In part a of The Prayer, we covered prayer and fasting, and the first three points of Josaphat’s prayer in 2 Chronicles 20. Let us now continue looking at his prayer with the fourth point.
4. In Your hand are power and strength (v6)
The words power and strength are of course two that I looked at in this phrase, but I also looked at the word hand. Hand metaphorically speaks of Adonai’s power and might. It is also used in conjunction with to smite, chastising, favor, and deliverance. In Hebrew, it is the word Yad, spelled with the Hebrew letters Yud and Dalet and has a numeric value of 14. In coming back to the scripture that is the true focal point of this study, 2 Chronicles 20:18-19, Y’hoshafat bowed his head with his face to the ground; while all Y’huda and the inhabitants of Yerushalayim fell down before Adonai, worshipping Adonai; 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. The word praise in this scripture is halal, which like the word yad, has a numeric value of 14. In looking at Yud and Dalet, the letters that make up the word yad, or hand, we find that the letter Yud itself means hand or power, and that there is strength and friendship between God and man. Dalet means door or path, a doorway to spiritual knowledge.
As I was looking up scriptures pertaining to Adonai’s strength and power, and looking at breaking down those words, I came across one scripture that sums it up completely. Revelation 12:10 says, Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, “Now have come God’s victory, power, and kingship, and the authority of his Messiah; because the Accuser of our brothers, who accuses them day and night before God, has been thrown out!” We have an adversary, who is out to destroy us, specifically, our relationship with Adonai. He stands before God to accuse us and throw our sins in the face of our Creator trying to talk Adonai into putting His focus onto that. Guess what? There is great news in which we can rejoice. When we accept Yeshua as our Savior, and we are covered in that precious blood, Satan can accuse us all he wants, but it will profit him nothing, because THERE IS POWER IN THE BLOOD! On that Passover, over two thousand years ago, when He took lashes across His back for our healing, for our wholeness, His shalom, when He let them cram a crown of thorns onto His head, when He willingly laid His life down upon that cross, becoming the perfect lamb, the sacrifice that takes away the sin of the world, He displayed His strength and power in its fulness. And now, He sits at the right hand of the Father and He sent the Holy Spirit to embody us with His strength and His power, and when we live and walk in His power and not our own, we can be assured that NO weapon formed against us will prosper.
5. So that none can withstand You. (v6)
When I looked up the word withstand, I looked in the Webster’s New Word Thesaurus to see what our English synonyms were. Face, oppose, confront, resist, endure, stand up to, hold out. I also looked in the Brown Driver Briggs Lexicon for the word in Hebrew and the definition. Yatsab (yaw-tsab) has two definitions. 1. To place, set, stand, set or station oneself, present oneself. 2. To station oneself, take one’s stand, stand present oneself, stand with someone. I would not be surprised that when praying this, Jehoshaphat brought to mind many of the battles throughout Israel’s history which were not won by ordinary, battle measures. Egypt faced ten plagues before Pharoah let the people go, only to try one final time to stop them and his army be crushed beneath the waves of the Red Sea. (Exodus 5-14) Jericho watched in bewilderment as the Children of Israel marched around their fortified city, carrying the ark of the covenant, and blowing shofars (trumpets). The people probably thought as the peas in the Veggie Tales episode Josh and the Big Wall sang, “Keep walking, but you won’t knock down our walls.” To their shock, the walls came down with a shout and shofar blasts and the city was destroyed. (Joshua 6) In a move no one could see coming, while standing in battle with Gilgal, Joshua spoke to Adonai “Sun, stand motionless over Giv’on! Moon, you too, over Ayalon Valley!” (v.12) The sun and moon did so, and Israel was victorious over their enemies. (Joshua 10). Gideon led three hundred people against the armies of Mydian. (Judges 6-7), Samson brought the house down as the Philistines worshiped their god Dagon, killing more at his death than during his life. (Judges 16) When the Philistines captured the ark and brought it to the temple of Dagon, the next morning, they found that Dagon had fallen, with his face to the ground before the ark of Adonai. (v3) After setting their god back up, the next morning, not only had Dagon fallen, but the head and both hands were severed where all that was left was Dagon’s torso. (1 Samuel 5:1-5) In a showdown between a giant and a shepherd boy, there could be no doubt in the Philistine army’s mind who would win, yet the boy shouted, “You’re coming at me with a sword, a spear and a javelin. But I’m coming to you in the name of Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of the armies of Israe’el, whom you have challenged. Today, Adonai will hand you over to me. I will attack you, lop your head off, and give the carcasses of the army of the P’lishtim to the birds in the air and the animals in the land. Then all the land will know there is a God in Isra’el, and everyone assembled here will know that Adonai does not save by sword or spear. For this is Adonai’s battle, and he will hand you over to us.” (1 Samuel 17:45-47) With one well placed stone, the victory was Adonai’s.
Yatsab is made of the Hebrew letters Yud (י), Sade (צ), and Bet (ב). As I was looking at the meanings behind of each of these letters, I was drawn to the shadow meanings, which opened a common theme with each of the enemies in all the above situations. Yud means no foundation, Sade means self-righteousness, and Bet means feeling spiritually superior to others. Pride. Proverbs 16:18 warns us, Pride goes before destruction, and arrogance before failure. It is a spiritual law that is for everyone, and one that Israel was warned about in Leviticus 26:19, I will break the pride you have in your own power. I will make your sky like iron, your soil like bronze. Every army that stood in pride before the Lord of Hosts fell.
Before entering the Promised Land, the Children of Israel were told, “When you go out to fight your enemies and see horses, chariots, and a force larger than yours, you are not to be afraid of them; because Adonai your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, is with you. When you are about to go into battle, the cohen is to come forward and address the people. He should tell them, ‘Listen, Isra’el! You are about to do battle against your enemies. Don’t be fainthearted or afraid; don’t be alarmed or frightened by them; because Adonai your God is going with you to fight on your behalf against your enemies and give you victory.’ (Deuteronomy 20:1-4)
Paul knew that none could withstand Adonai and in his letter to the Romans he said, “What, then, are we to say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31) No matter what, always remember that when you are a child of God, no matter what battle you are facing, NONE can withstand our God.
6. You, our God (v7)
I have been pondering these three words for about three days now, thinking them over as they form a phrase that on the surface we think, “well, of course Adonai was their God”. It wasn’t until I watched Season 2, Episode 6 of The Chosen that I really began to mull these three words over. There is a scene between Ramah and Mother Mary in which Ramah is exceedingly worried for Mary Magdalene and as they are discussing the situation, Mother Mary looks at her and recites scripture from Psalm 20:7, saying “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name, Adonai, our God”. The last part, Ramah says with her, and in that instant, you see her faith rebuild somewhat. Not that she isn’t still worried about Mary, but with help she was able to place her focus back on Adonai instead of her fear.
These three words are faith builders. I have found myself more often in recent days saying something like this in the midst of turmoil, and each time I do, my faith is rebuilt, and I stand stronger, firmer, and more steadfast than I had just a few moments before. The situation hasn’t changed, but my focus has. When I take my eyes off my problem and put it on Adonai, my God and trust in His name, His Word, and His promises, I am unshakable.
7. Drove out those living in the land ahead of your people Israel. (v7)
In looking at these words, I of course thought of the physical, and when the Children of Israel entered the Promised Land, and I looked up the word drove in the Hebrew. Drove or yarash (yaw-rash) has a multitude of meanings, but for this line it means to impoverish or dispossess. Upon reading that, it turned my mind away from the physical and to the spiritual.
When I came to Yeshua, like most others, there was work going on in the spiritual that took place before I surrendered my heart. Adonai went before me and began to drive out, impoverish, and dispossess things in my heart. Sin, fear, anxiety, addiction, depression, anger and wrath, hopelessness, pride; He begins impoverishing all these things and more in our lives, and when we turn our lives over to Him, these things become dispossessed, and we then possess and inherit the things of Adonai, our promised land. Romans 8:17 says, and if we are children, then we are also heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with the Messiah – provided we are suffering with him in order also to be glorified with him. As I was thinking about this, my attention was brought back to the book of Judges, and how the conquest of the Promised Land was never really completed. After the land was divided among the twelve tribes, each was responsible for conquering their own area, and it is recorded that each tribe “did not drive out” the inhabitants as Adonai commanded. This led to those idol-worshiping nations becoming the downfall of His people. The same is true for us. He goes before us and begins the process of disinheriting the things of the enemy within us, but when we accept the salvation of Yeshua, we are responsible for continuing the work of “driving out” the things in our lives that do not line up with Him. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:31,” I die every day”, as should we. When we die to ourselves each day, we allow Him to live more fully in us. When we drive out the things that so easily turn our eyes from Him, we are not so easily snared by the gods of this world that seek to pull us away from Him. We are able to stand and declare that only Adonai is our God.
8. And gave it forever to the descendants of Avraham your friend. (v7)
Two words jumped out at me when I read this part of verse 7. Forever and friend. I looked up the phrase “forever friends” at UrbanDictonary.com because I wanted to see what our modern take on this phrase is. Quote from Urban Dictionary:
“Someone who is there for you no matter what. Who knows anything and everything about you and still likes you. Someone who will sleep with the phone under their pillow just in case you need to call them at 3 in the morning. Someone you can laugh uncontrollably with or cry hysterically with. They will obsess over guys with you and someone you can act like a complete retard in front of and know it will make them laugh. But most importantly someone who is there for you when you need them most and will love you through the good times and the bad.”
**Please note, this is a direct quote from Urban Dictionary and not my own words.**
Minus “obsess over guys with you”, it sounds an awful lot like Adonai. He is there for us, no matter what, knows everything about us and loves us anyway. He doesn’t sleep, but He’s been there for me at three in the morning before, I laugh and cry with Him, and I have no doubt that I have made Him laugh because of acting completely ridiculous, and as it says, most importantly, He is there when I need Him the most and loves me in good times and in bad.
The word friend in Hebrew is ahab (aw-hab) and is made of the letters Aleph (א), Hey (ה), and Bet (ב). When we look at the symbolism behind each letter, Aleph is Adonai or strength, Hey is to reveal or God’s presence, and Bet a house or the heart. It paints a beautiful picture that friend is Adonai revealing His presence to our heart. He is the author of friendship.
The word forever in Hebrew is olam (o-lawm) and as with many Hebrew words has a multitude of definitions. In this case however olam is specifically tied to Adonai’s promise, His Word. In breaking this word down letter by letter as we did with friend, this is what we find; Ayin (ע) means spiritual insight, Vav (ו) is connection or relationship, Lamed (ל) means learning is a lifelong process, and Mem in its final from (ם) means hidden knowledge. We see yet another picture painted of a lifelong process of connection and relationship to Adonai in which we are always learning both the seen and hidden things of God, a process that will continue past this life into the next.
With the end of verse 7, we close part 2. May you walk as a forever friend with Adonai, as He has paid the ultimate price of friendship for us. No one has greater love than a person who lays down his life for his friends. John 15:13 He loves us with a perfect love, paid the way for us to dwell with Him forever, and calls us friend. His love is so great that He wishes for none to perish. May we love with His love each and every day.
Comments