2 Chronicles 20

He can do it with weak means, without means. He can make the enemies destroy themselves; he set the Persians against the Greeks; and (2 Chronicles 20:23) the children of Ammon helped to destroy one another. Thus Christ is King in vanquishing the enemies of his church.

By contrary means, He made the Sea a wall to Israel, and the waters were a means to keep them from drowning: The fish's belly was a ship in which Jonah sailed safe to shore. God will never want ways of saving his people: Rather than fail the very enemies shall do his work (2 Chr…

The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied: The Church is like that plant Gregory Nazianzen speaks of, [illegible], it lives by dying, and grows by cutting. 3. Strangely in that he makes the enemy do his work: When the people of Amon, and Moab, and Mount Seir came ag…

2. In their own consciences. The truth of the first is manifest, in that not only in this chapter, but often also in the Old Testament, God has made such honorable mention, and given such honorable titles unto many of these Elders: calling Abraham the friend of God, 2 Chronicles…

This, Paul confesses of himself and others: We (says he) received the sentence of death in ourselves, because we should not trust in ourselves, but in God: 2 Corinthians 1:9. So good King Jehoshaphat, when he was compassed of his enemies, He cried to the Lord, and said; Lord we…

Let us therefore in such cases, learn to practice our faith; and then especially to cast ourselves upon GOD. This, Jehoshaphat did most notably: for, being assaulted with the huge armies of the Moabites, Ammonites, etc. he prayed unto the Lord most fervently, saying; 2 Chronicle…

God does not reckon that to be done in his service which he has not appointed, much less which he has forbidden. What other inroads were made on the sacerdotal office, we know not; but one of the tribe here intended by the Apostle, whereof none was to attend the altar, did draw…

(1 Samuel 27:12) And Achish believed in David. (2 Chronicles 20:20) Believe in the prophets and prosper. Answer. The Hebrew phrase in which the servile letter Beth is used, must not be translated with a preposition that rules an accusative or ablative case, but with a dative cas…

And Ecclesiastes 8:12: 'Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and his days are prolonged, yet it shall be well with those that fear the Lord.' Could you but believe the promises, your hearts should be established (2 Chronicles 20:29). Could you but plead them with God, as Ja…

Ezekiel 43:11. And if they be ashamed of all that they have done, shew them the forme of the House, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the commings in thereof, and all the formes thereof, and all the Ordinances thereof, and all the formes thereof, and all t…

And so the proof of this fourth particular, will add further strength and confirmation to that we presented in the former. Now that his being our God (which is the substance of the Covenant of Grace) does engage him to provide glory for separate souls, that one instance of Abrah…

As it is profaneness to call that common which God has sanctified and made holy; so it is tyrannical superstition and presumption to make that holy which God has made common. Occasional days of humiliation and thanksgiving, when God by his Providence calls thereunto, there is Sc…

Asa was a reforming King, but there is one black mark upon him, for he persecuted the Prophet Hanani, for reproving him; and he oppressed some of the people at the same time, whereby his sun did set under such a cloud that some have questioned whether he was a godly man (2 Chron…

Jehoshaphat had made a league with Ahab (2 Chronicles 18:1-3), and God had ordered Micaiah to acquaint him with the ill success of the affair they went about, verses 16-19, which Jehoshaphat found true, for his own life was in danger, he was hardly beset by the enemy upon a mist…

We speak of voluntary relation, for there are natural relations, as between parents and children: and these need no Covenant, there is no Covenant to make a man a parent, or a child. There are also violent relations, as between conqueror and captives, and in these there is no Co…

Ezra bases his prayer on this (Ezra 9:6): O my God, I am ashamed and blush. And Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 20:12): O our God, will you not judge them? In prayer consider what claim and interest you have to God, if you be a son, and he a Father: Bastards cannot pray; strangers wit…

A covenant of salt is to be fed with the same salt, as it were, to eat many a bushel of salt together — that is a covenant of friendship. "Did you not give the land to the seed of Abraham your friend for ever?" (2 Chronicles 20:7). There he fittingly expresses the nature of a co…

But when the creature, being conscious of his own insufficiency to help itself by any means it itself can use, has respect to the holy God that makes Israel holy, and is acknowledged of Israel to be holy — this is indeed to have God for our Savior, and so he is to all such as ar…

The eighth, and last point is, the practice of them that are justified, and that is to believe, or put their trust in Christ. Trust in the Lord (says the Prophet) and you shall be assured (2 Chronicles 20:20). And Solomon says, Roll your care on the Lord (Proverbs 16:3).

And thus in desperate cases, we must use the best means and leave the success to God. Thus the Israelites when there was no other help, went into the sea, as into their deathbed, or grave, by faith staying themselves on the promise of God (Hebrews 11:29) (2 Chronicles 20:12). Th…

According to his direction, they only stood still, and sang praises to God, and God made their enemies do the work themselves, and set them to killing one another; and the children of Judah had nothing to do, but to gather the spoil, which was more than they could carry away. We…

Ask hourly what your own heart does, how the husbandry at home thrives. The Spirit of the Lord was in Jehoshaphat without doubt; but (2 Chronicles 20:3) when he heard of the host coming against him, he feared, and set himself to seek the Lord. The Spirit of the Lord came upon Ja…

3. The heart may be turned as streams of a river drawn through this part of the land, or this part (Prov. 21:1), and from nilling to willing, as the Lord thinks fit, according to God's will of precept; this is often the falling of the Church of Ephesus sinfully from their first…

(1.) We ought to come to him as renouncing our strength, and waiting for his grace as able to help us. That address Jehoshaphat made in a temporal case, is good also in a spiritual one (2 Chronicles 20:12): Lord, we have no might, our eyes are to you. There is a renouncing of th…

(Psalm 115:3) Our God is in the heavens, and does whatever he pleases. So, (2 Chronicles 20:6) Are you not God in Heaven? And do you not rule over all the kingdoms of the heathen?

Proverbs 16:3: Commit your works to the Lord and your thoughts shall be established. 2 Chronicles 20:20: Believe in the Lord your God, so shall you be established. 5. It keeps us from warping and turning aside to crooked paths: as long as we are persuaded that God will maintain…

We understand it usually of preparing the heart for prayer; to ask the mercy, but it is also meant of preparing the heart to receive the mercy. 2 Chronicles 20:35: The high places were not taken away, because the people had not yet prepared their heart to the God of their father…

2. David's exhortation to sing a new song, pertained to them in the Old Testament, as well as to us in the New. And yet they upon new occasions sang the old songs of David, and that with acceptance (2 Chronicles 5:13; 2 Chronicles 20:21; Ezra 3:11). 3. Asaph, Heman, and Ethan, w…

Here's a blind mind, and a dead [reconstructed: heart], a lame heart; Lord work upon it, and draw [reconstructed: me] to yourself and that effectually. It was [reconstructed: a notable] speech (2 Chronicles 20:12), when [reconstructed: Jehoshaphat] had mustered up all the forces…

And these things the Scripture pleads and argues, when Faith is required of us in the way of Obedience. Thus says the Lord, is that which is proposed to us as the Reason why we should believe what is spoken, to which often times other divine Names and Titles are added, signifyin…

Such as those which express all the power which men have to be derived from God (John 19:11): You could have no power at all, except it were given you from above. And those which advance the power of God above the power of men (Luke 18:27): The things which are impossible with m…

4. Has not God often come in with assisting grace? When he has bid you mortify such a lust, and you have said as Jehoshaphat, 2 Chronicles 20.12. I have no might against this great army. Then God has come in with auxiliary forces, his grace has been sufficient.

The life a godly man lives in his prosperity, is a life of faith. For so the apostle says, and he speaks it universally, he speaks of all the life he lives, it is all a life of faith in this world; Since therefore a great part of a man's life is taken up with prosperous successe…

4 For God's power: many of the promises which God makes to his children, are of things which seem impossible: yet faith gives assent thereto, and thereby testifies that God is Almighty, that nothing is impossible to him. [reconstructed: Thus Abram] by his faith did magnify God's…

So while Israel fought against the Philistines, Samuel prayed (1 Samuel 7:9-10): and while Joab fought against Aram, David prayed (Psalm 60:1). The like I might instance in Asa (2 Chronicles 14:11), Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 20:6), Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 32:20), and other Saints…

For here, we must begin with faith, and in the first place, simply believe God's promises; and afterward we come, by the goodness of God, to feel and have experience of his mercy. This point was notably practised by Jehoshaphat, who being in a great extremity, and seeing no way…

God is pleased sometimes in dealing forth spiritual blessings to his people, in some respect to exceed the capacity of the vessel, in its present scantiness, so that he doesn't only fill it full, but he makes their cup to run over; agreeable to (Psalm 23:5). And pours out a bles…

And the prophet makes this an argument of God's great power above all other gods, that he subdues iniquities, and blots out transgressions (Micah 7:18-19; Isaiah 43:25). Though we know not how this can be done, that such dead bones, souls that are even rotten in their sins, shou…

(9.) Because, the Scriptures set forth the duties of every man in his place, and circumstances of his life (Deuteronomy 17:18-20; Joshua 1:8; Psalm 119:24; 2 Chronicles 23:11). (10.) Because, they are the ground of faith (Romans 4:20; 2 Chronicles 20:20). (11.) Because, they are…