July 27 - Before you lift a finger, bend a knee

2 Chronicles 19:1-20:37

Romans 10:14-11:12

Psalm 21:1-13

Proverbs 20:4-6

I have doing unnecessary work.  Which is why the story of the victory over the Moabites, Ammonites and some of the Meunites is amazing.  In very few other places in the Bible do we find God fighting the battle completely on His own.  The first one that comes to mind is the escape from Egypt; I confess to not having memorized the entire OT, so I am not sure...but I cannot recall any other instance besides this battle.  

How many of us, when problems arise, gird our loins for battle, roll up our sleeves and get to work?  How many of us, when threatened with attack, prepare to fight back?  How awesome would it be if we didn't have to do any of that, take any of our own direct initiative, and still know the problem would be resolved?  Because that's what happened to Jehoshaphat and the men of Judah.  Not only that - faced with a massive army and the threat of death and destruction, they instead went out and collected plunder, enriched themselves at the expense of the defeated enemy they did not have to fight.  

How can we get there?  We have a good instruction manual in Jehoshaphat's life.  We read in yesterday's OT reading that "The Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he followed the ways of his father David before him.  He did not consult Baals but sought the God of his father and followed his commands rather than the practices of Israel...His heart was devoted to the ways of the Lord; furthermore, he removed the high places and the Asherah poles from Judah". And today we read that he not only removed the idols, he appointed people with authority over Judah, and instructed them to "serve faithfully and wholeheartedly in the fear of the Lord...you are to warn [the people] not to sin against the Lord."  And when the threat came, he cried out to God and sought His instruction.  Jehoshaphat had a relationship with God, one he sought to share with the rest of Judah.  And so he knew the God whom he was called to trust, the God who turned disaster into victory, pain into provision.  So when God said not to worry, he knew Who it was making the promise, and could trust.  And then, when He had provided for them, Jehoshaphat and Judah went to the Lord's temple "with hearts and lyres and trumpets" - presumably to give thanks.

And so we have a roadmap - get to know our God, live life in relationship with Him and according to His commands, turn to Him in all our needs, obey what He says, and trust in His deliverance, whatever form that may take.  This roadmap, this instruction manual, is laid out in similar fashion in today's Psalm.  What an amazing God we have...may we come to know Him and live by His word the way Jehoshaphat did.  In that way we might learn to bend a knee before we lift a finger.