Article April 2, 1921 Issue

The Time of Trial

HELEN K. BROCK

Amid the seeming unrest, turmoil, and upheaval which the world is manifesting to-day, there is much comfort to be derived from the experiences related in the Bible. In the twentieth chapter of II Chronicles we are told a bit of history that illustrates one of the greatest lessons which we need to learn in our warfare with the arguments of error. After Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, had thrown down the idols and places of worship of Baalim, the record tells us that he dwelt in peace at Jerusalem, and sought to serve the Lord in all things. But the children of Ammon and the children of Moab, whose history as related in the nineteenth chapter of Genesis shows them to be children of error, with others whom they had influenced, came against him to do battle with him, and Jehoshaphat was afraid because they seemed so great a multitude compared with his own people. So he called his people together and prayed, declaring the omnipotence of God, affirming his confidence that the divine power both hears and helps, and waiting for the word of the Lord.

Then came the answer, through the prophet Jahaziel, in these words: "Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not your's but God's. To morrow go ye down against them: behold, they come up by the cliff of Ziz; and ye shall find them at the end of the brook, before the wilderness of Jeruel. Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; to morrow go out against them: for the Lord will be with you."

So instead of rushing forth to battle with the enemy, Jehoshaphat set his people to praising God, and to declaring His greatness and omnipotence, and we are told that the enemy began to fight among themselves until all were destroyed. And Jehoshaphat, rising up early in the morning, appointed singers to go before his people praising the Lord and declaring that His mercy endureth forever, and when they came to the tower in the wilderness to look down upon the enemy, "behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth." And descending among them, the people of Judah found so much spoil that it took them three days to carry it away.

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