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Context No. 1649 of 4322 · 2 Chronicles

Context · Reflection

2 Chronicles 13:13-22: in context

13But Jeroboam caused an ambush to come about behind them; so they were before Judah, and the ambush was behind them. 14When Judah looked back, behold, the battle was before and behind them; and they cried to the LORD, and the priests sounded with the trumpets. 15Then the men of Judah gave a shout. As the men of Judah shouted, God struck Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah. 16The children of Israel fled before Judah, and God delivered them into their hand. 17Abijah and his people killed them with a great slaughter, so five hundred thousand chosen men of Israel fell down slain. 18Thus the children of Israel were brought under at that time, and the children of Judah prevailed, because they relied on the LORD, the God of their fathers. 19Abijah pursued Jeroboam, and took cities from him: Bethel with its villages, Jeshanah with its villages, and Ephron with its villages. 20Jeroboam didn’t recover strength again in the days of Abijah. The LORD struck him, and he died. 21But Abijah grew mighty and took for himself fourteen wives, and became the father of twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters. 22The rest of the acts of Abijah, his ways, and his sayings are written in the commentary of the prophet Iddo.

King Abijah of Judah is at war with the larger army of Jeroboam of Israel, and finds himself ambushed, with the enemy before him and behind. When Judah sees the trap, they cry out to the LORD, and the priests sound the trumpets; the men of Judah raise a shout, and God routs Jeroboam and all Israel before them. Judah wins a great victory, the chronicler says, because they relied on the LORD, the God of their fathers. Jeroboam never recovers his strength, and in time the LORD strikes him down.

The chronicler states plainly why Judah prevailed: because they relied on the LORD. They were outnumbered and ambushed, caught in a trap with the enemy on both sides, and by ordinary reckoning they should have lost. But when they saw the trap, they did not trust their own strength or numbers, which were insufficient; they cried out to God, and God gave them the victory. The decisive factor was not their military strength but their reliance on God. There is a truth here that runs all through scripture: that victory, deliverance, the outcome of the battles we face, does not finally depend on our own strength or resources but on reliance on God. Judah was outmatched and won, because they relied on the LORD; the same God who gave them the victory can give it where we are outmatched too. This does not mean we do nothing; Judah cried out and also fought, sounded the trumpets and raised the shout. But their trust was in God, not in themselves, and that reliance was what turned the battle. There is encouragement in this for the times we face something too big for us, outnumbered, ambushed, unequal to the challenge. The question is not whether we are strong enough, for often we are not; it is whether we will rely on God, who can give the victory to the outmatched. Judah, trapped and outnumbered, cried to the LORD and prevailed because they relied on him; and the God who delivered the outmatched then is the God we can rely on now.

When I face something too big for me, outnumbered or unequal to the challenge, do I trust in my own strength and resources, which may be insufficient, or do I rely on God, as Judah did when trapped and outnumbered, trusting the God who can give the victory to the outmatched?

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