God Speaks to Little People // Little People Used by a Big God, Part 6

So let me ask you a question. If God is God, does He speak? I mean, does He speak here and now to people like you and me? Interesting thought. Does He?

It is great to be with you in a new week and look at life again from a different perspective. We live in a world of superstars. We suffer from celebrity syndrome. Many of the people we admire and aspire to, well, they're in the media, on TV in newspapers and the media tends to pump them up until they're larger than life. With so many people like you and me, we end up feeling like little people, as though somehow we're less significant. Maybe God's like that. Maybe He only shows up for superstars.

Well last week, I introduced you to some superstars in my life, little people in the world's eyes. This week, I'd like to introduce you to some so-called little people in history who God used mightily.

Let me take you back almost 3000 years to a time when a man by the name of Jehosaphat was the King of Judah. This is a time when Israel had split into two. And the ten tribes at the North were called Israel and the two tribes in the South were called Judah. And this King Jehosaphat, it's a weird name, isn't it. "Berni why are you doing this, why are you taking us back to the Bible and all these old-fashioned names. What's that got to do with today?"

Well it depends on whether you see the Bible as a set of myths like Grimm's fairytales or Aesop's fables or a real historical account of what actually happened. And what I see is a real historical account of what actually happened that's where I am.

So the story of how God did stuff with real people in real situations is His way of speaking to you and me, here and now. So humour me. Jehosaphat let's call him Josh. So Josh is one of the good guys, he honoured God and God blessed him and all the people and they had peace and rest.

So Jehosaphat as King of Judah, had ten years of peace, there were no wars, it's a real blessing. Then all of a sudden the Ethiopian army, one million strong decides it's going to attack Judah. This is serious stuff; this is a war like the ones we see on TV only massive.

An army of one million Ethiopians is about to march on Judah, and Judah has a much smaller army of only five hundred and eighty thousand.

In the book of 2 Chronicles, Chapter 20 and verse 3 in the Old Testament it says that Josh was afraid, he was petrified, and he prayed. Nothing's really changed has it? People tend to pray when they are afraid, when they have loss or when a disaster happens.

Anyway, Josh prayed and all the people gathered with him and they fasted and they prayed. It's a huge crowd, because they were taking this very seriously. They were saying "God this army of a million people is marching on us what are we going to do? We can be taken as slaves, we could be killed, the place could be burned down."

And in this crowd in front of the King as they were praying was a man, just one face, called Jahaziel. Jaza we'll call him. There were thousand around him and somehow God chose him. The spirit of the Lord fell on Jaza like a bright light. Somehow deep inside him God empowered him.

Now the nation of Judah had recognised prophets. These were men whose job it was to listen to what God was saying. They were gifted to speak on behalf of God, that was their gig. But not Jaza, Jaza was one of the little people. He was a nobody, and God did something. God got Jaza to stand up in front of the King and the whole of the nation of Judah and say something on behalf of God.

Now remember the King isn't a King like we understand Kings to be today. The King has absolute power and authority. The King has power of life and death over everybody. But Jaza just senses that God has touched him. And in the middle of this tense situation in the middle of a nation and a King who are bowing down before God and they're petrified of the Ethiopian army marching on Judah. Jaza speaks barely hundred words. This is what it says in 2 Chronicles Chapter 20.

The Spirit of the Lord came on Jahaziel and he said, "Listen all you inhabitants of Judah and you King Jehosaphat, God has something to say to you today. The message that God has for you is don't be afraid of this great army that's coming against you, the battle isn't yours the battle belongs to God. Tomorrow God down against them and the end of the valley, that's where they will be, this battle isn't for you to fight, take your positions, stand still and watch the victory that the Lord your God will win on your behalf." (2 Chronicles 20: 14-17)

What courage must it have taken for Jaza to stand up and say something like that in front of the King, in front of a nation that was petrified? What if he got it wrong? They would stand there tomorrow at the battle and be defeated by a million strong army. And yet when Jaza got up and said this it rang true in the heart of