When we do not know what to do

“O our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you” (2 Chronicles 20:12).

I sometimes do not know what to do.  Actually, it seems that more and more I don’t know what to do.  When I immigrated to America at the age of twelve, I didn’t even know any English alphabet.  But when I went to school, a teacher said to all the class that there would be test next day, memorizing twenty English words.  I didn’t know what to do.  I cried that night and barely memorized all twenty English words.  Next day I went to school and tried to take the exam, but the teacher said I don’t need to take the test because I came yesterday.  I couldn’t believe it.  I still remember I couldn’t adapt to American culture when I was adolescent.  In addition, I didn’t know what to do when I went to college because no matter how hard I studied I couldn’t get good grades.  After college, I went to the theological school and it was very hard studying and I was so stressed out that I got sick and had to do surgery.  And after surgery, I didn’t know what to do so I took off six months from school.  The worst ‘I didn’t know what to do’ time was when my first baby’s doctor ask me to choose whether to let the baby die quickly or die slowly.  At that time, I felt like I was hit by a hammer.  I didn’t know what to say to the doctor at that time.  When I look at back my life, there were so many times I didn’t know what to do.  It is the same now.  I still don’t know what to do so many times.  I still don’t know what to do in my church ministry.  Also I often don’t know how to take care for my children, especially when I look at myself in the Word of God.  There are more things that I don’t know what to do.  I think the more I live, the more I don’t know what to do.  What should I do then?

In 2 Chronicles 20:12, we can see Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and the people of Judah, who didn’t know what to do.  The situation, which they didn’t know what to do, was that the Moabites and the Ammonites came together with some Meunites to make war against Jehoshaphat, king of Judah (vv. 1-2).  King Jehoshaphat, who had been informed about the situation, was afraid and turned his attention to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah (v. 3).  Then the people of Judah came to Jerusalem from all over the country to seek help from God (v. 4).  When they gathered in the new courts of the temple of God, King Jehoshaphat stood in the crowd and prayed to God (vv. 4-12).  One of the contents of the prayer is 2 Chronicles 20:12.  I briefly summarized the prayer in three ways: (1) ‘O our God, we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us’, (2) ‘O our God, we don’t know what to do’, and (3) ‘O our God, our eyes are on You.’  God heard the prayer of King Jehoshaphat and answered to Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat through Jahaziel the son of Zechariah (vv. 14-15).  Based on this God’s answer, I want to think about three things about what to do when we don’t know what to do.  I hope and pray that God teaches us these three lessons so that we may obey them and able to overcome situations that we don’t know what to do.

First, when we do not know what to do, we must know that the fearful situation belongs not to us, but to God.

Look at 2 Chronicles 20:15 – “and he said, "Listen, all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat: thus says the LORD to you, 'Do not fear or be dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours but God's.”  God, who heard the prayers of Jehoshaphat king of Judah and the people of Judah, answered them through Jahaziel and told them not to be afraid or be dismayed because of the great multitude of Moabites, Ammonites with some of the Meunites.  And God told them that the great war against the great army that came against Judah was not their but God’s (v. 15).

When I meditated on this, I thought, “Spiritual warfare belongs to God.  The life and death belong to God.  The ministry belongs to God.  Therefore, I should not be afraid.”  I am now in a spiritual war.  I am fighting with myself, with sin, with the world, with Satan, and with death.  In particular, I often don’t know what to do in a spiritual battle with my sinful nature.  Although I know that I have to repent in my head, but my heart is not repenting my sins.  I have no broken heart and contrite spirit to repent.  I don’t know what to do when I see myself that I cannot even repent.  However, the message of God gave me today through 2 Chronicles 20:15 is that the spiritual battle with my sinful nature is not of mine but of God’s.  The same is true for life and death.  I don’t know what to do when I think about my beloved brothers and sisters in Christ who are suffering from sickness.  So I am praying to God for them.  When I think about those who were at the crossroads of life and death and then passed away to be with the Lord in heaven, I am beginning to realize the truth that our God is the God who controls life and death.  In the midst of this, as I was reading 2 Chronicles 20:15, "…  For the battle is not yours, but God’s” and was meditating on it, I thought that the life and death belongs to God.  So is the ministry.  One of my biggest concerns is my church ministry.  There are many times when I don’t know how to handle pastoral ministry.  So as I was reading 2 Chronicles 20:15, I thought that the ministry belongs not to me, but to God.  When I thought of it, peace came to my heart.  I remembered what Apostle Peter said in 1 Peter 5:7 – “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”  I want to cast all my anxiety on Him.  I want to cast my spiritual battle, my life and death and my ministry to God.  And I don’t want to be anxious and afraid anymore.  I don’t want to be afraid of any crisis that will come in my future life.  I want to hold on to the promised Word of God that my mother is holding onto: “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”  And I will live day by day, believing that everything belongs to God.

Second, when we do not know what to do, we must believe that the God of salvation is with us.

Look at 2 Chronicles 20:17 – “You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you, O Judah and Jerusalem.  Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.  Go out to face them tomorrow, and the LORD will be with you.'”  God, who heard the prayers of King Jehoshaphat and of the people of Judah, answered them through Jahaziel that they didn’t need to fight this battle.  God told them to set their own position and see the deliverance of the Lord (v. 17).  I thought about Exodus 14:13-14: “Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid.  Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.”  And according to the Moses’ faith, God of salvation covered the Egyptians with water, and none of them survived, and the Israelites were saved from the hands of the Egyptians (Exod. 14:27-30).  The same God of salvation told King Jehoshaphat and the people of Judah, “You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you” (2 Chron. 20:17).  And God said to them, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.  Go out to face them tomorrow, and the LORD will be with you” (v. 17).

When I meditated on this, I thought to myself: "We are confronted with our great enemies without being afraid and not surprised because we believe that the God of salvation is with us."  If we have this Immanuel faith when we are in any crisis and adversity, we can look to the God of salvation.  No matter how much we don’t have the power to overcome the crisis and adversity, and even if we don’t know what we should do, we can only look at the Lord with Immanuel faith.  I remembered the gospel song “We will set our eyes on You”: “…  Oh Lord, we know You’re watching us With Your eyes of everlasting love O Lord, we know You hear our prayers With Your ears of unfailing love You shed a light to the darkest path And You answer every prayer, big or small No matter when it is or where we stand We will set our eyes on You” (Internet).  Our God is the God who always hears our prayers with His ears of unfailing love.  And our God even hears our small sound of moaning and answers our prayers.  This God is the God of salvation who is always with us, who never leaves us and forsake us (Josh. 1:5).  And this is God who is with us and delivers us (Jer. 1:8).  We must believe that this God of salvation is with us.  We should not rely on our understanding, but trust in God (Prov. 3: 5; 2 Chron. 20:20).  If we confront the terrible situation we face as we trust God with Immanuel faith, God will surely rescue us.

Third, when we do not know what to do, we should praise and worship God with thanksgiving.

Look at 2 Chronicles 20:18-19: “Jehoshaphat bowed with his face to the ground, and all the people of Judah and Jerusalem fell down in worship before the LORD.  Then some Levites from the Kohathites and Korahites stood up and praised the LORD, the God of Israel, with very loud voice.”  King Jehoshaphat and the people of Judah, who heard the God’s word through Jahaziel, fell down on the ground and worship before the Lord and some Levites praised Him.  On the next day, when Judah was about to leave for the Desert of Tekoa, King Jehoshaphat, in consultation with the people, appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise Him for the splendor of His holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: “Give thanks to the LORD, for his love endures forever” (vv. 20-21).  And as they began to sing and praise, God caused confusion among the invaders and caused them to strike one another (v. 22).  When the men of Judah came to the place that overlooks the desert and looked toward the vast army, they saw only dead bodies lying on the ground, and there was no survivor (v. 24).  So King Jehoshaphat and the men of Judah went to carry off their plunder, gathering great amount of equipment and clothing and also article of value, more than they could take away so it took three days to collect it (v. 25).  And on the fourth day they gathered in the Valley of Beracah, where they praised God (v. 26).  What a marvelous work of God's miraculous salvation (v. 27).  Thus, King Jehoshaphat and the men of Judah returned to Jerusalem joyfully and went to the temple of the Lord with harps and lutes and trumpets (vv. 27-28).  “The fear of God came upon all the kingdoms of the countries when they heard how the LORD had fought against the enemies of Israel” (v. 29).  As a result Jehoshaphat ruled the country peacefully because God gave him rest on every side (v. 30).

As I meditated on these words, these thoughts came to me: “If I begin to praise God with thanksgiving in my heart because of His eternal love, trusting that the crisis that I faced belongs to God and He will deliver me from it, then God will save me” and “The Christians, who give praise to God in the midst of their fearful circumstance by faith in God, will taste the joy of salvation and the joy of victory.”  How can we thank God when we are in fearful circumstance?  How can we praise God in such circumstances?  It is an act and a heart that we cannot understand with our own understanding.  We can never thank God when we are controlled by fearful circumstances.  If we have fear in our hearts, we cannot praise God wholeheartedly.  In order to give thanks and praise God in our fearful situations, we must be governed by God rather than our fearful situations, and there must be trust in God of salvation rather than fear in our hearts.  Look at Acts 16:25 – “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.”  How could Paul and Silas who were in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stock, were able to pray and praise God?  Of course, we will pray to God because we don’t know what to do when we are in a circumstance that is beyond our abilities to handle.  But how can we praise God in such circumstance?  This is impossible without the belief that God will save us from such fearful circumstance.  And that faith is given by God as God’s answer to our prayer.  After all, what we can do in that situation is to pray with our faith by looking at the God of salvation.  And we will be able to praise God only when we are convinced that God will answer our prayers with His salvation.  But I think more correct answer is that we can praise God in a fear circumstance because God makes us to praise Him.  When my first baby Charis was at the Children Hospital Intensive Care Unit and her doctor asked me whether to let her die slowly or die quickly, I told her to let her die slowly.  Then I read the Bible the next day and received grace in the words of Psalms 63:3 – “Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.”  When I meditated on this word, this thought came into my mind: 'The Lord's eternal love is better than the Chris’ 55 days life in this earth so my lips will praise the Lord.'  So I spoke to my wife and told her to let her go.  Then we contacted the doctor and told her that we would let Charis go quickly.  And we call our immediate family members and we all gathered at the hospital ICU and had final worship beside Charis.  After we worshiped God in the ICU, her nurse gave Chris to me and she died in my arms of love.  After that, we cremated her body and took a small box with her ash and spread in water.  As we were coming back to the land, I was on the back of the boat driving it and my wife in front.  And suddenly she looked at back and told me "Titanic" (Titanic movie).  When I heard her saying that, the gospel song “My Savior’s Love” (or “I Stand in Amazed”) burst from my lips and I praised God.  Even now, when I think about that moment, I cannot help but confess that God made me to praise Him even in such a terrible grief. Our God is worthy to receive praise and worship.  Our God makes us to praise Him even in the great crisis of our lives.  And He does so by enabling us to experience His eternal love in such great crisis.  Thus, He enables us to praise Him with thanksgiving in our hearts for the love of God's eternal salvation.  "Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD" (Ps. 150:6).