This is a beautiful prayer, and both the manner of address, with the appearance of the king and his people make it striking. All Judah it is said, with their little ones, and wives and children, stood before the Lord, as if to join in the entreaty. Surely it must have had a most interesting effect. And observe the argument of the prayer. First, Jehoshaphat pleads God's sovereignty; next, God's relationship in the covenant engagements he had condescended to put himself into, as Abraham's God, and to his seed in Israel; next, the dedication of the people to God according to Solomon's address; with an eye to the temple, by which they had a claim to God's favour. After stating these things as the foundation of an assurance in God's protection, Jehoshaphat brings forward the present affliction as the time for the Lord to work in their rescue. He then shows the baseness of Moab and the confederate army, in that the Lord would not suffer his people to molest them when they came out of Egypt. And, lastly, Jehoshaphat concludes with throwing himself and his people upon the sovereignty of their God, as those that could not but be certain of success in the divine favour. There is a vast degree of sound faith and confidence, with fervent piety, in this prayer, and it is not difficult to trace the leadings of grace through the several parts of it. But, methinks, if the Reader considers it spiritually, and with an eye to the gospel, it ariseth to an infinitely higher point of sublimity. Salvation by Jesus is founded in the sovereignty of Jehovah. Here we discover the everlasting love and wisdom of God in the ordination. Here also God hath put himself in the closest covenant-relationship, in the person of his dear Son; for God in Christ is truly the God of our fathers. And as Jehoshaphat pointed to the temple as the sanctuary of defence, to which the distressed Israelite was to look; was not this typical of Jesus? How beautiful then is it to behold gospel mercies in the finished redemption of Jesus, thus shadowed forth in an age so remote from the time of the gospel, when the open display of mercy was to be made known in the Lord Jesus Christ!
2 Chronicles 20:5-13
5 And Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the LORD, before the new court,
6 And said, O LORD God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?
7 Art not thou our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever?
8 And they dwelt therein, and have built thee a sanctuary therein for thy name, saying,
9 If, when evil cometh upon us, as the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we stand before this house, and in thy presence, (for thy name is in this house,) and cry unto thee in our affliction, then thou wilt hear and help.
10 And now, behold, the children of Ammon and Moab and mount Seir, whom thou wouldest not let Israel invade, when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them, and destroyed them not;
11 Behold, I say, how they reward us, to come to cast us out of thy possession, which thou hast given us to inherit.
12 O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee.
13 And all Judah stood before the LORD, with their little ones, their wives, and their children.