This is the first time, since the reign of David, that the Moabites and the Ammonites go to wage war against God’s people, 2 Chronicles 20:1 / 2 Samuel 8:2 / 2 Samuel 12:26-30.
People came and told Jehoshaphat that the full power of the Moabites was mobilised, 2 Chronicles 20:2, but only a few Ammonites. Later, we read that the Edomites, those of Mount Seir, were also a part of this coalition against Israel. This news alarmed Jehoshaphat so he inquired of the LORD, and proclaimed a fast for all Judah, 2 Chronicles 20:3 / Mark 9:28-29.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following, concerning the fast, 2 Chronicles 20:3.
‘General fasts had been previously observed by the Israelites, Judges 20:26 / 1 Samuel 7:6, but we don’t hear of any fast having been ‘proclaimed’ by authority before this.’
The people of Judah came from everywhere to gather together to seek help from God, 2 Chronicles 20:4.
Jehoshaphat now stands up in the assembly at the temple in front of the new courtyard, 2 Chronicles 20:5. This is probably the outer court of the temple that had been rebuilt, 2 Chronicles 15:8. Jehoshaphat prays to God and notice how he addresses God.
1. To God omnipotent, 2 Chronicles 20:6.
2. To ‘our God’, 2 Chronicles 20:7 / 2 Chronicles 20:12.
3. The God especially ‘of this house’ the temple, 2 Chronicles 20:8-9.
Solomon prayed at the dedication of the temple, and here, Jehoshaphat calls upon God to answer not only his prayer, 2 Chronicles 20:6, but also Solomon’s prayer, 2 Chronicles 6:20-25.
Jehoshaphat obviously didn’t know what to do about the threat from the Moabites and the Ammonites and so, in his address to God, he asks the question, ‘did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel?’ 2 Chronicles 20:7. The answer to which is yes, He is. It was God who drove out the Canaanites, using the Israelites, Deuteronomy 2:5 / 2 Chronicles 6:28-31.
Notice that Abraham is described as ‘God’s friend’, 2 Chronicles 20:7. This expression came about because Abraham spoke to god as someone who speaks to his friend, Genesis 18:23-33 / Exodus 33:11. Jehoshaphat says to God because they have lived in the land God gave them and built a sanctuary for His Name, then no matter what happens God’s people will have the confidence to cry out because they know God will hear them and save them, 2 Chronicles 20:8-9.
Jehoshaphat complained that God didn’t allow Israel to destroy them when they first came out of Egypt, 2 Chronicles 20:10 / Deuteronomy 2:8-9 / Deuteronomy 2:19, but now, he complained, the Moabites and Ammonites were trying to cast Israel out of the land that God promised to Israel, 2 Chronicles 20:11.
He asks God, if he won’t judge them? Because His people have no power to face this vast army that is attacking them, 2 Chronicles 20:11. They don’t know what to do, but their eyes are on God, 2 Chronicles 20:12. It appears that this threat was serious because all the families were gathered together to plead with the Lord for His help, 2 Chronicles 20:13.
When the Spirit of the LORD came on Jahaziel, God speaks through him, and tells the people not to be afraid, 2 Chronicles 20:14-15, which tells us they obviously were afraid. The threat didn’t start because they were aggressive towards Moab and Ammon but because the Moabites and the Ammonites were trying to drive Judah out of the land.
Notice Jahaziel tells the people ‘the battle is not yours but God’s’, 2 Chronicles 20:15. In other words, Judah shouldn’t stress about the threat because God is going to deal with it, Exodus 14:13. Notice they were told that they were to march down against them, 2 Chronicles 20:16-17, despite God telling them that the battle wasn’t theirs but His.
In other words, they couldn’t just sit back and let it happen, they still had to go. It’s no wonder that Jehoshaphat and the people fell down to worship and praise God, 2 Chronicles 20:18. Some Levites from the Kohathites and Korahites stood up and praised the LORD, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice, 2 Chronicles 20:19.
Coffman, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Here we have the picture of a worshipping, praying Israel as the background of a most remarkable deliverance of God’s people from the ravages of a hostile invasion. There cannot be any doubt that many such deliverances of God’s people were similarly preceded by this same kind of a spiritual awakening of God’s people, and by their most fervent prayers and supplications.’
As the people were being led out to the Desert of Tekoa, 2 Samuel 14:2, Jehoshaphat addresses the people again and tells them to trust God and they will be successful, 2 Chronicles 20:20. After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the LORD and to praise him for the splendour of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: Give thanks to the LORD, for his love endures forever, 2 Chronicles 20:21 / Psalm 136.
As they began to sing and praise, God then moved the Moabites and Ammonites to turn on one another and their internal strife with one another was so intense that they destroyed one another, 2 Chronicles 20:22.
What started off as a threat to get rid of Judah, ended up with the Moabites and the Ammonites turning on each other and killing each other, 2 Chronicles 20:23. The events which unfold here remind us of the victory of Gideon over the Midianites, Judges 7, in a similar fashion, the invading forces destroyed themselves.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘These who lie in wait have been regarded as angels employed by God to confuse the host and cause its destruction, so that the Moabites and Ammonites first united to destroy the Edomites, and then turned upon each other.’
When the men of Judah came to the place that overlooks the desert and looked toward the vast army, they saw only dead bodies lying on the ground; no one had escaped, 2 Chronicles 20:24. Notice that there was so much spoil taken from the Moabite and Ammonite dead, it took three days to gather it all, 2 Chronicles 20:25.
They assembled together to cry out to God for His deliverance on the fourth day, to thank God for what He had done, but they not only thanked God, but they also blessed His Name because of everything He had done, 2 Chronicles 20:26. Jehoshaphat then leads all the men of Judah and Jerusalem returned joyfully to Jerusalem, because God had given them cause to rejoice over their enemies, 2 Chronicles 20:27.
They entered Jerusalem and went to the temple with harps and lyres and trumpets, 2 Chronicles 20:28. Word obviously got around about what had happened because all the other nations left Judah in peace, 2 Chronicles 20:29-30.
Jehoshaphat reigned as king of Judah, 1 Kings 22:41, and he was thirty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for twenty-five years in Jerusalem, 2 Chronicles 20:31 / 1 Kings 22:44 / 2 Chronicles 17-20. His mother’s name was Azubah, she was the daughter of Shilhi, 2 Chronicles 20:31 / 1 Kings 22:42.
Unlike the idolatrous practices of the northern kingdom, Jehoshaphat refused to get involved in, or even promote any kind of idolatrous practices at this time in the history of the southern kingdom, 2 Chronicles 17:1-20:37. He walked in all the way of Asa his father, doing that which was right in the eyes of God, 2 Chronicles 20:32 / 1 Kings 22:43 / 2 Chronicles 16:2-12.
Jehoshaphat is credited with being a godly and righteous king, doing that which was right in the eyes of the Lord. However, because Asa, his father, tolerated the sodomites and allowed the high places of the Canaanite sacrifices to remain, 1 Kings 14:21-24, he didn’t remove the high places and so, the people still sacrificed and burnt incense there, 2 Chronicles 20:33 / 1 Kings 22:43.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘In 2 Chronicles 17:6, it is expressly said, that he did take away the high places. Allowing that the text is right in 2 Chronicles, the two places may be easily reconciled. There were two kinds of high places in the land.
1. Those used for idolatrous purposes.
2. Those that were consecrated to God, and were used before the temple was built. The former he did take away, the latter he did not.
He shouldn’t have made peace with Ahab, 1 Kings 22:44. The other events of Jehoshaphat’s reign, the things he achieved and his military exploits, are written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah, 2 Chronicles 20:34 / 1 Kings 22:45.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The biographer of Jehoshaphat appears to have been Jehu, the son of Hanani, 2 Chronicles 20:34.’
It’s obvious that the king’s removal from the land of Judah of all of the practitioners of ‘male shrine prostitutes’, 1 Kings 22:46, was a God-approved act of Jehoshaphat, 1 Corinthians 6:10. We are told that there was then no king in Edom, but a provincial governor ruled, 1 Kings 22:47 / 2 Kings 8:22.
Just as Solomon had done before him, 1 Kings 9:26-28, Jehoshaphat, starts the big rebuilding process in the southern kingdom of Israel by sending trading ships to Ophir, 2 Chronicles 20:36 / 1 Kings 22:48.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘In 2 Chronicles 20:36, it is said that Jehoshaphat joined himself to Ahaziah, to make ships to go to Tarshish and they made the ships in Ezion-Geber, 1 Kings 9:26-28 / 1 Kings 10:11 / 1 Kings 10:22.’
It appears that Ahaziah of the northern kingdom wants to join in, however, Jehoshaphat didn’t think this was a good idea because he knew Ahaziah’s men would influence his sailors into idolatry, 2 Chronicles 20:35-37 / 1 Kings 22:49.
He was very much aware that Ahaziah would want to get involved in his affairs as king. The account in 1 Kings 22:49-50, speaks of Ahaziah’s attempt to continue as a partner with Jehoshaphat in that ship-building venture, but it is to the great credit of Jehoshaphat that, acting upon the warning of the prophet, he refused to allow it.
God’s punishment of Jehoshaphat for this alliance was the destruction of the ships, 2 Chronicles 20:37 / 2 Chronicles 8:18 / 1 Kings 22:48, that he had built to go to Tarshish, a city somewhere in Spain.
Coffman, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Although, in the general sense, Jehoshaphat did that which was right in the eyes of Jehovah, there were nevertheless some failures on his part. His failure to remove the high places, which had been removed, of course, but had been rebuilt by the people, again and again, and his alliance with Ahaziah, mentioned in the final paragraph here, were two examples. A third, which we should mention, was his choice of a wife for his son and heir Jehoram. Jehoshaphat evidently hoped to promote peace between Israel and Judah by arranging for the marriage of Jehoram to the daughter of Jezebel and Ahab. This might not have been considered a sin by some, but it was an unqualified disaster, nevertheless and it resulted in great sorrows for God’s people.’