Set Oneself To Seek Jehovah

Minister:
Date: AM (New Year's Day)
Text: II Chronicles 20
Psalters: 65, 245, 188, 191
  • II Chronicles 20: 1-13

    New Years Day

    SET ONESELF TO SEEK JEHOVAH

    I. Frightening Occasion

    A. Jehoshaphat became king at age of 35 when Ahab was introducing Baal worship in Israel.

    B. Unexpectedly three nations (Moab, Ammon, Edom) are poised to attach Jerusalem, from only 15 miles away.

    1. Militarily the situation is hopeless.

    2. Behind the evil nations is Satan, who seeks always to destroy the church, and who wants the church to despair.

    C.Behind every circumstance is our God, Who in love and wisdom, tests our faith in order to strengthen it.

    II. Jehoshaphat calls Judah to look up!

    A. What time we are afraid! Cf. Psalm 56:3.

    B. Fear is God-given occasion to “seek Jehovah” and to trust in Him.

    1. Fear did not paralyze Jehoshaphat, but spurred him to the activity: “set himself to seek Jehovah, and proclaim a fast.”

    2. The king was determined to look only to Jehovah.

    C.The king gathered the people out of all Judah in order to pray together (cf. Isa. 55:6).

    D.So we are to use the occasion of the first day of the new calendar year to determine to set ourselves to seek Jehovah.

    III. “All Judah stood before Jehovah, with their little ones, their wives, and their children” (13).

    A. Every trial God gives to His church is to be seized as an opportunity for us to teach our children and young people.

    B. As a body of believers, young with the old, females with the males, gather under the leadership of a pleading, humble king.

    C.Jehoshaphat powerfully appeals to God on the basis of His sovereign and graciously established relationship with His own.

    D.May we trust this God as we go forward, completely trusting Him to be with us each and every step of the new year.