Sat.’s Devo - The Battle is the Lords

Read: 2 Chronicles 19:1-20:37; Romans 10:14-11:12; Psalm 21:1-13; Provers 20:4-6
Jehoshaphat was rebuked two times in today’s reading and both had to do with times he aligned himself with Israel. God was angry that he had fought with Ahab and later, and later when Ahab’s son, Ahaziah asked Jehoshaphat to build ships with him. Those ships never sailed.
God had explained that he was mad at Israel and they were not on his side. They had abandoned him as their God so he had abandoned them. Other than those two incidents, Jehoshaphat followed the Lord. He trained men to judge the people fairly as unto the Lord. When an innumerable army came against Judah, Jehoshaphat proclaimed a fast and stood before the people reciting what God had told them about what to do when they needed help. They cried out to him and presented their cause. God spoke through Jahaziel, the prophet and he told them that God had heard them. The battle would not be fought by them, but the Lord would fight it. They were to be courageous and go out and face the enemy because God was going to be with them.
The next day, Jehoshaphat appointed singers and praisers to go before the army singing thanks to the Lord. As they sang, the Lord set ambushes against the Ammonites and Moabites and all who were invading Judah and they were defeated. They fought themselves and all Judah had to do is clean up the spoils. They went home and had another great praise service. All the other nations heard about this and were afraid to attack Judah.
In Romans, Paul asked them how people would know to call on the name of the Lord if no-one came and told them. Paul blessed the feet of those who used them to go out and tell others. But he also reminded them of Psalm 19 where it says that all creation is also teaching the ways of God. God uses everything around us to bring us to him. He chose his people, the Jews, to put his name on and spoke to them constantly, but when they refused to hear, God started calling Gentiles who did answer and come. The Gentiles would be the very ones that would provoke the Jews to jealousy and they would return.
Lord, may we be a voice today that proclaims your goodness. Remind us when we are overwhelmed that we have a powerful tool called praise that we can use. It is always a good time to give praise to you!