Wednesday Night Bible Study - 2 Chronicles14:9-15

The Lord Defeats the Ethiopians Before Asa

All right, well, please turn to 2nd Chronicles chapter 14. 2nd Chronicles 14, we'll be looking at verses 9 through 15. So the Lord defeated the Ethiopians before Asa and before Judah, and so and the Ethiopians fled.

Asa and the people who were with him pursued them as far as Gerar, and the Ethiopians fell until none remained alive, for they were broken before the Lord and his army. The men of Judah carried away very much spoil, and they attacked all the cities around Gerar, for the fear of the Lord was upon them.

They plundered all the cities, for there was much plunder in them, and they struck down the tents of those who had livestock and carried away sheep in abundance and camels. Then they returned to Jerusalem.

Amen. Could I ask someone to get the dwarves back, please? Thanks. All right, so we continue learning about Asa's life. Now, you'll note that we have been outside of parallels from 1st Kings for a time, so this is material that is unique to 2nd Chronicles.

Verse 9 says, and there came out against them Zerah the Ethiopian with an army of a million and three hundred chariots, and they came to Marisha. Then Asa went out to meet him, and they set the battle in a ray at the valley of Zephathah at Marisha.

All right, so why does Zerah go out against Judah? Simply to conquer, to get more possessions. Nothing is said in particular about the purpose, so that's what we're left to assume. Yes? That probably has something to do with the fact that they are weaker, has something to do with it.

And also, geographically, think about what's going on here. Which kingdom is this? It's the southern kingdom. Where are the Ethiopians? They're southern, so it's, you know, going all the way around is kind of part or two.

So yeah, they are a nearby enemy to Judah that's not as nearby to the northern kingdom of Israel. But yes, they're probably taking advantage of the fact that they have less forces. Clearly, they are coming with a larger army.

We had read just a moment ago about the size of Asa's army. It said in verse 8, out of Judah, 300 ,000. Out of Benjamin, 280 ,000. All right, so together that's 580 ,000, but here you have a million. So 580 compared to a million, and then not only a million, but 300 chariots, which is likely why they're meeting in the plain, in the valley.

It says, and if when you think about valley, think, I don't know, I guess in my mind I often think of like a v-shape, so I'm not thinking of flat, but usually valleys are like the plain in between mountain ranges.

That's necessary for the chariots to go. Judges 119 says, and the Lord was with Judah, and he took possession of the hill country, but he could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain because they had chariots of iron, right?

You can't take the chariots up into the mountains, they stay on the plain. That probably has something to do with why the battle is particularly here in the valley. All right, and yeah, so we covered the size of his army being much larger.

Josephus records some details about this. Now, of course, Josephus is writing even after the New Testament era, so it is much later, but he's recording Jewish traditions, etc., and he says that the army of a million were 900 ,000 horsemen and 100 ,000 footmen.

So, not just that it's a million men, but nine out of every ten have a horse. Okay, so it's very, very powerful army, the army that's coming against them. All right, moving on here to, oh wait, there's a question about Marisha.

Marisha is one of the fortified cities that Rehoboam had built up in 118, 2 Chronicles 118. Zephathah is otherwise unknown, but may be related to the Zephath of Judges 117. Yeah, so these are, that's basically what we know about these places.

You don't have to, you know, if you see this question, you don't have to stress out about figuring it all out. You know, maybe do a word search to see if that, if it appears somewhere else and then move on.

You don't have to get hampered down if those questions stress you out. Verse 11, and Asa cried to the Lord, to Jehovah, his God, and said, Jehovah, there is none beside you to help between the mighty and him that has no strength.

Weakness, Humility, and the Lord’s Strength

All right, so what's the significance of Asa crying out to the Lord? Well, clearly he trusted him. This is a continuing of his godly trust. Notably, he called out to his God, in quotes there, his God.

And that's what happened with Abijah also. He called out to his God in 1314. Why does Asa say that there is none to help? Because no one else is capable of providing salvation. Clearly, he needs the Lord.

The numbers are stacked against him. Sure, there are other allies that he could rely on in theory, but he knows that only God can produce the victory. And who are the mighty and those who have no strength?

So, here he's comparing himself to the others, right? The mighty are his enemies, and then he that has no strength is him, humbly recognizing that even though the verse just before this, the verses just before this said, talked about how mighty his army was, you know, having 580 ,000 total, that really ultimately he doesn't have any particular might.

That's why, you know, things like the Sermon on the Mount can say, you know, blessed are the poor, etc., and restrict blessings just to the poor and the humble, etc., because even the rich who trust in the Lord, even the outwardly rich who trust in the Lord are recognizing their poverty.

The condition of true allegiance to the Lord at the beginning of Luke is basically those who are waiting for the consolation of Israel, those who are not satisfied, those who sense their misery, sense their poverty.

It's more about the sense of it than the outward state of it, because everyone is impoverished. Everyone is weak. They just need to recognize it. And likewise, this is a theme that comes up all throughout Scripture, most famously in the Magnificat, the Magnificat being the Song of Mary in Luke 1, where she talks about God raising up the lowly, bringing down the high, and yeah, those themes are repeated throughout Scripture frequently.

Yeah, feel free to raise your hand if you have any questions, by the way. So, the next question here is, what is the relation between weakness and strength in 1 Corinthians? So, let me go ahead and read the 1 Corinthians passage.

That was 1 Corinthians 1, 26 to 29, which says, "'For consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.

God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.'".

All right, so yeah, God chooses the weak of the world. And then in 2 Corinthians 12, 9 through 10, it says, "'But he said to me, "'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.

For when I am weak, then I am strong.'". All right, so in both of these passages, it speaks of weakness as being the means through which God demonstrates his strength. If there is outward strength or someone declaring their own outward strength, then that is what gets glory rather than God.

And how does this relate to Asa's prayer? Of course, he is acknowledging his need for the Lord's strength. That's pretty straightforward. 11b, "'Help us, O Jehovah, our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this multitude.

O Jehovah, you are our God. Do not let man prevail against you.'". So, the people have come in the Lord's name. They are protecting the Lord's honor by protecting the land. You know, this is not just them living their lives.

They have a reason that they want to defend the land beyond that, which is God and His temple, etc. So, when they appeal to God, they're appealing to Him to defend His own interests, right? If they are destroyed, then God is defeated, right?

If the enemy prevails against them, then the enemy has prevailed against the Lord because they are coming in the Lord's name, and they're defending the Lord's land, etc. This is important to remember.

You see this in a lot of prayers throughout the Bible. Basically, someone comes and says, I know that I myself have nothing in me that would be a good reason for you to save me, but I am so attached to you that you have to, right?

And that's how Hezekiah prays when Sennacherib, the Assyrian, is defeated. It's just a repeated thing. You see it in the Psalms often, too. Not praying merely that God would help you, but that He would help you, because in doing so, He's helping Himself, right?

That's a weird thing to say, because obviously, God is blessed above all forever. He does not need anything, but in Him having attached His name, His reputation on earth to a particular people, and Him being one who upholds His own glory, He is mocked if His people are destroyed, and He will not allow His own glory to be tarnished like that.

And so, He upholds His people for this reason. That is the blessing of having His name, is that He defends His name. So, that's the sense of the prayer there, that don't let this enemy prevail against you.

The Lord’s Victory, Pursuit to Gerar, and the Plundered Cities

Verse 12, so Jehovah defeated the Ethiopians before Asa and before Judah, and the Ethiopians fled. And Asa and the people that were with him pursued them to Gerar. All right, so yeah, the Lord defeats the Ethiopians in that He gives His people the sufficient strength to defeat them.

Nothing miraculous beyond that is described. You know, there's more direct miraculous ways that God gives victory. This one seems to be just Him giving His strength through the people, and that they are able to defeat them.

And they understand this as being an answer to prayer, that they have the strength in order to do that. And so, the fact that they go as far as Gerar demonstrates that they cannot escape out of the land.

Gerar is in Philistia, according to Genesis 26 .1. That's, so if you know your geography of Canaan, that's, you know, north, east, or excuse me, northwest. So, which is, you know, to get back to Ethiopia, they need to go south.

So, in chasing them this way, they're able to plunder them and get all their stuff, etc. Right? It's not enough just to get them out of the land. God is also giving them sufficient victory so that they receive wealth from the enemy also.

At least their their swords and everything. All right. Yeah. Pursue them to Gerar. Okay. 13b. And there fell of the Ethiopians so many that they could not recover themselves, for they were destroyed before Jehovah and before his host, and they carried away very much booty.

Booty meaning spoil, meaning, yeah, plunder. So, the Ethiopians couldn't, they couldn't effectively defend or retreat, and they lost all their possessions, and there is much. You can imagine that if they are going on an extended campaign with a lot of confidence, they're going to bring enough for themselves to last the several months that they do battle.

The way, the way war happened back then at this time, like it describes in 2 Samuel, is the kings go out to war in the springtime. So, you can imagine that there's a certain good set of months for war, and if you are doing that on an extended campaign, you're going to have stuff for, you know, the, the couple of months that you're going to be out.

And yeah, these people, and maybe you're even bringing servants along with you, like a caddy, basically, you know, or like the the squire, right, to, you know, they probably have a lot of stuff. And well, this is saying that they do, that they do have a lot of things.

There are times in the Bible where it describes a victory, where there's a surprising amount of stuff, and later on in 2 Chronicles, I forget the descriptions, but it's kind of shocking how much jewelry and things that they have on them since the enemy was going into battle, and they're able to plunder all that.

So, this is probably implying something similar, that there's, you know, more resources than would be expected normally, but they're able to carry away much spoil. All right, and then when it says the Lord's host here, a lot of times the Lord's host refers to angel, armies of angels, but here it just seems like it's talking about them, that they are the, they are the army, for they were destroyed before Jehovah and before his host.

Now, maybe it's talking about angelic armies being employed to defeat the enemy, but I think this is just talking about the people with God's name on them being his army. All right, verse 14. And they smote all the cities around Gerar, for the fear of Jehovah came on them, and they despoiled all the cities, for there was much spoil in them.

They smote also the tents of livestock, and carried away sheep in abundance, and camels, and returned to Jerusalem. Okay, so now the people have gotten to Gerar, and they are so stoked for what God has done.

You know, that fire of zeal is burning, and they say, well, God has given us his strength, let's keep riding this, let's keep conquering for his name. And there are people in the land who are not supposed to be there still, and that it was always counted as a failure, a moral failure for the Israelites not to have chased out all the people of the land.

So, this is not them getting too greedy, this is not them being bloodthirsty, this is them with a true zeal for the Lord, kicking people out of his land that aren't supposed to be there. So, they conquer Gerar, and they're not just despoiling the cities, but they're also going out of the cities to the tents.

Okay, so the tents are in, like, the area around the city. This means that they're so eager that they're not just taking the wealth out of the city, which would be easy to do, they're even going farther than that, and they are taking spoil out of tents, taking livestock, etc.

And so, yeah, they're defeating Philistines now. So, their trust in God didn't just guarantee that they defeated the Ethiopians, it also brought about the defeat of the Philistines. That's often how these things work.

A lot of times, people will be deciding whether or not they want to trust in the Lord on a particular issue, and the way that they would go about their obedience, and they don't realize that success and failure doesn't necessarily look like that one thing they have in mind.

A lot of times, God rewards obedience far more than just the initial trial that's in front of you, right? Yeah, and as already was said, this is done out of the fear of the Lord because, yeah, their zeal is driving this conquest.

Obedience, Zeal, and Compound Growth in the Fear of the Lord

Okay, and the reflection questions here are, in what situations should you rely on the Lord? How frequently do you rely on the Lord through prayer, and how should this passage inform your fear of the Lord?

So, clearly, there's kind of an obvious takeaway that your trials you should take to the Lord in prayer. There are some of the less obvious takeaways, too, that I've also mentioned. Basically, how much more God blesses obedience than we typically expect or realize.

Two, how the nature of zeal, how trusting in God. So, think about the reward side as different, but even the personal devotion side, that a lot of times that personal devotion, just a little bit of zeal for the Lord, is rewarded with more zeal for the Lord.

And, yeah, that's what you often find. I've pointed out recently in a couple of sermons, I think the nature of disparities, how in a lot of areas in life, it's not like the saturation of some liquid where once you have a lot of salt, it's harder to get more salt into the liquid.

There are other things where the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, etc. So, wealth does work that way, where if you have a lot of wealth, it makes it a lot easier to get wealth. Wisdom works that way.

If you have a lot of wisdom, it is easier to get wisdom. This is what the Proverbs say, the wise grows wiser. That's a paraphrase. And then, yeah, it's also true with zeal, that exercising a little bit of zeal for the Lord is often rewarded with a lot more zeal, because in having trained yourself in zeal and having seen zeal paid off and not be discouraged by it, you just grow in zeal.

So, this is why you will often see that, I don't know how to map the curve, but people who have lots of zeal or wisdom often have a lot of it, like an order of magnitude more than others, because that is the nature of the training of it, is to lead to those kinds of disparities.

So, something to encourage you, you know, maybe you've seen charts where people are encouraging you to start investing because, you know, that compound interest grows a lot faster than you intuitively think.

Okay, that's how wisdom and zeal works, too. So, you don't have to think of yourself as being so far away from a lot of zeal. You know, really, it might not be that far away if you're willing to get started now and building up that compound interest of zeal, the way that God works in people.