II. THE SOURCE, OF OUR SUPPORT, AND CAUSE OF VICTORY. "But with us is the Lord our God, to help us, and to fight our battles." This denotes —

1. Possession.

2. Presence.

3. Support.

4. Victory.

5. The Father is with us.

6. The Son is with us.

7. And the Holy Ghost is with us.

III. THE RESULT OF GOD'S MANIFESTED PRESENCE. "And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah, king of Judah."

(T. B. Baker.)

1. Numbers are no surety. Gideon's army had to be reduced before it could conquer the Amalekites.

2. Worldly wisdom, policy, shrewdness, enterprise, will not ensure success.

3. Unlimited creature resources of every kind are insufficient.

4. The most seemingly favourable outward circumstances, as to time, place, auspices, expectations, combinations, oftentimes but deceive into carnal security and insure the worst kind of defeat.

II. At the POSITIVE SIDE — the assured, unfailing conditions of victory in the sense of Righteousness and Godliness.

1. We must have God on our side. There must be no doubt on this point.

2. We must be careful to be on God's side.

3. This brings out the point which the Apostle John emphasises so strongly (1 John 5:4, 5).

(J. M. Sherwood.)

1. A great man.

2. A good man.

3. A courageous man.

4. A hearty man.

5. In such a case God will add His sanction by granting success and he will be a prosperous man.

6. A man who has respect for God's word.

II. In the second place let us TURN THE OTHER WAY AND LOOK AT THE KIND OF PEOPLE WHO REST ON SUCH A MAN'S WORD.

1. Children do so with their parents.

2. Illiterate people who cannot read.

3. Unconverted persons who have no spiritual discernment.

4. Persons who naturally run in a groove. Having attended at such a place of worship, and having been brought up in the midst of a certain set of godly people, they scarcely deviate one jot from the teaching that they have received. Almost by the necessity of their nature they rest on what they hear.

5. Persons who profess always to do their own thinking. If you will trace them home, they are in nine cases out of ten the veriest slaves that ever lived. They are the bondservants of some heretic or other who has put it into their heads that in following him they become free men.

III. THE KIND OF WORDS YOU MAY REST ON. You may safely rest on —

1. Words which urge you to faith in God.

2. Words which are the words of God Himself.

3. Words which are sealed by the Lord Jesus.

4. Words which have been blessed to other men.

5. Words which breathe a sense of rest into the soul.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

     5305   empires

2 Chronicles 32:9-19

     7240   Jerusalem, history
     7245   Judah, kingdom of

Some Buildings in Acra. Bezeiha. Millo.
Mount Sion did not thrust itself so far eastward as mount Acra: and hence it is, that mount Moriah is said, by Josephus, to be "situate over-against Acra," rather than over-against the Upper City: for, describing Acra thus, which we produced before, "There is another hill, called Acra, which bears the Lower City upon it, steep on both sides": in the next words he subjoins this, "Over-against this was a third hill," speaking of Moriah. The same author thus describes the burning of the Lower City: …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

The Power of Assyria at Its Zenith; Esarhaddon and Assur-Bani-Pal
The Medes and Cimmerians: Lydia--The conquest of Egypt, of Arabia, and of Elam. As we have already seen, Sennacherib reigned for eight years after his triumph; eight years of tranquillity at home, and of peace with all his neighbours abroad. If we examine the contemporary monuments or the documents of a later period, and attempt to glean from them some details concerning the close of his career, we find that there is a complete absence of any record of national movement on the part of either Elam, …
G. Maspero—History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, V 8

Temporal Advantages.
"We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content."--1 Tim. vi. 7, 8. Every age has its own special sins and temptations. Impatience with their lot, murmuring, grudging, unthankfulness, discontent, are sins common to men at all times, but I suppose one of those sins which belongs to our age more than to another, is desire of a greater portion of worldly goods than God has given us,--ambition and covetousness …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VII

Gihon, the Same with the Fountain of Siloam.
I. In 1 Kings 1:33,38, that which is, in the Hebrew, "Bring ye Solomon to Gihon: and they brought him to Gihon"; is rendered by the Chaldee, "Bring ye him to Siloam: and they brought him to Siloam." Where Kimchi thus; "Gihon is Siloam, and it is called by a double name. And David commanded, that they should anoint Solomon at Gihon for a good omen, to wit, that, as the waters of the fountain are everlasting, so might his kingdom be." So also the Jerusalem writers; "They do not anoint the king, but …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

The Girdle of the City. Nehemiah 3
The beginning of the circumference was from 'the sheep-gate.' That, we suppose, was seated on the south part, yet but little removed from that corner, which looks south-east. Within was the pool of Bethesda, famous for healings. Going forward, on the south part, was the tower Meah: and beyond that, "the tower of Hananeel": in the Chaldee paraphrast it is, 'The tower Piccus,' Zechariah 14:10; Piccus, Jeremiah 31:38.--I should suspect that to be, the Hippic tower, were not that placed on the north …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

Chronicles
The comparative indifference with which Chronicles is regarded in modern times by all but professional scholars seems to have been shared by the ancient Jewish church. Though written by the same hand as wrote Ezra-Nehemiah, and forming, together with these books, a continuous history of Judah, it is placed after them in the Hebrew Bible, of which it forms the concluding book; and this no doubt points to the fact that it attained canonical distinction later than they. Nor is this unnatural. The book …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament