The battle was raging within me; the dreaded deadline was fast approaching. After investing forty-two years of labor behind the wheel of a brown truck, my husband’s pension, our livelihood, was in peril. We had been warned for months of upcoming severe cuts to our income. That hard-earned money was eroding away like sand on a beach succumbing to the pounding of the surf. Now those cuts had arrived. My spirit whispered, Trust, but my flesh was screaming, Panic! My Father already knew the need of my troubled heart, and in love He directed me to the Valley of Berachah, found in II Chronicles, chapter 20. Allow me to summarize this fascinating story for you, and for my troubled soul.
The king of Judah, King Jehoshaphat, was facing a major crisis, a battle so difficult, an enemy so formidable, and the odds of winning, nonexistent. We are told this king had a human response, “he feared.” But he did not dwell in that fear, as I am prone to do, for we are told that he “set himself to seek the LORD.” He poured out his heart’s burdens at the feet of powerful Jehovah God. Oh, dearest God, we have no might, the company is too great, and we don’t know what to do, “BUT OUR EYES ARE UPON THEE.” Jehoshaphat didn’t know what to do, but he was confident that God did have a plan. And God graciously responded, “Be not afraid…for the battle is not yours, but God’s.”
When Jehoshaphat took his army to confront the enemy, he set his singers on the front line. Singers, first? Seriously? They must have been some REALLY good singers? And those singers had a battle plan; they were to thank God for His everlasting loving-kindness and to praise His holiness. That was the extent of the plan, and sing they did! What was to be a bloody battle was over before it began. Jehoshaphat and his army were shocked as they surveyed the scene before them, they saw the enemy soldiers and “they were all dead bodies fallen to the ground.” Jehoshaphat never raised a weapon, but was victorious. His army would spend three days gathering the enemy’s spoil, “…more than they could carry away.” Then they assembled at the Valley of Berachah to bless the mighty name of the Lord and to thank Him for this unexplainable, but glorious, victory.
Sometimes I need reminded that as thankfulness and praise ascends, hopelessness disappears. Every situation that I face has passed through my Father’s hands first. When my burden is placed in the hands of the One Who has proved Himself again and again, I can have victory, even through testing and trial. My desire is to dwell in the Valley of Berachah.
II Chronicles 20:15 …for the battle is not yours, but God’s.
Lord, help me when my faith is weak. I am in the hands of a loving Father; nothing can cross my path that has not passed through Your hands. I want to be a singing saint, always praising You in spite of my circumstances. The battles are Yours, and so are the victories!