HOW TO BE A FAITHFUL FATHER-FIGURE – 2 Chronicles 20:1-30
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on June 16, 2019 under 2019 |
Bethany Bible Church Sunday Message; June 16, 2019 from 2 Chronicles 20:1-30
Theme: The example of King Jehoshaphat teaches us what it’s like to be a spiritual ‘father figure’ to others for the glory of God.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
When I think of Father’s Day, I can’t help but think of the men that God brought into my life—in addition to my father—who were ‘father-figures’ to me. Particularly those who built into my faith. These men were ‘spiritual leaders’ to me—older men of the faith who modeled for me what it looks like to be a faithful follower of Jesus Christ. I know that I am now in the stage of life where they once were—and I hope that I can be to someone else what they were to me.
And with that in mind, I want to speak specifically on this Father’s Day to the men of our church. My appeal to you, dear brothers, is that we commit ourselves—with a renewed sense of holy responsibility—to be that kind of spiritual ‘father-figure’ to the people God has placed in our lives. Those other people don’t necessarily have to be our own children. In fact, they don’t even have to be ‘children’. But it is my belief that there are people around us who are longing for godly men who, in the power of the Holy Spirit, live a bold, strong, compassionate, consistent, loving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ out in the open—so that it shows those other people that our God is real, and that His promises are true, and that He can be trusted and turned to in all of life’s challenges.
Now, dear sisters in Christ; I hope you’ll listen this morning too—and that you’ll pray for these men. But dear brothers; my particular prayer for us as men of God is that we’ll start to be more courageous and others-conscious in our faith in Jesus; that we’ll intentionally take it in hand to—in moments of crisis or need—gather others around us who need our leadership and example and say, “Let’s all stop right here, right now, and pray about this situation and ask for the heavenly Father’s help.” I hope we’ll make it our habit to invite others to come to church with us; and that we’ll be excited about having them in God’s house; and that we’ll say to them, “Let’s go together to the house of God and worship Him! Let’s find out how we can serve Him there.” I hope that we’ll carry our Bible around with us more often; and not just on our mobile-device (though there’s certainly nothing wrong with having it on our device) but physically in our hand; so that the young people around us can see us carrying it—and can know, just by looking at us, that it’s God’s reliable rule for faith and practice in daily life. I hope that we’ll begin to take the lead to offer prayer before meals, and at special life events, and throughout the day; so that the people in our lives can see from us that—in spite of what the unbelieving world around us may think—there’s no shame in talking to God and declaring our absolute reliance upon Him.
Let’s be genuine men of God; and let the people in our lives see how we do it. Especially young people. Let’s lay down footsteps for them to follow. Let’s teach them how to love Jesus Christ and to live for Him. Let’s become a spiritual ‘father-figure’ to them. They are craving for such leadership. They need for you and me to demonstrate to them how a faithful walk with Jesus looks in real life.
And to help us learn how to do this, I ask that you turn with me to the Old Testament book of 2 Chronicles. It’s there that we find the story of a great king. You’ve heard of him before. His name was Jehoshaphat. He was a godly king over the people of Judah. It’s from the story of a moment of crisis in his life—and in the life of his people—that we can learn a little bit of what it looks like to be a faithful spiritual ‘father-figure’ to others.
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Now; I need to tell you that Jehoshaphat himself had learned from a good spiritual ‘father-figure’. The man he learned from also happened to be his own father—King Asa. Asa was an imperfect man. (All true spiritual ‘father-figures’, by the way, are imperfect men.) But he demonstrated trust in God in the midst of a great crisis—and I don’t believe his son Jehoshaphat ever forgot it.
Asa was a godly king who brought about some great spiritual reforms for his people. And at a certain point of his reign, a king from Ethiopia arose to threaten the Jewish people. This foreign king came out against the people of Judah with an army of one million soldiers. Imagine! A million-man-army! King Asa saw this dreadful army coming in for the attack. And the first thing that he did about it was to pray. In 2 Chronicles 14:11, we read that he cried out to the Lord and said;
“Lord, it is nothing for You to help, whether with many or with those who have no power; help us, O Lord our God, for we rest on You, and in Your name we go against this multitude. O Lord, You are our God; do not let man prevail against You!” (2 Chronicles 14:11).
The Lord struck this Ethiopian army and brought about an astonishing victory for the people of Judah that day. And Jehoshaphat never forgot his father’s bold example of trust in God.
When his father died, and he himself became king over his people, Jehoshaphat followed in his steps and trusted in God. He proved to be a very godly king who walked in the ways of his great-great-great-grandfather King David—and not in the unfaithful ways of the kings of the breakaway kingdom of Israel. Jehoshaphat was an imperfect man too—just as his father had been. He had his ups and downs; and he made many mistakes along the way. But here’s what the Bible tells us about him. In 2 Chronicles 17:3-6, it says;
Now the Lord was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the former ways of his father David; he did not seek the Baals, but sought the God of his father, and walked in His commandments and not according to the acts of Israel. Therefore the Lord established the kingdom in his hand; and all Judah gave presents to Jehoshaphat, and he had riches and honor in abundance. And his heart took delight in the ways of the Lord … (17:3-6a).
And let me just pause here and suggest to you, dear brothers, that this teaches us the first principle in being a good ‘father-figure’ to those around us. And that is to …
1. BE A CONSISTENT MAN OF GOD YOURSELF.
Do you know what the Lord Jesus taught us about this? He said; “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:40). We cannot pass on to others the kind of spiritual life that we do not have ourselves. If we want to encourage them to be strong in the faith, then we must be strong in that faith ourselves.
Now; that doesn’t mean that we have to be perfect. In fact; the very best thing that it would be possible for any of us to pass on to others is how an imperfect man or woman learns to love and trust a perfect Savior. But it does mean that, with God’s help, we need to be the real thing. Have you sincerely placed your full trust in the cross of Jesus? Have you made Him your Savior, and surrendered yourself to Him as Lord? Have you begun to put away sin in your private life, and are you growing daily in a walk of faithfulness to Him? Do you read the Bible regularly and diligently; and do you obey what it says? Do you turn to Him in the troubles of life, and do as He commands?
Let’s begin to become the kind of spiritual ‘father-figures’ other people need us to be by—first and foremost—being faithful men of God ourselves. Let’s make sure that we are the real thing!
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Jehoshaphat was the real thing. He was a consistent, faithful man of God. He didn’t suddenly try to become a man of God as soon as trouble arose, but was a man of God already. And when the crisis arose, he was ready to lead his people to trust God in the midst of it.
And the crisis did indeed arise! He had already begun to bring about many spiritual reforms for his people; and 2 Chronicles 20:1-2, we read,
It happened after this that the people of Moab with the people of Ammon, and others with them besides the Ammonites, came to battle against Jehoshaphat. Then some came and told Jehoshaphat, saying, “A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, from Syria; and they are in Hazazon Tamar” (which is En Gedi) (2 Chronicles 20:1-2).
Ammon and Moab were the people groups that were born from the daughters of Abraham’s nephew Lot. They were long-time enemies of the Jewish nation. When the people of Israel left Egypt in the exodus, God commanded them to leave Ammon and Moab alone. And yet, here we see that they had risen up in hostility to God’s people. What’s more, “others with them” were coming. Some Bible translations have it that they were ‘the Meunites’; a people group near Mount Seir in Edom. It must have seemed like all the enemies of Judah were joining forces and arising against her at once! They had gathered at En Gedi, along the western side of the Dead Sea—which meant that they were only one day’s marching distance away from Jerusalem!
What a dreadful crisis! But this leads us to another principle we learn from Jehoshaphat about being a good ‘father-figure’; and that’s that we must …
2. TAKE THE LEAD IN TURNING TO THE LORD.
Verses 3-4 tell us;
And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. So Judah gathered together to ask help from the Lord; and from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord (vv. 3-4).
Jehoshaphat was afraid. So were all of his people. But just as his father had done, he immediately turned to the Lord for help. And what’s more, he got all the other people of Judah to turn to the Lord too.
This was Jehoshaphat’s pattern. There was a time when he had become wrongly associated with the wicked king of the northern kingdom, King Ahab. It was a mistake to have entered into a partnership with Ahab; because Ahab was an ungodly man who listened to and relied on false prophets. Once when Ahab was about to go to battle, he gathered up all his false prophets to tell him what he wanted to hear. But Jehoshaphat was there; and he asked him, “Is there not still a prophet of the LORD here, that we may inquire of Him?” (2 Chronicles 19:6). Jehoshaphat trusted the Lord; and he tried to get others—even wicked King Ahab—to trust Him too. And now—in this great moment of crisis—he called upon all his people to trust in the Lord.
Dear brothers in Christ; let’s follow Jehoshaphat’s example. In moments of crisis, let’s make sure we turn immediately to the Lord. But let’s not be the only ones who do. Let’s call others around us to turn to Him with us. Let’s gather them together, form the circle, join hands with them, and lead them in bringing our concerns to the Lord together! Let’s encourage all of them to turn to Him—and even teach them how to do it. That’s what a faithful spiritual ‘father-figure’ does.
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As we read on, we see that a faithful ‘father-figure’ will also …
3. SET THE EXAMPLE IN PRAYER.
In this moment of crisis, Jehoshaphat led his people in a public prayer. He led them in prayer right in the very temple of God. Many years before, his great-great-grandfather King Solomon built the temple; and when Solomon dedicated it, he prayed and asked that the Lord would incline His ear there, and hear the prayers His people would pray in moments of great need. And Jehoshaphat was now leading his people in doing the very thing that King Solomon prayed about.
And look at the nature of his prayer. From it, we learn the kinds of things that we should exemplify to others in our prayers in moments of great crisis. First, he began by affirming God’s character. He calmed his heart, took a deep breath, and remembered what God is like in the midst of his trial. Verses 5-6 tell us;
Then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, before the new court, and said: “O Lord God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven, and do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, and in Your hand is there not power and might, so that no one is able to withstand You?” (vv. 5-6).
You know, dear brothers; we do a great service to the people around us when we take the time, in such moments of crisis, to get everyone else to calm down and remember what a great God our God is—and to affirm His greatness and His sufficiency in prayer together!
And then, Jehoshaphat led them in remembering God’s promises. God had already said some things in His word that had to do with the crisis they were facing. In verses 7-9, he prayed;
“Are You not our God, who drove out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel, and gave it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever? And they dwell in it, and have built You a sanctuary in it for Your name, saying, ‘If disaster comes upon us—sword, judgment, pestilence, or famine—we will stand before this temple and in Your presence (for Your name is in this temple), and cry out to You in our affliction, and You will hear and save’” (vv. 7-9).
God had said that He gave that land to the people of Israel. He had pledged Himself to take care of them when they cried out to Him in His temple. What a great thing it is that we do for others around us when we help them remember the things that God promised in His own word! In a time of crisis, a good spiritual ‘father-figure’ helps those under his influence to call to mind what God has already promised to do.
And then, Jehoshaphat prayed in such a way as to remember how God was present in this situation—putting things in perspective. In verses 10-11, Jehoshaphat prayed;
“And now, here are the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir—whom You would not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them and did not destroy them—here they are, rewarding us by coming to throw us out of Your possession which You have given us to inherit” (vv. 10-11).
We serve the people around us well when we remind them that God is present and very active in our times of trouble. He sees and knows what’s going on. He hasn’t left us. And then, finally, Jehoshaphat takes the lead in asking for God’s help. He gets right down to it in verse 12 and prays;
“O our God, will You not judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You” (v. 12).
This was a prayer very much like the prayer his father Asa prayed in a time of crisis. And note verse 13. Jehoshaphat didn’t pray all this alone. He led his people in it. It says, “Now all Judah, with their little ones, their wives, and their children, stood before the Lord” (v. 13).
Dear brothers; sometimes the people around us just don’t know what to do. They don’t know how to turn to God and pray in moments of great need. Let’s show them how to turn to God. Let’s take their hand and lead them in prayer. Let’s pray with them; and get them to pray with us. Let’s teach them what to say. Let’s be good spiritual ‘father-figures’; and set the example for them in prayer!
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Now; God heard that prayer. Verses 14-17 tell us;
Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly. And he said, “Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the Lord to you: ‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s. Tomorrow go down against them. They will surely come up by the Ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the brook before the Wilderness of Jeruel. You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!’ Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord is with you” (vv. 14-17).
God was going to fight the battle for them. This didn’t mean, though, that they were to be passive. They were to go forth to that army, stand still, and watch what God would do. And with confident trust in God’s promise, Jehoshaphat shows us another thing that we—as good spiritual ‘father-figures’ should do for those under our care; and that is to …
4. TURN THEM TO GOD IN WORSHIP.
Jehoshaphat led his people in being so confident in God’s care for them that they went before their enemies with song and worship. Verses 18-21 tell us;
And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem bowed before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. Then the Levites of the children of the Kohathites and of the children of the Korahites stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with voices loud and high.
So they rose early in the morning and went out into the Wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.” And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the Lord, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying:
“Praise the Lord,
For His mercy endures forever.” (v. 21).
Imagine going out to meet an enemy army with the worship-team in the lead. But that’s what they did. Jehoshaphat—like a good spiritual father—got the people praising and singing in worship. They went out to meet the enemy as if God had already brought about the victory.
And as they praised and worshiped Him, God did indeed bring about the victory! Verses 22-23 tell us;
Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated. For the people of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir to utterly kill and destroy them. And when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another (vv. 22-23).
By the way—who was in these ‘ambushes’ that the Lord had set up? Where did they come from? We’re not told. Perhaps God sent His own army—the angels—out to fight the battle for His people. But in any case, what a lesson this teaches us! God works mightily when we trust Him so much that we worship and praise Him in the midst of our troubles!
And this, dear brothers, teaches us another way that we can be good, faithful spiritual ‘father-figures’ to those around us. Let’s teach them to sincerely worship and praise God in the midst of trouble. Let’s get them to count on His promises so much that we are able to lead them in songs of victory. “Great Is Thy Faithfulness!” “Victory in Jesus!” “How Great Thou Art!” Let’s show them how to praise God in times of trial—and how to watch for God to work.
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And I believe we learn from Jehoshaphat one more thing that we—as godly ‘father-figures’ can do for those around us. When we—all together—see God work on our behalf; let’s be sure to …
5. REMIND THEM TO GIVE THANKS.
The people of Judah had quite a miracle to give thanks for. Verse 24 tells us;
So when Judah came to a place overlooking the wilderness, they looked toward the multitude; and there were their dead bodies, fallen on the earth. No one had escaped (v. 24).
But as we read on, we find that God didn’t command His people to position themselves before their enemies just so that they could see their enemies were defeated. Verse 25 tells us;
When Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away their spoil, they found among them an abundance of valuables on the dead bodies, and precious jewelry, which they stripped off for themselves, more than they could carry away; and they were three days gathering the spoil because there was so much (v. 25).
For whatever strange reason, these enemy armies—that, by the hand of God, ended up fighting and killing each other on behalf of the people of Judah—also ended up coming to the battle with a bunch of valuables and precious jewelry with them. And what did the people of Judah do? Verses 26-30 tell us;
And on the fourth day they assembled in the Valley of Berachah, for there they blessed the Lord; therefore the name of that place was called The Valley of Berachah until this day. Then they returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, with Jehoshaphat in front of them, to go back to Jerusalem with joy, for the Lord had made them rejoice over their enemies. So they came to Jerusalem, with stringed instruments and harps and trumpets, to the house of the Lord. And the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries when they heard that the Lord had fought against the enemies of Israel. Then the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet, for his God gave him rest all around (vv. 26-30).
Jehoshaphat was in the lead! He led his people back to the temple—where they had prayed to God just four days before; and they all had a celebration of thanksgiving together. A good spiritual-leader—a spiritual ‘father-figure’—not only helps the people around him learn to trust God. He also helps them to remember to give thanks to God when the victory is won.
Let’s never let those around us forget to acknowledge God’s goodness to us.
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Jehoshaphat was a good ‘father-figure’. He was a consistent man of God. He led his people in turning to God in a time of trial. He set the example of prayer. He taught them to worship God in their time of need. And when it was all over, he reminded them to give thanks.
Jehoshaphat wasn’t the only good example of a ‘father-figure’, though. Paul was another. I love what he once wrote to his young mentee Timothy. He often called Timothy his ‘son’ in the faith; and near the end of his own life, Paul wrote and told him;
But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra—what persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 3:10-15).
Dear brothers in Christ, let’s use this Father’s Day to remember the godly father-figures that God brought into our lives. Let’s be grateful for the ways that they built into our life of faith. Let’s also learn from these great examples in God’s word. And then—by God’s help—let’s now go forth and be good spiritual ‘father-figures’ to others in Jesus’ name.
EA
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