Lesson 5 The Lord's Battle Plan
Question 5
A Recipe for Disaster
To see the importance of seeking the Lord in these serious matters of the heart, let's consider a particular battle the Israelites fought against a little town called Ai. In Joshua 7, you can read the account of how the Israelites assumed that they would easily defeat Ai because it was just a small city. Yet, their assumption led to their downfall, as Ai handily beat them. Scripture shows us that the Israelites did not consult the Lord or ask for His plan, so they lost their battle.
As Christians, we must look to the Lord and seek His plan for our victory because if we don't, we'll find ourselves listening to the counsel of the world and just doing what seems logical to us, to our own detriment. The world has no experience of death to sin and resurrection to new life or walking with God's Spirit so that we don't gratify the lusts of our flesh.
The Lord might lead us to victory in ways that make no sense to the world, even as God's answer to man's sin problem was to hang His Son on a tree and judge Him, wound Him, pierce Him, and kill Him, to rescue the world from sin. The world looks at that event, and it makes no sense to them; it seems foolish and irrelevant.
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."
1 Corinthians 1:18
A Victorious Plan for Battle
We saw above that the Israelites lost their fight against Ai because they didn't seek the Lord's plan first and because someone in their camp was hiding sin; so now, let's consider an Israelite battle with a different outcome. We saw how to lose the battle, now let’s see how to win.
"After this, the Moabites and Ammonites with some of the Meunites came to wage war against Jehoshaphat. Some people came and told Jehoshaphat, "A vast army is coming against you from Edom, from the other side of the Dead Sea. It is already in Hazezon Tamar" (that is, En Gedi)."
2 Chronicles 20:1-2
Notice, this was a large army, and they are declaring war on God's king (Jehoshaphat) and God's people. This battle is what you and I face every day. Drunkenness, drugs, and cigarette smoking are a vast army with many resources, and they are coming after you and me! Soldier, what do we do? Well, let's see what Jehoshaphat did:
"Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah. The people of Judah came together to seek help from the Lord; indeed, they came from every town in Judah to seek him."
2 Chronicles 20:3-4
Ah, Jehoshaphat resolves to inquire of the Lord! In the next few verses, Jehoshaphat prays to the Lord, reminding God of His Word that promised the Israelites their inheritance in the promised land, and he ended with this statement:
"For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you."
2 Chronicles 20:12
Here Jehoshaphat freely acknowledges that the enemy was powerful and vast and that they, themselves, had no power and no understanding of what to do.
Friend, there is no shame in acknowledging that we face a powerful enemy that we don't know how to beat. Sometimes we go long years in slavery to sin until we recognize that all our human efforts, all our plans, all our efforts and fixes never actually set us free. This dependence is the proper position before God, that of looking to Him for victory.
Question 5. Please fill in the blank. “For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but ” (2 Chronicles 20:12).
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