God Help Me

Judah’s Jehoshaphat was a good king with a big problem. He had made an enemy of his neighbor to the east, Moab, by trying to help the Kingdom of Israel suppress a rebellion there. Now Moab, Ammon, and Edom had joined forces to invade Judah with a “great multitude” and occupied the Dead Sea oasis of En-gedi, well within Judah’s borders.

So Jehoshaphat turned to the Lord and asked for help. God answered through a Levite named Jahaziel, who announced that not only would God deliver Judah, but He would do so without them even having to fight. They need only station themselves upon the heights overlooking the Valley of Beracah (Blessing) and witness the Lord’s victory. They did so, marching there singing and praising God. When they arrived, they discovered that the enemy armies had fought each other and that all of the enemy soldiers were either dead or had fled.

We can take great comfort from this story. Jehoshaphat was a good man, but he was definitely in a jam of his own making. His first mistake was to ally himself with the idolatrous nation of Israel. Then he agreed to help fight a war that his country had no stake in. By doing so, he weakened himself and made new enemies.

Yet when he asked God for help, the Lord not only helped him but essentially fought his battle for him—destroying his enemies without him having to do a thing except go watch it happen. (You can read the whole story in 2 Chronicles chapter 20.)

So when you turn to God for help, you can be assured that He will not refuse you just because you got yourself into a mess. You surely haven’t done worse than Jehoshaphat in that regard.

On the other hand, help may arrive in a form we never anticipated or even contemplated.

When the Israelites were oppressed by the Philistines and terrorized by the giant Goliath, do you think any of them envisioned being saved by a teenage sheep herder with a sling?

And who could have foreseen that God would humble Himself by taking the form of a tiny baby boy born in Bethlehem, or that He would save us from our sins by submitting to a humiliating and agonizing death by crucifixion, or that victory over death would be achieved through an empty tomb on a Sunday morning?

So by all means, ask God for help—help with problems, help with temptations, help with doubts. But recognize also that God will send that help at a time and in a manner of His choosing. And since God knows what is best for us, that is a good thing.