When King Jehoshaphat was told that a great multitude was coming to fight against him, we read that he “feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah”. Accordingly, the people of Judah gathered themselves together to ask help of the Lord, and Jehoshaphat prayed for them in the house of the Lord. In his prayer he acknowledged that the Lord was their God and that He had power to deliver.
In that prayer Jehoshaphat appeals directly to the Lord for the overthrow of their enemies saying, O our God, wilt Thou not judge them. At the same time he acknowledges their own helplessness before these numerous foes of Moabites, Ammonites and others. He says, “We have no might against this great company that cometh against us,” confessing in this way that their own arm could not save them. So, too, does he acknowledge the insufficiency of their own wisdom to meet the crisis that has arisen, when he says, “neither know we what to do.” Yet he does not stop there but goes on to say — “but our eyes are upon Thee.”
It is obvious from this where Jehoshaphat’s help lay. It was not in his own strength or in the strength and power of the armies of Judah, but in the Lord his God. He is the alone Deliverer. He is the help of His people in their time of need. When all other refuges fail, there is One who never fails and in whom His people can safely trust and look for deliverance from all their enemies.
What a formidable alliance of Judah’s enemies at this time confronted Jehoshaphat. So it is with the Church of God at different times in her history. It is not just one single foe with which she is faced but many foes allied together and seeking her destruction. Her preservation from generation to generation notwithstanding her numerous enemies, is a standing miracle, and an evidence of the outputting of Divine power on her behalf. Self-help has no place in her preservation or deliverance. She is closed in to dependence upon her God — “our eyes are upon Thee.” This is a Source of help which will never fail, notwithstanding her many fears. Hath He said it, and shall He not do it? He who is the Preserver of Israel, the One who slumbers not nor sleeps, will sustain His own Church and Cause in the world in the darkest day and preserve her from all the onslaughts of the enemy.
So is it also with the individual believer. The enemies that beset him or her about are no less numerous. The Lord’s people, like Jehoshaphat, are confronted with enemies altogether too formidable for them. What a combination of mighty foes are found in the alliance between the world, the flesh and the devil, all intent on the destruction of the child of God! How hopeless their case if their deliverance was in their own hand! They have to look outwith, and beyond themselves for deliverance — even to the mighty God of Jacob, who is an almighty deliverer. He is engaged on their behalf. Because they have trusted in Him, they shall never be put to shame. They have to say, “If it had not been the Lord who was on our side . . . then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us.” But they have also to say with the Psalmist, “Blessed be the Lord, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth.”
Let the Church of God and the people of God, then, not be afraid. So long as they make the God of Jacob their refuge, they have nothing to fear. While they exercise dependence upon the Lord for their deliverance, saying, “Our eyes are upon Thee”, their safety is assured. It is honouring to Him, it is God-glorifying to acknowledge dependence upon Him, and He will glorify His own Name in their preservation and deliverance.
Let Israel’s help from Zion come:
when back the Lord shall bring
His captives, Jacob shall rejoice,
and Israel shall sing.”