And the fear of God came upon all the kingdoms of the lands when they heard that the LORD had fought against the enemies of Israel. Sermons
II. That, under God's hand, THE EVIL WE FEAR IS MORE THAN BALANCED BY THE GOOD WE GAIN. When the Jewish army returned from the wilderness of Tekoa, richly laden with spoil (ver. 25), they would doubtless have said that it was much better for them to have had their agitation followed by their success than not to have had any invasion of the enemy. They certainly congratulated themselves upon the entire incident, and, in their hearts, blessed those Moabites and Ammonites for giving them such an opportunity of enrichment. When God is on our side we may expect that our dangers will disappear, and that from the things that threaten us we shall ultimately derive blessing. Such is now and ever "the end of the Lord" (John 5:11; Job 42:10). Only we must make quite sure that God is on our side; and this we can only do by making a full surrender of ourselves to him and to his service, and by seeing to it that we choose the side of righteousness and of humanity, and not that of selfishness and of guilty pride. III. THAT GOODNESS OF HEART SHOULD FIRST TAKE THE FORM OF GRATITUDE. Whither but to "the house of the Lord" should that jubilant procession move? (ver. 28). Gladness finds its best utterance in sacred song, its best home in the sanctuary of God. Thus and there it will be chastened; it will be pure, it will be moderated, it will leave no sting of guilty memories behind. Moreover, if we are not first grateful to God for our mercies, but rather gratulatory of ourselves, we shall nurse a spirit of complacency that is likely to lead us astray from the humility which is our rectitude and our wisdom. IV. THAT IT IS WELL WHEN OUR TRIUMPH IS LOST IN THE FURTHERANCE OF THE CAUSE OF GOD. It was much that Jerusalem was safe; but it was more that "the fear of God was on all the kingdoms" (ver. 29). We may heartily rejoice that our own person, our own family, our own country, has been preserved; we may much more rejoice when the cause and kingdom of Christ has been greatly advanced. This should be the object of our solicitude and of our rejoicing. V. THAT REST IS THE RIGHTFUL PURCHASE OF LABOUR AND OF STRIFE. (Ver. 30.) The country that has won its religious liberty by heroic suffering and strife (as with Holland) may well settle down to a long period of rest and peace. The man who has gone through several decades of anxious and laborious activity may well enjoy a long evening of life when the burden is laid down and the sword is sheathed. The quieter service of the later years of life seems a fitting prelude to the peaceful and untiring activities which constitute the rest of immortality. VI. THAT THE WORTHIEST HUMAN LIVES DO NOT CORRESPOND TO OUR IDEAL. If we were to construct an ideal human life, we should not introduce another unwise combination (ver. 37)add a disastrous expedition to cast a shadow on its closing years. Yet this was the case with Jehoshaphat. Our lives, even at their best, do not answer to our conceptions of what is perfectly beautiful and complete. We must not look for this, for we shall very seldom find even the appearance of it. We must take the good man as God gives him to us, with a true soul, with a brave spirit, with a kind and faithful heart, with a character that is very fair and perhaps very fine, but that leaves something to be desired; with a ]ire that is very useful and perhaps very noble, but that bears marks of blemish even to the end. - C.
Every one helped to destroy another. As we look upon the world at large, how do we see men occupied but as destroying one another! This is a marked character of the lower and worse forms of vice, that each degraded one has a wretched pleasure in bringing down other souls to the same level of degradation and ruin; but the same tendency to mutual destruction is to be seen in the first fallings away from God through all the subsequent steps in the downward road. When young men first lead one another away from home into the strange ways and strange company against which the wise man has raised his voice, what do they but destroy one another? And in the wildness which they call, for a time, pleasure — whatever form the self-indulgence, the sensuality, may wear — every one still helps to destroy another: actually, as to the misused and worn body, and with not less reality as to the corrupted and earth-engrossed soul. In another way, also, not less direct, not less fatal, though less regarded, each wanderer from God helps to destroy others. Example is sufficient to make danger. It would be a bold thing, indeed, for any one human being to look back upon his life, and to say that his example had not been fatal to some other soul. When the Spirit has done His work of converting the heart to God, and the saved sinner turns his eyes upon the sins which made the Cross necessary for him, who will not have Paul's remembrance of having given his word for death? Who will not have John Newton's memory of souls led into wrong, for whom there remains no power of recovery? And what is the record of this kind preparing for the unconverted, when a more true and more awful scene than the great dramatist has conceived of the presence of wronged souls in the visions of the night shall be upon the dying man, or, yet worse, upon the man after death; when the memory, no longer clouded by the flesh, no longer impeded by prejudice or passion, shall recall the multitudes to whom evil has been taught by word or by example; when the immortal spirit shall have the light of eternity poured upon the passed events of life, and the evil example of one look or one word shall be traced through all its train of consequences up to its final ruin of other souls? And this mutual destruction, which belongs to the very character of the unregenerate man, follows him hither even into the house of God. How is it that the children of our schools have so little profit here? that they know so little of all that passes here? How is it that we so rarely find the truth making its way from either desk or pulpit to the hearts of our docile young ones? Simply because they are destroying one another by combined inattention. The trifle which draws off the mind from prayer, the whispered word which puts some thought of earth in the place of the Bible, the merry smile which catches another's ready eye — these are the means by which every one helps to destroy another; so that grace is provided and preached in vain. And we can scarcely hope that this will be with children alone. In a congregation of merely nominal Christians, met merely for the sake of respectability, the work of mutual destruction would go on in the general support of their common lukewarmness, and. every one would help to destroy another in the subjects for conversation prepared in God's house, and the discussion of them in the homeward way.(David Laing, M.A.) People Ahaziah, Ammonites, Aram, Asa, Asaph, Azubah, Benaiah, Berachah, Dodavah, Eliezer, Geber, Hanani, Jahaziel, Jehoshaphat, Jehu, Jeiel, Kohathites, Korahites, Korhites, Levites, Maonites, Mattaniah, Meunim, Meunites, Moabites, Seir, Shilhi, Tamar, Tarshish, ZechariahPlaces Ammon, Edom, Egypt, Engedi, Ezion-geber, Hazazon-tamar, Jeruel, Jerusalem, Mareshah, Moab, Mount Seir, Seir, Tarshish, Tekoa, ZizTopics Countries, Dread, Enemies, Fear, Fought, Hearing, Kingdoms, Lands, News, Terror, WarOutline 1. Jehoshaphat, invaded by Moab, proclaims a fast5. His prayer 14. The prophecy of Jahaziel 20. Jehoshaphat exhorts the people, and sets singers to praise the Lord 22. The great overthrow of his enemies 26. The people, having blessed God at Berachah, return in triumph 31. Jehoshaphat's reign 35. His convoy of ships, according to the prophecy of Eliezer, unhappily perishes. Dictionary of Bible Themes 2 Chronicles 20:29 5367 kingdoms Library A Strange Battle'We have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon Thee.'--2 CHRON xx. 12. A formidable combination of neighbouring nations, of which Moab and Ammon, the ancestral enemies of Judah, were the chief, was threatening Judah. Jehoshaphat, the king, was panic-stricken when he heard of the heavy war-cloud that was rolling on, ready to burst in thunder on his little kingdom. His first act was to muster the nation, not as a military levy … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Holding Fast and Held Fast Of the Public Fast. The Coast of the Asphaltites, the Essenes. En-Gedi. "Thou Shall Keep Him in Perfect Peace, Whose Mind is Stayed on Thee, Because He Trusteth in Thee. " That the Employing Of, and Associating with the Malignant Party, According as is Contained in the Public Resolutions, is Sinful and Unlawful. Commerce Concerning Peaceableness Chronicles Links 2 Chronicles 20:29 NIV2 Chronicles 20:29 NLT 2 Chronicles 20:29 ESV 2 Chronicles 20:29 NASB 2 Chronicles 20:29 KJV 2 Chronicles 20:29 Bible Apps 2 Chronicles 20:29 Parallel 2 Chronicles 20:29 Biblia Paralela 2 Chronicles 20:29 Chinese Bible 2 Chronicles 20:29 French Bible 2 Chronicles 20:29 German Bible 2 Chronicles 20:29 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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