Jehoshaphat's prayer had stayed itself on God's self-revelation in
history, and on His gift of the land to their fathers. It had pleaded
that the enemy's hostility was a poor 'reward' for Israel's ancient
forbearance, and now, with a burst of agony, it casts down before God,
as it were, Judah's desperate plight as outnumbered by the swarm of
invaders and brought to their last shifts--'we have no might against
this great company ... neither know we what to do.' But the very depth
of despair sets them to climb to the height of trust. That is a mighty
'But,' which buckles into one sentence two such antitheses as confront
us here. 'We know not what to do, but our eyes are upon Thee'--blessed
is the desperation which catches at God's hand; firm is the trust
which leaps from despair!
The helplessness is always a fact, though most of us manage to get
along for the most part without discovering it. We are all outnumbered
and overborne by the claims, duties, hindrances, sorrows, and
entanglements of life. He is not the wisest of men who, facing all
that life may bring and take away, all that it must bring and take
away, knows no quiver of nameless fear, but jauntily professes himself
ready for all that life can inflict. But there come moments in every
life when the false security in which shallow souls wrap themselves
ignobly is broken up, and then often a paroxysm of terror or misery
grips a man, for which he has no anodyne, and his despair is as
unreasonable as his security. The meaning of all circumstances that
force our helplessness on us is to open to us Jehoshaphat's refuge in
his--'our eyes are upon Thee.' We need to be driven by the crowds of
foes and dangers around to look upwards. Our props are struck away
that we may cling to God. The tree has its lateral branches hewed off
that it may shoot up heavenward. When the valley is filled with mist
and swathed in evening gloom, it is the time to lift our gaze to the
peaks that glow in perpetual sunshine. Wise and happy shall we be if
the sense of helplessness begets in us the energy of a desperate
faith. For these two, distrust of self and glad confidence in God, are
not opposites, as naked distrust and trust are, but are complementary.
He does not turn his eyes to God who has not turned them on himself,
and seen there nothing to which to cling, nothing on which to lean.
Astronomers tell us that there are double stars revolving round one
axis and forming a unity, of which the one is black and the other
brilliant. Self-distrust and trust in God are thus knit together and
are really one.
II. We see here the peaceful assurance of victory that attends on
faith.
A flash of inspiration came to one of the Levitical singers who had,
no doubt, been deeply moved and had unconsciously fitted himself for
receiving it. Divinely breathed confidence illuminated his waiting
spirit, and a great message of encouragement poured from his lips. His
words heartened the host more than a hundred trumpets braying in their
ears. How much one man who has drunk in God's assurance of victory can
do to send a thrill of his own courage through more timorous hearts!
Courage is no less contagious than panic. This Levite becomes the
commander of the army, and Jehoshaphat and his captains 'bow their
heads' and accept his plan for to-morrow, hearing in his ringing
accents a message from Jehovah. The instructions given and at once
accepted are as unlike those of ordinary warfare as is the whole
incident; for there is to be no sword drawn nor blow struck, but they
are to 'stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.' They are told
where to find the enemy and are bid to go forth in order of battle
against them, and they are assured 'that the battle is not theirs, but
God's.' No wonder that the message was hailed as from heaven, and put
new heart into the host, or that, when the messenger's voice ceased,
his brother Levites broke into shrill praise as for a victory already
won. With what calm, triumphant hearts the camp would sleep that
night!
May we not take that inspired Levite's message as one to ourselves in
the midst of our many conflicts both in the outward life and in the
inward? If we have truly grasped God's hands, and are fighting for
what is accordant with His will, we have a right to feel that 'the
battle is not ours but God's,' and to be sure that therefore we shall
conquer. Of course we are not to say to ourselves, 'God will fight for
us, and we need not strike a blow,' Jehoshaphat's example does not fit
our case in that respect, and we may thank God that it does not. We
have a better lot than to 'stand still and see the salvation of God,'
for we are honoured by being allowed to share the stress of conflict
and the glow of battle as well as in the shout of victory. But even in
the struggles of outward life, and much more in those of our spiritual
nature, every man who watches his own career will many a time have to
recognise God's hand, unaided by any act of his own, striking for him
and giving him victory; and in the spiritual life every Christian man
knows that his best moments have come from the initiation of the
Spirit who 'bloweth where He listeth.' How often we have been
surprised by God's help; how often we have been quickened by God's
inbreathed Spirit, and have been taught that the passivity of faith
draws to us greater blessings than the activity of effort! 'They also
serve who only stand and wait,' and they also conquer who in quietness
and confidence keep themselves still and let God work for them and in
them. The first great blessing of trust in God is that we may be at
peace on the eve of battle, and the second is that in every battle it
is, in truth, not we that fight, but God who fights for and in us.