Or, The Liturgy of Seeking the Lord 2 Chronicles 20:1-30 January 2, 2022 Lord’s Day Worship Sean Higgins

Introduction

The beginning of a new calendar year is as good a time as any for evaluation, which for everyone should result in a lot of things to give thanks to God for, and also for everyone probably some repenting from sin and turning to obedience. These are year round activities, but something about the transition from December to January makes it fitting.

The beginning of the calendar year also coincides with the anniversary of TEC’s beginning. Next Sunday, January 9, will be exactly eleven years for us as a church body. From the very first Sunday in 2011 we have begun the Lord’s Days in January with teaching, reminding, renewing, rejoicing in our Lord’s Day liturgy of assembled worship.

Due to our significant increase of new members, I took a number of sermons last year to explain the five Cs and point out some of the ingredients that cause our worship to taste the way it does. As I’ve said, I’ve taken numerous swings at trying to communicate why we do what we do when we’re together (you can find those previous messages if you’re interested, last year’s are at the previous link, and here’s another set about our liturgy).

For Our Worship 2022 I want to remind you 1) why our worship belongs up front in the battle, 2) how our worship protects us from the implacable idol of woke-ism that’s so trendy today, and 3) the way our worship models the reality of a hierarchical cosmos, especially as seen between male and female.

To get us going, let’s read a great story of God’s steadfast love in His deliverance of Jehoshaphat and the Jews in 2 Chronicles 20.

2 Chronicles 20:1-30

Some context: we are in a battle but ours is not like exactly this, nor is the United States a nation like Israel. And yet, “whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4, see also 1 Corinthians 10:11). So the LORD is the same LORD. The hope we have in Him is the same sort of hope. And our desperation, with only one sure Deliverer, is most definitely the same.

We ought not skip the “After this” in verse 1. Jehoshaphat sinned in 2 Chronicles 18, but repented in chapter 19 and began a restoration of righteousness in Israel, appointing judges and repairing the temple. In other words, chapter 19 is full of Jehoshaphat bringing glory to God through his obedience. Sometimes when you live by faith, the LORD kicks it up a notch (just as Shasta “had not yet learned that if you do one good deed your reward usually is to be set to do another and harder and better one.” The Horse and His Boy). Now the LORD chose to bring glory to Himself through Jehoshaphat by deliverance.

The Moabites and Ammonites plus some Meunites (from Edom) make up “a great multitude” coming to kill Jehoshaphat, gathering from the west side of the Dead Sea and coming around the south of the sea, probably just a day or so away. Jehoshaphat had one thing going for him: he knew what he couldn’t do. So he “set his face to seek the LORD” and called on his people to fast (verse 3). The people assembled, and for emphasis, the whole assembly is said to seek the LORD and His help (verse 4).

On behalf of the assembly Jehoshaphat cried out in front of the assembly, praising and petitioning the God of heaven who rules over all the earth. He is the God who makes and keeps promises, including the very land of Judah; Jehoshaphat expected the “Land Lord” to intervene. He acknowledges that the very house of worship is identified by the name of the LORD, and that generations have committed that they will “cry out to you in our affliction, and you will hear and save” (verse 9). Jehoshaphat lays out the problem, not because God didn’t know it, but as a record of how bad it really w[...]