The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 243

his help. III. THAT WE MUST MAKE DIBECT AND EARNEST APPEAL TO HIM. Jehoshaphat took active measures to enlist the intervention of Jehovah; he" set himself to seek the Lord," etc. (vers. 3-6). It behoves us, in the day of our trial and our peril, to take active measures to secure the merciful and mighty succour of our God. We must make our earnll8t and our persevering appeal to him, and be waiting upon while we wait/or him. And our appeal will, at any rate, be threefold. We shall plead: 1. Our utter helplessness apart from his effectuating power. "We have no might," etc. ( ver. 12). We shall, of course, be alert, diligent, energetic; we shall put fortb all our skill and strength; but we shall feel that all will be wholly unavailing except our God works with us and through us. 2. His almighty power. (Vers. 6, 7.) 3. His Divine faith- fulness. (Vera. 6-9.) We also, like the King of Judah, can plead the inviolable word of our Lord. He has promised to be with us, to provide for us, to guide us through all our journey, to give us the victory over our enemies, to reward our faithful labour with a blessed increase; "And none shall find his promise vain."-C. Ver. 7.-Friendship with God. "Abraham thy friend." 1. Before Jesus came to reveal God to our race as he did reveal him, the Eternal One was known and worshipped chiefly as the Almighty One, or as the Creator of all things, or as the Divine Sovereign, whose rule we are bound to obey. Not exclusively; for he was known as the Father of men (see Deut. xxxii. 6; 1 Chron. xxix. 10; faa. ]xiii. 16; lxiv. 8; Ps. ciii.:13). Here also he is spoken of as a.Friend (and see Isa. xli. 8; Jas. ii. 23). But it is evident that it was only in a restricted sense, and by a very limited number, that God was thus apprehended. 2. It was Jesus Christ that revealed the Father as the Father of souls; it was he who taught us to address him as such, to think and speak of him as such, to approach him and to live before him as such. 3. It is Jesus Chi·ist also who has enabled us to think and to feel toward God as our Friend. "I have called you friends," he said to his disciples (John xv. 15). And he has so related himself to us that in him we can recognize God as our Divine Friend; as One of whom we may rightly speak, and toward whom we may venture to feel and to act as our Friend indeed. But on what ground and in what respects? On the ground of- I. REOIPROOATED LOVE; including, what all true love must include, both [affectiO'II, and trust. God loves us. He loves us with parental affection, as his children who were once indeed estranaed from him, but are now reconciled unto him; as those who have become endeared t~ him, both by his great sacrifice for their sake, and by their seeking after him and surrender of themselves to him. And God trusts us. He does not treat us as slaves but as sons· he does not lay down a strict and severe code of rules by which our daily conduct is t~ be regulated; he gives us a few broad principles, and he trusts us to apply them to our own circumstances. We, in return, love and trust him. Not  244 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. [orr. xx. 1-87,