Jehoshaphat
Facing Our Fears
We become brave by doing brave acts.
— Aristotle
Marine Corps General Chesty Puller once referred to the Korean Conflict as a "dirty little war, but the only one we have." I was in the military then and, though I never saw combat in Korea, I saw some of the casualties of that dirty little war. It was an engagement in which the enemy refused to fight fair.
I've seen the look of terror in men's eyes, unfaded by years of relative safety — the look of men who've been to hell and back and can't forget what they've seen.
I've seen that same terrible look in the eyes of men who've told me they have prostate cancer, are victims of corporate downsizing, are facing bankruptcy and ruin, or have been abandoned by their wives. They too look as though they've been to hell and back; they too have seen an enemy that will not fight fair.
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There is an irony about anxiety, however, that takes away its power: it can make us braver than we ever were before. Courage is not fearlessness, but a settled disposition to do what is right in the face of our fear. "Courage is not the absence of fear," reads a line in The Red Badge of Courage, "it is the ability to do what we must."
There's a narrative in the Old Testament that makes that point. It's the story of King Jehoshaphat, a man who learned to face down his fears.
A day in the life of Jehoshaphat
Jehoshaphat was a relatively obscure ruler of the southern kingdom of Judah. Second Chronicles 20 reports on a day in his life that began like any other day, but quickly turned into chaos:
After this, the Moabites and Ammonites with some of the Meunites came to make war on Jehoshaphat. Some men came and told Jehoshaphat, "A vast army is coming against you from Edom, from the other side of the Sea. It is already in Hazazon Tamar" (2 Chronicles 20:1-2).
It was "after this," our author notes, that enemies from the east sought to invade and overcome Judah. It is significant that these armies massed and mounted their attack at this particular time. Jehoshaphat was on a high. This was a time of great victory for the young king. God had made him his instrument to bring about a great revival (1 Chronicles 19:4-11).
With the announcement of the invasion King Jehoshaphat came down from his high in a hurry. Hazazon Tamar was only fifteen miles from Jerusalem, less than a day's march away.
This was a daring and unexpected move in which the invaders crossed the Dead Sea, probably at a ford opposite
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Masada, and climbed one of the difficult assents directly into the heart of the Judean hills. Before Jehoshaphat was aware of their presence they were in position to strike Jerusalem, the capital city of Judah. The crisis was total!
Crises come like this, unbidden, unexpected, and often after some life-changing decision or a period of spiritual gain. We should expect them: every advance on our part will always be met by a counterattack from the far side. The question is not, Will we be assaulted? The questions are, When will we be attacked? and What shall we do when it happens?
Jehoshaphat knew what to do:
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).
Jehoshaphat was badly frightened, and he admitted it — unlike some men who deny their fear. It's too bad that they do, because the first step to overcoming any anxiety is to face it. The current "no fear" fad is pure baloney. A man who does not know fear is unsafe and unsound, a menace to himself and to others.
Fear ought to lead us to do the best thing, what Jehoshaphat did. He inquired of the Lord and sought help from him. That's a reflex unknown to ordinary men, who first search their own minds for the thing to do. Jehoshaphat, an extraordinary man, stood with his people in the house of the Lord and prayed.
Then Jehoshaphat stood up in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem at the temple of the LORD in the front of the new courtyard and said:
O LORD, God of our fathers, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the
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nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you. O our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend? They have lived in it and have built in it a sanctuary for your Name, saying, 'If calamity comes upon us, whether the sword of judgment, or plague or famine, we will stand in your presence before this temple that bears your Name and will cry out to you in our distress, and you will hear us and save us.'
"But now here are men from Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, whose territory you would not allow Israel to invade when they came from Egypt; so they turned away from them and did not destroy them. See how they are repaying us by coming to drive us out of the possession you gave us as an inheritance. O our God, will you not judge them? 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 upon you."
All the men of Judah, with their wives and children and little ones, stood there before the LORD (2 Chronicles 20:5-13).
Jehoshaphat focused first on God and found that everything was under control in heaven and earth. At ground-level the view was appalling, but there was no panic above. Like John he saw the Lord on his throne resting on a "sea of glass." There was no fuss, no frenzy, no hysteria.
God was not pacing the floor, biting his nails, wondering what in the world he would do. He always knows what to do. He always "works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will" (Ephesians 1:11). There's no need to worry.
"God works in tranquility," one old saint has said. And those who know the God of peace share his calm and quiet nature.
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God is working out his purpose
'spite of all that happens here.
Lawless nations in commotion,
restless like a storm-tossed ocean.
He controls their rage and fury
so his children need not fear.
Let our hearts then turn to heaven
where he bides his time in peace
Giving him our heart's devotion
till the present troubles cease.
- Author unknown
Then Jehoshaphat looked back and thought about God's faithfulness in the past: "O our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham, your friend?" (20:7).
He reminded himself that God had given Canaan to his people by covenant; he had guaranteed their integrity in the land. No one could oust them without his permission.
Those who had lived when God gave Israel land, and had learned their faith back then, said that when crises came, a man could cry out to God in his distress and he would be heard and saved (20:9). And so Jehoshaphat prayed: "Now, here they are — men from Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir . . . O our God will you not judge them? 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" (20:10-12).
There is a significant juxtaposition of two thoughts here: "Power and might are in your hand . . ." (20:6), and "We have no power . . ." (20:12).
We have no power; God has it all. He does not give power to anyone in the sense that his power is ours to have and to hold. We are always weak. We are never strong. The only strength we have is the strength that comes from God. "Not
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that we are sufficient in ourselves," Paul echoes, "but our sufficiency is from God" (2 Corinthians 3:5).
Sometimes we feel weak; sometimes we feel strong. But we must always keep in mind that we are never strong, even when we feel that way. We are always needy, always incompetent, always inadequate, always inept, always desperately dependent on God. Without him we can do nothing.
Perhaps the most startling of all Jesus' statements about himself was his insistence that he too was an inadequate being. "The Son," he said, "can do nothing of himself" (John 5 :30).
Jesus' incarnation included taking on our weakness. He, like us, had to rely on God every moment of every day. Each morning he had to abandon his own strength and strategies and offer himself up, confident that his Father's power would lead him into greater works than he could envision or accomplish alone. "Oh the mystery of humility," F.B. Meyer said, "that he who planned all things should live a life of such absolute dependence."
I recall walking into Ray Stedman's office one day to lament my own limitations. Some months before, I had been handed a large ministry. I knew I would surely fail. "I'm so inadequate," I bemoaned.
"Yes, you are, my friend — and so am I," Ray quipped, "and it's good that we know it. Some men labor all their lives never knowing that they are inadequate."
Jehoshaphat knew. He looked at his limitations and then looked to the Lord as the only source of his help: "We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you." That's a prayer we should breathe every moment of every day, not just when our backs are against the wall. When that becomes our mindset then significant things begin to happen.
G.K. Chesterton once pointed out that if a man needs wisdom, he may cry out, "William Shakespeare, help me!" and nothing much will happen. If he needs courage, he may cry out, "Billy Budd, help me! and nothing much will happen. But for
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two thousand years, whenever a man has cried out, "Lord Jesus, help me," something truly momentous happens.
Something happened after Jehoshaphat's plea. Someone in the crowd spoke up — Jahaziel, one of the brothers:
"Listen, King Jehoshaphat and all who live in Judah and Jerusalem! This is what the LORD says to you: 'Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God's. Tomorrow march down against them . . . You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you . . . Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the LORD will be with you'" (20:15-18).
The battle was the Lord's. It was his business to do the fighting. Jehoshaphat's role was to stand fast and see what God would do. This is what Paul means when he writes,
Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes . . . Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand you ground, and after you have done everything, to stand (Ephesians 6:10-13).
"Standing" is a mental posture, a refusal to run away, to retreat into self-indulgent and self-protective devices. It is a matter of standing one's ground and waiting to see what God will do.
But standing also means engaging our fears. We have to "march down against them"; we must identify the thing we fear and face it. That's sometimes the hardest thing in the world to do. Our natural inclination is to flee.
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John Bunyan, in The Pilgrim's Progress, tells how Christian encountered Apollyon, the hideous, scaled monster who blocked his progress to the Celestial City. Apollyon taunted him and tried to intimidate him, and he almost succeeded: "Christian began to be afraid, and to cast in his mind whether to go back, or to stand his ground. But he considered again, that he had no armor for his back, and therefore thought that to turn the back to him might give him greater advantage with ease to pierce him with his darts." So Christian resolved to face the fiend because, he said, "it is the only way to stand."
We must not run from our fears; we only expose ourselves to greater danger when we do. We must "get in the face" of those things we fear and then see what God will do.
The next day
The next morning Jehoshaphat's fears returned, as they always do, but he looked again into God's Word and found there the assurance he needed to go on. He said to his army, "Have faith in the LORD your God and you will be upheld; have faith in the prophets and you will be successful" (20:20). Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
This is what Paul means when he writes,
Take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (Ephesians 6:16-17).
Satan never gives up. He continues to harass us, reminding us of our impotence and inability to act, insinuating that God cannot be trusted to keep his word. "Has God really said . . .?" he sneers.
He flings himself against us again and again. He tries to overwhelm us with repeated assaults. For each attack we must
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raise the shield of faith and unsheathe our sword — stir ourselves to remember what God has said and get a good grip on his word.
Once again, Bunyan's description of Christian's encounter with Apollyon helps us understand the process. Apollyon, unable to dissuade Christian from his journey, turned from subtlety to brutality: he hurled a flaming spear at Christian's breast. But the good man deflected it with his shield.
Then did Christian draw his sword, for he saw 'twas time to bestir him; and Apollyon as fast made at him, throwing darts as thick as hail; by the which, notwithstanding all that Christian could do to avoid it, Apollyon wounded him in his head, his hand, and foot. This made Christian give a little back; Apollyon, therefore, followed his work amain, and Christian took courage, and resisted as manfully as he could. This sore combat lasted for above half a day, even till Christian was almost quite spent. For you must know that Christian, by reason of his wounds, must needs grow weaker and weaker.
Then Apollyon, espying his opportunity, began to gather up close to Christian, and wrestling with him gave him a dreadful fall; and with that Christian's sword flew out of his hand. Then said Apollyon, "I am sure of thee now!" And with that, he had almost pressed him to death, so that Christian began to despair of life. But as God would have it, while Apollyon was fetching of his last blow, thereby to make a full end of this good man, Christian nimbly reached out his hand for his sword, and caught it, saying, "Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy! When I fall, I shall arise" [Micah 7:8]; and with that gave him a deadly thrust, which made him give back, as one that had received his mortal wound. Christian
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perceiving that, made at him again, saying, "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us" [Romans 8:37]. And with that Apollyon spread forth his dragon's wings, and sped him away. And Christian saw him no more.
So then, with confidence restored, Jehoshaphat marched off to face his foes. The band struck up a tune, and Jehoshaphat and his army went off to war, singing an old sustaining song: "Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His love endures forever."
Imagine the march. Jehoshaphat reached the top of the first hill from which he could look down into the Jordan valley. There he saw his enemies massing for the attack. Then they were lost from sight as he dropped into a valley.
He climbed another hill from which he could look down on the Ascent of Ziz and see the enemy on the march up the wadi. He descended and once again his enemies disappeared from view only to appear again at the next rise. Each hill became another occasion to renew his faith.
Then as he approached the final hilltop he drew his sword and led the charge — to find "only dead bodies on the ground" (2 Chronicles 20:22-24). "The LORD had set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated. The men of Ammon and Moab rose up against the men from Mount Seir to destroy and annihilate them. After they finished slaughtering the men from Seir, they helped to destroy one another."
Jehoshaphat's enemies were DOA. There was nothing left of them but their booty.
So Jehoshaphat and his men went to carry off their plunder, and they found among them a great amount of equipment and clothing and also articles of value —
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more than they could take away. There was so much plunder that it took three days to collect it.
There's an old saying: "To a crow in the know a scarecrow is an invitation to a feast." Jehoshaphat and his army plundered their adversaries and returned with the spoils of war. Is this not what Paul means when he says we are "more than conquerors through him who loved us"? God takes the very thing we fear and turns it to ringing triumph.
On the march
This assault upon Judah is suggestive to me of those unexpected crises we experience that come out of nowhere, often at a time when things are going especially well.
When we least expect it, a messenger arrives at our house with a registered letter from a lawyer; a summons comes from the IRS; a warrant is served for our son's arrest; our doctor leaves a call informing us that our lab tests look bad and something is terribly wrong. And our hearts begin to pound.
The fear we experience at such times is perfectly normal. It is not cowardice. It is a natural, instinctive reaction to a situation beyond our control.
I'm personally afraid of men who are fearless. Starbuck, the chief mate of Captain Ahab's boat The Pequod, said, "I will have no man in my boat who is not afraid of a whale." I agree. I don't drift our Idaho rivers with men who have no fear, and I don't fly with bush pilots who aren't afraid. There are old pilots and bold pilots, as they say, but there are no old, bold pilots. There are some things a man ought to be afraid of. If he isn't, there's something wrong with him.
The problem is not fear, but our response to it. Jesus often said to his disciples, "fear not," but the tense he employed referred not to their immediate response to danger, but to
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persistent fear — fear that paralyzes and hinders them from doing what they knew they ought to do.
Though I rarely agree with theologian Paul Tillich, I think he had the right idea when he argued that courage is the foundation of virtue. Fear is what prevents obedience.
Fear is not sin, but disobedience is, and fear can lead to disobedience. We listen to our racing pulses and ringing ears and react in ungodly ways. We lash out at our colleagues, our wife and children, and God. We deny our fear and cover up with bravado or we flee from it into alcohol and drugs. We resort to scheming on our own and make decisions that exclude God's wisdom. As a consequence we never find out what God can do.
We should rather seek God's face and that tranquil place where he dwells. There's no panic there. In that quiet place we must read and reflect on his word and find out what he wants us to do. He will supply the wisdom that we need.
And then we must sally forth in faith to face the thing we fear, singing to ourselves about our Lord's love, thanking him for a victory already won, believing that the battle is not ours but the Lord's.
He will do all the rest. He will either do away with our enemies or he will take us through the encounter unscathed. He will deliver us from evil and surprise us with joy. The valley we have dreaded will have become a valley of blessing forevermore (2 Chronicles 20:26).
The prophet Joel, when speaking about the coming of our Lord, calls the place of his final conflict "The Valley of Jehoshaphat" (Joel 3:2, 12). Jehoshaphat's victory in his day was symbolic of all God's victories and finds its final application in the ultimate defeat of all the enemies of our soul.
In the meantime, every dark and dangerous valley can be the Valley of Jehoshaphat — the place where God puts to death our fears.
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"The Lord shall fight for you,
and you shall hold your peace."
Look up, O you of little faith;
let doubting cease.
The battle is the Lord's;
He works in a mysterious way.
'Tis not by might, nor power,
but see His spirit move today.
Unprofitable servants we;
our duty done, we must
watch for his victory,
so, fearful one, be still and trust.
— Ruth Bell Graham
