Sermon Tone Analysis

“We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”

[1]

Exaudi – hear us Lord.

The world rests upon Your commandments, O God.

It is Your faithfulness to the world which provides stability for the commands You have given, O Lord.

It is Your wrath which hides Your commandments from us.

It is Your promise, Lord, which enables us to keep those commandments.

Lord, do not hide your commandments from us.

Teach us to keep your commandments.

Make Yourself known to us, O Lord.

Exaudi—hear us Lord.

He was a man of action, a king who was threatened by enemies.

Forced to go to war, this man of valour spoke the words of our text.

He had gathered his people around himself for counsel to decide what should be done.

He needed plans and programs immediately; he needed decisive action.

In the face of the looming threat he takes an astonishing step; he proclaims a fast and openly prays before the people.

His actions are so very peculiar in this day when we have grown accustomed to swift action and stern resolve.

However, his plans and his programs melt away.

His program becomes prayer; his decisiveness becomes deepest despair and humility.

Before the people he prays, and at the conclusion of his prayer he makes an amazing confession before the Lord he petitions: “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on You.”

That’s really a magnificent proposal for action, isn’t it?

Wouldn’t we be enthusiastic if in a decisive hour some national or provincial leader should dare stand before us and confess, “We don’t know what to do?”

That would be some admission!

Even within the church we would be astonished by such an admission.

What pastor could survive the firestorm arising from such an admission?

We know better than that.

With us, programs and plans do not melt away into prayers; rather, among the faithful the fires of enthusiasm transform them into flying banners and shining symbols of things that are good and proper.

With us, determination does not change into humility, but rather into an incontrovertible testimony to our own strength and courage.

With us prayers become programs, supplications become demands; and at the end of the program the name of God must be called so that He too may be pressed into service of the program, compelled to approve of the brilliant plan, forced to accept our personal determinations.

Then the official “party line” of the church is finished, just as we like to hear it and have already heard it a thousand times before.

*HUMILITY* — Jehoshaphat is perhaps most often remembered by those familiar with the Word of God for making a disastrous alliance with the enemies of God.

Though he was a godly man who was often commended by the Lord, he allied himself with Ahab through marriage.

This alliance led him into several disastrous ventures which brought him and the nation to the brink of destruction.

Perhaps it would be well for us to remember Jehoshaphat for another trait which is rare among men of wealth and notoriety—humility.

Jehoshaphat seems often to have received God’s commendation, always after the divine chastisement and rebuke had been inflicted, however.

The mark of a godly man is not that he never does anything wrong, but that when rebuked by the Lord he receives that rebuke with humility.

He does not exalt himself by resisting the rebuke of the Lord, but instead he receives it as that which is intended for his own good.

David testifies,

“Let a righteous man strike me—it is a kindness;

let him rebuke me—it is oil for my head;

let my head not refuse it.

Yet my prayer is continually against their evil deeds.”

[PSALM 141:5].

The words could well have been applied to Jehoshaphat, for he humbly received the rebuke of God’s servant.

The wise man, David’s son, has written:

“Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you;

reprove a wise man, and he will love you.”

[PROVERBS 9:8]

How true the words of the Wise Man:

“Whoever rebukes a man will afterward find more favor

than he who flatters with his tongue.”

[PROVERBS 28:23]

You may remember the account of the death of Ahab and how Jehoshaphat barely escaped with his life.

Upon his return to Jerusalem, this noble king was rebuked by Hanani, the prophet of God for his foolish alliance.

Following this period of near disaster and divine rebuke, Jehoshaphat moved his kingdom Godward through appointing judges and administrators to insure that justice was accomplished and to oversee the peoples.

The chapter begins with the words, “After this.”

The words point to an event that serves as the backdrop to our study.

The kingdom was beset by armies from the Moabite and Ammonite kingdoms.

The vast enemy hoards were advancing rapidly.

Decisions would need to be made quickly; an immediate response was required.

Would the people of God risk defeat through meeting the foe with their own army which was in need of being rebuilt?

Would the people of God sue for peace at the likely cost of cruel servitude to these pagan nations?

Would the people of God attempt some stratagem to avert disaster?

The situation was desperate and the very real threat demanded action—now.

“Judah assembled,” as was so often true in times of crisis, “to seek help from the LORD.”

Indeed, the divine text informs that they came “from all the cities of Judah to seek the LORD.”

In the 107th PSALM, the Psalmist recites the mercies of the Lord and repeatedly remembers that the people of God, when punished for their own wilful sin, cried to the LORD in their trouble and He would save them from their distress [see PSALM 107:13, 19, 28].

Finally, however, their presumptuous sin was too much even for the LORD and he delivered the nation into the hands of the Assyrians and the Chaldeans.

We do not know what words may have been spoken as the people gathered—whether the priests spoke or what prayers may have been offered.

It is as though the Spirit of God has drawn a curtain around those preceding events.

We do know that the king of Israel stood up and prayed before the assembled nation.

His prayer is recorded in 2 CHRONICLES 20:6-12.

“O LORD, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven?

You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations.

In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you.

Did you not, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend?

And they have lived in it and have built for you in it a sanctuary for your name, saying, ‘If disaster comes upon us, the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before you—for your name is in this house—and cry out to you in our affliction, and you will hear and save.’

And now behold, the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom you would not let Israel invade when they came from the land of Egypt, and whom they avoided and did not destroy— behold, they reward us by coming to drive us out of your possession, which you have given us to inherit.

O our God, will you not execute judgment on them?

For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us.

We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”

When did you last see a national leader pray openly and without presumption?

When did you last hear of a national leader who sought the Lord with all his heart?

Such honesty is not often seen among religious leaders, much less among political leaders.

It simply is not done, which may account for the dearth of wisdom in the capitals of the world?

Were our Prime Minister to openly confess the sin of the nation and publicly seek divine grace and guidance, perhaps our nation would prosper beyond our wildest dreams.

Jehoshaphat publicly reviewed God’s goodness toward the very nations now threatening Israel.

He pleaded with God to see the perfidy of these wicked nations, asking that He would judge them.

The point which I would ask you to focus on for the moment is the humility displayed in this prayer as the king confessed: “We are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us.

We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you” [2 CHRONICLES 20:12b].

I urge you, as people who confess the Name of the Living God and of the Risen Christ, humble yourselves before His mighty hand.

Openly confess that you have no might or power and acknowledge His omnipotence.

What a transformation would be witnessed among the people of God was humility to mark us in our approach to God! What a difference from what is usually seen among us as the professed people of God.

*DEPENDENCE* — Not only does Jehoshaphat demonstrate deep humility, but he also openly admits his dependence upon God.

Have you ever heard someone during a trial whimper, “Well, I guess there is nothing left but to pray?” Nothing left?

Nothing left!

How is it that the last thing we do is pray when confronted by the terrors of the day?

Shouldn’t we first confess our dependence upon God?

Before resorting to the doctor, should we not seek the healing hand of God? Before casting about for a friend to stand with us in the evil day, should we not seek God’s presence?

The Apostle reminded the Athenians that “in Him (i.e. in God) we live and move and have our being” [ACTS 17:28].

How is it that we do not more readily confess our dependence upon the Lord our God in the time of trial?