God’s Word for You

2 Chronicles 13:13-18 Divine providence

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Monday, November 25, 2024

13 Now Jeroboam had set up an ambush from the rear, so that while he was in front of Judah the ambush was behind them. 14 Judah turned and saw that they were being attacked at both front and rear. Then they cried out to the LORD. The priests blew their trumpets 15 and the men of Judah raised the battle cry. At the sound of their battle cry, God routed Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah. 16 The Israelites fled before Judah, and God gave them into their hands. 17 Abijah and his men inflicted heavy losses on them. Five hundred thousand of Israel’s capable fighting men fell in the battle. 18 The men of Israel were subdued at that time. The men of Judah prevailed because they relied on the LORD, the God of their fathers.

The word ma‘arab means to set a trap or an ambush, or (in Arabic) to tie a knot. The association of the knot with this word is that when warriors are trapped, they are tied up in a knot that they can’t free themselves from. This is what Jeroboam planned for Abijah. We can ask who was the attacker here—was Abijah on the march or had Jeroboam lured Abijah out where he and his army were sticking out like a sore thumb? The battle happened north of the Benjamin border, but that doesn’t mean that Abjiah was the aggressor. Abjiah’s speech in verses 4-12 could be taken in either sense (attacker or defender). But a large body of armed men moving south was something to be stopped, not just waited for. Yet verse 3 says that Abijah got ready for battle and that Jeroboam lined up against him. In my opinion, for as little as my opinion is worth here, I don’t think we can say for certain who was the aggressor. Certainly both sides were belligerent.

Sending men behind the army of Judah meant that Jeroboam cut off their line of retreat, since they were several miles inside of the territory of the northern kingdom. The many hills (and, presumably, trees) in the area would provide ample cover even for an ambush of many thousands.

Outnumbered and attacked from both sides, the men of Judah carried on with their attack. The priests blew trumpets. The men of Judah raised a battle cry. Abijah called for an attack—probably an attack going in both directions at once. But before all of that and most important of all, the men of Judah and their officers cried out to the Lord. They prayed for help.

Often such a prayer is not very articulate. Anyone who has been in a car accident, or has fallen from the roof of a house, or who has been in danger from weather, from water, from fire, from foolish choices, from claws and fangs and hooves, knows that there is often no time at all for a spoken prayer. There might be time for a single word, “Lord…!” but the event is over before “Help me” or “Save me” can finish the thought. “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express” (Romans 8:26). And again, “the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will” (Romans 8:27). It is certainly true that when the believer prays, he will be heard. How much more true that when the Holy Spirit himself prays, he will be heard and answered.

God wants us to pray. “Ask and it will be given to you,” Jesus says (Matthew 7:7). He told his disciples that they should always pray and not give up praying (Luke 18:1). Prayer is part of the constant activity of the Christian (Ephesians 6:18; 1 Thessalonians 5:17). And God even imputes the granting of believers’ prayers to his divine nature (Proverbs 15:29). That is to say, it is in God’s very nature to answer our prayers, as David prophesies: “O you who hear prayer, to you all men will come” (Psalm 65:2). And God says: “They will call on my name, and I will answer them” (Zechariah 13:9; Isaiah 41:17).

God did indeed answer their prayer. Jeroboam’s army was defeated. Many were routed, which means that they ran away in a panic. Many more were killed or wounded. Jeroboam lost five-eighths of his army.

Perhaps this is a time where we should discuss the word ‘eleph, “thousand.” It means the numeral that is one more than 999, but it also means a military group of men, which may have filled up that number, or may have been something less. There seem to have been six basic units of soldiers in the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 1:15 mentions commanders of units “of thousands, of hundreds, or fifties, and of tens.” Besides these, there were bands of six hundred (a brigade, Exodus 14:7; 1 Samuel 30:9) and bands of three hundred (a half-brigade or battalion, Judges 7:8). Abraham commanded a battalion of 318 men when he went to rescue his nephew Lot (Genesis 14:14). If even half of Jeroboam’s “thousands” were understrength units, using “thousand” (‘eleph) as a military unit and not an exact numeral, then his 800,000 could have been considerably less. Yet they were undoubtedly a sizeable, impressive, and fierce army. Abijah and his commanders would have been wise to acknowledge: “God fought for us.” This happened before, when Jacob saw an army of angels when he was afraid of his brother Esau (Genesis 32:1-2). And Abijah’s great-grandfather David said, “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them” (Psalm 34:1). And again, “He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways” (Psalm 91:11). God performs his divine providence in many ways; through nature, rain, the soil, the trees, by giving men and women our abilities and useful work for us to do, and he also provides protection for us through his angels and by other miraculous means. The goal is both the glorification of God and also the welfare of humanity—down to each and every one of us. “O LORD, you preserve both man and beast” (Psalm 36:6). Many atheists deny the providence of God, from Epicurus to Robert Graves. But Christians have for centuries understood that God cares, not only for the great (as Cicero believed) but for all his children. Our theologian Martin Chemnitz summarizes divine providence this way:

1, God knows everything that is and that happens. He assists good efforts but restrains evil (Psalm 34:15-16). “Therefore,” says Chemnitz, “in the definition ‘providence’ is described as ‘that which is beneficial; it is not said to be knowledge, but an activity.”

2, God sustains us so that individuals have the powers, instincts, and activities which are appropriate to them.

3, Providence extends to all things, not only those that might be considered significant matters. But God has a special concern even for things which are unimportant and are worthy of contempt.

4, God preserves the order of things he has established, such as the seasons (Genesis 8:22) and his watchfulness over the evil as well as the good (Matthew 5:45).

5, Providence extends to all creatures, but not in the same way. As some of our dogmaticians have said, “providence has its grades.”

6, Providence preserves many creatures immediately (without their activity); others are preserved mediately by their working (Matthew 6:26).

7, Scripture testifies that not only irrational things are subject to the providence of God, but that even brutes and creatures which act by natural instinct or some other form of reasoning perceive or in some way acknowledge his preservation and sustenance, such as “the young ravens when they call” (Psalm 147:9), and the lions that roar (Psalm 104:21,27). These things shame humanity.

8, God is not bound by the order of things he has established. He is at all times able to aid his church and to punish the unjust.

We thank God for all of the ways that he provides for us, from the silent fall of dew to the living growth of the plants; from the spin of the hurtling planets to the twinkling of the stars in all their places. He watches after the butterfly and the moth and he even directs the mysterious butterfly effect. He works out all things for our good, and we should expect nothing but good from his hand, day after day, year after year (Psalm 145:9). He cares for those who trust in him.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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