*You are halfway through The Bible! Enjoy the next few days to reflect on what the Lord has taught you through His Word. What are your prayers going into the second half of the year? Still need to sign up for our Bible Reading Plan?

When you don't know what to do as a mom, where do you turn?

In today's episode of The Dwelling Place from Entrusted Ministries, we're walking through 2 Chronicles 19–23, where one of the Bible's most powerful prayers reminds us exactly where to fix our eyes:

"We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on You."

King Jehoshaphat faced an impossible battle, yet instead of relying on his own strength, he gathered the entire nation—including their wives and little ones—to seek the Lord together. Their children watched their parents fast, pray, worship, and trust God before the victory ever came.

This incredible account offers timeless encouragement for Christian moms who long to model faith for their children while navigating uncertainty, suffering, and the everyday challenges of motherhood.

We'll also see the dramatic preservation of the Davidic line through God's sovereign protection of young Joash, reminding us that no circumstance is beyond His power and no promise He has made will ever fail.

In this episode you'll discover:

• Why Jehoshaphat's prayer is one of the most encouraging prayers in Scripture
• What children learn when they watch their parents seek God first
• How worship strengthens our faith before circumstances change
• The contrast between godly and ungodly spiritual influence within a family
• Why your spiritual legacy matters more than worldly success
• How God's sovereignty gives hope even when life feels impossible
• Practical encouragement for trusting God through difficult parenting seasons

If you've ever felt overwhelmed as a mother, uncertain about the future, or wondered how to lead your family through hardship, this episode will remind you that the battle belongs to the Lord.

Today's Bible Reading

• 2 Chronicles 19–23

Featured Themes

• Christian motherhood
• Biblical parenting
• Family discipleship
• Trusting God in difficult seasons
• Worship and faith
• Spiritual legacy
• God's sovereignty
• Bible study for women
• Encouragement for moms
• Reading through the Bible in a year

If The Dwelling Place has encouraged your walk with Christ, would you consider following the podcast, leaving a written review, and sharing it with another mom? Every review helps more women discover God's Word and the mission of Entrusted Ministries as we encourage families to delight in Christ together.

Resources Mentioned

• Entrusted With a Child's Heart
• The Again Podcast

Commentaries Most Referenced: Moody Commentary, MacArthur Commentary, Spurgeon's Treasury of David

This is The Dwelling Place from Entrusted Ministries.

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I'm Stephanie Hickox,

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and I have been so excited to

dig into these passages with you.

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2 Chronicles 19 through 23 are packed

with different rulers ascending

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earthly thrones, but God's sovereignty

and intervention in these chapters

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calls us to keep our eyes fixed on the

one who is enthroned in the heavens

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We'll see God work salvation incredibly

for His people and I think you'll be

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encouraged by how your kids are getting

along better than many brothers in the

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Bible and as we read about the world's

worst grandmother, you'll realize it

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could always be worse in our own families

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Before we dig in, I wanna make

a quick important announcement.

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It has been such a blessing to walk

through God's word with you, and

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we are halfway through the Bible.

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I'm thrilled to continue to do

it the rest of the year with you.

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In an effort to make sure that

we're not rushing through and

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checking things off a checklist

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I'd love for you to devote

just a little bit of time

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Speaker 65: to thank the Lord

for the ways that He's met

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Steph: you.

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Maybe you've become more aware of God's

nearness and desire to dwell with you.

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Or maybe you've realized you need

to focus more on His holiness.

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Perhaps you've been challenged

by how much the Bible says about

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family and parenting, and how we're

to set an example for our kids.

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I'll be emailing out our July plan,

and if you haven't signed up for

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that, I'll link that in the show

notes so that you can get back to

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our reading plan on Monday, July 5th.

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And this is a great point to invite a

friend because as we walk through these

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lesser-known passages of scripture,

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it paves the way for our hearts to

welcome Christ because before you know

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it, We'll be rejoicing as we watch Jesus

live out the love of God perfectly in

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human flesh So I wanna thank you for

sticking with us for the first half

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of the year, and wherever you're at

in the plan, even if you feel you've

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fallen a little bit behind, it's okay.

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You can start fresh in a couple days.

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Let's finish the second half

of the year stronger together

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Moving on to today's reading.

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We previously talked about Jehoshaphat.

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He was one of the more righteous kings

in the southern kingdom of Judah.

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Although he fell short many times,

often in making unholy alliances

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instead of relying solely on the Lord.

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But as far as his own heart and the

impact on the nation that he had,

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he did much good But in chapter

19, God rebukes him for aligning

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with King Ahab,

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of the Northern Kingdom of Israel But

Jehoshaphat responds to this rebuke

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righteously He focuses on returning Judah

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to the commands of the law.

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He ensures the nation is in order to be

ruled well spiritually and politically.

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And what happens next is one of my very

favorite stories in the entire Bible.

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After Jehoshaphat gets the nation

of Judah in order, an attack comes.

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That feels relatable, right?

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After this, the Moabites and

the Ammonites, and with them

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some of the Meonites, came

against Jehoshaphat for battle.

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Some men came and told Jehoshaphat, " A

great multitude is coming against

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you from Edom, from beyond the sea,

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And behold, they are in

Tamar, that is Engedi.

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Then Jehoshaphat was afraid and

set his face to seek the Lord and

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proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.

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And Judah assembled to

seek help from the Lord.

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From all the cities of Judah,

they came to seek the Lord

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The Moabites and the Ammonites both

came from Lot and his daughters,

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and the Edomites came from Esau

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now, these are not the lines that

God promised to work through?

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But He has given them protection.

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, Instead of being grateful

for that protection, they're

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coming out against Judah.

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And Jehoshaphat does the most

holy thing he can do, calls the

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entire nation to fast and to pray

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And Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly

of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house

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of the Lord before the new court,

and said, " O Lord, God of our

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fathers, are you not God in heaven?

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You rule over all the kingdoms of the

nations, in your hand are power and might,

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so that none is able to withstand you.

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Did you not, our God, drive out the

inhabitants of this land before your

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people Israel and give it forever to

the descendants of Abraham your friend?

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And they have lived in it and have built

for you in it a sanctuary for your name,

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saying, ' If disaster comes upon us,

the sword, judgment, or pestilence or

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famine, we will stand before this house

and before you, for your name is in

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this house, and cry out to you in our

affliction, and you will hear and save.'

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And now behold, the men of Ammon and Moab

and Mount Seir, whom you would not let

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Israel invade when they came from the land

of Egypt, and whom they avoided and did

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not destroy, behold, they reward us by

coming to drive us out of your possession,

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which you have given us to inherit.

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O our God, will you not

execute judgment on them?

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For we are powerless against this

great horde that is coming against us.

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We do not know what to do,

but our eyes are on you."

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Jehoshaphat's prayer reminds me of

what Moses often did Calling on God's

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character and His promises to be faithful

and his reputation amongst the people.

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He also quotes part of

Solomon's dedication prayer

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I have prayed that line so many times,

"We do not know what to do, but our

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eyes are on you," and asked the Lord

to help me be completely surrendered so

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that I could walk in obedience to Him

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Speaker 65: And

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Steph: The story continues

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with a line I absolutely treasure.

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" Meanwhile, all Judah stood before the

Lord with their little ones, their

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wives, and their children, This isn't

just parents seeking God for themselves.

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Every family member from the entire nation

is setting their face to seek the Lord.

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These children are watching

the reliance of their parents.

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In a moment that these mothers

and fathers are powerless

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They are praying and fasting.

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You know, if I felt like my kids

were in danger, what I would wanna

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do is hide them away But this nation

boldly assembles saying, "This is

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our best bet to seek the Lord's face

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And the Spirit comes upon Jahaziel

and he says, "Listen, all Judah

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and inhabitants of Jerusalem

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And King Jehoshaphat, thus says the

Lord to you, 'Do not be afraid and do

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not be dismayed at this great horde,

for the battle is not yours, but God's.

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Tomorrow, go down against them.

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You will not need to fight in this battle.

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Stand firm, hold your position,

and see the salvation of the Lord

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on your behalf.'"

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O Judah and Jerusalem, do not be

afraid and do not be dismayed.

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Tomorrow go out against them

and the Lord will be with you

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This is such a beautiful

example where the Lord tells

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them, " There's nothing you can do.

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Just watch me at work it reminds me of

salvation, as all we can do is to look

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to Christ and what He's accomplished

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God even tells them where

they can stand and watch.

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This multifaceted enemy that's

coming upon them would have

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been coming around the Dead Sea.

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It would have hidden their approach,

but Judah feels them coming.

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They know Their doom is impending

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and after the Lord promises to

intervene favorably, " then Jehoshaphat

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bowed his head with his face to

the ground, and all Judah and the

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inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down

before the Lord worshiping the Lord.

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And the Levites , of the Kohathites

and the Korahites stood up to

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praise the Lord, the God of

Israel, with a very loud voice."

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And they rose early in the morning and

went out into the wilderness of Tekoa.

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And when they went out, Jehoshaphat

stood and said, "Hear me, Judah

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and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

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Believe in the Lord your God

and you will be established.

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Believe his prophets

and you will succeed."

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And when he had taken counsel with the

people, he appointed those who were to

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sing to the Lord and praise him in holy

attire as they went before the army

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and say, " Give thanks to the Lord, for

his steadfast love endures forever."

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They worship believing that

God is going to answer.

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God didn't command them to worship.

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It was their automatic response of faith

And the power of worship is on full

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display because next we're told, " And

when they began to sing and praise, the

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Lord set an ambush against the men of

Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir who had come

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against Judah so that they were routed.

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For the men of Ammon and Moab rose

against the inhabitants of Mount

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Seir devoting them to destruction.

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And when they had made an end of

the inhabitants of Seir, they all

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helped to destroy one another.

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When Judah came to the watchtower of

the wilderness, they looked toward

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the horde, and behold, there were

dead bodies lying on the ground.

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None had escaped."

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When Jehoshaphat and his people came to

take their spoil, they found among them

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in great numbers goods, clothing, and

precious things, which they took for

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themselves until they could carry no more.

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They were three days in taking

the spoil, it was so much.

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When the people began to worship, God

set the opposition against itself.

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They defeated one another

and were annihilated

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Can you imagine the lasting impact of

the nation walking amongst the decimated

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enemy and carrying these treasures home

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Their kids got to see them worship and

walk in faith, and now they're seeing

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these added blessings They get together to

bless the Lord in the Valley of Beracah,

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which means the Valley of Blessing.

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And they return rejoicing

that God gave them victory.

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They worshiped at the beginning, and

they worshiped after the victory.

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And then the fear of God settles on

their surrounding enemies, so much

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so that the end of Jehoshaphat's

reign is colored by peace.

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It's powerful for me personally

because this is the passage that

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God encouraged me with when my

husband was first diagnosed with

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MS

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Steph: It's a complex challenge

for our family to walk through,

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and often I don't know what to do.

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But God has

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reminded me to keep my eyes on Him.

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And I won't sugarcoat it.

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It's been challenging.

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But I will tell you that we have testimony

after testimony of how God has provided

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for us, protected us, and blessed us.

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And that's why I feel absolutely

called, like Jehoshaphat, to stand

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before the Lord with my children, with

my little ones, and look and watch

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and see the salvation that God works

on our behalf, worshiping Him before

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Speaker 65: the victory, during

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Steph: and after the victory

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I don't know why more movies

aren't made of this story.

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It is so intensely powerful And I wish I

could end with this cinematic climactic

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moment, but there is an aspect to

Jehoshaphat's legacy that could have

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completely ended the Davidic line

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He allowed his son to marry

Ahab and Jezebel's daughter.

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Her name was Athaliah.

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It might sound like a pretty name,

but I'm telling you, there's a reason

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it doesn't top baby name charts.

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Jehoshaphat's son Jehoram becomes

king after Jehoshaphat passes away.

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Even though he probably stood by

watching God's victory that we just

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heard about, he chose to be more

impacted by his wicked father-in-law,

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and his wicked mother-in-law than

by his father's righteousness.

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In fact, do you know how

he started his reign?

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By killing all of his brothers.

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Rather than relying on them to

help him rule the kingdom, he cut

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off every threat to his throne

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We're told that even though he was a

king of the house of Judah, he walked in

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the way of the kings of Israel For the

daughter of Ahab was his wife, and he did

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what was evil in the sight of the Lord.

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Yet the Lord was not willing to destroy

the house of David because of the

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covenant that he had made with David.

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Not only is Jehoram wicked, he undoes

a lot of the ways that his father

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had led the nation to seek God.

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so Elijah the prophet writes a

letter And this is fascinating

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because Elijah is a prophet to the

northern kingdom, not the southern.

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But he intervenes here saying, " God

says because you've walked in and led the

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nation in wickedness, the Lord is going to

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A plague upon you, your people,

your children, and your wives."

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And next, the Lord stirs up the

Philistines and the Arabians.

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They come and invade his house.

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And listen to just how

awful his demise was.

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After all this, the Lord struck him in

his bowels with an incurable disease.

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In the course of time, at the end of two

years, his bowels came out because of

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the disease, and he died in great agony.

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His people made no fire in his honor

like the fires made for his fathers.

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And then it tells us, "And he

departed with no one's regret."

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He did have a remaining son,

Ahaziah And he becomes king.

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Steph: This new king is the

grandson of Ahab and Jezebel

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Ahaziah's mother is Athaliah

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Ahaziah has one of the worst examples

we have of motherhood in scripture.

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2 Chronicles 22:3 tells us, "He

walked in the ways of the house

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of Ahab, for his mother was his

counselor in doing wickedly."

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Wow.

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But Jehu was anointed by Elijah

to carry out the will of the Lord.

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He kills Ahaziah and his brothers to

fulfill the prophecy that the Lord

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told Jehoram And now the house of

Ahaziah has no one to rule the kingdom.

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when Athaliah sees that her

son is dead, what does she do?

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Proving that she is the worst, most wicked

grandmother, she arose and destroyed all

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the royal family of the house of Judah.

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Okay, uh, I feel like I could

have a few more sentence

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Speaker 65: here, here

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Steph: explaining more about what this

means, but basically she started killing

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all of her grandchildren so that she could

take the throne See what I mean by it

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could always be worse in our families?

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and I don't know how many

grandchildren Athaliah killed,

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but if she didn't notice that one

was missing, it was probably a lot

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We've got brothers killing off

brothers and grandmas killing

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grandchildren But praise the Lord, as

He's promised, there will always be a

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man to reign on the throne of David.

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And this is one of the most dramatic,

moments in Messianic history, because

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this one wicked grandmother almost

single-handedly cut off the line of David.

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But even when it doesn't seem like

it, there's often a righteous remnant

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that God sovereignly works through

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jehoshabeath, the daughter of the king,

took Joash one of the grandchildren and

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stole him away from among the king's

sons, who were about to be put to death.

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And she hid him away

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Jehoshabeath was the wife of Jehoida

the priest And praise the Lord

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that this righteous couple took and

hid Joash six years in the temple.

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Athaliah reigns over the land for the

next six years Sometimes it has to get

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so bad before it can get better, right?

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But eventually, Jehoiada

the priest takes courage.

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He assembles all the military and the

Levites, and he gets basically the most

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impressive babysitting bodyguard crew

to surround the temple with spears and

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shields to protect this little boy.

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They declare him king And Athaliah

accuses them all of treason.

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They kill her, and then Jehoiada

makes a covenant with all the

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people and with this boy king that

they should be the Lord's people.

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Then all the people went to the

house of Baal and tore it down.

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His altars and his images they broke

in pieces, and they killed Mattan,

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the priest of Baal, before the altars.

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This little boy Joash begins

reigning at seven years old to return

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the throne to the Davidic line.

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I'm sure it was a shock to the

entire nation to learn that

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God had preserved a remnant.

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After six years of

believing, it was cut off?

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It kind of reminds me of the way

they must have believed there was

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no hope after the crucifixion.

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But no matter how bad things get,

we can still have hope because this

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is a God who always makes a way.

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Heavenly Father,

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we thank You that although you work

through the kingdoms of this earth,

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your kingdom is superior, And

we're grateful we're allowed to

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be citizens of a better country.

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Lord, we pray you would help us

to keep our eyes on eternity,

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and that we would walk in the

freedom you've purchased for us.

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We thank you for the honor it

is to stand before you with our

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children and our little ones.

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We pray we would be mothers that would

counsel our children in righteousness,

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leaving them a rich spiritual

inheritance and a model of seeking

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you May we choose to worship in all

circumstances, whether it feels like

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the battles never stop, or the reprieve

never comes, or the serving never

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ceases, may we worship through it all.

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Because with you, there is always hope

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We ask that our children would do

what is right in your eyes, and that

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they would do it for your glory,

serving you with their whole hearts

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we pray that their eyes would

be open to your goodness, your

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protection, and your provision.

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And instead of meditating on the

battles they endure, may they be

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transfixed by the testimonies you bring.

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We love you, Lord.

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It's in Jesus' name we pray.

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Amen.