God Delivered Them Into The Hands Of

2 Chronicles 28:4-9 – He offered sacrifices and burned incense at the high places, on the hilltops and under every spreading tree. Therefore the Lord his God delivered him into the hands of the king of Aram. The Arameans defeated him and took many of his people as prisoners and brought them to Damascus. He was also given into the hands of the king of Israel, who inflicted heavy casualties on him. In one day Pekah son of Remaliah killed a hundred and twenty thousand soldiers in Judah—because Judah had forsaken the Lord, the God of their ancestors. Zikri, an Ephraimite warrior, killed Maaseiah the king’s son, Azrikam the officer in charge of the palace, and Elkanah, second to the king. The men of Israel took captive from their fellow Israelites who were from Judah two hundred thousand wives, sons and daughters. They also took a great deal of plunder, which they carried back to Samaria. But a prophet of the Lord named Oded was there, and he went out to meet the army when it returned to Samaria. He said to them, “Because the Lord, the God of your ancestors, was angry with Judah, he gave them into your hand. But you have slaughtered them in a rage that reaches to heaven.

2 Chronicles 20:30 – And the kingdom of Jehoshaphat was at peace, for his God had given him rest on every side.

Ezra 9:5-6 – Then, at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my self-abasement, with my tunic and cloak torn, and fell on my knees with my hands spread out to the Lord my God and prayed: “I am too ashamed and disgraced, my God, to lift up my face to you, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens.

Luke 10:27 – He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

Application:

• ·         According to the Chronicler’s view on immediate retribution, defeat in war is one of the results of disobedience.
• ·         Rest from enemies is part of God’s blessing for obedience in Chronicles.
• ·         Ezra felt both an inner shame before God and an outward humiliation before people for his own sins and the sins of his people.
• ·         Total devotion to God is demanded.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV