Commentary - 2 Chronicles 20:20-25

Bird's-eye view

Here we have the climax of one of the most remarkable military encounters in the Old Testament. A vast, confederated army has come against Judah, and King Jehoshaphat, after proclaiming a fast and leading the nation in prayer, has received a stunning prophecy: the battle is not theirs, but God's. They will not even need to fight. This passage records the outcome of that faithful response. It is a textbook case of what we might call liturgical warfare. The victory is won not by sword and spear, but by faith and song. God's people are called to believe, to worship, and then to walk out and gather the spoil. The central lesson is that authentic worship is not a passive, sentimental exercise for a peaceful Sabbath morning. It is the primary weapon in the Christian's arsenal, mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.

The narrative moves from the exhortation to faith, to the appointment of a vanguard of singers, to the Lord's direct intervention, and finally to the plundering of the defeated foe. The enemies of God, bent on destroying Judah, are thrown into a suicidal confusion by the sound of praise and end up annihilating one another. Judah's only task is to march to the battlefield, witness the carnage, and then spend three days collecting the loot. This is a graphic illustration of God's covenant faithfulness and the utter folly of those who set themselves against Him and His people.

Outline

Commentary

20 And they rose early in the morning and went out to the wilderness of Tekoa; and when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Listen to me, O Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, establish your faith in Yahweh your God and you will be established. Establish your faith in His prophets and succeed.”

They rise early, which is what you do when you are either terrified or filled with faithful anticipation. Given what happens next, we can assume it was the latter. Jehoshaphat, a true king, stands before his people not to give a rousing pep talk about their own strength, but to deliver a crucial theological exhortation. The command is twofold. First, "establish your faith in Yahweh your God and you will be established." The Hebrew plays on the word 'aman,' the root for both 'faith' and 'established.' It's a pun with teeth. Believe and you will be believable. Trust and you will be trustworthy. Stand on the rock of God's character, and you will find that you yourself are standing firm. This is not about mustering up a feeling; it is a command to set your feet, to plant your flag, on the reality of who God is. Second, he tells them to establish their faith in God's prophets. This is critical. God does not just speak into the ether; He speaks through His appointed means. In this case, the word had come through Jahaziel. To believe God is to believe what God has said through the men He has sent. To dismiss the prophet is to dismiss God. Jehoshaphat is locking the people into the promise. He is telling them that success is not contingent on their military prowess, but on their simple, obedient trust in the specific word God had given them.

21 When he had taken counsel with the people, he caused those who sang to Yahweh and those who praised Him to stand in holy attire, as they went out before the army, saying, “Give thanks to Yahweh, for His lovingkindness endures forever.”

This is where all worldly military strategy gets thrown out the window. After consulting with the people, which shows a wise and unified leadership, what is the brilliant tactical decision? Put the choir in front of the army. This is either the height of foolishness or the height of faith, and there is no middle ground. They are dressed not in armor, but in "holy attire," the garments of priests and Levites. Their weapon is not the spear, but the song. And what is the song? It is the theological center of gravity for the entire Old Testament: "Give thanks to Yahweh, for His lovingkindness endures forever." The word for lovingkindness is hesed, God's covenant loyalty, His steadfast, unrelenting, stubborn love. This is what they are proclaiming in the face of an overwhelming enemy. They are not singing about their own courage. They are not asking for victory. They are declaring the eternal, unchanging character of God as their victory. This is preemptive praise. They are thanking God for the deliverance before it has visibly happened, because in faith, it is already a done deal.

22 When they began singing for joy and praising, Yahweh set ambushes against the sons of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; so they were defeated.

The timing here is precise and glorious. It is not when they started marching, nor when they caught sight of the enemy. It was "when they began singing." The moment that the declaration of God's eternal hesed hit the air, the Triune God of armies went into action. Yahweh Himself "set ambushes." We are not told the mechanics of this, and it doesn't matter. God did it. Perhaps it was confusion. Perhaps it was a rumor. Perhaps it was a trick of the light. Whatever it was, it was divinely orchestrated chaos. The result was that the invaders "were defeated." The verb is passive. Judah did nothing but sing. God did everything else. This is the essence of grace, and the essence of spiritual warfare. Our part is the obedience of faith, which is worship. God's part is the victory.

23 Indeed, the sons of Ammon and Moab stood against the inhabitants of Mount Seir to devote them to destruction and to utterly eradicate them; and when they had finished with the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to bring one another to ruin.

Here we see the ambush in gory detail. The ungodly coalition, united only by their hatred for God's people, turns on itself. This is the nature of sin. It is inherently self-destructive. Ammon and Moab first turn on their allies from Mount Seir, the Edomites. The language is stark: "to devote them to destruction and to utterly eradicate them." This is the language of holy war, herem, which they presumptuously try to enact on their own partners in crime. And once that bit of bloody work is done, their swords are still thirsty. So they turn on each other. The Ammonites and Moabites "helped to bring one another to ruin." The evil that they had intended for Judah boomeranged and landed squarely on their own heads. God's enemies are always their own worst enemies. All God had to do was pull the pin on the grenade of their own internal wickedness and get out of the way.

24 Now Judah came to the lookout of the wilderness, and they turned toward the multitude, and behold, they were corpses fallen on the ground, and no one had escaped.

The army of Judah, with the choir still leading the way, arrives at the scene. They get to a watchtower, a place with a good view, and they look out. The battle is over. The great multitude that had caused them such fear is now a silent multitude of corpses. The victory is total. "No one had escaped." When God wins a victory, He does not leave loose ends. This is the fulfillment of the prophetic word: "You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of Yahweh on your behalf." They stood, they saw, and it was so.

25 So Jehoshaphat and his people came to take their spoil and found much among them, including goods, garments and valuable things which they took for themselves, more than they could carry. And they were three days taking the spoil because there was so much.

And now comes the plundering. This is not an afterthought; it is the tangible result of God's blessing. The armies that came to strip Judah bare are themselves stripped bare by Judah. They came to plunder and became the plunder. The sheer scale of it is staggering. They found goods, garments, and valuable items. There was so much that it was "more than they could carry." It took them three full days to collect it all. This is the principle of the wealth of the wicked being laid up for the just. God does not just save His people from their enemies; He enriches His people with the spoils of their enemies. This is a complete reversal of fortunes, a picture of the gospel itself. We who were destitute are made rich. We who were defeated are made more than conquerors. And we who deserved death are given the spoils of an eternal victory won for us by another.

Application

The principles laid out here are not confined to a dusty story in the Old Testament. They are the bedrock principles of New Covenant spiritual warfare. We do not fight against flesh and blood, but our fight is no less real, and the strategy for victory is the same.

First, our faith must be established in God and in His Word. We must believe what God has said, more than we believe the threats of the enemy or the fears in our own hearts. Faith is not a leap in the dark; it is a stand in the light of God's revelation.

Second, corporate worship is warfare. When the Church gathers to sing praises to God, we are not just warming up for the sermon. We are engaging the enemy. Our songs, particularly songs that declare the eternal character and covenant faithfulness of God, are the vanguard of our attack. The world sees a few hundred people singing in a room and scoffs. The unseen realm sees a spiritual shock and awe campaign. The demons tremble when we declare, "Give thanks to Yahweh, for His lovingkindness endures forever."

Finally, we must expect to take the spoil. The victory of Christ was total. He has defeated sin, death, and the devil. When we walk in the obedience of faith, we are not just surviving, we are advancing. We are taking ground. The enemies of God are in a state of self-destructive confusion, and the Church is called to march out onto the field of victory and plunder their camp for the glory of the King. This is what it means to be more than conquerors through Him who loved us.