Well, let us come to the Word
of God again, this portion of Scripture that we've read. I'm
sure it's not unfamiliar with you. I made some reference to
it on the Lord's Day. And I do want tonight to direct
you for a while to those words of the prayer of Jehoshaphat.
The prayers recorded here from verse 5 through to verse 12.
But in particular, what he says at the end of the prayer, a text
is found in verse 12, O our God, wilt thou not judge them? For
we have no might against this great company that cometh out
against us, neither know we what to do, but our eyes are upon
thee. In the context of course he is
speaking with regards to the enemies of the children of Israel,
Moab, the Ammonites and those of Mount Seir who had set themselves
with the determination to destroy the kingdom of Judah and to drive
them out of the land. We come then to consider this
prayer, the prayer of Jehoshaphat and he was a good king, he was
a godly king. We read of him back in the 17th
chapter He follows his father Esar who
told Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his stead and strengthened
himself against Israel. That's against the northern kingdom
of Israel. He's the king in the south in
Judah. And he placed forces in all the fenced cities of Judah
and set garrisons in the land of Judah and in the cities of
Ephraim which Esar his father had taken. And the Lord was with
Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the first ways of his father
David, and sought not unto Baalim, but sought to the Lord God of
his father, and walked in his commandments, and not after the
doings of Israel. Therefore the Lord established
the kingdom in his hands, and all Judah brought to Jehoshaphat
presence, and he had riches and honor in abundance. and his heart
was lifted up in the ways of the Lord. Moreover, he took away
the high places and groves out of Judah." Oh, what a testimony
then was raised up by this gracious King. But when we turn over to
the next chapter, chapter 18, we're told how Jehoshaphat joined
affinity with Ahab. Ahab, the king, in the north
in Israel his wife was that wicked woman Jezebel he was the most
evil man Ahab and yet this gracious man joins in affinity with the
wicked Ahab or surely like so many others that we read of here
in God's Word he was a man of like fashions as we are he acted
oftentimes in a foolish fashion and in that 18th chapter we see
how as a result of his father he was almost slain but for the
kind providence of God and it was instead Ahab that wicked
king who was slain in the battle when that archer drew a bow at
Aventia the providence of God is so conspicuous at the end
of that 18th chapter and then when we come into chapter 19
we're told Jehoshaphat the king of Judah returned to his house
in peace to Jerusalem and Yahu the son of Hanani the seer went
out to meet him and said to the king Jehoshaphat shouldest thou
help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord therefore
is wrath upon thee from before the Lord. Nevertheless there
are good things found in thee, in that thou hast taken away
the groves out of the land, and hast prepared thine heart to
seek God." But how God takes account of his inventions and
The hand of God, of course, is to be discerned in this uprising
by the Moabites and the Ammonites. But then we have this remarkable
prayer that's recorded here from verse 5, as I say, through to
verse 12. Now, last time we were looking
at the prayer of Habakkuk there in the last chapter, chapter
3 of his prophecy. Well, now we come to consider
the prayer of Jehoshaphat. And I want us to examine something
of the evidence of his faith as we see it in the prayer. Just
two headings to say something with regards to the humility
of his faith and then secondly to consider the cry of his faith. Here then in verse 12 O our gods,
wilt thou not judge them? For we have no might against
this great company that cometh against us, neither know we what
to do," he says. And we observe how there are
two negative statements here. He says, we have no might. And
then again, neither know we what to do and surely in this part
of his prayer we discern something of the subjectivity of his prayer
how he obviously feels something, he feels something of his weakness
and yet this subject aspect of the prayer is an evidence also
of the reality of his prayer When we come before God, do we
not often have to acknowledge that we are made to feel something
of our weakness? Our weakness as creatures. And God, the Great Creator, and
we are but feeble, frail men and women. He is the Eternal
One and We are creatures of a mere dying. Not only that, worse than
that, when we come before God, we feel something of our sinfulness
as fallen creatures. And we know He is the Holy One
of Israel. And as we come to have dealings
with God, isn't it the Lord God Himself who brings us to that
spot, to those sort of feelings. He humbles us in other words.
He humbles us. thou turnest man to destruction
says Moses in his prayer Psalm 90 thou turnest man to destruction
and sayest return ye children of men and see how Moses who of course was a truly
great man a truly great man in in Israel, and see how he speaks
there in his prayer in Psalm 19. He says, We are consumed
by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled, and will set
our iniquities before thee, our secret sins, in the light of
thy countenance. And isn't this something of what
this man Jehoshaphat is also made to feel always humbled. He's humbled before God. I think
I remarked again on the Lord's Day how that when the Prime Minister
made his statement last Saturday, he was saying how we have to
be humbled before nature. With regards to COVID-19, we
have to be humbled before the great scourge, the great plague
and I was sad yesterday morning listening to the radio, to the
news, to hear the Chancellor of the Exchequer repeat that
and say again we have to be humbled before nature. Well we're not
humbled before nature, we're not humbled before the creature,
we don't worship the creature We're not pantheistic in that
sense, worshippers of nature that's all around us. We're those
who desire to be humbled before God who is the creator of all
things. When I think about so many pronouncements
that are made by government and one does endeavor to pray for
those in authority, one doesn't envy them, their position and
what they're trying to do. But I just feel that what's happening
is part and parcel of the terrible judgment that God has visited
upon this nation, upon all the earth. What confusion and the
confusion. The confusion is part of the
judgment as well as the plague. But the failure to rightly grapple
with these matters. And one thinks again of another
prayer, the prayer of Daniel. There in Daniel 9.7, O Lord,
says the Prophet righteousness belongs unto thee but unto us
confusion of faith righteousness belongs unto God unto us confusion
of faith and let us not think that that confusion is just there
in high places amongst those politicians those that govern
us it is a judgment in high places yes but judgment we're told must
begin at the house of God and it does affect us it does affect
us we have to look to ourselves we have to examine ourselves
and personally I have to acknowledge and confess that I like anyone
else at times feels utterly confused and scares those how to react
or how to respond to things. One comes time and again then
to the words that I've read for a text this evening. O our God,
wilt thou not judge them? For we have no might against
this great company that cometh against us, neither know we what
to do, but our eyes are upon the earth. Now here of course
in the context is speaking of those who were the enemies of
the children of Israel. And I'm not wanting to suggest
for a moment that we're praying against our own governments.
Rather would I say that all that God has sent in the way of judgments,
COVID-19, the situation in the nation and Maybe the economic
consequences of another lockdown, and maybe other lockdowns in
the future, and we wonder where will the scene end, and we're
fearful. We're fearful as to what the consequence of all these
things is going to be. But these are all under the sovereign
hand of God. And as the Prophet comes to pray
to his God, how right at the outset he acknowledges God's
sovereignty, the beginning of his prayer. There in verse 6,
he said, O Lord God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? And
rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? And
in thy hand is there not power and might, so that none is able
to withstand thee? And this is the God. that we
can come to though there be a host against us and again I direct
you to the experience of that godly man Job and all that befell
him all those strange providences, all those great losses that he
had to endure all those awful afflictions but how he acknowledges
the hand of God there in Job 19.12 he says concerning God
his troops his troops come together and rise up their way against
me and in camp round about my tabernacle as he considers himself
his situation his body and he was covered remember from the
soles of his feet to the crown of his head with with bruises
and putrefying sores, whatever the disease was. Previous to
that he'd lost all his possessions, he'd lost all his children. Hard
to conceive what that man had to endure and yet he acknowledges
that this is God, his troops, his troops. We see time and again
in the book of the Prophet Joel when God sends blasting over
all the lands There in the opening chapter of Joel we read of the
palmer worm, the locust, the canker worm, the caterpillar,
all the vegetation being devoured. And what does he say in the second
chapter? There in verse 11, the Lord shall
utter his voice before his army. All these insects, this is God's
army. Read it there in Joel chapter 2 from verse 3 following. and
there in the 11th verse the Lord shall utter his voice before
his army for his camp is very great for he is strong that executeth
his words for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible
and who can abide it? Oh when God works and when God
visits the earth in judgments it is truly a terrible thing
that we behold And yet, are we not to be persuaded that God
with his people always has a good and a gracious end in view? Or when he sends the children
of Israel into exile, when Judah is taken and Jerusalem besieged, and the temple destroyed, What
does God say through the prophet Jeremiah? I know the thoughts
that I think towards you, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to
give you an expected end. Oh God will humble His people,
but He has that good and that gracious purpose in view. And He says to them quite clearly,
they're not to be afraid, fear not, they were Jacob and ye few
men of Israel. I will help thee, saith the Lord,
and I will redeem thee, the Holy One of Israel." Oh, look at the
way in which the prayer of the king is answered here. We have
the prayer, as I said, ending there at our text in verse 12. And then this man, Jehaziel,
the seer, the prophet, speaks the word of the Lord. And what
does he say? Verse 17, Ye shall not need to fight in this battle.
Set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the
Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Fear not, Fear not, nor be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them,
for the Lord will be with you. Oh, how God speaks such gracious
words to His people. They are not to be afraid. Oh, He might turn man to destruction. He might humble man to the dust
of the earth. But then, what does He do? He
says, Return. Return, ye children, of men. And so what do we have here?
We have that's what I call the subjective part of the prayer
as it were the main part of the prayer. We have no might against this
great company that cometh against us neither know we what to do
but our eyes are upon thee and so turning from the the subjective
and turning to the objective is crying. Well, we never see
our eyes, do we? We never see our own eyes. We
may see a reflection if we look into a mirror, a looking glass,
but the eye is always looking away from self. Our eyes always look away from
ourselves. And isn't that a great thing
really? Isn't that what saving faith does? What praying faith
does? We look away from ourselves.
But our eyes are upon thee, says the King. And God calls us to
that. Look unto me, he says. Look unto
me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God. and there is none else. Now,
I know there the text is to be understood in terms of the Gentiles
being called to look to God and salvation coming to the nations
of the Gentiles. Those are the ends of the earth.
But surely also in a spiritual sense We can understand the ends
of the earth as that which God's people are sometimes brought
into with regards to their feelings. Even the feelings that this man
has, this king has. We have no might against this
great company. Neither do we know what to do.
Think of the language of Psalm 107. It says they are at their
wit's end. Then they turn unto the Lord.
And isn't this what the King is doing? But our eyes are upon
the Lord. Oh, look unto me, says the Lord
God. We have that great statement,
of course, in Hebrews 12, 2, looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. Oh, we have no faith naturally,
we have to be always receiving faith. Christ is the author of
it, Christ is the finisher of it we have to look to him and
I've mentioned many a time the strength of the verb to look
because he does literally mean to look away to look away unto
Jesus to look to one object and one object alone to look only
unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith and this is what
This is what the king is doing here in this prayer. It's the Old Testament dispensation
of course, it's before Christ has come. But there's much gospel
in the Old Testament as you know, there's gospel in the Old Testament
in the prophecies, there's gospel in the types. And we see it here
in verses 8 and 9. He speaks of the children of
Israel. He speaks of those who are Abraham's
seed and the land that they were given. Verse 8, they dwelt there
in his house. They gave it to the seed of Abraham,
thy friend, forever. and they dwelt therein, and have
built thee a sanctuary therein for thy name, saying, If, when
evil cometh upon us as the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine,
we stand before this house, and in thy presence, for thy name
is in this house, and cry unto thee in our affliction, then
thou wilt hear and help. Now, He's referring of course
to the great prayer that was prayed, another prayer that's
recorded, the prayer of King Solomon at the dedication of the temple. And we have it
there back in chapter 8 of the first book of Kings. In 1 Kings chapter 8 verse 29 Solomon prays that thine eyes
may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the
place of which thou hast said, My name shall be there, that
thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall
make toward this place. And hearken thou to the supplication
of thy servant and of thy people Israel, when they shall pray
toward this place, and hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place,
and when thou hearest forgive and then again at verse 33 when
thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy because
they have sinned against thee and shall turn again to thee
and confess thy name and pray and make supplication unto thee
in this house then hear thou in heaven and forgive the sin
of thy people Israel and then also at verse 37 if there be in the land famine,
if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be
caterpillar, if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities,
whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be, what prayer
and supplication so ever be made by any man, or by all thy people
Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart.
Then spread forth his hands toward this house, then hear thou in
heaven thy dwelling place and forgive and do and give to every
man according to his ways whose heart thou knowest for thou even
thou only knowest the hearts of all the children of men that
they may fear thee all the days that they live in the land which
thou hast given unto our fathers for that man you see who knows
the plague of his own heart can come and make prayer unto this
house. And what is this house? It's
the temple. It's Solomon's temple. It's the same that Jehoshaphat
is speaking of here in verses 8 and 9. And it was truly a type
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember when we come to the
New Testament, the Lord states that himself in John 2, destroy
this temple in three days I will build it again. And the Jews
think he's speaking of the literal temple there in Jerusalem that
was about to be destroyed. It had taken many years to build
but he was not speaking of that temple, he was speaking of his
body. Destroy this temple in three days I will raise it again
and when he rose from the dead his disciples remembered those
words that he had spoken. Now, observe here how the God's
eyes were very much upon the temple. What does Solomon say
there in 1 Kings 8.29? That thine eyes may be open toward
this house night and day. God's eyes was open towards the
house, towards the temple of the Lord day and night, and it's
a type of Christ. And the psalmist says, Behold
O God our shield, look upon the face of thine anointed. God's
eye is upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And in Christ our eyes meet the
eyes of God when we look to the Lord God. When we can say with
Jehoshaphat as we have it at the end of the prayer, but our
eyes are upon thee. Our eyes are to be unto the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the one we have to look
to and the Lord God himself looks upon him. And thinking again
of the Old Testament and the type, I think we have a remarkable
example in Jonah of the spiritual significance of the temple of
the Lord. Remember again the prayer that
Jonah prays. There in the second chapter of
the book, what does he say? Verse 4 of chapter 2, then I
said, then he's referring to where he is now, he's is in the
midst of the seas, the floods have compassed him about, all
God's waves and billows have passed over him, he's in the
fish's belly, he's in the very depths of the Mediterranean,
he has no idea really where Jerusalem is, where the temple of the Lord
is. And what does he say? Then I said, I am cast out of
thy sight, yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. It's
a spiritual look. He's not literally looking to
Jerusalem, to the temple, but in his soul he's looking to all
that that temple speaks of. Yet will I look again, he says.
And then at verse 7 he says, When my soul fainted within me
I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came in unto thee, into
thine holy temple. Oh, he's not just looking, but
he's entering in, his prayer is entering in. And isn't this
the privilege that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ? We have
boldness, we have access, with confidence by the faith of the
Lord Jesus Christ. For neither know we what to do,
but our eyes are upon Thee. Neither know we what to do. We
know not what to pray for as we ought. But Paul says, the
Spirit helpeth our infirmities, maketh intercession for us with
groanings that cannot be uttered. We have to pray, and we have
to pray in the midst of all our confusion, and pray even with
our groanings, and our sighings, our stumblings, and our stutterings. That's how we pray. Another prophet
says, a glorious high throne forever. is the place of our
sanctuary and that glorious high throne is the throne of Christ
and that's where we come that's why we come together tonight
to pray and now as a remnant we need to pray we're
only a few oh except the Lord had left unto us a very small
remnant a very small remnant we should have been As Sodom
we should have been like unto Gomorrah, says Isaiah. Or we have no might against this
great company, he says. There's much against us, a great
company against us. What are we to do, this little
remnant? We're to pray. God says to us, Fear not thou
worm Jacob, and ye men. The margin there in Isaiah 41,
14 says it's literally, Ye shew me. Worm, Jacob, and ye few men
of Israel, I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer,
the Holy One of Israel, who has given his promise. Again, the
psalmist can pray, Keep me as the apple of thy eye, hide me
under the shadow of thy wings. Oh, the Lord looks upon Christ,
He looks upon us, the body of Christ. We are as the apple of
His eye. What are we to do? We are to
look to Him. And we can come to Him in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we can come and ask all that
we need. Or think of Solomon. We need
to ask like Solomon asked. He asked for wisdom. Read it
there in 1 Kings chapter 3 from verse 5. Follow it. He asked
for wisdom. And that's what we need. We have
no wisdom. If a man lacks wisdom, he is to ask of God to give us
to all men liberally. And the bravest not is to ask
in faith. All we need to be like those children of Israel of whom
we read in 2 Chronicles 12. They were men which had understanding
of the times, it says. To know what Israel ought to
do. How do we get understanding? How do we get wisdom? We have
to come and we have to pray and we have to ask the Lord. And
we have all these things written here in God's Word and written
for our learning, for our instruction, that through faith and patience
of the Scriptures, we might have hope. Oh our God, will Thou not
judge them? For we have no might against
His great company that cometh against us, neither know we what
to do, but our eyes are upon the Lord. May the Lord bless
His word to us.