Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2923
“And Judah gathered themselves together to ask help of the Lord.” 2 Chronicles 20:4.
JERUSALEM was startled by sudden news. There had for a great while been quiet preparations made in the distant countries beyond Jordan. Upon its mountains, Edom had been getting ready—the workshops of Petra had been ringing with the hammer, the enemies of Israel had been beating their pruning hooks into spears and swords and they were now coming down in hordes. There were three great nations and these were assisted by the odds and ends of all the nations round about so that a great company eager for plunder was drawn up in battle. They had heard about the riches of the temple at Jerusalem. They knew that the people of Judea had for years been flourishing and they were now coming to kill and to destroy and to sack and to plunder. They were like the grasshoppers or the locusts for multitude. What were the people of God to do? How were these poor Judeans to defend themselves? Their immediate resort was to their God. They do not appear to have looked up their armor and their swords with any particular anxiety. The fact was that the case was so altogether hopeless, as far as they were concerned, that it was no use looking to anything beneath the skies. And as they were driven from all manifest earthly resorts, they were compelled to lift up their eyes to God.
And their godly king Jehoshaphat aided them in so doing. A general fast was proclaimed and the preparation to meet the hosts of Moab, Ammon and Edom was prayer! No doubt if the Ammonites had heard of it, they would have laughed. Edom would have scoffed at it and Moab would have cursed those that made supplication. “What? Do they suppose that their prayers can defeat us?” would have been the sneer of their adversaries. Yet this was Israel’s artillery— this was their eighty-one ton gun! When it was ready, it would throw one bolt, and only one—and that would crush three nations at once! God’s people resorted only to the invisible arm—the arm Omnipotent—and they did well and wisely.
Now, if the Lord shall teach us to imitate them and, by His Grace, enable us in doing it, we shall have learned a great lesson! The preacher needs to learn it as much as anybody and he prays that each one of you may also be scholars in the School of Faith and become very proficient in the Divine art of prayer and praise!
I. First, then, HOW DID THEY ASK FOR HELP? They asked for their help, as you know, by a general fast and prayer. But I mean, what was the style of that prayer in which they approached the Lord?
And the reply is, first, they asked for help, expressing their confidence. “O Lord God of our fathers, are not You God in Heaven? And rule not You over all the kingdoms of the heathen? And in Your hand is there not power and might so that none is able to withstand You?” If we begin by doubting, our prayer will limp. Faith is the tendon of Achilles and if that is cut, it is not possible for us to wrestle with God. But as long as we have that strong sinew, that mighty tendon unhurt, we can prevail with God in prayer. It is a rule of the Kingdom, though God often goes beyond it, “According to your faith be it done unto you.” I have known Him give us a hundred times as much as our faith, but, Brothers and Sisters, I have never known Him give us less! That could not possibly be. This is His minimum rule, I may say, “According to your faith be it unto you.” When, therefore, in time of trouble you ask help of God, ask it believing that He is able to give it! Ask it expecting that He will bestow it. Do not grieve the Spirit of God by unworthy doubts and mistrusts—these things will be like fiery arrows in your own soul and drink up the very life of your strength. However hard the struggle and difficult the trial, if you seek the Lord, seek Him in the confidence He deserves.
Then they sought God, pleading His past acts. This is a fashion of prayer which has been very common among the saints and it has proved to be very potent. “Are not You our God who did drive out the inhabitants of this land before Your people, Israel, and gave it to the seed of Abraham, Your friend forever?” Remember what God has done for you and then say, as a sweet refrain, “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever.” When you are praying, recollect what He was yesterday if you cannot see that He is comfortable towards you today. If there are no present manifestations of Divine favor, recall the former days—the days of old—the years of the right hand of the Most High. He has been gracious to you—can you tell how gracious? He has abounded towards you in loving-kindness, tenderness and faithfulness—He has never been a wilderness or a land of drought unto you. Well, then, if in six troubles He has delivered you, will you not trust Him for seven? If you get to 60 troubles, cannot you trust Him for sixty-one? You have been carried, some of you, I see, till gray hairs are on your head. How long do you expect to live? Do you think you have got an odd 10 years left? Well, do you think that the Lord who has blessed you 70 years will not keep you the other ten? We say that we ought always to trust a man until he deceives us. We reckon a man honest till we find him otherwise. Let it be so with God, I beseech you! Since we have found Him good, faithful, true, kind, tender—let us not think harshly of Him now that we have come into strains, but let us come to Him thus and say, “Are not You our God? Did not You bring us up out of the horrible pit and out of the miry clay? Did You not bring us up out of the Egypt of our sin? Surely You have not brought us into the wilderness to destroy us? Will You leave us now? True, we are unworthy, but we always were so and if You needed a reason for leaving us, You have had ten thousand reasons long ago! Lord, do not be angry with Your servants—do not cast us away.” That is the style of pleading which prevails! Imitate these men of old who asked help by recalling the past.