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Just an Ordinary Day
Then some came and told Jehosphaphat, saying, "A great multitude is come against you from beyond the sea ...."
2 Chronicles 20:2
* * *
When Jehoshaphat got up that morning, there was nothing in his appointment book about a life-defining crisis. Efficient as his aides and secretaries may have been, there was no mention of the event that would mark his life forever.
Can you visualize that day, the day Jehoshaphat would remember for the rest of his life?
Dawn came bright and clear. He got out of his bed, stretched, and shuffled into his morning routine. After he had washed and dressed, it was time for his morning prayers. He probably knelt before an open window just as Daniel would do centuries later. It's easy to imagine him praying something like this:
Sovereign Lord, God of my great-great-great-grandfather David, I belong to You. I look to You on this new dawn for strength, wisdom, and grace to lead Your covenant people. I depend on You, Almighty One. Keep me from relaxing my vigilance, as my great-great-grandfather Solomon relaxed his vigilance to His own hurt and to the hurt of Your people. Keep me from presumption, as my grandfather Rehoboham presumed against You, to the sundering of the nation. Keep me from pride, as my father Asa was too proud to seek You in his illness, and he died. Ah, Sovereign Lord, as my day unrolls like a scroll, little by little, moment by moment, grant Your servant discernment to make those decisions that please You and bless Your people, the sheep of Your pasture. Amen .
An aide stepped discreetly into the room as the king rose from his knees. In a quiet voice the trusted servant delivered the morning news-what little there was of it. Nothing untoward had happened in the night. No messengers had arrived bearing tidings-either good or ill. Jerusalem had been quiet, apart from a few minor domestic spats and a runaway donkey or two.
As Jehoshaphat nibbled at his figs and pomegranate, the aide briefed him on the latest reports and correspondence from foreign leaders, from Judah's ambassadors, from his hand-picked judges in the cities, and from his captains in the field. The army's idol eradication unit continued on pace, destroying all vestiges of idolatry and the shrines at the high places across the land. The king's overnight trip to Beth Shemesh was still on track: Security was in place, and the judge of the city and the army commander on the Philistine frontier were looking forward to the meetings.
It was just an ordinary day.
Or was it?
In fact, there was nothing ordinary at all about that day. Before the sun had advanced across the blue Jerusalem sky, Jehoshaphat would find himself trying to absorb the most shocking, fearful news a king can receive.
How would he respond? How would you respond?
Principle #1: Walk ready every day ... you never know when the Edomites are coming.
I remember an ordinary day in my own life, a number of years ago now. I was in my office pursuing all those normal routines I've done thousands of times in my years of ministry. I felt well and strong, but then, I'd always felt well and strong. Blessed with an athletic body and an iron constitution, I hardly knew what it was to be sick.
A complete physical just a few days before had confirmed that obvious fact once again. I was fit and healthy. Why, then, was my secretary telling me that my doctor was on the phone?
"It's about one of your blood tests, Ron," he told me. "I've got some concerns I'd like to discuss with you. Can you come in ... right away?"
Now that was strange. What was this all about? I told my secretary I had to be out for a couple of hours and headed out the door. I already had plans to meet my wife, Joyce, and to join another couple for lunch at the mall.
The doctor invited me into his office and had me sit down. I wasn't liking the way this meeting seemed to be shaping up. I wasn't liking the look on his face.
"Ron," he said, "the news isn't good. You have leukemia."
He began to explain this cancer of the blood to me, but it really wasn't necessary. A pastor friend of mine in Minneapolis had just died of the disease. I knew about leukemia; I just couldn't believe I had it.
I met Joyce outside the mall and briefly told her the news. We didn't even have time to absorb the shock or talk about it before we met our friends. What an odd lunch that turned out to be! We sat with our friends and talked about all those trivial, lighthearted things you'd expect friends to gab about over lunch, yet it was as though Joyce and I were on automatic pilot. We said the expected things and smiled at the expected times, but a dense, numbing fog had settled over everything. Somehow, the conversation seemed to be coming from far away.
Leukemia!
Just that quickly, everything changed. All of our plans, dreams, and expectations were suddenly put on hold. Would I be able to continue in the ministry? Would I live out the year? Would I see my boys graduate from high school? Would I see my own grandchildren? Was my life insurance adequate? A thousand questions coursed through my mind, and answers were hard to find.
" A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, from Syria; and they are in Hazazon Tamar ."
More times than I can number over the last twenty-eight years, I have had the opportunity to stand beside someone in our large Beaverton flock who has received crushing, unexpected news. I've seen every reaction you could possibly imagine-rage, despair, weeping, terror, and stunned silence.
"A great multitude is coming against you."
I've also seen those who experience the emotions of fear or grief but turn almost immediately to the Lord.
That's what King Jehoshaphat did on that ordinary day when the clear blue sky suddenly buckled and fell in upon him. That's what Ron and Joyce Mehl did, too, when the earth lurched beneath our feet and every thought of normal life went out the window, never to return.
Excerpted from A Prayer That Moves Heaven by Ron Mehl Copyright © 2002 by Ronald D. Mehl Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
