Trusting God for Prosperity

There is so much packed into this chapter 20 of 2 Chronicle. There are lots of images to ponder like the host of dead bodies which lay wasted in the wilderness and the 3 days it took the Israelite to remove the spoil from theses dead bodies. This must have been a grim sight! There is also much to gleam in terms of geography from the names of places mentioned and in terms of anthropology from the names of the inhabitants and the time lines given from Jehoshaphat's reign (we're told his age at the time he reigns and how long he reigns). Lots of lessons can be made of this. However, what sticks out to me as I read it today is the message -- trust in God.

"Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper." -- 2 Chronicles 20:20

God honors this trust in him and says through the prophet, things like "stand ye still", "fear not", and don't "be dismayed". These are the direct results of trusting in God. A kind of calm results. No worries remain. This is complete trust. This is an important message for today because God has not changed and never will. He still wants us to trust Him this way.

It's also interesting that, at the end of the chapter, we are told of Jehoshaphat's joint venture with Ahaziah (who was a very wicked man) to build ships together and we see how God judges Jehoshaphat for this indiscretion by destroying these ships that he and Ahaziah had built together. This little side narrative doesn't seem to fit until you consider that fact that it kind of underscores the whole theme of this chapter -- that we should put our trust in God and not in the world around us. Did God want Jehoshaphat to prosper and perhaps build a fleet of trade ships? I don't see why not. Clearly, it was his partnership with a known evil man that brought about God's judgement. God wants us to prosper, but, more importantly, he wants us to trust him.