The Right Kind of Panic
Introduction: When the World Comes Calling
There are moments in the life of every believer, every family, and every nation when the bottom drops out. The reports come in, the odds are calculated, and the conclusion is inescapable: we are finished. A great multitude is coming, the enemy is at the gate, and our resources are laughably insufficient. This is not a theoretical problem. This is the hard pavement of lived reality in a fallen world. And when that moment comes, as it does for Jehoshaphat here, the question is not whether you will feel fear. The question is what you will do with it.
Our modern sensibilities, steeped as they are in the tranquilizing nonsense of therapeutic pop psychology, tell us that fear is the problem. Fear is a failure, a sign of weak faith, something to be suppressed or medicated away. But the Bible presents a far more robust and realistic picture. Fear is an appropriate, God-given response to a genuine threat. Jehoshaphat, a good and godly king, was afraid. The issue is not the presence of fear, but the direction of it. Fear can either drive you into the fetal position under the bed, or it can drive you to your knees before the living God. Fear is a form of energy, and it will either scatter you into chaos or gather you for war.
This chapter is a master class in godly crisis management. It is a paradigm for how the people of God are to respond when the world, the flesh, and the devil decide to form a committee and come against them with overwhelming force. We are living in such a time. A great multitude is coming against the church from every direction, a confederacy of Moabites, Ammonites, and various other "-ites." They are coming with the full-throated intention of erasing us from the land God has given us. And so, we must pay careful attention to the pattern laid down here. This is not just a quaint historical account; it is a battle plan. It is spiritual statecraft of the highest order.
What we see in these opening verses is the anatomy of a holy panic. An unholy panic is every man for himself. A holy panic is every man for God. An unholy panic leads to disintegration. A holy panic leads to corporate supplication. The enemy intends to scatter us with fear; God intends to gather us with it.
The Text
Now it happened after this, that the sons of Moab and the sons of Ammon, together with some of the Ammonites, came to make war against Jehoshaphat. Then some came and told Jehoshaphat, saying, "A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, out of Aram and behold, they are in Hazazon-tamar (that is Engedi)." And Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to seek Yahweh, and called for a fast throughout all Judah. So Judah gathered together to seek help from Yahweh; they even came from all the cities of Judah to seek Yahweh.
(2 Chronicles 20:1-4 LSB)
The Unholy Alliance (v. 1)
We begin with the catalyst for the crisis:
"Now it happened after this, that the sons of Moab and the sons of Ammon, together with some of the Ammonites, came to make war against Jehoshaphat." (2 Chronicles 20:1)
The phrase "after this" is significant. After what? After Jehoshaphat's reforms, his faithfulness, and his rebuke from the prophet Jehu for his ill-advised alliance with the wicked king Ahab (2 Chronicles 19). Jehoshaphat had been busy setting his kingdom in order, appointing judges, and calling the people back to the law of the Lord. And what is the result of this reformation? Peace and quiet? No, the result is a massive pagan invasion. This is a critical lesson. Obedience to God does not guarantee a life of ease. In fact, robust faithfulness will often provoke the enemies of God to attack. When you start cleaning house, the devil will start throwing rocks at your windows. He doesn't bother to attack dead churches.
Notice the coalition arrayed against Judah. The Moabites and Ammonites were perennial thorns in Israel's side. They were the descendants of Lot through an incestuous union with his daughters (Genesis 19). Their origin was in shame and rebellion, and their history was one of antagonism toward the people of the covenant. They represent the festering, generational hostility of the world against the church. This is not a random border dispute; it is a blood feud. The world hates the church because the church belongs to Christ, and the world hates Christ.
This is a picture of the world system. It is a squabbling, chaotic mess of competing interests, yet it is mysteriously capable of uniting in its opposition to the people of God. Herod and Pilate, who were enemies, became friends on the day they conspired to crucify Jesus (Luke 23:12). In our day, we see radical secularists, militant Islamists, and new-age pagans, who agree on virtually nothing else, all finding common ground in their desire to see biblical Christianity silenced and dismantled. When God's people are on the move, do not be surprised when the sons of Moab and Ammon form a committee.
The Overwhelming Report (v. 2)
The threat is not distant or abstract. It is imminent and overwhelming.
"Then some came and told Jehoshaphat, saying, 'A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, out of Aram and behold, they are in Hazazon-tamar (that is Engedi).'" (2 Chronicles 20:2)
The intelligence report is grim. First, the enemy is a "great multitude." This is not a raiding party; this is an existential threat. The odds are impossible. From a human perspective, Judah's fate is sealed. Second, they are coming from "beyond the sea," which refers to the Dead Sea. They have already crossed the Jordan and are marching on Judah from the east. Third, they are already "in Hazazon-tamar," which is Engedi, a place on the western shore of the Dead Sea. This means they are not days away; they are on the doorstep. The crisis is not looming; it has arrived.
This is how the enemy works. He loves to use the tactic of overwhelming force, of shock and awe. He wants to convince you that resistance is futile before the battle even begins. He points to the "great multitude" of cultural forces, of political opposition, of personal temptations, and he whispers, "You cannot possibly stand against this. You are outnumbered, outmaneuvered, and it's already too late." The goal is to induce paralysis through intimidation. He wants to win the war in your head so he doesn't have to fight it on the field.
The Godly Reflex (v. 3)
Here we come to the pivot point of the entire narrative. How does the king respond to this terrifying news?
"And Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to seek Yahweh, and called for a fast throughout all Judah." (2 Chronicles 20:3)
First, the text is honest: "Jehoshaphat was afraid." He was not a stoic superhero. He was a man, and the threat was real. The Bible does not glamorize fearlessness in the face of danger; it commends faith in the face of fear. The absence of fear can be simple foolishness. The critical action is what follows the fear. His fear did not paralyze him; it propelled him toward God.
He "set his face to seek Yahweh." This is a Hebrew idiom for resolute determination. He made a conscious, deliberate decision to turn his full attention to God. He didn't just glance toward heaven; he fixed his gaze there. This is the essence of faith in crisis. It is not the absence of fear, but the refusal to be mastered by it. It is to acknowledge the size of the enemy, and then to deliberately turn and look at the size of your God. Fear is a bad master but a good servant. It can serve to remind you of your utter dependency on God, which is precisely where God wants you to be.
His seeking was not a private affair. He "called for a fast throughout all Judah." This was an act of national leadership. He understood that this was not his problem alone; it was the nation's problem. And the solution had to be a national one. Fasting is a physical expression of spiritual desperation. It is saying with your body what you are saying with your soul: "We need God more than we need food. Our situation is so dire that only divine intervention will suffice, and we will set aside even the most basic necessities of life to demonstrate our utter reliance upon Him." It is a corporate act of humility and earnest supplication. He is leading his people to declare, in unison, their bankruptcy before God.
The Corporate Response (v. 4)
Leadership matters. A godly leader's call to repentance and prayer is met with a godly response from the people.
"So Judah gathered together to seek help from Yahweh; they even came from all the cities of Judah to seek Yahweh." (2 Chronicles 20:4)
The people responded. "Judah gathered together." The threat that was intended to scatter them in fear instead gathered them in faith. Unity in the face of a common enemy is a powerful thing, especially when that unity is centered on seeking the Lord. The enemy wants to isolate believers, to pick us off one by one. Our strength is in our corporate assembly. This is why regular, faithful church attendance is not an optional extra for the Christian life; it is a wartime necessity. We gather to remind one another that we are not alone, that the battle belongs to the Lord, and that our help comes from Him.
They came "from all the cities of Judah." This was not just a Jerusalem event. The call went out, and from every town and village, the people came. This represents a total, unified mobilization of the covenant people. They understood that a threat to Jerusalem was a threat to all of them. They were in it together. This is the kind of unity the church desperately needs today. We are beset by a spirit of individualism and consumerism, where people treat church like a buffet. But when the Moabites are at the gates, you don't have the luxury of being a freelance Christian. You gather with the saints.
And what was the purpose of their gathering? "To seek help from Yahweh." The Hebrew is emphatic. They came to seek Yahweh. They did not come to brainstorm military strategy. They did not come to form a political action committee. They did not come to wring their hands and share their anxieties. They came to seek help from the only one who could provide it. They knew that their problem was a theological problem, and therefore it required a theological solution. Their only hope was in the character and promises of their covenant-keeping God.
Conclusion: The First Step to Victory
These first four verses set the stage for one of the most remarkable deliverances in the Old Testament. But the victory that comes later, the victory won by singers and not soldiers, is forged right here. It is forged in the moment of fear-driven faith. It is forged when a king and his people, faced with annihilation, make a collective decision to turn their faces away from the problem and toward their God.
This is the pattern for us. We are facing a great multitude. The cultural, political, and spiritual enemies of Christ are on the march. They are already in the land. And it is right and proper to feel a sense of alarm. But that alarm must not be allowed to curdle into despair. It must be sanctified into supplication. We must, as individuals, as families, and as churches, set our faces to seek the Lord.
The first step in any spiritual warfare is to recognize your own weakness. The second is to recognize God's infinite strength. The third is to run from the first to the second. Jehoshaphat was afraid, and so he sought the Lord. He called a fast. He gathered the people. He led them in a declaration of dependence. This is not weakness; this is the beginning of wisdom. This is the secret of victory. Before God will fight for you, you must first admit that you cannot fight for yourself. And when you do, when you stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, you will find that the battle truly does belong to Him.