Trusting God's Plan in the Battle: Lessons From the Life of JehoshaphatIsampula

Day 11: After This…

We’ve arrived at the best part of Jehoshaphat’s story! This is the start of the battle for which he’s famous. Today’s passage from 2 Chronicles 20 begins with the words, “After this…” Whenever I see words like “after this”, “before this”, “the next day”, etc. it’s an invitation to check out what happened in the chapter right before then.

So, if we look again at the chapter before, we are reminded that Jehoshaphat had begun getting his nation to turn back to God after they had been worshiping idols and other false gods. Remember how he also appointed judges to administer God’s law? Jehoshaphat was helping his people repent of their sin and turn back to their Heavenly Father’s laws and commands.

Isn’t it ironic that once they set their hearts and minds to turn back to God, then enemies come to make war with them? Could this be a test to see if they will turn to God in this battle or fight in their own strength? Notice this isn’t just one enemy nation coming against them. It’s three! Imagine three different enemy nations converging to start a war with your country. You would be scared!

Does this scenario sound familiar to you? Have you ever decided to prioritize spending time with God and then all hell breaks loose right after you do that? You may decide to start going back to church, reading your Bible, or spending intentional time in prayer with God, but then distractions, problems and struggles in life pop up out of nowhere. It’s no coincidence. It’s spiritual warfare.

Friends, we live in a world where a spiritual war is battling for our souls every day. I’m not talking figuratively. This is literally happening all around you. Some people may not like to talk about spiritual warfare or demons because it scares them, but we’re told in Ephesians 6:12,“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

I don’t want to leave you frightened because we also know that for believers in Jesus, greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. Tomorrow, we’ll see what Jehoshaphat does when the enemy comes to attack. Good news friends, we can do the same thing when we are spiritually attacked!

Questions:

1. Have you experienced trying to make time with God a priority just to be disrupted? What happened?

2. Why do you think your spiritual enemy would attack you?

3. When having fights and arguments with people, does knowing Ephesians 6:12 change your perspective on that situation?