2Chronicles 20:12 (NIV)
. 12 O our God, will You not judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.”
13 Now all Judah, with their little ones, their wives, and their children, stood before the Lord.
Jehoshaphat, king of Judah found himself and his nation in a desperate situation. They were being attack by the combined armies of a number of neighboring nations and they had no means to defend themselves. He called the whole nation together to fast and to seek the lord. Jehoshaphat was very open and honest before God and his people. He knew that he had no answer for the crisis that was about to destroy them all. The king admitted that he had no way to defend his nation, he had no idea what to do to protect his people. He kept his eyes on God.
Then a prophet spoke to the people and assured them of god’s protection. They sang and worshipped as a united nation and the Lord destroyed the armies that surrounded them. There was not a single survivor.
2Chronicles 20:29-30
“And the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries when they heard that the Lord had fought against the enemies of Israel. Then the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet, for his God gave him rest all around”.
The enemy that we face today is no less dangerous than the armies of Ammon and Moab. The fact that this enemy is unseen and untreatable and preys on the old and the frail makes it just as scary for us if not more so.
We can see that for the original readers of this passage, they should have drawn inspiration and faith from reading the accounts of God’s mighty defense of His people. In fact they ignored this lesson from their own history and a few years later their cities and the temple were destroyed, and the surviving people carried off to Babylonian captivity.
Around the world, churches have been forced into self-isolation and prevented from meeting together by the threat of a virus. Their leaders are all in the same position that we are in. So what do we do? Well, for one thing, we admit that we don’t know what to do. This has never happened in the history of the church before. So what do we do? We keep our eyes on God and look to Him to provide our victory over the virus.
As individuals the scripture tells us
1 Peter 5:7 (NIV)
7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
What matters to you, matters to God. You probably think that’s true only when it comes to the big stuff, like death, disease, sin, and disaster. But what about the smaller things? Flat tires and lost dogs? Broken dishes, toothaches or crashed hard disks? Do these matter to God? I mean, He’s got a universe to run and presidents and kings to watch over. He’s got wars to worry about and famines to fix, not to mention a global pandemic. Who am I to tell Him about my personal problems? I’m glad you asked! Let me tell you who you are—you are His child—as a result, if something is important to you, it’s important to Him.”
If you grew up hearing “go away, don’t bother me,” you might just think your heavenly Father feels the same way, too; but you’d be wrong! Fixing big problems doesn’t require any more effort on His part, and handling little ones doesn’t require any less. There are no degrees of difficulty to a God who is all powerful. Listen: “The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in Him” (Nahum 1:7, NIV).
The situation may be too big for you, but it’s not too big for Him. He cares about you today.[1]
[1] I have used parts of this for this devotion. Bob Gass, A Fresh Word For Today : 365 Insights For Daily Living (Alachua, FL: Bridge-Logos Publishers, 1998), 59.