Jehoshaphat as been told that a great multitude are coming against him in battle. And what does he do immediately? He seeks the Lord and prays.
PRAYER precedes worship in this passage as it should in our church worship. He and the people acknowledge their need of the Lord and the Lord says, "Don't be afraid . . . for the Lord is with you!" This is the whole reason for the prayer ministry of our worship-leading choir and why we have asked others in our congregation to join us as "worshipping prayer warriors" in praying specifically for the worship services of our church. We have seen even this week God answer a protracted prayer by the choir for one's salvation. Prayer precedes worship.
OBEDIENCE comes after prayer as we read in this chapter. God tells them they will not need to fight the battle and, for them to "position themselves, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord." Now they had a multitude coming against them and God basically says do nothing, except depend totally on me. That took some real obedience on their part.
WORSHIP becomes the result of the prayer and the obedience as we see both Jehoshaphat and the people bow before the Lord and worship. And then, in their worship the Levites stood up to give glory and praise to the Lord in loud voices!
VICTORY is the great final part of great worship. The next morning Jehoshaphat appoints those who would sing to the Lord to go out ahead of the army. Wow, what confidence in victory has come out of worship! They sang, "Praise the Lord, for His mercy endures forever!" And when they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the enemy and they were defeated. That's right, the choir was set out ahead of the army to announce the victory of the Lord! Hallelujah!
We need to see in our own lives this worship process as described in this passage. Prayer - Obedience - Worship - Victory! That is 2 Chronicles 20 Worship. mjm
