THE GOD THAT FIGHTS BATTLES
In the 14th year of King Hezekiah of Judah, the king of
Assyria (Sennacherib) came up against the walled cities of Judah
and it is written "he took them" (2 Kings 18:13). Only Jerusalem,
the capital of Judah remained to be taken by the mighty Assyrian
Empire.
A messenger by the name of Rabshakeh was sent from assyria
to Hezekiah saying, "What kind of mad confidence do you have
trust in, that you should have faith in whoever you have faith
in, and should rebel against me the mighty king of Assyria?"
Rabshakeh was not yet done with words. He proclaimed in a
loud and vain voice, "Hear the word of the great king of assyria.
Let not Hezekiah deceive you: for he shall not be able to deliver
you out of the hand of my king. Let not Lord will surely deliver
us, and this city shall not be delivered into the hands of the
king of Assyria.' Harken not unto the crazy words of Hezekiah,
for this is what the king of Assyria says, 'Make a covenant with
me, send me gifts, come out to me, in humility, to surrender.
Then you can go back and enjoy the fruit of your land, until I
come to take many of you to my land which is also a land of milk
and honey; so you then will not die. Don't listen to Hezekiah
when he tells you the Lord will deliver you. Has there been ANY
gods of the others nations that have delivered them out of my
hand?'" (verses 28-33).
When Hezekiah heard these words he rent his clothes, he was
sick at heart, downcast, and in grief went unto the house of the
Lord. He sent Eliakim and Sheba the scribe and the elders of the
priests to Isaiah the prophet. And they said to him, "This day is
a day of trouble, of rebuke, and of blasphemy, for the day of
reckoning has come, and there is not enough strength to bring
forth victory. Will it be Isaiah that the Lord your God will hear
all the words of the vain king of Assyria, who has reproached the
living God; will your God reprove these words from Sennacherib?"
Isaiah listened to the messengers from Hezekiah, and
replied, "This is what you will tell your master. Thus says the
Lord, Be not afraid of the words which you have heard, which the
servants of the king of Assyria have said in blaspheming Me.
Behold, I will send a BLAST upon them, and he shall hear a
rumour, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to
FALL by the sword in his own land" (chap.19:1-7).
The king of Assyria was not done yet. He sent other letters
to Hezekiah saying that he should not trust in his God to deliver
Jerusalem out of his hand. No other gods had delivered the other
nations whom he had conquered (verses 8-13).
Hezekiah, after receiving the letter from the king of
Assyria, went into the house of the Lord, and prayed before the
God of Israel, saying:
"O Lord God of Israel, that dwells between the cherubims: You are
THE God, even only You, of all the kingdoms of the earth; You
have made heaven and earth. Lord, please be king and listen, open
your ears, and see with your eyes, and hear the words of this
pompous king of Assyria; he has reproached You most Holy One. It
is true indeed that the king of Assyria has destroyed all these
other nations, and has cast their gods into the fire; for they
were no gods anyway, but only the work of men's hands in wood and
stone. O Lord God SAVE US, that all the kingdoms of the earth may
know that YOU are the ONLY true Lord God" (verses 14-19).
Isaiah, the prophet of God, once more sent to Hezekaih
saying, "Thus says the Lord God of Israel, I have heard your
words which you prayed to me.....Therefore thus says the Lord
concerning the king of Assyria. He shall not come into this city,
nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor
cast a bank against it. By the very raod that he came, by the
same road he shall return, and shall not come into this city. For
I will DEFEND this city, to SAVE it, for mine own sake, and for
my servant David's sake" (verses 32-34).
And it came to pass that night, that the ANGEL of the Lord
went out, and SMOTE in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred
fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the
morning, behold, THEY WERE ALL DEAD CORPSES!!
So Sennacherib king of Assyria DEPARTED, and went and
returned, and dwelt at Nineveh" (verses 35-37).
This vain blasphemous king of Assyria was killed by his own
sons (verses 37).
THE LORD GOD IS MIGHTY IN BATTLE! HE IS THE ONE WHO RULES
THE UNIVERSE! ALL WHO WILL PUT THEIR TRUST IN HIM TO WAGE WAR ON
THEIR ENEMIES WILL FIND HE IS ABLE TO WIN THE WAR, TO DESTROY
THEIR ENEMIES. IT IS HE WHO HAS THE POWER OVER LIFE AND DEATH.
THE NATION THAT TRUSTS IN HIM HAVE NO NEED TO BUILD ARMIES, TO
SPEND BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN ARMS DEFENCE. IF THE HOLY ONE OF
ISRAEL IS THEIR GOD AND CHAMPION, HE WILL FIGHT FOR THEM, AND
DESTROY THEIR ENEMIES!
THIS IS ALSO A PART OF KNOWING THE CHARACTER OF THE TRUE
GOD!
......
JEHOSHAPHAT KNEW THE TRUE GOD
"And it came to pass, that the children of Moab, and the
children of Ammon, and with them mothers also, came against
Jehoshaphat to BATTLE!" (2 Chron.20:1).
Jehoshaphat knew that Judah was indeed in trouble, there was
no way his people could fight such a mighty force of all this
army from different nations, that were coming up against Judah.
He was feared. He set himself to seek the Lord. He called
for a FAST throughout Judah. All Judah came to seek the Eternal
God. Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah in Jerusalem,
in the house of the Lord, and said: "O Lord God of our Fathers,
You are in heaven, You rule over all kingdoms, in Your hand is
POWER and MIGHT, so no one is able to stand before You. You are
our God, the One who delivered this land into our hinds, as you
promised Abraham, your friend! We have built You a sanctuary. You
have said that if when EVIL comes upon us, like the SWORD,
judgment, pestilence, famine, and we stand before this house, and
in thy presence, (for your name is in this house) and CRY unto
You in our affliction, then You have said You WILL HEAR AND HELP.
So, Lord, now behold, the children of Ammon and Moab and Seir
.... they would come to CAST US OUT of the land you gave us to
inherit. O our God, will you not judge them? We have NO MIGHT to
stand before them, so great an army, nor do we know what we can
do. We have only You we can call upon" (verses 3-12).
And so all Judah stood before the Lord with their little
ones, their wives, and their children (verse 13).
Then upon Jahaziel son of Zechariah, came the spirit of the
Lord, and he said, "Harken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of
Jerusalem, and you king Jehoshaphat, for thus says the Lord, 'Be
NOT AFRAID nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for
the BATTLE IS NOT YOURS, BUT GOD'S. When you go down to face the
enemy, you will not need to fight in this battle, STAND STILL AND
SEE THE SALVATION of the Lord. O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not,
nor be dismayed; to morrow go out against them: for the Lord will
be with you!" (verses 14-17).
And it was that all Judah and Jerusalem and the king
Jehoshaphat bowed their heads and worshipped the Lord God
Almighty (verse 18).
It is written:
"And they rose early in the morning, and went forth ... and
Jehoshaphat stood and said, 'Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants
of Jerusalem, BELIEVE in the Lord thy God, so shall you be
established; BELIEVE His prophets, so shall ye prosper.' And when
he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the
Lord, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went
out before the army, and to say, 'Praise the Lord, for his mercy
endures forever.'
And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set
ambushments against Seir, which were come against Judah, and they
were smitten. For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against
the inhabitants of mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them:
and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every
one helped to destroy one another. And when Judah came towards
the watch tower in the wilderness, they looked unto the
multitude, and, behold, THEY WERE DEAD BODIES FALLEN TO THE
EARTH, AND NONE ESCAPED!" (verses 20-24).
THE ETERNAL GOD HAS MAY WAYS TO DESTROY THE ENEMIES OF HIS
PEOPLE. THOSE WHO WILL TRUST IN HIM, OBEY HIM, SERVE HIM, HE WILL
FIGHT FOR THEM. THE BATTLE IS THE LORD'S AND HE WILL DESTROY THE
ENEMY!!
"Then they returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, and
Jehoshaphat in the forefront of them, to go again to Jerusalem
with JOY; for the LORD HAD MADE THEM REJOICE OVER THEIR ENEMIES.
And they came to Jerusalem with psalteries and harps and trumpets
unto the house of the Lord. And the FEAR of God was on all the
kingdoms of the countries, when they had heard that the LORD
FOUGHT against the enemies of Israel.
So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet: for his God gave him rest
round about" (verses 27-30).
......
THERE IT IS FRIENDS! YOU HAVE READ IT WITH YOUR OWN EYES! IT IS
WRITTEN THAT IF A NATION WILL TRUST IN THE LORD GOD, HE WILL
FIGHT THE BATTLE, HE WILL GIVE VICTORY, HE WILL DEFEAT THE
ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD!
WE HAVE HAD TWO THOUSAND YEARS AND MORE OF THE NATIONS OF THE
LORD, THE NATIONS OF ISRAEL, PUTTING THEIR TRUST IN THEIR OWN
ARM, THEIR OWN WAR MACHINES, AND SO IT IS NOW UNTHINKABLE FOR
THOSE NATIONS TO PUT AWAY THEIR ARMIES, TO STOP SPENDING
TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS ON PHYSICAL WEAPONS, AND TO TRUST THEIR GOD.
IT MAY BE WRITTEN ON YOUR MONEY THAT "IN GOD WE TRUST" BUT IN
REALITY IT IS FAR FROM THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER.
THERE WILL BE ONE MORE ROUND; WE SHALL HAVE TO BE DEFEATED AND
TAKEN AS SLAVES TO THE LAND OF OUR ENEMIES, BE IN A HOPELESS
CONDITION, TO FINALLY ONCE MORE COME BACK TO PUTTING OUR ONLY
TRUST IN THE DELIVERING ARM OF OUR GOD, TO SAVE US, TO BRING US
BACK TO THE HOLY LAND, WHERE WE SHALL HAVE NO MORE BARS AND
WALLS, NO MORE SWORDS AND SPEARS; WHERE WE SHALL HAVE ONLY OUR
LORD GOD TO FIGHT FOR US. THEN WE SHALL SURELY KNOW THE MEANING
OF "STAND STILL, FOR THE BATTLE IS THE LORD'S!"
THIS TRUTH IS ALSO KNOWING THE TRUE GOD!
.....................
Keith Hunt
Entered on my website March 2009
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