Well, let us turn again to God's
Word in this portion of Scripture that we've just read in the second
book of Chronicles. And you will have observed that
what we read from verse 5 through to verse 12 is the record of
the prayer of Joshua. And it's the closing words of
that prayer that I really want to center your attention upon.
There at the end of verse 12, he says, Neither know we what
to do, but our eyes are upon thee. In 2 Chronicles 20, the
end of verse 12, Neither know we what to do, but our eyes are
upon thee. They are, of course, strange
days in which we are living, and we're constantly being bombarded,
as I said, in prayer by the media, and some conclude that everything
is being hyped up, and others are full of many fears and anxieties. and at times one is so unsure
as to what should be done. We're aware of this Corona virus
that has come upon the Earth and extended over, it seems,
all the face of the Earth in these days. And I'm aware already
that some chapels have suspended all their services. We know that
the National Church has done that, but I'm thinking of those
of our own connection, strict Baptist chapels. I understand
some are not having any more services. They're hoping that
somewhere or other they can minister to the people online. and one
wonders whether we're right to continue as we are and even to
meet together in this fashion this evening. It's interesting
because I was thinking of those words in relation to the coming
again of the Lord Jesus Christ, words that we find in Luke 21-25,
we are told, upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity and
men's hearts failing them for fear. The Lord Jesus himself
spoke those words and there are these harbingers, these guarantees
really that the Lord will come. but there are many things that
yet have to be fulfilled. And so, it's not surprising that
we find a godly man like Jehoshaphat when the little kingdom of Judah
was in grave danger, uttering such words as I've announced
for our text. Neither know we what to do, but
our eyes are upon thee. Jehoshaphat was one of the most
godly of all the kings that reigned in Judah. We read of him coming
to the throne a few chapters previously, there in the 17th
chapter. And we're told at verse 3, 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." The reference here, of course,
to the Northern Kingdom, the Ten Tribes, which were known
as Israel, and those Ten Tribes, they were very much at times
under most ungodly kings, and at that time it was Ahab, wicked
Ahab, who was the king in that northern kingdom. And the strange
thing is that this godly man, this man Jehoshaphat, enters
into a league with Ahab, and we see the record of that and
the consequences of that in chapter 18. You can read the chapter
through, I'll just refer you to the opening verses. Jehoshaphat,
we're told, had riches and honor in abundance and joined affinity
with Ahab. And after certain years he went
down to Ahab, to Samaria, Samaria being the capital of Israel,
and Ahab killed sheep and oxen for him in abundance and for
the people that he had with him, and persuaded him to go up with
him to Ramath Gilead. And Ahab, king of Israel, said
unto Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, wilt thou go with me to Ramoth
Gilead? And he answered him, I am as
thou art, and my people as thy people, and we will be with thee
in the war, the war against the Syrians. He joined affinity with
the ungodly. And in what follows we see how
in the battle. Ahab is in disguise, but Jehoshaphat
is still there in his kingly robes. And at the end of that
18th chapter, verse 30, the king of Syria had commanded the captains
of the chariots that were with him, saying, Fight ye not with
small or great, save only with the king of Israel. And it came
to pass, when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat,
that they said, It is the king of Israel. Therefore they compassed
about him to fight, but Jehoshaphat cried out, and the Lord helped
him, and God moved them to depart from him. For it came to pass,
that when the captains of the chariots perceived that it was
not the king of Israel, they turned back again from pursuing
him. And a certain man drew a bow
at a venture, and smote the king of Israel between the joints
of the harness therefore he said to his chariot man turn thine
hand that thou mayest carry me out of the host for I am wounded
and it was a deadly wound and by that that arrow that was fired
as it were at a venture a chance thing the world would say That
wicked man Ahab was killed and God preserved godly Jehoshaphat
by the skin of his teeth. He was a good man, but he's a
man clearly of like passions as we are. How often do we do
many foolish and many sinful things. even though we profess
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And here we see how this man
was restored in chapter 19. Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah,
returned to his house in peace to Jerusalem. And Yehu, the son
of Anani, the seer, went to meet him and said to King Jehoshaphat,
Shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord?
Therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord. And what does he do? He's brought
to bow before God. Nevertheless, continues the prophet,
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. He was a man whose heart was
prepared, a man whose heart was prepared of God, a man who was
brought to seek after God. And here in chapter 20, in this
prayer, verses 5 to 12, we see something of the content of his
prayer at this later time when now Judah is in danger from the
Moabites and the Ammonites. And he looks to the Lord. In the words of our text, neither
know we what to do, but our eyes are upon thee. Well, as we turn to these words
tonight and consider something of his prayer, and I trust that
in this prayer we see something that is opposite to the situation
that we're in. how he addresses God at the beginning
of the prayer. We have those opening words,
O Lord, God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? Rulest
not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? And in thine
hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand
thee? And then he speaks of God's great
favor towards the children of Israel in bringing them into
the possession of the promised land. He makes reference to the
words of Solomon at the dedication of the temple. He's there in
the temple, that sanctuary that was built, where in God's name
dwells. Verse 9, 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. And that temple, of course, a
remarkable type of the Lord Jesus Christ, thy name is in this house.
And as we come, we come together for that purpose of prayer. But
before we turn to prayer, I do want us to, for a short while,
consider these words at the end of verse 12. Eyes that are up
unto the Lord. This is where the godly look.
Isn't that looking to the Lord really one of the marks of those
who are truly the godly? And turning the eyes to God is
of course a remarkable act of faith because we do not see God
with our natural eye. And yet the Lord God says unto
men, look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth for
I am God and there is none else. With the eyes, we're always looking
away from ourselves. We're aware, I'm sure, that we
never really see our own eyes. At best, we might see our eye
in the reflection from a mirror, but the eye is always looking
away from self, and the eye of the believer is fixed upon God. We read of Moses how he endured
seeing him who was invisible. And it is that God, the invisible
God, that we come together tonight to address our prayers to. Now this coronavirus, I suppose,
in many ways is invisible. Doubtless the scientists can
examine it under a microscope, but we cannot see it with the
natural eye. But the invisible God is far greater than that. Far, far greater than that. Now
Paul, there at the end of 1 Timothy 1 says, unto the King eternal,
immortal, invisible, the only wise God, the honour and glory
forever. This is the God that we come
to address in our prayers. This is a God that we're to look
to day by day, even in these strange days. We know that God
is sovereign. Our God is in the heavens, says
the psalmist, he doeth as he pleaseth. And God is able even
to humble such a proud monarch as the Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar. and that man brought to confess
God as we read there in Daniel chapter 4 where he says that
God does according to his will among all the armies of heaven
and the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or
say unto him what doest thou? Oh we know then that this is
a mark of the godly that they are such as walk by faith that
those who are brought to look to the invisible God. In 1 Kings
1 and verse 20 we read, The eyes of all Israel are upon thee. Now mark what is being said there. What is the mark of an Israelite?
His eyes are upon the Lord. We read of his own elect which
cry day and night unto him. Here is a mark of election. the
elect, they look to God, they call upon God, they pray to God.
The eyes of all Israel. But who are the real Israel of
God? We know, we're told quite clearly
by Paul that they're not all Israel, they're not of Israel.
In the Old Testament the nation of Israel is atypical people
and in that ethnic Israel there were those who were the true
Israel. the spiritual Israel, but they were a very small remnant. And amongst that small remnant
there was such a man as Jehoshaphat. He was a true Israelite. All
we know, we're told again by the Apostle there at the end
of Romans chapter 2, that he is not a Jew which is one outwardly,
neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh,
but he is a Jew which is one inwardly, And circumcision is
that of the heart in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise
is not of men, but of God. The true circumcision. And what
is that true circumcision? It's circumcision of the heart.
It's regeneration. It's those who are born again. And we see that so clearly in
a man like the apostle. or remember when the Lord appears
to him when the Lord calls him there in Acts chapter 9 and Ananias
is the man who must go and find him in the street called straight
there in Damascus he's now blinded and this disciple who was doubtless
aware that Saul had come as a persecutor but he must go and he must lay
his hands upon him that he might receive his sight and how is
he reassured by the Lord God Acts 9,11 behold he prayeth that's
what said to Ananias concerning this Mansoul of Tarsus this Pharisee
doubtless as a Pharisee he had said many prayers oh he was a
Pharisee of the Pharisees he was even the son of a Pharisee
and he would have observed all the stated hours of prayer that
the Pharisees attended to and yet he had never really prayed
before until the Lord met with him. Or when we pray it's because
the Lord moves us to pray. This is the mark of those who
are the true spiritual Israel. This is the mark of God's elects,
that their eye is upward. The eye of faith are looking
to the Lord. Neither know we what to do, but
our eyes are upon them. Oh, and how apt it is, because
at this time one has to confess we scarce know what to do. You
try to think about the situation, you make a decision, And then
you hear something else and you think, have I made the right
decision? Or should we do this? Should we do that? Oh, but what
a comfort if our eyes are upon the Lord. And as God's children
fix their eye upon Him, the amazing thing is that the Lord Himself
looks upon the godly. In all his dealings, even in
his judgments, we know that God is beholding his people. And we see this right at the
beginning in the days of the flood, that terrible judgment
that God visited upon the ancient world, the world before the flood,
the antediluvian world, as it's called. And what wickedness then
in the earth. Genesis 6.5 God saw that the
wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And
it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and
it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy
man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man
and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air, for
it repenteth me. that I have made them. But Noah
found grace. And where did Noah find grace?
In the eyes of the Lord. Here is God, He is going to judge
a wicked world, but there is a man that finds grace in God's
sight. And I think in the man, he is
a man of that day, that generation, but he finds grace. Surely, we
can see even today there is a scourge upon the earth. But isn't God's
eye upon His people? Doesn't God keep His people?
And God keeps them as the apple of His eye. As we see in that 32nd chapter of Deuteronomy,
the song of Moses Deuteronomy 32, and there at
verse 8 following, When the Most High divided to the nations their
inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the
bounds of the people according to the number of the children
of Israel. For the Lord's portion is His people. Jacob is the lot
of His inheritance. He found him in a desert land
and in the waste, howling wilderness. He led him about. He instructed
him. He kept him as the apple of his eye. Oh, when God sets
the bounds of all the nations, it's according to the number
of the children of Israel. His eye is always upon the elect. It ever was so, and he keeps
his elect in all circumstances, and he keeps them as the apple
of his eye. We're told in the New Testament
how God hath put all things under his, that is, under Christ's
feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church. The Lord Jesus is head over all
things in relation to his church. God's eye is ever upon his people
and he keeps them. There is a special tender care
that God has towards his own. Zechariah 2.8, he that touches
you, says God, or says the prophets, speaking of God, he that touches
you, touches the apple of his eye. All God's people there is
the apple, that tender spot, the apple of His eye. And we see it, we see it in the
language of the wise man, he speaks of the eyes of the Lord,
the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and
the good. For the ways of man are before
the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings. All
God watches. And as God watches, what does
he do? Well, the Lord, watching over all things, will at times
come and try and test his people. That's what the Lord does. He
deals with this world, but always in his dealing, his eye is particularly
upon his own people. And I think of the language that
we find in another of the Psalms, in Psalm 11. Psalm 11 and there
at verses 4 and 5. We're told the Lord is in his
holy temple. Remember how in the prayer of
Jehoshaphat, he's aware of God's presence there. In the temple
the Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven.
His eyes behold, his eyelids try the children of men. The
Lord trieth the righteous, but the wicked and him that loveth
violence his soul hateth." Well, this is the God that we have
to do with. He tries his people, he tests
his people. again we have that imagery at
the end of the Old Testament in the book of Malachi where
the Lord God is set before us as the refiner who is constantly
watching over the precious metal that he has in his crucible and
he's purifying he's purifying that precious silver, that precious
gold look at the language that we have in Malachi 3.2, "...who
may abide the day of His coming. He shall stand when He appears,
for He is like a refiner's fire and like full of soap. And He
shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and He shall purify
the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they
may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness." What do we
recognize? that even now this is that day
in which the Lord appeareth. The things that are happening
all about us, they're under the hand of the Lord. The Lord is
in all of these things, all the current turmoil. Does he not have a voice? The
Lord's voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall
see thy name. He is aright. And who hath appointed
it, says the prophet Micah. God's eye, I say, is upon all
things, but God's eye is in particular upon His children. And He tries
them, the trial of your faith, being much more precious than
of gold that perisheth, that it might be found unto praise
and honour and glory of the appearing of Jesus Christ. All were to
be those then who would be looking to this God, just as this gracious
man, King Jehoshaphat, did. He can say that his eyes, or
the eyes of all the godly in Israel, our eyes are upon thee.
Neither know we what to do with the end of ourselves, but our
eyes are upon thee. All that wisdom from above, that's
what we need. That wisdom that is first pure
and gentle and easy to be entreated and full of mercy and good fruits.
And without partiality and without hypocrisy. What is that wisdom?
It's found only in one. That one who of God is made unto
us wisdom. The Lord Jesus Christ. And so
when these godly pray to God, what do they do? They come in
and they come through the Lord Jesus Christ. Believers ask God
to look upon Christ and to behold them as they are in Him. Psalm 84.9, Behold, O God, our
shield, and look upon the face of Thine Anointed. Isn't that
how we're to pray? God is our shield, and when we
come to Him in prayer, we say, look upon the face of Thine Anointed. The Anointed is the Christ, the
Messiah. It is only in Christ that sinners
are accepted. It is only in Christ that sinners
are justified and accounted as righteous. We certainly have
no righteousness of our own. Why, all our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. We fade like a leaf, our iniquities
like the wind, they carry us away. All our wretchedness. And yet the Psalmist can say,
the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are
open to their cry all the eyes of the Lord are
on the righteous that is those who are in Christ and he will
hear us even as we come just a handful a little company but
we come to plead that name which is above every name we are to
be those who are looking unto Jesus the author and the finisher
of our faith. We are to come in faith. We know
without faith it is impossible to please God. But remember here
we have the record of a gracious man's prayer and these things
are written for our learning. Oh, we have the prayer of this
man as he calls upon the God of Israel, 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 thine hand is there not
power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee? Art
not thou our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land
before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham
thy friend for ever? 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 in thy presence, for thy name is
in this house, and cry unto thee in our affliction. Then thou
wilt hear and help. And now, behold, the children
of Ammon, and Moab, and Mount Seir, whom thou wouldst not let
Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt, but
they turned from them, and destroyed them not. Behold, I say, O thou
reward us to come to cast us out of thy possession. which
thou hast given us to inherit. 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 thee. And as the people are standing
there before the Lord with their little ones, their wives, their
children, our God immediately sends His servant, Jehaziel,
the son of Zechariah, the prophet. And He immediately answers their
prayer. Oh, they will see. They will
see the salvation of God. Set yourselves, stand ye still,
and see the salvation of the Lord with you. O Judah and Jerusalem,
fear not, nor be dismayed. Oh God, be pleased then to Bless
to us His Word to encourage us even here in this prayer of gracious
Jehoshaphat. May the Lord bless His Word. Now let us, before we do pray,
sing the Metrical Psalm 123. And the tune is Lloyd 172. O thou that dwellest in the heavens,
I lift mine eyes to thee. Behold, a servant's eyes are
turned, their master's hand to see, and as upon a mistress'
hand a handmaid's eyes attend. Our eyes are on the Lord our
God, till He us mercy sends. Psalm 123. O Thou that dwellest in the heavens,
I lift mine eyes to Thee. Behold, a servant sighs or turns
their master's hand to see. And as upon a mistress' hand
Our handmaid's eyes attained Our eyes are on the mood of gold
Cheerious mercy sent O Lord, be gracious unto us,
unto us gracious be, because replenished with content exceedingly
are we. Our soul is filled with scorn
of those That at their ease abide of those that left in Christ.