Bible Study - 2 Chronicles 13:13-18

All right, so as we close in on the ending of the life of Abijah, I'm missing the pun.

It's not a pun, it's because they're closing in the military.

Oh, okay. Yeah, I mean, that's a pun, but... Okay, well, as we get closer to the ending of Abijah's life, he is up against Jeroboam. This, of course, is narrative that is not in 2 Kings. This is something in particular that the Chronicler wants you to know that you wouldn't know if you were just reading 1 Kings.

Jeroboam’s Ambush and Judah’s Prayerful Response

So starting here in verse 13, Jeroboam calls an ambushment to come about behind them. So they were before Judah, and the ambushment was behind them. So why is he sending troops behind Judah? Well, obviously to surround Abijah.

And where is Judah positioned when this happens? Does anybody remember? Yeah, on Mount Zimmerayim. So they're up the other side of the mountain. So if you imagine being on top of a mountain, you're looking at people below, but then there's also people coming up from behind you, and maybe at this point they're actually higher and behind.

It's not really clear what the landscape would look like, but they are surrounded. So presumably it's not, they probably don't have the high ground on all sides. But this action is a rejection of Abijah's speech, right?

What has Abijah been saying? We have true worship. You have false worship. Basically return, repent, come back to the Lord, serve his king rather than your own king. And Jeroboam has rejected all this because while he's being preached at, he's actively plotting against that preaching, sending troops around from behind.

I wonder how many people do that while they're listening to the preaching of God's word, not just distracted, but even actively plotting how they're going to disobey the things that are being preached to them at that moment.

This is what Jeroboam is doing. So rather than listening, he's been busy strategizing and mobilizing his forces. Verse 14 says,. And when Judah looked back, behold, the battle was before and behind them.

And they cried to Jehovah, and the priests sounded with the trumpets. So once again, battle being before and behind, they're surrounded. They're not ready for the fight. And they cry out to the Lord, meaning that they ask him for help.

Basically this is a zealous prayer of theirs. And then they blow the trumpets. If you remember what we looked at in Numbers 10, the trumpets were for war so that when they blow them, God would hear them and answer their prayer.

Then the men of Judah gave a shout. As the men of Judah shouted, it came to pass that God defeated Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah. So not only are they surrounded, but there's twice as many troops.

If you remember, it's 400 ,000 of Judah versus 800 ,000 of Jeroboam of the northern kingdom of Israel. And the men of Judah give a shout because they're confident in the victory. They're shouting in the battle, not just calling to the Lord, but expressing confidence in the Lord through their shout.

How does God defeat Jeroboam? Supernaturally, that's the implication here. He's going out before them and he is defeating Jeroboam. This being before Abijah and Judah, we will see this later in 2 Chronicles.

There will be other scenes of exceptionally divine deliverance in war where the people are just watching on while God defeats the enemy. In later instances, they won't even have to lift a hand. Here there is participation in the battle, but the Lord's actions are preceding theirs.

He is going before them and they are watching him and his actions. Judges 6.

Let's read Judges 6, 1 through 21.

There is a relatively long passage,.

But you know what?

Was this supposed to be Joshua? I believe this was supposed to be Joshua. Excuse me, I need to go back and fix this. Right, right. Okay, so this was supposed to be Joshua. I will go back and fix it in my notes here.

But given that you didn't get a chance to read this, I'm going to go ahead and read the whole thing.

So Joshua, the son of Nun,.

And let seven priests bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the Ark. On the seventh day, you shall march around the city seven times and the priests shall blow the trumpets. And when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, when you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout and the wall of the city will fall down flat.

And the people shall go up, everyone straight before him. So Joshua, the son of Nun, called to the priests and said to them, take up the Ark of the Covenant and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the Ark of the Lord.

And he said to the people, go forward, march around the city and let the armed men pass on before the Ark of the Lord. And just as Joshua had commanded the people, the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of ram's horns before the Lord went forward, blowing trumpets with the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord.

Following them.

The armed men were walking before the priests who were blowing the trumpets and the rear guard was walking after the Ark while the trumpets blew continually. But Joshua commanded the people, you shall not shout or make your voice heard, neither shall any word go out of your mouth until the day I tell you to shout, then you shall shout.

So he caused the Ark of the Lord to circle the city, going about at once. And they came into the camp and spent the night in the camp. Then Joshua rose early in the morning and the priests took up the Ark of the Lord and the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of ram's horns before the Ark of the Lord walked on and they blew the trumpet continually and the armed men were walking before them and the rear guard was walking after the Ark of the Lord while the trumpets blew continually.

And the second day, they marched around the city once and returned into the camp. So they did for six days. On the seventh day, they rose early at the dawn of the day and marched around the city in the same manner seven times.

It was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times. And on the seventh time, when the priest had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, shout for the Lord has given you the city.

And the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the Lord for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live because she hid the messengers whom we sent.

But you keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction lest when you have devoted them, you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble against it.

But all silver, gold, and every vessel of bronze and iron are holy to the Lord. They shall go into the treasury of the Lord. So the people shouted and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted a great shout and the wall fell down flat.

So that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they captured the city. Then they devoted all in the city to destruction, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys, with the edge of the sword.

Okay, so in this passage, they are carrying the ark around the city because the Lord himself is surrounding the city. And they're supposed to shout because the Lord has given them victory. That's what verse 16 says.

So similarly here, the people are to shout because they know that the victory is certain. Now the Lord is there. The ark is not necessarily there in 2 Chronicles, but the Lord is present and he is before them.

And what is the situation? What's going on as far as the arrangement of people? This is the opposite of what was happening in Joshua 6. In Joshua 6, the enemies in the city, and on high walls and everything, right in the middle, and all the people are around.

Now the situation is reversed. All the people are on a high spot and they are surrounded. And they blow the trumpet and they shout and the Lord goes out before them. So it's basically this inverse Jericho that's happening, but God is still defeating the people as they surround them.

So that passage gives you several indications about the meaning of the trumpets, the meaning of the shouting, but also the picture of the surrounding. God is there when they're being surrounded. God is there when they need to surround others.

In verse 16, and the children of Israel fled before Judah and God delivered them into their hand and Abijah and his people slew them with a great slaughter. So they fell down slain of Israel, 500 ,000 chosen men.

Out of, remember, there were 8 ,000. So this is more than Judah had, which was 400 ,000. And they take five out of every eight men. The fact that there's a great slaughter shows that there was divine aid.

It also does seem pretty similar to this picture that you see of Jericho where they're taking out so many people. I already mentioned about the comparison of numbers. How does this compare to the number of Judah's troops?

Right, there's 400 ,000, 800 ,000. Hopefully that's clear by now. So it's a big deal that they would take out 500 ,000. Verse 18, thus the children of Israel were brought under at that time and the children of Judah prevailed.

So they're brought under and that they are subdued, they are defeated. The fact that these are referred to as the children of Judah versus the children of Israel, not that children is that unfamiliar of a way of speaking about it, but it does talk about alternative paths for the nation.

These are children of the patriarchs, the children of Judah versus the children of Israel. Only one is really following the God of their fathers. And yeah, the victory of course demonstrates the truth of Abijah's speech.

Yes?

Okay, so the difference between material obedience and formal obedience. To the Lord? Is that what you're asking? So material obedience is where you outwardly do what is right. For example, or you could be doing inwardly what is right, but you are doing outwardly what is right, or not necessarily what is right, sorry, what is obedient.

So for example, if during COVID you followed the regulations, you stayed six feet from everybody, you wore a mask, et cetera, you're rendering material obedience. Now, whether or not you're rendering formal obedience is whether or not in your heart you're really doing it out of reasons of submission, or because you think it's right, or without submission, where you just think it's wrong, but you're doing it just because you have to.

So that's the difference between material and formal obedience. That has to do with Aristotle's four causes. Anything that exists has four different causes to it. One of those is the material cause, and one is the formal cause.

I can explain that a little more. So if you have a table, the material cause is the wood. If you ask why does this table exist, the why can mean a bunch of different things. So the wood would be the material cause, the design of the table would be the formal cause, the carpenter would be the efficient cause, and then eating would be the final cause, like the purpose of the table.

So anyway, that's Emmanuel's question here. Is this material obedience or formal obedience? It seems very clear that it's formal obedience, that this is demonstrating a kind of trust in the Lord that you wouldn't expect of people, where they would just blow trumpets and expect that to work, where they would shout and demonstrate confidence in the Lord, given how outnumbered they are, given a by just speech that demonstrates a confidence in the Lord.

It seems pretty clear that they're rendering both material and formal obedience. By the way, so that COVID remark I made, I always end up associating material and formal obedience with COVID because during COVID, people kept passing around this quote from Richard Baxter on whether or not it is right to obey the civil magistrate, whether or not it's right to obey the government in the case of a pandemic.

And he was saying that you should actually obey them and not worship, or not worship, not gather. But he speaks of, and he's speaking of given whether or not there are sufficient dangers, et cetera. And what he describes is rendering material obedience.

And he's very clear to specify this material obedience. But most of the pastors that were passing this around didn't understand the difference between material and formal obedience. And they were passing it around with the mindset and basically saying that we are supposed to submit to the government.

They have the authority in this area. Where all Baxter was saying is if the danger is great enough, then it could be right to render the outward obedience. And so they didn't even seem to understand what the quote was saying.

And I was just surprised at how often I was seeing this pasted where pastors didn't actually have the theological categories to understand what was being said and was using Baxter to almost say the exact opposite of what he was saying.

That was interesting.

All right.

So yeah, if there's a situation that warrants it, sure. But you still wouldn't be rendering formal obedience as though that was something they had the authority over to decide whether or not a church would meet for worship.

All right, verse 18b. Because they relied on Jehovah, the God of their fathers. All right, how do the children of Judah rely on Jehovah? By employing the priests in their duties. That's the blowing of the trumpet.

That's the shouting to the Lord. How was the victory out of this reliance? Well, the Lord honored their trust. He goes out before them. He makes sure that they defeat 500 ,000. And what is the significance of the Lord being called the God of their fathers?

Well, they are the true children. Remember, that was the whole contention in Abijah's speech is, you know, we are really of God. We are the, basically, the frequent phrase I've been using here, they're the true Israel.

It's not Israel that's the true Israel. It's Judah that's the true Israel because they are following the God of their fathers. And Israel is not following the God of their fathers. Once again, to reemphasize, Galatians 3 .7 is the sons of faith, or it's the children of faith who are, excuse me, those of faith are the sons of Abraham.

Those of faith are the sons of Abraham. So it's not based on physical descendants. Rather, it's based on actually honoring the Lord. The northern kingdom of Israel is basically making the same mistake that many of the Jews and Pharisees of Jesus' day were, where they thought that we'll be safe because we're sons of Abraham.

Just being sons of Israel, just being sons of Abraham, doesn't actually count for anything. What situations tempt people to distrust the Lord? What are the typical results of distrust? How can you trust the Lord in difficult situations?

So yeah, if something looks naturally impossible or difficult, people will tend to distrust. It's easy to trust the Lord when you think you could do it without the Lord, too. It's hard to trust the Lord when it looks unnaturally difficult.

But the whole reason He puts you in such situations is so that you would grow your trust in Him. And if you're aware of that, if you're seeing this all with eyes of faith, then you wouldn't be so turned off by physical circumstances.

And it really ends up being a self-fulfilling prophecy where you, if you distrust the Lord, you're ending up making your problem worse. A frequent illustration that comes to my mind is whenever I think about this dynamic.

If you ever saw the cartoon Bambi, you know when all the, they're not pigeons, are they quail? When all the quail are hiding in the bushes, right? And the hunter's coming. And they're all like, they're all, they want to fly away, but they know they have to stay safe and they're just freaking out too much.

And then finally they fly and they all fly at once. And, you know, then they get shot by the hunter because they weren't willing to continue trusting the plan that they had to just stay still. And if they had just stayed still, they would have been fine.

They didn't need to worry about anything if they had just stayed still. It's pretty similar for us where if you trust the Lord, if you understand what's happening and you don't trust your own means, it'll work out fine.

But the second you start trusting yourself,.

Basically handing yourself over, right?

How can you trust the Lord in difficult situations? Well, reminding yourself of these truths. We are created as beings who do not hang on to the truth as well as we could. God has made us in a way where we have these weaknesses, in part because of the fall, but in part just because we aren't omniscient and we're not beings like the angels that are seeing things spiritually.

We're not seeing the spiritual battle that's going on. So we are inclined to look at things very naturally. Even if you can answer on a multiple-choice question the right answers about what God requires of people, what his will for man is, etc., that doesn't change the fact that if you don't spend time really dwelling on that truth and all the illustrations that he's given us in his word, that when push comes to shove and you're facing one of those situations, you're going to be tempted to look at it naturally rather than supernaturally, rather than spiritually.

You have to really dwell on Scripture. You have to abide in the vine, experiencing the means of grace that God has given so that we would have that truth. Don't think that you understand God well enough that you don't need to be reminded constantly of even basic things.

It's just important to spend a lot of time in the word, in prayer, reciting these truths to each other so that you don't just know it in a way where you could write it down in a multiple-choice test, but that you would, in the heat of battle, feel that it's real.

It's important that the people of Judah knew spiritually what was going on. These trumpets are going to do something. We do have real worship. The people of Israel do not. And remember, there are people who are attuned to think of things spiritually, but their thing isn't necessarily spiritual versus natural.

Theirs is false spiritual assessment versus true one. They could be tempted to think, oh, no, they have two golden calves. They have two places of worship to God. They have twice the number of priests they have, etc.

But really, God didn't. God was not pleased with any of that. Any other thoughts on this passage?