A Great Multitude Coming Against Us
Rev. Dr. Lewis opens the pastoral teaching by introducing Jehoshaphat and framing suffering not as a sign of divine displeasure but as a common experience of the human family. Even the godly king who walked in the ways of the Lord found three nations arrayed against him. This chapter establishes the pastoral theology of the entire volume: godliness and submission to the will of God do not exempt the believer from life's adversities. Some troubles carry our name; some troubles are simply marked 'Occupant.'
Before we explore the problem that prompted this powerful and heart-rending prayer, let me introduce you to the protagonist of the text, Jehoshaphat.
There were five men in the Bible who bore the name Jehoshaphat. The first found in (2 Samuel 8:16) was a Recording Secretary under the reign of Solomon and David. Secondly, there was Jehoshaphat, (1 Kings 4:17) the son of Paruah, whose task was to provide food for the king's table one month out of each year. His district to collect duty from was the tribe of Issachar, the ninth son of Jacob.
Then there was Jehoshaphat who is simply remembered by holy writ as the father of Jehu, the eleventh king of Israel. (2 Kings 9:2,14) Fourth, there was Jehoshaphat, a priest under the reign of King David, who participated in a great ceremony with pomp and circumstance, to move the Ark of the Covenant (the sacred vessel that contained the Ten Commandments, Moses received on Mount Horeb in the Sinai Peninsula) from the house of Obed-Edom where it had been stored for three months, to the city of Jerusalem. (See 1 Chronicles 13:13-14, 15:25)
It is worth noting that none of these men who bore the name Jehoshaphat was eulogized by the Bible as being or doing that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. Though they may not have been as prominent as the protagonist in our text, each of them did justice to the name Jehoshaphat. Not one of them brought shame to the noble name that means Jehovah is Judge.
Jehoshaphat, the son of Asa, the king of Judah, like his namesakes, honored the name given to him. In fact, the compiler of the Kings (1 Kings 22:43) said of him that ". . . he walked in all the ways of Asa his father; he turned not aside from it, doing that which was right in the eyes of the LORD . . ."
Jehoshaphat not only took the Word of God seriously in his own personal life but he encouraged all of Judah to worship and honor God.
When you read the narratives concerning the life and times of Jehoshaphat, it is quite clear that he was a king who loved, honored and revered the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. His life exemplified virtue and commitment to matters of faith.
Jehoshaphat not only took the Word of God seriously in his own personal life but he encouraged all of Judah to worship and honor God. He admonished his judges, officials and magistrates to fear the Lord, to be faithful and deal fairly with the people and serve with a perfect (just) heart.
He does all of this in chapter nineteen of Second Chronicles. However, at the beginning of chapter twenty a disaster of biblical proportions unfolds.
Because of the testimony of the text concerning Jehoshaphat, it would be more than reasonable to assume that his problems were not the direct result of any personal sin in his own life. He was walking in the will of God.
Godliness and submission to the Will of the Infinite does not exempt us from life's adversities.
There is a lesson we can learn from the experiences of Jehoshaphat and that is godliness and submission to the Will of the Infinite does not exempt us from life's adversities. They will come regardless of whether or not we are the direct cause, or God has permitted them to come for His purposes, or simply as a result of being an occupant on this planet.
More than a few times I have gone to the mail box and there were letters, cards, catalogues, and advertisements that were not addressed to me in particular; they were simply marked, Occupant. In the same manner there are some problems that have not singled you out for trouble and vexation, they are simply problems marked occupant.
In this twentieth chapter of Second Chronicles whether or not the problems were marked occupant or came certified with Jehoshaphat's name on them, they came in a great and intimidating way. Three nations are coming against him to do battle. "After this, the Moabites and Ammonites with some of the Meunites came to make war on Jehoshaphat." 2 Chronicles 20:1 (New International Version) The news of the apparently imminent onslaught of these three nations was confirmed to Jehoshaphat by several messengers. The Bible says, "Then came some that told Jehoshaphat . . ." There is a New Testament principle that declares that truth is established in the mouths of two or three witnesses. And thus it was an established truth that Jehoshaphat had a problem. His problem came in the form of three nations who had counseled and conspired together to destroy him and the people of Judah. They were the Moabites, the Ammonites and the Meunites.
The Moabites and Ammonites were not children of the Covenant. They were related to the Israelites by way of Abraham's nephew Lot. According to the biblical record (Genesis 19:29-38) after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah Lot and his daughters took up residence in a cave near the small city of Zoar. The oldest daughter said to the younger, "Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father." (Genesis 19:32) Out of this forbidden act came the children of Moab and the children of Ammon.
The third in this trio of would-be-attackers were the Meunites. They were an Arabian tribe from a mountainous city called Moan in the country of Judah near Mount Seir.
The report from the messengers stated that these three armies had set up an encampment in Engedi. Engedi, sometimes referred to as the city of palm trees was about thirty miles southeast of the holy city of Jerusalem and just west of the Dead Sea. It was also fertile, full of rocks and caves and situated in such a way that made it almost impregnable. It was a stronghold for the enemies of Judah.
This is indicative of the way our problems often seem. They enter our lives and erect strongholds with the initial purpose of holding us at their mercy and ultimately destroying our testimonies and our lives.
Engedi was a fortress of refuge. It was even used by David when he was fleeing from Saul. (1 Samuel 23:29) In 1 Samuel 24:22, Engedi is simply referred to as the hold.
Moreover, a stronghold is a military term. It is a place where an army can operate from a position of strength and superiority. For when one has set up a stronghold he can hold his enemy at his mercy. Food, water, medicine, communication and other essentials are released at the behest of the army who operates from the stronghold.
When three armies take up residence outside the gates of your city and sets up a stronghold, I think it is safe to assume that you do have a problem. You do have a problem that demands your immediate attention.
Now the unique quality about problems is that they are not unique. They are, no matter how seemingly devastating and destructive, common to man. (See 1 Corinthians 10:13) When problems occur, more than a few Christians adopt the nobody knows the trouble I see attitude. They fail to realize that many know the trouble they see, because problems and trouble are indeed universal — common to man.
Whether the problem is internal or external, it is common to man. Whether it is a bruise, a bad memory, a scar on the body or a scar on the soul; it is common to man. Whether it is a health problem, a financial failing, a domestic difficulty or a parent-child tension and tug of war, the single thread that binds these botherations is their commonality to the human family.
Rev. Dr. Lewis stages the opening chapter as a dialectic between two commonly held theological assumptions and the biblical reality that supersedes them.
Thesis: Godliness protects the believer from serious adversity. The prosperity assumption — implicit in much popular preaching — argues that if a believer walks uprightly, three-nation crises should not arrive at the gate. Jehoshaphat's résumé (2 Chronicles 19; 1 Kings 22:43) would predict a peaceful reign.
Antithesis: Adversity is proof of hidden sin or divine displeasure. The Job-comforter assumption reads every 'great multitude' as evidence that the sufferer has stepped outside the will of God. Under this framework, Jehoshaphat's crisis in 2 Chronicles 20 would indict his character.
Synthesis (Lewis's pastoral resolution): Neither prosperity assumption nor Job-comforter assumption is faithful to the text. Adversity is 'common to man' (1 Corinthians 10:13). Some troubles are 'God-caused,' some 'God-permitted for His purposes,' and some simply arrive because we are 'occupants on this planet.' The believer's task is not to explain the trouble's origin but to trust the God who governs it.
This synthesis carries through every subsequent chapter: fear (Ch. 2) does not indict faith, waiting (Ch. 3) is not passivity, praise (Ch. 4) is not denial, victory (Ch. 5) is not our doing, and provision (Ch. 6) is not our reward.
The five-Jehoshaphats device is more than genealogy. Rev. Dr. Lewis is establishing that faithfulness in ordinary vocations — recording secretary, provisioner, priest, father of a king — carries the weight of the name 'Jehovah is Judge.' The name determines the man before the man determines the name.
The Moabites and Ammonites arrive as covenant-adjacent enemies. Their origin (Genesis 19) makes them Abraham's grandnephews through Lot — kin, not stranger. Suffering, Lewis quietly signals, often comes from those closest to the covenant, not from those most distant.
The Meunites, tucked in from the region of Mount Seir, foreshadow the Edomite thread Lewis picks up in Chapter 2. The problem in verse 1 is already a preview of the prayer in verse 12.
Engedi ("the hold") is doing double work in the text: it is David's refuge in 1 Samuel and Judah's threat in 2 Chronicles. The same geography is deliverance for one generation and danger for the next. Lewis's pastoral point: strongholds are morally neutral — the question is who is standing in them.
Some problems are addressed to you personally; some are simply marked 'Occupant.' Faithful pastoral care refuses to demand a personal indictment for every trouble that arrives at the door.
Problems are not unique. 1 Corinthians 10:13 governs pastoral empathy: the sufferer who cries 'nobody knows the trouble I see' has neighbors in every pew who know exactly the trouble.
Truth is established in the mouths of two or three witnesses. Jehoshaphat's messengers confirmed the threat; ministry leaders should confirm crisis reports through multiple witnesses before responding — the biblical pattern of due process, not rumor.
A stronghold's aim is not merely to defeat you but to hold you at the enemy's mercy — controlling access to food, water, medicine, communication. Spiritual strongholds function the same way: they ration hope.
Submission to the will of God is not a protective spell against adversity. Jehoshaphat walked uprightly; three nations still came. Faithful preaching refuses to promise exemption Scripture does not promise.
The reign of Jehoshaphat (c. 873–849 BC, per most chronologies) sat inside the divided-kingdom era, roughly a century after Solomon. Judah under Jehoshaphat was small, geographically vulnerable, and surrounded by shifting coalitions on the eastern side of the Dead Sea.
The Moabites (east of the Dead Sea) and Ammonites (northeast, in the region of modern Amman) had a long, contested history with Israel — from Deuteronomy 2 and Judges 3 through the Moabite Stone. Alliances between them were not new, but a tri-alliance including the Meunites/Mount Seir contingent represented an unusual concentration of force.
Engedi ("spring of the goat kid") sat on the western shore of the Dead Sea. Its cliffs, caves, and freshwater spring made it strategically valuable and militarily formidable — the same terrain that had sheltered David from Saul now sheltered Judah's would-be destroyers.
The Chronicler, writing for the post-exilic community, is deliberately shaping this narrative as instruction for a smaller, more vulnerable Israel: the covenant people again find themselves outnumbered, and again must decide whether to fight, flee, or seek.
For pastors and church leaders: the Occupant Principle reframes crisis counseling. When a member's marriage, health, or finances collapse, resist the impulse — yours or theirs — to search for the sin that caused it. Some crises are addressed by name; many are addressed to the occupant.
For preachers: audit your preaching for implicit prosperity assumptions. Do your sermons imply that godly people will not face three-nation crises? Chapter 1 is a corrective sermon.
For ministry teams: adopt the Established-Witness Principle before major decisions. When a report arrives — about a member, a staff person, a program — confirm it through multiple witnesses before responding.
For discipleship groups: use the Commonality Principle to break the loneliness of suffering. The 'nobody knows the trouble I see' spirit is dismantled the moment two believers name the same trouble in the same room.
For counseling ministries: teach members to identify strongholds by their rationing behavior — what has this trouble started to withhold from you? Hope? Sleep? Prayer? The stronghold is where the rationing begins.
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There were five men in the Bible who bore the name Jehoshaphat. Discuss their differences and what is the one thing they all had in common?
Was Jehoshaphat a good leader for his times? Would he be considered an effective leader in these modern times? Why? Why not?
Jehoshaphat's father's name was Asa. Was he a godly king? How did his father's influence affect his life?
Who were the three nations coming against Jehoshaphat to do battle? Discuss their origin.
What is a stronghold? Why should you avoid being subject to one who has control of it?
Rev. Dr. Lewis names three categories of trouble: God-caused, God-permitted, and 'marked Occupant.' Can you name a season in your own life that fell into each category — and how did you know which was which?
The Moabites and Ammonites were covenant-adjacent kin, not strangers. Where in your own ministry has the sharpest opposition come from those closest to the covenant?
Engedi was refuge for David and threat for Judah's enemies — the same geography, different tenants. What 'Engedi' has shifted tenants in your life?
The Occupant Principle challenges both prosperity preaching and Job-comforter counseling. Which one does your ministry context need to unlearn first, and what would that unlearning cost?
1 Corinthians 10:13 declares that no trial is unique. How would your small group, your pulpit, or your pastoral care change if 'common to man' were the working assumption in every conversation?
Heavenly Father, Like the ancient king, Jehoshaphat, we too, have our problems. We have great multitudes and companies coming against us. The situations and circumstances of life at times seem to overwhelm us, just as the three nations who came against the people of Judah to battle. Yet, Father, we know that problems no matter the magnitude or their numbers as long as we trust in you we shall overcome. In the wonderful Name of Jesus, we pray. AMEN.
Name the trouble accurately before you strategize a response. Jehoshaphat did not begin with a plan — he began with a briefing. Leaders who skip the briefing lead their people into the wrong war.
Build a two-or-three-witness culture. High-stakes reports require corroboration, not because your people are untrustworthy but because your governance is faithful.
Teach your congregation the Occupant Principle before the crisis arrives. Preemptive theology is pastoral care in advance; corrective theology in the middle of the crisis is triage.
Model transparent lament. A leader who names a great multitude coming against him gives permission for his people to name theirs. Silence at the top produces pretending in the pews.
In pastoral visitation, resist the temptation to explain the sufferer's crisis to them before they have explained it to God. The pastor's first task in the Engedi season is presence, not exegesis.
In hospital and hospice ministry, the Commonality Principle is often the most healing sentence a chaplain can offer: 'You are not the first. You are not alone.'
In small-group ministry, structure a rhythm where members can name troubles by category (God-caused, God-permitted, or Occupant) without being cross-examined. Categorization slows the rush to judgment.
In benevolence ministry, treat the stronghold as the diagnostic. What is the trouble rationing? That is where the ministry response begins.
Write down the great multitude(s) currently arrayed against you. Do not soften the count.
For each entry, mark it: God-caused, God-permitted, or Occupant. Note which category was hardest to assign, and why.
Identify one 'Engedi' in your life — a stronghold where the enemy of your peace is currently entrenched. What has it started to ration?
Rehearse the name 'Jehovah is Judge' aloud. Where in your circumstance do you most need to remember that judgment is not yours to render?
Write one sentence you have never dared to say aloud in a Sunday service about your own fear. Sit with it for a full minute before you close the journal.