NOTES for Ch2 20:1-37

On the eve of battle, the prophet declares that it is not the warriors who will fight, but the Lord Himself. Such a prophecy does not surprise us: the Bible repeatedly mentions the Lord's invisible help to soldiers in battle. This time, however, they did not even need to take to the battlefield: the enemies killed one another. This saved the lives of many warriors of Judah, yet the question suggests itself: why is a mutually destructive clash between pagans called God's war?

We may suppose that it is because the Lord gave the Ammonites and Moabites the freedom to follow the pagan path they had chosen. Yet every path leads to the consequences inherent in it, and the pagan path splits into a multitude of tracks and inevitably leads to disunity. Thus the mutual destruction of Judah's enemies flowed from their choice, inseparably bound up with opposition to the God of Israel.

The same chapter tells both how faith became the chief support in the face of an enemy invasion and how a lack of faith led to loss. Both situations were associated with the same king, Jehoshaphat. Well, there is a well-known saying: ‘The peasant will not cross himself until thunder strikes.’ Sadly, once the thunder stops, peasant and king alike all too often forget the One to whom they have just cried out for help.