'As they went forth Jehoshaphat stood and said, Believe in the Lord
your God, so shall ye be established.'--2 CHRON. xx. 20.
Certainly no stronger army ever went forth to victory than these Jews,
who poured out of Jerusalem that morning with no weapon in all their
ranks, and having for their van, not their picked men, but singers who
'praised the beauty of holiness,' and chanted the old hymn, 'Give
thanks unto the Lord, for His mercy endureth for ever.' That was all
that men had to do in the battle, for as the shrill song rose in the
morning air 'the Lord set liers in wait for the foe,' and they turned
their swords against one another, so that when Jehoshaphat and his
troops came in sight of the enemy the battle was over and the field
strewn with corpses--so great and swift is the power of devout
recognition of God's goodness and trust in His enduring mercy, even in
the hour of extremest peril.
The exhortation in our text which is Jehoshaphat's final word to his
army, has, in the original, a beauty and emphasis that are incapable
of being preserved in translation. There is a play of words which
cannot be reproduced in another language, though the sentiment of it
may be explained. The two expressions for 'believing' and 'being
established' are two varying forms of the same root-word; and although
we can only imitate the original clumsily in our language, we might
translate in some such way as this: 'Hold fast by the Lord your God,
and you will be held fast,' or 'stay yourselves on Him and you will be
stable.' These attempts at reproducing the similarity of sound between
the two verbs in the two clauses of our text, rude as they are,
preserve what is lost, so far as regards form, in the English
translation, though that is correct as to the meaning of the command
and promise. If we note this connection of the two clauses we just
come to the general principle which lies here, that the true source of
steadfastness in character and conduct, of victory over temptation,
and of standing fast in slippery places, is simple reliance, or, to
use the New Testament word, 'faith,' 'Believe and ye shall be
established.' Put out your hand and clasp Him, and He puts out His
hand and steadies you. But all the steadfastness and strength come
from the mighty Hand that is outstretched, not from the tremulous one
that grasps it.
So, then, keeping to the words of my text, let me suggest to you the
large lessons that this saying teaches us, in regard to three things,
which I may put as being the object, the nature, and the issues of
faith; or, in other words, to whom we are to cling, how we are to
cling, and what the consequence of the clinging is.