3

We are continuing in Jehoshaphat’s story. At this point we know that a vast army was coming against Jehoshaphat and the nation of Judah. Over the past two weeks we looked at how we Christians face spiritual attacks in our lives. Today we are going to look at the first step that Jehoshaphat took when he was faced with this crisis.

Take a moment to consider – What are your instincts when a crisis or spiritual attack hits? Do you panic? Do you text a friend? Do you eat too much ice cream? Do you immediately try to fix things yourself?

I love what Jehoshaphat’s response was. And I think this is something we all can do, no matter what crisis we are facing – Jehoshaphat immediately turned to God.

In 2 Chronicles 20:3, it says, “Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord…” After Jehoshaphat heard the news that turned his day upside down, he made an immediate and wise decision to turn to God.

Let’s step back for a moment to look at Jehoshaphat and his character. Here are a few positive things we know about Jehoshaphat:

• The Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he followed the ways of his ancestor David (2 Chron 17:3).
• He didn’t worship false gods, as many people of his day did (2 Chron 17:3).
• He sought God and followed His commands (2 Chron 17:4).
• His heart was devoted to the ways of the Lord (2 Chron 17:6).
• Jehoshaphat removed the places of pagan idolatry and tributes to false gods (2 Chron 17:6).
• He sent officials around his country to teach the Book of the Law of the Lord to the people (2 Chron 17:7-9).
• The fear of the Lord fell on all the surrounding kingdoms, so that they did not go to war against Jehoshaphat (2 Chron 17:10).
• He sought advice and truth from the one true God, while his ally sought the advice of 400 false prophets who only told this ally what he wanted to hear (2 Chron 18:1-27).
• He turned the people back to the Lord (2 Chron 19:4).
• He appointed judges and warned them to judge carefully before the Lord (2 Chron 19:5-7).
• He appointed priests to administer the law of the Lord and settle disputes. He warned them to serve faithfully and wholeheartedly in the fear of the Lord (2 Chron 19:8-11).

If you ever read through 1 & 2 Kings and 1 & 2 Chronicles, then you know that the majority of kings found in these books were evil. Jehoshaphat was one of the few who wasn’t evil. We can see in some of the highlights above that he tried to honor God.

With that being said, I believe that since Jehoshaphat already had a stable relationship with God, this helped him to make the right decision when a crisis came his way.

Jehoshaphat didn’t wait until something bad happened to go running to God. And we shouldn’t either.

However, I also want to point out that Jehoshaphat wasn’t perfect. Above I mentioned that Jehoshaphat sought advice and truth from the one true God, while his ally sought the advice of 400 false prophets. His ally here was an evil king named Ahab who ruled over Israel. We might question his relationship with an evil king in the first place.

I appreciate that the Bible shows us when good people make mistakes. None of us are perfect, and we will all make mistakes too. And God knows that. God also sees our hearts and He knows our intentions. God loves us despite our mistakes. Ultimately God wants us to seek Him and walk with Him.

And I believe Jehoshaphat did that as well. He sought God and he walked with Him. This helped create a strong foundation of faith. Then when Jehoshaphat faced something difficult, turning to God was second nature.

Ron Mehl puts it this way, “Jehoshaphat’s secret was simple. When it came time to run for the Lord’s help, he didn’t have very far to go. In fact, he walked with God every day.” [A Prayer That Moves Heaven by Ron Mehl, (c) 2002]

I love that – “he didn’t have very far to go.” Can we say the same about ourselves? I hope so!

Day in and day out we can seek God and build a relationship with Him. In the beginning it might feel like a chore. But after we have spent time with the Lord and know Him better, our time with Him becomes an exciting part of our day. We find that having a relationship with Him is a joy that brings us peace and contentment. Then when challenges come our way, we will have a strong foundation to stand on.

So we know the importance of having a solid relationship with God each day. And we know the importance of turning to God in a crisis. Yet, we sometimes find it difficult to turn to God in times of trouble. Either we decide to handle things ourselves, or we let fear consume us. Why is that?

Sometimes the answer stems from the fact that we can see what’s in front of us, but we can’t always physically see God working on our behalf. Our culture tells us that “seeing is believing.”

However, a big part of faith is believing in the unseen. As it says in 2 Corinthians 5:7, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” And Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

There is a story found in 2 Kings 6 that I love, dealing with the prophet Elisha and his servant. The king of the region of Aram didn’t like the prophet Elisha because Elisha was always one step ahead of him. When the king of Aram would plan to attack Israel, Elisha knew what he was up to and would warn the king of Israel. One day the king of Aram was fed up with Elisha and decided to go after him.

Let’s read 2 Kings 6: 14-17 together:

14 Then [Aram] sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city.

15 When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” the servant asked.

16 “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

17 And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

God’s angels were surrounding them. What an amazing story.

Our culture portrays angels as delicate creatures, but God’s angels are warriors. God sends out his troops to protect us. As it says in Psalm 91:11, “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.”

God is always there for us, whether our human eyes can see Him move or not. Sometimes it might take longer than we like for Him to do something. But that doesn’t mean He isn’t working.

And when we build that relationship with Him, when we spend time reading the Bible, when we make prayer a priority – these things help us to build our faith. They help us to trust that God is working things out for good. They help us to know that He is beside us, no matter what. And we believe His promises.

Whatever we are going through today, whether we are facing a battle or not, let us remember to walk with God each day. Then when a difficulty hits, we will instinctively run to God. Our faith will be strong and we will trust He is fighting for us.

Next week we will talk about the latter part of verse three. Thank you for reading. I hope you have a blessed weekend.

© 2018-2023 Bridget A. Thomas. All rights reserved.