there are and have, there have been throughout history some great, great rescues. In fact, we really like the thought process of a rescue story. In fact, those are really what the great, even all the main, even the main fictional stories, the things that are roaming across movies and media, I'm always constantly amazed how the stories that resonate are stories that very much are connected to and really model the stories that we see in scripture in terms of the term rescue and salvation. And there are some amazing rescue stories. One of the stories that has stuck out to me in recent years, in fact I even read a couple of books about it and there was a, it's been depicted in multiple films, even a more recent one. My favorite book about it is written by Sir Walter Lord. If you are a military nut and you like following battles, Sir Walter Lord's book on The one I'm thinking about is The Miracle of Dunkirk. His book, Incredible Victory, The Battle of Midway, is phenomenal. And he has a couple of more that I want to read. But the rescue at Dunkirk, I was trying to think, all right, what's the greatest rescues that have taken place in the history of mankind? And Dunkirk has to rate right up there with these. Many of you know this story. If you don't know the story, it is an amazing thing. It is a really amazing thing in terms of how the tide was even being set to be turned later on when it comes to World War II. What had taken place is really being pushed to the edge of the country of France. You had the British Expeditionary Force along with other allies who were being stranded and were being pushed basically to the edge of the mainland continental Europe. They're being pushed to the edge of the country and really almost going to be pushed and overwhelmed into the sea. The German army literally was standing on the doorstep outside the city in some senses, and they were going to be annihilating the British Expeditionary Force in late May and early June of 1940. And the story about this is just the story of the British Navy and countless civilians that Germany really would have, and very possibly could have ended the war right there in 1940, or at least dealt a blow that would have meant that we could not have come back. Orders were received from the British commander, Lord Gordon, also this new prime minister whose name was Winston Churchill, that they were supposed to provide an evacuation of all the stranded troops in the port of Dunkirk. The operation became the name Operation Dynamo. It commenced and they started to put it together there in the middle of May. One General, General Alan Brooke, went down in the pages of history with the most correct description of the situation. He said, nothing but a miracle. can save the British expeditionary force now. So they were all being pushed to the edge, really to the edge of the sea, and what they started to do is, as they were hearing that boats were coming and ships were coming, they just started lining up hundreds of thousands, hundreds of thousands of troops. Just lining up, they had been told, in fact, Churchill was told they probably were only gonna get about 45,000 of them out within the time frame they had, and they weren't even sure how they were gonna pull that off. And as the numbers were rolling in, they realized that with the British forces and the French forces and other forces, there were probably, rightfully, just under 400,000 men who were being pushed into Dunkirk. Many of you know this story. This operation turned out to be the largest and most successful evacuation operation in the history of the world. hundreds of these hundreds of thousands of troops there during the evacuation because of how big the ships were and how narrow and how shallow the water would get in terms of tides. They started running vehicles out into the water and then driving more vehicles over the top of them to try to make just makeshift vehicles tied together, walking across the top of vehicles to get out to the bigger ships. They spent many time as the tide ran in and out, more and more soldiers kept coming. And the way that the British Naval went out and Churchill put out the order and what happened is all these Britons just started getting in their boats and going across the channel over to Dunkirk. They estimate somewhere between 700 and 800 naval vessels There's one, the smallest one is actually in a museum at London where it can only carry about three people. This guy just got in his little sailboat with his little motor, just said, I'm going to save these men. And Britain just responded. These men were, as I said, they were many times up to their shoulders. Sometimes there were those that were, they said they were up to their shoulders in this cold water for 10, 12, sometimes 15 hours, and they would just stay there. And what would take place is, as they stood there in line, and there was one main line that they actually were able to walk out and get into the bigger boats, and as the smaller boats would come in and cram as many guys into them as they could, and then they'd transfer them out to the bigger boats, and then those boats would transfer them to the even bigger boats. While they did that, the German Luftwaffe would just come through and just strafe everybody, drop bombs on everybody, and just shoot them. targets. In some situations, the men couldn't even move because of how tightly they were packed. And it is just an amazing, amazing story. King George VI, while this was taking place, attended a special prayer service at Westminster Abbey and Britain had a national day of prayer for the return of the soldiers that were stranded at Dunkirk. I don't know if they do that today. This operation had a lot of providence. In fact, I have found that when it comes to things like Midway, Dunkirk, all the way back to the crossing of the Delaware and all throughout history, when we read what takes place, we're reminded of God's hand of providence. In fact, one of the reasons this was able to be pulled off was because Hitler was an idiot, really. Hitler, the Panzer divisions were literally outside the door of Dunkirk, but the Luftwaffe generals said, no, no, no, we can wipe them out. Don't send in the tanks. And Hitler, dealing with the ego of the ground troops and the air troops, decided to go with the Luftwaffe. And because of that, instead of basically dealing an ending blow and possibly doing something that would have ended the war, everyone got out. It is interesting that the numbers are fascinating. While the soldiers got out, 338,000 plus troops got out, they left behind 68,000 tons of ammunition, 65,000 military vehicles, and 24,000 artillery guns. And it was just all left. There's a reason it was called the miracle of Dunkirk. They were rescued. And if you've seen depictions, and even if you read the book, to read the stories of these men just standing there in the water, waiting to be rescued. It's an amazing rescue story. Today we are going to look at two of the greatest rescues in the history of the nation of Israel. In fact, one reason I believe these compare to these is because the numbers are even greater in terms of who is in danger in the nation of Israel. It's more than 400,000 troops. It is the entire city of Jerusalem, possibly the refugees that are there. I invite you to turn to 2 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles chapter The two greatest rescues in the history of the nation of Israel lead to these two great prayers for deliverance that we are going to look at today. Listen with me as I read these verses telling us about what is taking place leading up to this time. 1 and 2 Chronicles chapter 20, and then you're going to need to keep your finger in 2 Kings 18 and 19 as well. 1 and 2 Chronicles chapter 20 verse 1, it happened. After this, that the people of Moab with the people of Ammon and the others with them, besides the Ammonites, came to battle against Jehoshaphat. And then in 2 Kings chapter, we'll look at chapter 19, but chapter 18, verse 13, gives the lead up to what is taking place there. It says, in the 14th year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib, king of Israel, came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. Heavenly Father, Lord, I pray that you would help us to see in these passages a great reminder of who you are. You are our deliverer. You are our redeemer. You are the one who rescues and saves. That is who you have always been. And Lord, as we look at these desperate, dark, difficult times in the nation of Israel, may we see the prayer and what you do as a result of those prayers. May we be reminded that the same God that did these amazing rescues is the one who wants to rescue us. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. We're going to be flipping back and forth. There's a great comparison between these two times. Now what we have to remember, because we kind of jump back and forth, is these are two different situations. Chronologically, the 2 Chronicles chapter 20 happens first. This is the reign of Jehoshaphat. Depending on who you talk to, this is really around the battles, probably taking place about 853 B.C. The other battle, biblically it's earlier, but chronologically it's later. In fact, it's actually 150 years later in the same place in Jerusalem with really the same type of situation going on. We will see Hezekiah and Sennacherib. in B.C. 700, so it's about 150 years between these two deliverances, and we're gonna jump back and forth and look at some of the similarities and some of the things we can learn about these two different situations, and then these two prayers that are very similar, and then even how God acts, and as we see these, we're gonna be reminded of who God is, and what we are supposed to do in times of trouble. We should pray. We know this. 1 and 2 Chronicles chapter 20. Jehoshaphat is the fourth king of Judah, and as we read there, Moab and Ammon, we also understand Mount Seir. I don't know who they were. It reminded me a little bit of maybe people from the mountain people. Maybe it was West Virginians or something like that. They aren't mentioned a lot, but it's Mount Seir gets involved here, although later on, Moab and Ammon try to kill the people from Mount Seir. So I mean, there definitely was not a lot of good blood going on between them. Jehoshaphat has been trying to, and really participating in a very failed policy, and so we're gonna look at here this need of rescue that is first here, the need of rescue. The first need of rescue is concerning Moab, Ammon, and Mount Seir, and as they do these things, we see these threats. The threats for them is these countries. Jehoshaphat has been wrongfully trying to make an alliance with the northern kingdom. And when he does that, he really is kind of underscoring a very important theme for the chronicler who is writing this, which is, you can't have two kings. You can't have two nations. And Jehoshaphat probably was trying to bring about a reunification of the nation, but he was failing. He went to war alongside the northern kingdoms. He even entered into an alliance with them. and even married his son, Jeroam, to Athaliah, the daughter of, you're gonna know this name, Ahab. He marries his son to the offspring of Ahab, and every effort Jehoshaphat had been making in his own efforts, and really violating and going against God's principles, he was not seeing any success. In fact, he was really failing and he was compromising. Back in chapter 18, verse three, it tells us about the compromise he had made with this marriage. It says in 2 Chronicles 18.3, so Ahab, king of Israel, said to Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, will you go with me against Rimoth Gilead? And he answered, I am as you are, my people as your people, we will be with you in the war. But Jehoshaphat is aligning himself with really pagan northern Israel. And he is really flirting with catastrophe at everything that he does here. And so as that falls apart and everything falls apart, chapter 20 hits. And Moab and Ammon and these others come and prepare to battle against them. And there's this great multitude. So we're back in chapter 20. This great multitude is coming, it says in verse two. And verse three gives us a really important look into the heart and the understanding or maybe the desperation of Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat feared. and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all of Judah. Seeking the Lord is what is stressed here. There is this inquiring, really, and seeking. He wants to see Him, and he wants to, when it says he set himself, it means he looked towards Him, and he sought Him. And this is really one of the favorite terms of the Chronicler. He uses the term to seek. He uses the term to go after, to look to, to turn towards. Despite the fear, despite the anxiety, instead of seeking an alliance, Jehoshaphat and Judah seek the Lord. All of Judah engages in a fast and the people come from every town in Judah to seek God. It is a moment of crisis. They came to seek the Lord. Let's jump forward 150 years and back a number of pages to 2 Kings 19. The threat that is being involved here when it comes to Hezekiah is the threat of Assyria. Hezekiah is the 13th king of Judah. Assyria has been actually dealing with Babylon and has not been able to focus in on Hezekiah. And if you were to turn back, I would encourage you, all of these chapters that are surrounded this are just, it's an amazing story about failure and then provision. There's a lot of trash talk between kings. And it feels like Sennacherib is almost like a supervillain, and almost like he's going, I'm going to snap my fingers and you're all going to be gone. He's doing all these different things, and we have already known, according to 2 Kings, and even we find it in 2 Chronicles later on in the chapters, that Hezekiah is a good king, if you look with me back in chapter 18. A couple of verses, it says in verse 3 of 2 Kings 18, There's a trust, it says in verse five, he trusted the Lord. Verse six, he held fast to the Lord. He did not depart from following him. Hezekiah is really one of the brightest spots when it comes to the kings of Judah. He is the 13th king of Judah. Verse seven says, the Lord was with him and he prospered wherever he went. Those words sound familiar, don't they? Those are the words that we see in this Old Testament history when God prospers and God does this work wherever he went. We would understand if you were to look in 2 Chronicles 29-31. 2 Chronicles talks more about the spiritual side. He repairs the temple. He offers really extensive sacrifices at the completion of the renovation. He celebrates Passover, yet there is trouble. In fact, the trouble actually starts here in chapter 18. It came to pass, verse 9, in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea, the son of Elah, king of Israel, that Shalmaneser, king of Israel, came up against Samaria and besieged it. And it is actually, I mean, I want to say it's longer than COVID, but I don't know yet. Verse 10 there, at the end of three years, they took it. Three years of being besieged. I mean, you couldn't even get lumber there, right? That's another problem we're dealing with right now. This besieging happens of Samaria and Israel. And then they're taken away to Assyria. Why? Why would God let this happen? Verse 12 tells us. Eight years later, Hezekiah has been kind of quietly not giving in to Assyria. Eight years later, Sennacherib steps in. That's verse 13 there. Sennacherib, king of Israel, comes up against all the fortified cities of Judah and takes them. And the story that takes place here is Hezekiah will do a very modern thing. He tries to buy them off first. He says, hey, if I send you money, will you leave me alone? And the king of Assyria will give this huge, huge answer. This is how much you need to give me. And Hezekiah will really empty the treasuries in verses 15 and 16. It's a little bit of a question, will reparations actually work? And the answer is no. There's never enough payment to someone who is trying to take over. And Hezekiah has, verse 16, stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord and from the pillars which Hezekiah, king of Judah, had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria. Now, we start to say in these times, Hezekiah is a bad dude here, but the word of God has told us how God viewed Hezekiah. Hezekiah is desperate. Hezekiah understands that they cannot defeat Assyria, and Sennacherib then takes his money and then still imposes his rules. How very governmental of Sennacherib to do that, right? Yes, I will take all of your money as you try to pay me to not do what I'm going to do, and then I'm going to do it anyway. These passages and these whole texts really, I think, remind us that there's a reason that Israel fell, and it was because of spiritual rebellion. It was not because it couldn't fight. It was not because it wouldn't bend to the rule. It was because they were spiritually lost and spiritually in rebellion. So Hezekiah's awaiting an answer. He's really even trying to find maybe the bigger answer, which is a question that we have to ask ourselves as well. Can I serve the Lord and disobey a world that is trying to get me to do wrong or to give in? and survive. Can I serve God? Will God deliver? Will I survive this? He cannot serve the Lord and maintain ties with a murderous, oppressive country. That would preach in a modern country that I may live in right now. And Hezekiah is going to be forced to discover, the children of Israel are going to be forced to discover the answer to the question. God will not allow him to avoid finding this out. What will we do? Will we compromise? Will we sin? Will we deny? Will we trust? What do we do in difficult times? And the army comes, in verse 17, it's a great army. The estimates are it's over 200,000. The amount of place, the amount of land that it covers, and the amount of space it takes. And some say that it actually isn't all of the Assyrian army, it's just a big chunk of it. and negotiations start. Three men come out in verse 18, and they really defy God. Verse 19, Rapshacha said to them, say now to Hezekiah, thus says the great king of Assyria, what confidence is this in which you trust? You speak of having plans and power for war, but they are mere words, and in whom do you trust that you rebel against me? They're defying God, which, by the way, Romans 1 is always clear. Defying God is a very dangerous business. You're defying God. In fact, they will mock the gods. Like I said, this is, they send out three men, and Hezekiah sends out three men. It's kind of a formal thing. They make, basically, they go back and forth and work through these things, and by the time you get to the end of this little speech that they have, we see this in verses 33 to 35, the end of their speech of trash-talking God and saying, listen, no gods have won before, no gods are gonna do it again. In fact, they kind of get into this, in fact, we're doing your god's business, which is ending you guys. were doing this. In fact, I know I jumped a little bit, but that's at verse 22. They say, but if you say to me, we trust in the Lord our God, is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has taken away? They didn't understand what had taken place. They actually thought that when Hezekiah took down the polytheism, that he was violating their gods. And they're saying, look, Hezekiah has made your gods mad. But what they don't understand is Hezekiah was doing God's work. removing the idolatry. And at the end of this chapter it says, has any of the gods of the nations at all delivered its land from the hand of the king of Israel? Listen, no gods have stood up to us. Who will stand up to us? Who among the gods of all the lands have delivered their countries from my hand that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from my hand? What makes you think God will deliver you from this situation? Look what the people did. The people held their peace and answered him not a word, for the king's commandment was, do not answer him. We live in an era where we want to push back against persecution. We want to speak out against persecution. We want to speak up against persecution. We want to even kind of fight back. I mean, I don't know about you, but man, the news is just not good, right? I have to make sure I don't watch the news if I want to treat my family correctly in my house, right? It's like, oh, hey kids. It doesn't go well. And it is interesting that the people have been told, don't answer him. This is a little pin in the side. I think an important thing to ask God sometimes is when do I not need to give an answer? Because this is just straight, Defiance. Will your God deliver you? Have any other gods done so? They were prepared. So what happens? Well, the news comes to Hezekiah in chapter 19. Hezekiah hears it. He tears his clothes. He's in sackcloth. He's sent to the priests. He understands that he had probably hoped that the payment would have paid him off, and in this act of humility and mourning and supplication, Hezekiah puts on sackcloth and goes to, this is a familiar place, isn't it? We've been here before, haven't we? The house of the Lord, the temple. His actions are not out of character because he has been a reforming king, and he sends to the priests and even to the prophet, and listen, this is my favorite prophet in the book, in the whole of the Old Testament, Isaiah. This is the connection that takes place here. Isaiah is the prophet that is taking place here. And Isaiah is the one who is going to give these words. He says, he talks about what he wants to take place. Look at what Isaiah says. The servants of Hezekiah came to Isaiah, and Isaiah said to them, verse six, thus you shall say to your master, thus says the Lord, do not be afraid. of these words which you have heard with which the servants of the king of Assyria blaspheme. Surely I will send a spirit upon him and he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land and I will cause him to fall by the sword of his own land. What are we supposed to do? How are we supposed to handle this? And so Isaiah gives this response but now Hezekiah has to figure out what to do now. He's been told by Isaiah, God is going to deliver. The story that proceeds is, there's a little bit of back and forth here, and they give one last, really, I would say, and it comes in terms of a response, don't think you're gonna get out of this. Look at verse 11. Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands by utterly destroying them. Shall you be delivered? That's a question, isn't it? Is God gonna deliver? Is God gonna save? Is God gonna rescue? They've been questioning God. Verse 10, do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you. Maybe God's messing with you. Maybe God is trying to fool you. Maybe God is just manipulating you and playing with you. And think about, when I first go through these, I think about Jehoshaphat, I think about Hezekiah, but we forget that they are standing in a city full of people who are refugees. They are a people who are really, I don't think we even comprehend what it's like to be in a situation like this, to understand that in mere moments we may be killed, dragged away, our homes may be divided, lives and generations may be changed forever, that we may be facing a siege. They would have known what had happened in Samaria. And they are at the edge, and they are at the end, and they are in a place where they don't know what to do. These are the most difficult of times. These are the times where faith and belief are challenged. They're tough times, and we face times like this when it comes to things like sin, addiction, abuse, pain, suffering, rejection. There's no hope, yet we are not without hope. We have help. So let's look at these great prayers of deliverance. Back in 2 Chronicles 20, these passages, the prayers are actually pretty compact. Chapter 20 of 2 Chronicles, Jehoshaphat leads the prayer. Verse five, the Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem and in the house of the Lord before the new court. This is literally taking place right where Solomon had prayed these prayers earlier. It's bookmarked by verse 13, this prayer, where it says, now all Judah, with their little ones, their wives and their children, stood before the Lord. That is a prayer service. They are in the court, they are out of any measures that they could do, and they're going to pray. So he brings everybody together and there are some very important things that we see in terms of these prayers for rescue. They're similar, we see them in both passages. So first we see the reference to our God, our God. Look at what he says there. He says in verse six, and said, O Lord God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? Do you not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations? And in your hand is there not power and might so that no one is able to withstand you? I like how Jehoshaphat does this. He's doing it in almost a rhetorical question type of thing. Is there no one like you? Are you not God in heaven? Do you not rule over the kingdoms? Is there not enough power so no one can stand against you? God, aren't you the one that can deal with this? Sometimes when we've gone too far and we kind of get to the end, it's all of a sudden like we kind of need to remind ourselves, wait a minute, wait a minute. Isn't God the one who can deal with everything? Isn't God the one that we should be turning to? Isn't he the only one that could help us in this situation? In verse seven, continuing on this who God is, he talks about what he has done. Are you not our God who drove out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and gave it to the descendants of Abraham, your friend forever? He's reminded, oh, aren't you the God who did all these great things in the past? Aren't you the one that did that? He is reminded of this, and what I love about this, especially in this series we're doing, is verses eight and nine. See if these verses sound familiar from last week. and they dwell in it, and have built you a sanctuary in it for your name. This sounds just like Solomon was saying, doesn't it? Saying, and it's really a quote from 1 Kings 8. He is quoting Solomon's prayer, and one of those seven things that Solomon had said would happen. If disaster comes upon us, sword, judgment, pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this temple and in your presence, for your name is in this temple, and we'll cry out to you in our affliction, and you will hear and say. He says, God, you're the one that has done this in the past, and God, even in the past, in this place, right here, it has been prayed that when we get to this situation, when we stand before you and pray, you will hear us, you will save. There's really something about a place of prayer. Think about the places that you can remember being in prayer. I can remember an old, musty, molded-out room back left behind the stage at First Baptist Church in Cumberland, Iowa, praying with all the guys. I mean, those guys could pray forever. I mean, it was, oh man, Orville could pray for like 40 minutes. I mean, it was, prayer meeting was so long. My dad would always bump me and wrap my fingers a little bit and kind of keep me up and going and mobile, because I was just like this, right? They never asked me to pray. One time they did ask me to pray, and I froze up. We've talked about how bad I am at praying. I remember that place. I remember times that I have had the opportunity to be in prayer. And this place, imagine this, right? There have been dedications that have taken here. There have been missionaries that have been sent out here. There has been praise and thanksgiving that has been done here. There has been prayer that has been done in this building. I have been on my knees with you in different times. I've been on my knees in here when this was dirt. And it was just steel. And we prayed and said, God, will you do something great here? Hear our prayer. There are times when I walk through this building, we've talked about this before, but there are times that I've prayed in the youth room with young people as we go out before a missions trip. There are places that I can remember sitting out in the countryside in Utah in the middle of the night where a youth group pulled over and we all laid on our backs and looked up at the stars and just prayed and prayed and prayed. I know where it's at. It's just west of Arches. In fact, my thought process is, I wanna get back there someday and remember praying with the young people there. He's standing here and saying, this prayer has been prayed, God. This was already dealt with. I wonder if he's thinking, and he listened to Solomon a lot more than he listened to me. God's already prayed this thing. God is so great. God is omnipotent. God is all these things. Look at how Hezekiah refers to our God. It's a little bit shorter. Hezekiah's prayer is shorter. It says there, verse 14. of 2 Kings 19, and Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. So Hezekiah receives this and he reads it. Now, there's a little bit of positional stuff that's going on, right? Jehoshaphat is standing up. We know that he is at the house of the Lord, and I don't know what this is. I don't know if he's making a prayer room or something like that, but he just spreads out this letter that he's received before the Lord. I love what it says there. He spread it before the Lord. Lord, do you see this? Look at how he refers to God. Then Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said, O Lord God of Israel, the one who dwells between the cherubim, you are God, you alone of all the kingdoms of the earth, you made heaven and earth. There's a couple of important things here. One is just in terms of where he is at and even the reference to the Ark of the Covenant Again, he is referring to the relationship of God and his people. And he's also a bit referring to all of the trash talk that has come from Sennacherib. The Assyrians have been saying, we are in charge, we've conquered everybody, no one stands before us. You can't handle this, your God can't handle this. And what is Hezekiah saying? You alone are God. Of all the kingdoms of the earth, which would include who? Assyria and Israel. You have made heaven and earth, it's more than the kingdoms, you are the creator. You are the one who, there's a number, I wrote down, when it comes to dwelling between the cherubim, there's this reference to his holiness. When it comes to you are God, that word for God is the word for power. You alone are the ruler, so there's this holiness and you are powerful, you are holy, you are the ruler over all, you are the creator. In a sense, Hezekiah's saying, if the Lord is the creator and the ruler of all nations, that I have and we have hope for deliverance. The next part of these prayers is the needs or the requests. Go back to 2 Chronicles chapter 20. The request is now made, and now, verse 10, here are the people of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, who you would not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them and did not destroy them. And here they are, rewarding us by coming to throw us out of your possession, which you have given us to inherit. As Jehoshaphat is developing this plea for deliverance, he's saying, now, Lord, here's the problem. This is the problem that is in front of us. We are in a problem, and this is a problem that, Lord, it's a problem that results from when we are walking across the desert, where we didn't take care of these people, and now these people are here. These nations, who we as a nation spared, seek to reverse the gift that God has given to his people. the terms that he is using there, the terms of possession and inheritance. This is the only time this word is used in Chronicles. It's actually echoing back to Deuteronomy. Over and over in Deuteronomy chapter two, nine, 12, 19, Joshua talks about Joshua 12 is the possession, the possession, the possession. And Jehoshaphat's the first one within the Chronicles to even bring up this term. And then he even really kind of doubles down on the possession, which is the inheritance. And he says, he gives what we would call an imprecatory, a cursing prayer. Oh, our God, will you not judge them? By the way, you know what Jehoshaphat means, right? God judges. In fact, the language here is actually Jehoshaphat using his own name. Oh, God, judge. That's my name. Do your work. Judge them. We have to be careful with imprecatory prayers. But when people are in rebellion, people are in denial, people are doing harm, and people are doing evil, it's okay to say, Lord, bring the hammer. Deal with them. I have shared the gospel a number of times. It's amazing the amount of times this has happened, and as I talk with other people, I know this happens. I've tried to share the gospel with young ladies who, where they're at in their life, in fact, where they're even at in their sexuality, is a result of just the vicious, violent, awful, garbage abuse that has come at the hands of men. God was good to me the first time that happened, and I've continued to say it. Anytime that comes up, I tell them very clearly, I said, they deserve to burn eternally for their sins, ma'am. And what they have done, I want to promise you, God says in his word, Be not deceived. God is not mocked. What's over man, so at that shall they also reap. And I want to let you know that your God will deal with those men, and they deserve to be dealt with. We serve a God who judges, and we rightfully, rightfully, need to consider when it's time to do this. He says, God, judge them. But look at what else he says. This is prayer. For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us. We got nothing, God. I got nothing. How many times are you in a place where you have to finally say, I got nothing, God? There's nothing here. What else does he say? Nor do we know what to do. How many times is prayer's like, I don't even know what to do, God? I got nothing, I don't know what to do. And then look what he says. But our eyes are upon you. Now all Judah, with their little ones, their wives and their children, stood before the Lord. This is the most unusual ending of a prayer I think I've ever seen in the word of God. Jehoshaphat says, this is who you are, This is what you've done. This is what's been prayed in the past. This is our problem. We got nothing. We don't know what to do. All right, God, we're waiting. And they stand. Man, that's anticipating God doing something, isn't it? Say, all right, Lord, we're watching. I love after prayer. watching what God does. That's a part of prayer. What is God going to do? Look what happens with Hezekiah back in 2 Kings there. There's a ton that takes place. Some great, as I said, super villain, bad guy, trash talk, all of these things take place. But we see the prayer of what he does there in 2 Kings 19. Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear. Open your eyes, O Lord, and see. Lord, look at us. Hear the words of Sennacherib. I wonder if he's referring to the letters, which he has sent to reproach the living God. Truly the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations at their hands and have cast their gods into the fire. But look what he's recognizing. Those gods of the other nations are not you, God. They were not gods. They were the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore, they destroyed them. This sounds like Isaiah, by the way. Isaiah is the best at this. All throughout Isaiah, when he talks about the idols, he says, the idols are just made of wood. They're made of junk. What if the guy who made the idol, he uses part of it to use fire to burn his food and his waste from his house, and he used the other part to make an idol? What if the craftsman used the wrong part of the wood? What if they're worshiping something that should have been burned for food and waste? Isaiah is all about that, and that's why I think it's amazing that Hezekiah is with Isaiah. I'm sure he's heard this before. He has learned this, that the idols are nothing. Now therefore, O Lord our God, I pray, save us from his hand. that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the Lord God, you alone. He says, Lord, look, you know what's going on. You know the nations, you're over the nations, and listen, we are not following after man-made gods. There are too many man-made gods in our culture, in our society, and that's the reason they fail. They don't work. Oh, Lord God, save us. Do your work in your way, for your glory." See, salvation and deliverance have a lot to do with knowing God, knowing the trouble we are in, knowing ourselves, and making the request humbly before Him. He asks for assistance. So then we get to see, now we get to see the God of rescue. 2 Chronicles 20, getting back here. You can use your ribbons in your Bible to do this. You know that, right? I've got two ribbons here. It's so easy, just flipping back and forth. We see the God of rescue. I just want to point out one phrase. There's a huge response. A priest is going to kind of give this reminder here. It says there that there is this one who is Jeheziel, and he is the one who will counsel in terms of you are not to fear. Verse 14 gives the bloodline of this priest. It's an amazing bloodline. That's about four messages. the people, even Ben-Niah, the person who was the guard of David, it's amazing, and he steps up and he says, listen, verse 15, listen all you of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and you King Jehoshaphat, thus says the Lord to you, do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude. The first thing we say here is do not be afraid. That is God's response. Don't be afraid. You don't have to fear. It's one of the great promises of the Bible, isn't it? Fear not, fear not, fear not. Don't be afraid. Verse 17, you will not need to fight in this battle. You're not even gonna need to do anything. Position yourselves, these words, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord who is with you. You're gonna see God do something. You're gonna see God work it. It's that follow up. They're just standing there, right? They are just standing there and the Spirit of the Lord comes upon this priest and he steps up and proclaims the word of the Lord. Do not be afraid, fear not. You don't have to worry about this. You don't have to worry about what is going to take place. It is something that is so significant and so important. Look back at 2 Kings 19. 2 Kings 19 has a lot that is going on the answer that comes from Isaiah is a big answer. It starts there, verse 20. Isaiah, the son of Amoz said to Hezekiah, thus says the Lord God of Israel. And he gives this response that God says, and there's this reminder here that really, he says there, I have heard. God's response is, I've heard you. I'm gonna do something about this. says later on in this big response to, really, it's God's response to all of the garbage that he has said. Look at the end of it, verse 32 of chapter 19. Therefore, thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, he shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with a shield, nor build siege mount against it. By the way he came, by the same shall he return. He shall not come into this city, says the Lord, for, here it is, I will defend this city to save it. Salvation for my own sake. for my servant David's sake. And so then they determined that this is going to be something that is going to be, we recognize what God is going to do. There's some details about the rescue. 2 Chronicles 20. This is the most interesting war that I have ever seen. So they are told what is going to take place. Verse 18, Jehoshaphat bows his head with his face to the ground. All of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem bow before the Lord. And what happens when they hear this news that they aren't gonna have to do the work, that salvation is coming? They worship the Lord. And then what do they do? The Levites, the children of the Kohithites, and the children of the Korahites stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with, whoo, voices loud and high. They praise the Lord. God is gonna deliver. God is going to rescue. We know he's gonna do it. And look at the confidence they have. What do they do? They go to bed. They have a big worship session. It's loud, it's praise, woo-hoo, look what God's gonna do. And what do they do? With what's going on around outside the gates, they get a good night's sleep. God's got this. And then look at the weirdest war ever. So they rose early in the morning and went out into the wilderness of Tekoa, and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, and this is really, this is, in a sense, I saw one commentator said, these seven words are regarded as the most concise summary of the chronicler's message to those who would have been in exile as they were reading this. Hear me, O Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem. Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established. Believe his prophets, and you shall prosper. Believe. What God says, he will do. I know you said, that doesn't sound too weird. But it gets weird. It gets pretty incredible. And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing before the Lord. Some should be appointed to sing. I'm gonna read between the lines here. There's some people that should not be appointed to sing, I guess. Maybe their voices, I don't know. And who should praise the beauty of the holiness? And they went out before the army and were saying, have we heard these words very similar before? Praise the Lord for his mercy endures forever. This is quite the war battle. I mean, these guys, the first thing they do, I don't know about you, but for me, if I were to put together an army, I'm not putting the musicians in front. No offense, musicians. All right, I'm sure that, you know, I don't know if music translate over into war. Verse 22, when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, and they were defeated. That's a quick thing, little description. The people of Ammon and Moab stood up against the mountain people of Seir, sorry, that was my input there, and utterly killed to utterly kill and destroy them, and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another. They come out worshiping and praising God. I would like to know what that worship song was. I would like to know how loud it was. I would like to know what that felt like. I would like to know what that was like for an entire people to do something like that. God delivers. You have musicians leading into the battle. Look at Hezekiah, 2 Kings 19. It's pretty quick too. The word of the Lord comes. And when God does His work, God does His work quick. 2 Kings 19 verse 35, it came to pass on a certain night, took a little time, this one wasn't we stood and wait and God did it. It came to pass a certain night that the angel of the Lord went out and killed in the camp of Assyrians 185,000. All deserving of death at the hand of the Lord. Do not let people say, oh, the God of the Old Testament, he's so bad. The God of the Old Testament is holy, just, and righteous. And the amount of people that these armies had killed would vastly outnumber the amount that were killed by God. They were deserving of this. And when the people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses all dead. So, prophetically being all the prophecies being fulfilled. So Sennacherib, king of Israel, departed and went away, returned home, and remained at Nineveh. And it came to pass as he was worshiping the temple of Nisroch, his god, that his sons, Adrammelech and Sherezer, struck him down with the sword, and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Then Esershaddon," I almost got all the way through that verse, Esershaddon, his son, reigned in his place. God delivered. There's more information about this, even the results there in 2 Chronicles. In fact, this is the most amazing part about this whole passage. This passage is repeated almost word for word in Isaiah 36 and 37. In fact, I could have preached from Isaiah 36 and 37 and there wouldn't have been a change in the words. This is such an important deliverance and such an important prayer and such an important response by God that he puts it in the scriptures twice. God delivered. Look at the results, 2 Chronicles 20. finger wearing out. It's only one place, just back and forth. Look at what happens, verse 24. These are results. We like seeing the results of what happens, the result of the rescue and the answer to prayer. So when Judah came, verse 24, to a place overlooking the wilderness, they looked toward the multitude and there were the dead bodies fallen on the earth. No one had escaped. They get to witness, that's one result, they get a witness. In verse 25, they get the blessings that come from it, they get the spoil. In verse 26, they praise. On the fourth day, that's how long it took to get the spoils, four days of spoiling. And by that time, it was probably stinking. Then they returned every man with Jehoshaphat in front of them to go back to Jerusalem with, how many times has joy and rejoicing come after prayer and deliverance? with joy for the Lord and made them rejoice over their enemies. So you have this prayer, sorry, you have this rejoicing, you have the worship in verse 28. They came to Jerusalem with, here it is again, stringed instruments, harps, trumpets, always, I think, required for worship, at least in my opinion. They come to the house of Lord and the fear of God was in all the kingdoms and those countries when they heard that the Lord had fought against the enemies of Israel. There's peace, there's glory. And Jehoshaphat and Hezekiah, you can read what happens to them in the times ahead, and they don't get everything quite right, but there is peace. So what does this mean for us? What are the results for us? What are the applications? Well, first, prayer always plays a part in changing and being involved in what God is doing. Deliverance came here as a result of and connected with prayer. God's promises still remain. I think that's important to be reminded. Sometimes I think, well, God's gonna change history? Nope. Judah was still gonna be carried away. Hezekiah's gonna get to the end of his, Hezekiah almost selfishly, as he's getting to the end of his days, is told, everyone's gonna be carried away. And Hezekiah says, well, at least it didn't happen on my watch. And it seems a little bit selfish, but sometimes that's kind of what it feels like, right? The weight of the struggle and all that is just like, Lord, let me be faithful. Let me see you deliver. Judah's still going to be carried away, and God still does what God was going to do, but he delivered and rescued. I think another important application is prayer plays a part in salvation. The Word of God is full of reminders of what prayer and the connection to salvation Prayer provides and should include the language of answers to unbelief and rebellion. The answers to unbelief and rebellion are faith and trust and turning to God. Prayer does not mean we don't plan. All throughout these passages, there's planning, there's preparations, there are times that they're trying to stand up and push back against the pressure. It doesn't mean you don't do anything, it just says, well, I'm gonna let go and let God, okay? It isn't Jesus take the wheel. Please keep your hands on the wheel. but we still pray to God. So what do we learn? I think there's kind of three things that are connected here. One is know your needs and know your God. Know your needs and know your God. What can you do about those needs? You can do some, but God is a deliverer. Another thing that we have seen here is cry out and know God hears. Cry out and know that God hears. I don't know what everybody in this room is facing. As a pastor, I know a little bit about what some people are facing. But God knows. God hears. God knows what you're dealing with. He knows more about it than you do. And that's why this last part, do not fear, watch and see. We don't need to be afraid. And I say, Pastor Dave, there's some things I've prayed about that God really didn't deal with it the way I wanted him to deal with it. I understand that. But he was with you. And he walked beside you. And he still is doing something. And he still wants to do a work. Our rescue story is very similar. In fact, a lot of the terminologies that happen here, the rescue to deliverance have these salvation aspect, it has a connection to salvation. And I want to let you know that these passages that remind us that when it seems like the whole world is encamped around us, Christ knows. God knows. He hears. Your deliverer knows. He cares. He hears. He is the redeemer and the deliverer. You know what's interesting about those soldiers at Dunkirk that got rescued? They became part of the next greatest rescue operation in the history of the world, when on D-Day, So many of them came across that channel back there to rescue Europe. The continuation happened. I wanna tell you, I don't know if God is going to rescue you from everything that takes place in this world, but I do know this. One day we're gonna see the king. One day we will be standing before and around the throne of grace with our savior, our rescuer, right there. We will be one in Christ. We will be the rescuees looking around at the other rescuees, praising our Savior as blood-bought sinners who were brought to repentance by the gospel, who received the forgiveness of sin, and hopefully that we also forgive others. We'll be the ones that our death sentence was taken care of, our greatest trial was taken care of, and the concluding chapters of the Word of God tell us about this vision. It is a vision of the throne of grace. It is a vision of our blood-bought rescue in Christ, about our spirit-led obedience in Christ. of the power of gospel to bring sinners to repentance and lead us to the place of eternity. He will bring us there. We will be there. These worship celebrations, I mean, listen, I'd like to be in a celebration of hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people praising God, but none of this matches what we're gonna see in heaven because of our rescuer, our deliverer. He is the one who does this. I close with Psalm chapter 40 verse 17 and Psalm chapter 70 verse five. It's a repeat of the same words. God says this, or sorry, the psalmist says this and refers to God. He says, but I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinks upon me. You are my help and my deliverer. Do not delay, oh my God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you so much that you are our rescue and our deliverer. Lord, I would pray that we would be reminded in our difficult times of who you are. We would be reminded in our difficult times, in our need of rescue, that you are a God who is God. You are a God who knows, you are a God who saves, you are a God who delivers, you are a God who loves us, and you are a God who cares. Lord, I pray that if there is anyone here that this morning they would say that maybe they are in need of rescue, maybe in need of salvation, maybe in need of rescue from the consequences of sin that they are stuck in and that they need to turn to God and say, I need to confess my sins and God, who is faithful and just, he will forgive me of my sins and cleanse me from unrighteousness. Lord, I pray if there is someone here today that needs to just, whether on their knees or standing there in the pew, just turn to you and say, God, deliver, rescue me, save me, for your glory, God, that they would do that this morning. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.