The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 176

living God, and we shall hide in him, our Refuge and our Strengt.h, "In his Name" we shRII "go against this multitude." III. THAT AB THOSE WHO FIGHT FOR GoD WE HAVE A POWERFUL PLEA, As those who are enlist.ed and engaged in the great campaign a:;:ainst moral evil in this world, we have a strong plea to urge when we draw nigh to God in prayer and seek his con- quering power. 1. God is our God; the God of our choice and of his own faithful Word. 2. God is able to give us the victory even against the greatest odds: "It is nothing with thee to help" (ver. 11). "If thou wilt, thou canst." "All things a.re possible" with him. 3. We do all that we do in his Name, for the extension of his kingdom. " The work is thine, not mine, 0 Lord, It is thy race we run." "Let not man prevail against thu." IV. THAT, GoD WITH US, ANXIOUS FEAR WILL OHANGE TO JOYOUS VIOTOBY. "The Lord smote the Ethiopians, ... and Asa and the people pursued them,'' etc. (vers. 12-15). The king and the people of Judah went out of Jerusalem with the most grave concern in their hearts; they re-entered the royal city with their souls full of joy and their arms full of spoil Their courage and, more especially, their fidelity were crowned with a true and a great success. So in due time will ours also. It is true that our fight with wrong and woe is not (like this one of Asa's) a short sharp battle; it is a long campaign; it is a campaign .jn which fortune wavers, or seems to waver, from side to side; in which many good soldiers of Christ are seen to fall. But there can be no doubt about the issue. Tbe Lord is on our side. Victorious Love is our great Captain, and the time will come when we too shall "return to Jerusalem," with songs of joy and triumph on our lips.-C. Vers. 1-8.-Quiet in the land. I. A GREAT BLESSING. 1. Its character. No war (ver. 6). Few, reflecting on the untold calamities of war, the expenditure of blood and treasure, the sorrow and desolation sent into many homes, the interruption of the arts of peace, the bad passions kindled by it in the breasts even of the victors, will doubt that peace is one of the foremost blessings a nation can enjoy. This was the condition of Judah during the first ten years of Asa's reign. Compare Shakespeare's description of "peace after a civil war" (' King Henry IV.,' Part I. act i. sc. 1). 2. Its source. Jehovah (ver. 7). "Every good and every perfect gift is from above" (Jas. i.17)-true of national peace (Josh. xxi. 44; 1 Chron. xxii. 18) no less than of other things (Pa. ::uix.. 11; Isa. xiv. 7; Jer. xiv. 13; Hag. ii. 9). .As no king or people can stir up war until God permits, so can none extinguish its flames wi!;hout his help. But" when he giveth quietness, who can make trouble?" (Job xxxiv. 29). Hence national peace should l,e prayed for (Jer. :nix. 7; 1 Tim. ii. 1, 2). 3. Its medium. Righteousness. The peace of .Asa's opening years was due, not to Abijah's successful campaigns (eh. :xiii. 15), though successful campaigns are of God's giving (Ps. cxliv. 1, 2, 10); or to his own fkilful diplomacy, since skilful diplomacy is not always from above (2 Sam. xvi. 20, etc.); or to his fenced cities, which would have been poor fortifications had they not been defended by Jehovah's battalions (Ps. cxxvii. 1); but to his and his people's followiog after that righteousness which is a nation's best defence (Prov. xiv. 34) and a sovereign's surest security (Prov. xvi. 12). Asa and his people sought the Lord their God, and he gave them " rest on every side." The annals of Israel show that peace ever went hand-in-hand with piety, and war with disobedience (Ps. b.x.xi. 11-16; Isa. lx.viii. 18, 19). .Always when the people chose new gods there was war in the gates (J udg. v. 8). When they forsook God, he forsook them, with the result that "there was no peace to him that went out or to him that came in" (eh. xv. 5). So, in modern times, the military spirit exists in Christian men and nations in proportion as they depart from the rdigion of Jesus. If at any time" Christianity, socially regarded, does almost nothing to control the state of expectant war and the jealousies of nations,'' that is not because- Christianity ie a "failure," and "criminally complacent to these (and other) evils," or "because the religion of heaven and supernatural visions" is "powerless to control this earth and its natural realities" (Harrison's • New Year's Address to English Positivists.' 1889), but because its professed di11ciples do not honestly OH, xrv. 1-15.] THE SECOND BOOK OF 'l'HE CHRONICLES. 177