Remember the Past But Don't Live In It

Open in prayer for our nation!

Well, turn with me in your Bible to the Old Testament book of 2 Chronicles 14:9-15.

Now, before we read this passage together, let me read you a few intro verses as to where we are in this passage we are getting ready to read.

I am going to read to you verses 2-6 at beginning of this chapter and then we will go from there.

2 Chronicles 14:2-6 says, “And Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. He took away the foreign altars and the high places and broke down the pillars and cut down the Asherim and commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, and to keep the law and the commandment. He also took out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the incense altars. And the kingdom had rest under him. He built fortified cities in Judah, for the land had rest. He had no war in those years, for the Lord gave him peace.”

I just want you take notice of what is going on within the nation of Judah at this time.

King Asa has brought the teaching and worship of Yahweh into the nation of Judah and removed all idolatry and false worship!

And because of this, God brought peace into and upon their land and their nation! (“The land had rest and the Lord gave him peace”, the passage says!)

Could we use some of that in this nation right now.......some rest on our land and some peace in our country?

We need a godly man in the White House and godly people in the government who will remove the heresies and demonic rulings in this nation and who are brave enough to declare that there is only ONE GOD and no other, and to Him alone do we serve and worship!!

We are never to bow to other gods and to other false religions, nor should we advocate the practice of those things as a nation who has pretty much always stood beside Israel (God’s chosen land)and Yahweh Himself and His Holy Word!

And overall, because of this, the Lord God has blessed our nation for our stance as a Christian people!!!

That being said, let’s move into our opening passage and go from there.

2 Chronicles 14:9–15 ESV

9 Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a million men and 300 chariots, and came as far as Mareshah. 10 And Asa went out to meet him, and they drew up their lines of battle in the Valley of Zephathah at Mareshah. 11 And Asa cried to the Lord his God, “O Lord, there is none like you to help, between the mighty and the weak. Help us, O Lord our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this multitude. O Lord, you are our God; let not man prevail against you.” 12 So the Lord defeated the Ethiopians before Asa and before Judah, and the Ethiopians fled. 13 Asa and the people who were with him pursued them as far as Gerar, and the Ethiopians fell until none remained alive, for they were broken before the Lord and his army. The men of Judah carried away very much spoil. 14 And they attacked all the cities around Gerar, for the fear of the Lord was upon them. They plundered all the cities, for there was much plunder in them. 15 And they struck down the tents of those who had livestock and carried away sheep in abundance and camels. Then they returned to Jerusalem.

Asa, who was the third king of Judah, witnessed a miraculous victory over their enemy, because he placed his trust in the hands of almighty God and not in his own ability, or that of other people!

As he cried in prayer to God and said, “...for we trust in You, and in Your name have come against this multitude!”

It’s very important that I stop right here and right now, to make mention to everyone of us in this room, as well as to those watching the live stream, that the victories and breakthroughs that you and I need in and for our lives and our families and our nation right now, do not come and will not come from our own abilities and our own efforts!

These breakthroughs and victories come only when we COMPLETELY put our trust and our faith in the mighty hands of God and yield to Him and to His Word and His will for our lives and for our nation

As Asa prayed, “…for we trust in you and in your name have come against this multitude”!!

As Zechariah 4:6 says, “It’s not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the Lord of hosts.”

Whatever mountain you need removed from your life, whatever sea you need to have parted so that you can move through it and keep going, these miracles only come by trust in God and in His mighty name!!

AMEN?!!!

So, in this passage, we have seen an amazing and miraculous victory that God brought on behalf of king Asa and the nation of Judah!

And after this great victory, I want you to listen to the word of the Lord that came to king Asa, via a prophet, in the very next chapter, where we read of God saying to Asa and to the whole nation of Judah, “The Lord is with you when you are with Him. And if you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.

Do you know and understand that this same promise of God, pertaining to seeking Him and finding Him, is found throughout His Word?

Isaiah 55:6, “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near;”

Jeremiah 29:13, “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”

Proverbs 8:17, “I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.”

Psalm 9:10, “And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.”

Hebrews 11:6, “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

James 4:8, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.”

And there are a host of other verses that say the exact same thing.......SEEK GOD WITH ALL OF YOUR HEART AND HE WILL REVEAL HIMSELF TO YOU!!!!!!!!!

AMEN?!!

I just want to mention to you, having just read about King Asa, that he had a son, who was probably around 8-9 years old at the time of this battle, and who would have grown up hearing and knowing about this amazing and supernatural victory of Yahweh that we just looked at.

Not to mention all of the other miracles that had been done on behalf of the Jewish nation through the Exodus period, that this child would have been taught of growing up!

Just remember that Asa had a son.........got it?

Now, while you’re still in the Old Testament, turn backwards 2 books with me to the book of 2 Kings 3, and we will continue reading there.

2 Kings 3:1–3 ESV

1 In the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Ahab became king over Israel in Samaria, and he reigned twelve years. 2 He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, though not like his father and mother, for he put away the pillar of Baal that his father had made. 3 Nevertheless, he clung to the sin of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin; he did not depart from it.

We are introduced to two kings in the opening of this passage. Jehoshaphat, the now 4th king of the southern kingdom of Judah and also, Jehoram, the king of the northern kingdom of Israel.

And right out of the gait, we are told the condition of the king of Israel’s heart. Although he wasn’t as wicked as that of his predecessor, his wicked father, King Ahab, Jehoram still practiced idolatry and the worshipping of idols and propagated it to the nation of Israel, and thus lead them into national idolatry and rebellion against God almighty!

Make no mistake about it. It only takes one leader to stand up for the right, or the wrong things in order for the course of a nation to be set into motion!

And that’s what we are seeing about Jehoram. He embraced idol worship and thus lead a whole nation into that spiral of sin and rebellion against Yahweh, just as his father and mother had done!

Now, let’s continue with reading from this chapter, 2 Kings 3:4-8.

2 Kings 3:4–8 ESV

4 Now Mesha king of Moab was a sheep breeder, and he had to deliver to the king of Israel 100,000 lambs and the wool of 100,000 rams. 5 But when Ahab died, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel. 6 So King Jehoram marched out of Samaria at that time and mustered all Israel. 7 And he went and sent word to Jehoshaphat king of Judah: “The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you go with me to battle against Moab?” And he said, “I will go. I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.” 8 Then he said, “By which way shall we march?” Jehoram answered, “By the way of the wilderness of Edom.”

Now pay attention to the statement that Jehoshaphat makes to Jehoram in this passage, where he says, “I will go. I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.”

This is not the first time that this king has issued these same words!

Let’s move on with reading from this passage. 2 Kings 3:9-12

2 Kings 3:9–12 ESV

9 So the king of Israel went with the king of Judah and the king of Edom. And when they had made a circuitous march of seven days, there was no water for the army or for the animals that followed them. 10 Then the king of Israel said, “Alas! The Lord has called these three kings to give them into the hand of Moab.” 11 And Jehoshaphat said, “Is there no prophet of the Lord here, through whom we may inquire of the Lord?” Then one of the king of Israel’s servants answered, “Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who poured water on the hands of Elijah.” 12 And Jehoshaphat said, “The word of the Lord is with him.” So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him.

So, these two kings and now another one that they picked up in Edom, are traveling in a circular pattern to surprise the Moabite army.

Along the way, after seven days of traveling, they ran into a huge problem.........their was NO WATER!

In that part of the world, and especially at certain times of the year, it gets really HOT, like to the tune of around 113 degrees during the day sometimes!

And you absolutely need water to stay hydrated in that kind of heat!

And there was NO WATER to be found for the men and their animals!

For this reason, King Jehoram cries out, “What should we do? The Lord has brought the three of us here to let the king of Moab defeat us!”

Now again, take note of what King Jehoshaphat says in response to the king of Israel’s cry of fear. He says, “Is there no prophet of the Lord here, through whom we may inquire of the Lord?”

Again we see Jehoshaphat asking a question, or making a statement that is exactly like another instance before in his life!

I’ll explain more about this other instance in just a few minutes.

As soon as Jehoshaphat hears that the prophet Elisha is near, he instantly declares, “The word of the Lord is with him”, and the three kings head out to find him.

I want you to pay attention to the hearts of these two kings, Jehoram and Jehoshaphat and look at how they respond to what is going on around them.

Jehoram reacts in fear and doubt and all the while blaming God for their circumstances.

Jehoshaphat instantly wants to hear what the Lord God has to say about their circumstances, because he believes that that is where they will find their help and their answers!

How many of you know someone like that, or maybe even you, yourself, have done this very thing. When everything is going well and running smoothly, you never hardly ever consult with God and ask Him for guidance and direction.

And why should you, right? I mean, hey, everything is going well, you’re prospering in this time and season of your life, so why would you need to be asking for help and guidance, if you are obviously doing well where you are?!!

I mean, isn’t that the sign that you’re in God’s will and and where He wants you, when everything is going well?

BUT........as soon as adversity (everyone say adversity), as soon as adversity hits you, you instantly start questioning and even blaming God for what is going on in your life!

Just a quick mention about this very issue. If you read in the book of Ecclesiastes 7:14, we read the following,

Ecclesiastes 7:14 ESV

14 In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.

In other words, whether you are in a prosperous time and season in your life, or whether you are knee deep in adversity and trials, both can be from God!

And you and I never know what is just up ahead and heading our way!

As one person has said, “You’re either coming out of an adversity, or heading into another!”

And that’s not too far removed from the truth!

I believe that many of us, if not most of us, can relate to that statement.

We are either knee deep in some trial and adversity, or coming out of one and heading right back into another.......AMEN?!!

And so, why wouldn’t we want to be continually seeking the Lord and His will and His words for our lives?

Just like in this passage and with these kings, where they devise a plan and go forward with it, and then when the plan begins to fall apart, THEN, they want to ask God for help and guidance!

Why do we do that? Why do we go at life our own way and with our own limited knowledge and then as soon as our plans fail, then we cry out and seek God and His will at that point?!

Isn’t that the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result?

Maybe, I mean, just maybe, we should heed the words of the Lord that we read earlier, where God spoke to Asa the king of Judah and said, “The Lord is with you when you are with Him. And if you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you!”

In fact, in this passage, Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, should have known better than to go at a plan without seeking God beforehand. If anyone could relate to needing to seek and listen to the counsel of almighty God, Jehoshaphat fits the bill!

By the way, I mentioned to you earlier that King Asa had a son. Have you figured out who his son was yet? BINGO.........King Jehoshaphat was the son of King Asa, of Judah!

And as I mentioned earlier, he would have been raised hearing of the amazing and miraculous victory that God gave to his father and the nation of Judah at that time that we started off reading about!

But that’s not the only time that he was able to relate to seeking God and His will for his life and that of his people.

In 2 Chronicles 18 and 1 Kings 22, we read of another situation that Jehoshaphat was in, that is almost identical to the passage that we are reading this morning!

The irony of that passage and that prior situation, was that Jehoshaphat was then aligned with the late wicked king of Israel, Ahab.

And in that passage, Ahab was going to go to war with the nation of Ramoth-Gilead.

And so, while Jehoshaphat was visiting with him (because Jehoshaphat had aligned with him through the marriage of his son to Ahab’s daughter), Ahab induced, incited, seduced, MISLEAD Jehoshaphat into going to war with him. (Thats’ what the Bible says!)

And when Ahab asked him if he would go to war against these people, listen to what Jehoshaphat said in reply, “I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.”

Remember that I told you earlier that Jehoshaphat had made that exact same statement before in his life, that he gave to Jehoram, when asked about going to battle?

And in the account with Ahab, Jehoshaphat at least had the preservation and belief at that time, to seek God and His will about the plans of Ahab, before they headed out on them.

And in that account, the prophet Micaiah, brings the answer from God that Ahab was going to die if they went to war, and they didn’t heed the word of God. And guess what happened?

Yep.....Ahab died and Jehoshaphat barely escaped with his own life. Which, when he returned to his own nation, the Lord rebuked him through the prophet Jehu and said, “Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the Lord and so bring wrath on yourself from the Lord?”

You see, Jehoshaphat loved the Lord, but he was weak in his faith and was too quick to align with other sinful, wicked people and God called him out on it!

The takeaway here for us today on this point, is this: BE CAREFUL WHO YOU ARE ALIGNING WITH IN LIFE!

Be careful who you are making friends with and who you are dating and who you are hanging out with in the break-room at work!

Because we are not to be a part of the darkness and the wicked things of others who are lost in this world!

Rather, we are to expose the darkness and shine the light of Christ into their lives!

You can love them, but you don’t have to hang out with them and be a part of what they are saying and doing! AMEN?!

Jehoshaphat learned more about the sovereignty and love and faithfulness of God not too long after the battle with Ahab. In a situation where the nation of Moab (again), along with two other nations came to attack Judah.

And Judah was going to be way outnumbered and slaughtered in this battle. And so, Jehoshaphat called for a national time of fasting and praying and he cried out to God before the nation of Judah and acknowledged that only God could help them and he petitioned God for help.

And God answered through a prophet and said, “Do not fear or be dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours but God’s.”

And the very next day, Jehoshaphat and the army of Judah marched down to the battle line. And the Bible says that as they went, they had singers going before them, singing, “Give thanks to the Lord, for His lovingkindness is everlasting.”

And the Bible says that as soon as they began singing and praising God, He sat ambushes for the other nations and they destroyed one another!

Jehoshaphat and his army never had to fight, because, as God had said, “The battle is not yours, but God’s!”

And for three days they collected plunder from this victory that God gave to them!

And then right after this, again, we find Jehoshaphat aligning himself to the nation of Israel, with Ahab’s son, Ahaziah.

They were going to build merchant ships together, to go to Tarshish and God called him out on it through another prophet.

The Lord destroyed their works and the ships were broken and their plans failed!

And so, Jehoshaphat had seen in his own personal life, time and time again of the sovereignty and power and faithfulness of God to those who diligently seek Him and His will for their lives!

And yet, in the passage that we started reading together this morning in 2 Kings 3, we, AGAIN, find him aligned with another wicked king and needing guidance from God, because he wasn’t listening to God to begin with!!!!

Let me just tell you real quickly how this account plays out in our passage.

Tell of Elisha standing up to Jehoram and telling him to go and consult with the prophets of his mother and father! And that were it not for Jehoshaphat being there and the regard that Elisha had for him, he wouldn’t even be giving Jehoram the time of day! Then Elisha calls for a musician to come and begin playing some praise music before him and as this happens, the hand of the Lord came upon Elisha and gave him the word for these kings!

Elisha told them that they were to dig ditches all over the place and that come morning, although they would never see wind, nor rain, God was going to fill all the ditches they dug with water and the valley would be filled with water!

When the Moabites looked across the valley the next morning, as the sun was rising and shining on the pools of water that were not there before, it deceived them. Because of the rising sun shining its red glare upon the pools of water that were sitting atop the red soil of the desert region, the Moabites took these to be pools of blood, and believed it be from where the armies of Judah and Israel and Edom must have fought against and slaughtered one another!

And so, the Moabite army decided to just walk on into their camps and steal the plunder that would have been left over. They literally walked into the camp of the three nations, unprepared to fight and thus walked right into a trap and they were decimated that day!

So, here is the finality of this whole account from 2 Kings 3 and that of these two kings, Jehoram and Jehoshaphat, that I am really focusing on and wanting to contrast for you this morning.

Jehoram was just like his father and his older brother.....wicked and godless. But, he chose to be that way. He didn’t have to be that way and rebel against Yahweh. It wasn’t forced upon him. He was a king and could have overturned all of their evil practices and lived for God, if we wanted to!

Too many people today live their lives blaming their faults and failures upon that of someone else.

They cling to such statements as, “I am the way that I am, because that’s the way that my father was, or that’s how my mother was!”

Or they may say, “I am the way that I am, because of what happened to me!”

That’s a bunch of malarkey! No one makes you or I do anything. We choose our fates and our destinies!

When we stand before God, do you think that He will give a pass to someone who lived immorally, and then tries to excuse it because of the sins of his/her parents, or because of something that happened to them in their life?

The answer to that is “NO”, there is nothing even remotely close to that mindset found within the Bible.

The Bible says that the sins of the parents would visit the children of the 3rd and 4th generations. That simply means that the children and their children may have to deal with the sins of their parents and the prior generation.

The sin of one generation can and will affect the generations that follow.

BUT......that does not mean that those children will have to live in the sins of their parents and grandparents! That is their choice to make in their own lives.

God says to us in the book of Ezekiel 18:20, “The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father’s iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son’s iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself.”

Jehoram knew the past that he came from, but he didn’t have to relive it in his own life!

As to Jehoshaphat and how he lived his life, he had much to learn as well! In quite the contrast to Jehoram’s life and his decisions, Jehoshaphat should have remembered his past and learned to adhere to what had happened in his father’s life and that of his own life by God and thus not keep making the stupid decisions that affected his present life, as well as his future!

We should remember the past and learn from it. We should reflect on the blessings of God from our past and let them serve as an encouragement to us in our present life and also as a source of hope for our future eternal life to come!

But, we are not to live in our pasts and live in those past experiences, for that is not where God is. He is not the God of the past only, but even more so, He is the God of our present and our future! We are to keep our eyes on Jesus and where He is currently seated, not where He once was!

Paul said in Philippians 3, “One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

Dear friends, if there is anyone here this morning who is suffering from living in the mistakes of your past, or believing that your life is the way that is because of someone else’s mistakes or wrong doings, then I want to ask you and encourage you to bring this mindset into alignment with the Word of God!

Isaiah 43:18 says, “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.” You must let go of your past, if you want to grab hold of the present life and the future life that God has for you and His will for your life!

One day, while walking through the wilderness, a man encountered a vicious tiger. He ran for his life, and the tiger gave chase.

The man came to the edge of a cliff, and the tiger was almost upon him. Having no choice, he held on to a vine with both hands and climbed down.

Halfway down the cliff, the man looked up and saw the tiger at the top, baring its teeth. He looked down and saw another tiger at the bottom, waiting for his arrival, roaring at him. He was caught between the two. Two mice, one white and one black, showed up on the vine above him. As if he didn’t have enough to worry about, they started gnawing on the vine.

He knew that as the mice kept gnawing, they would reach a point when the vine would no longer be able to support his weight. It would break and he would fall. He tried to scare the mice away, but they kept coming back.

At that moment, he noticed a strawberry growing on the face of the cliff, not far away from him. It looked plump and ripe. Holding onto the vine with one hand and reaching out with the other, he plucked it.

With a tiger above, another below, and two mice continuing to gnaw on his vine, the man tasted the strawberry and found it to be absolutely delicious.

(NOTE: Tiger at top is the past. Tiger at the bottom is the future. Mice are time [day and night] that cannot be stopped. The rope represents all of the material things in this life that we cling to between the past and future. The strawberry is all of the beauty and things that are right here in our present that we should look to and embrace. Not looking to the worries of the past or the future!)