2 Chronicles 20:20-30 - Homilies By T. Whitelaw

A victory without a blow.

I. THE MARCH TO TEKOA . ( 2 Chronicles 20:20 , 2 Chronicles 20:21 .)

1 . The composition of the army.

2 . The time of its setting forth. "Early in the morning," i.e. the next after Jahaziel's assurance. An indication of

3 . The address of its king. Standing in the city gate as regiment after regiment filed into line and sallied forth, Jehoshaphat exhorted them (successively) to calm confidence in the ultimate success of the campaign upon which they were entering.

4 . The arrangements or its march. Jehoshaphat made special preparations for encountering the foe.

5 . The advance towards the foe. A singular method of warfare it must have seemed—as ridiculous as the march of Joshua's warriors round the walls of Jericho and the music of their rams' horns must have appeared to the inhabitants of that old Canaanitish fortress ( Joshua 6:12-16 ).

II. THE SCENE FROM THE WATCH - TOWER . (Verse 24.) This "watch-tower," a height in the wilderness of Tekoa which overlooked the desert of Jeruel, where the invading host lay encamped (verse 16), was probably the conical hill Jebel Fureidis, or the Frank Mountain, from which a view can be obtained of the Dead Sea and the mountains of Moab ('Picturesque Palestine,' 1:137). From this elevation Jehoshaphat and his soldiers beheld the whole ground strewn with corpses, and not the vestige of a living foe to be seen. The enemy had been:

1 . Completely slaughtered. The dead bodies were so numerous that "to all appearance none had escaped" (Keil); but the Chronicler manifestly intended to describe a case of not apparent, but real extermination. Not merely all whom the men of Judah beheld prostrate on the field were dead, but of all who had come up against Judah none had escaped.

2 . Self-destroyed. They had fallen on and annihilated one another. That perhaps was not remarkable; thieves, robbers, and wicked men in general often fall out and destroy one another. The pity is they do not always do so before attacking other people. In this case two things were remarkable—the time when and the mode in which it happened.

III. THE GATHERING OF THE SPOIL . (Verse 25.)

1 . The articles.

2 . The quantity. So abundant that three days were occupied in collecting it, and when collected it was found to be more than they could carry. The ear-rings taken by Gideon's warriors from the Midianites weighed seventeen hundred shekels of gold ( 8:26 ); that obtained by Hannibal's soldiers at the battle of Cannae was so great "ut tres modios aureorum annulornm Carthaginem mitteret, quos e manibus equitum Romanorum, senatorum et militum detraxerat" ('Eutropii Historia Romana,' 41.).

IV. THE MUSTERING AT BERACHAH . (Verse 26.)

1 . The place. The valley, afterwards named from the incident of which it was the scene, must have adjoined the battlefield. A trace of it has been recovered in the Wady Bereikut, to the west of Tekoa, near the road from Hebron to Jerusalem. There is no ground for identifying it (Thenius) with the upper part of the valley of Kidron, afterwards called the valley of Jehoshaphat ( Joel 3:2 , Joel 3:12 ).

2 . The time. On the fourth day after their arrival at Tekoa, the three intervening days having been employed in collecting the spoil.

3 . The business.

V. THE RETURN TO JERUSALEM . (Verses 27, 28.)

1 . Without delay. After causing the wilderness to echo with anthems to him who had smitten great and famous kings ( Psalms 136:17 , Psalms 136:18 ), they had nothing to detain them from their homes.

2 . Without loss. Though they had gained a glorious victory, not one of their company was left upon the battle-field. "Every man of Judah and Jerusalem' that marched to Tekoa returned to the capital.

3 . Without disorder. The same solemn and orderly procession that had characterized their going forth now distinguished their coming back.

4 . Without sorrow. Few returns from the battle-field are without saddening recollections; theirs was marked by unmixed joy, to which they gave formal expression with psalteries and harps and trumpets in the house of the Lord.

Learn:

1 . The best evidence of faith—prompt and cheerful obedience.

2 . The true secret of national as of individual prosperity—belief in God and in God's Word.

3 . The value of sacred song as a means of exciting religious feeling and sustaining religious fortitude.

4 . The necessity of holiness in them who would command or lead the Lord's host.

5 . The ease with which God could make the enemies of his people annihilate one another.

6 . The rich spoil that belongs to faith.

7 . The joyous home-coming of all God's spiritual warriors.—W.