The Battle is Adonai's: Introduction

2 Chronicles 20 is a chapter that sermons have been preached on, praise songs have been written about, and has a line that we quote in encouragement; "The battle is the Lord's".

Verse 19 was the scripture I was looking at to continue the Praise Collection, and the L'vi'im from the descendants of the K'hati and the descendants of the Korchi, stood up and praised Adonai the God of Isra'el at the top of their voices. When I read the verse, I went a few verses back for context, and then a few more and a few more until I ended up at the beginning of the chapter. This made me slow down and read the story from beginning to end and I began to break out my other study bibles to see what commentary was listed concerning it.

The Dake Study Bible is one of my favorites as it has detailed breakdowns from cover to cover and it was in looking at that commentary that I saw the direction I should take with this particular study. While it would be easy to just focus on verse 19 and narrow the lens to halal, I believe that I would be doing a horrible disservice to myself, and you, the reader as there is so much to look at in this chapter. Within the margins of Dake, I saw that he broke down Y'hoshafat's (Jehoshaphat) prayer line by line, giving me the inspiration I needed.

This study will be broken down into three parts.

1. The Prayer

2. The Prophecy

3. The Outcome

I have no doubt that Part One, The Prayer, will be somewhat lengthy as there are sixteen points to Y'hosafat's prayer. Some are short, only a few words in length, which will make the study on those phrases shorter, while a few others are a chunk of words that will of course take more time to break down. I do feel however that it is important to study it phrase by phrase as Adonai never wastes a single word in His Word.

Part Two, The Prophecy, will show us Adonai's response not just to Y'hosafat's prayer, but the collective heart of Israel as they were gathered with him as he prayed.

Part Three, The Outcome, takes a look at both Israel and Adonai's responses after the prayer and the prophecy, and what we can take away from both.

I am learning with each post that I share, that Adonai is restructuring my heart, the way I pray, and now with this collection, the way I praise. We each have a unique relationship with Him, because He isn't a "one size fits all" God. He will use each of us to teach others and reveal mysteries that He shares with us individually. As the Holy Spirit teaches each of us, and as we share and learn from each other, it is my prayer that we will be strengthened and edified in Him, rooting deeper and growing stronger in His Word, and in His love.