Domino Effect

2 Chronicles 20:1

After this, the Moabites and Ammonites with some of the Meunites came to make war on Jehoshaphat.

Science taught us that there’s a logical explanation for everything. Do this and you’ll get that. Alter that and this happens. My 6 year old boy was introduced to the concept via the domino tiles. He loves arranging them on end in long lines and toppling the first one for the cumulative effect. The teaching moment comes in when either the fall or the hit didn’t take place. Careful with the frustrated look on his face, I have to lead him to objectively see the tiles' poor angle or spacing. The second chance makes him excited anew. With a few clicks and drags, he’s up and back to the game. That’s your clue he’s playing it online.

The first two words ‘after this’ in the chapter would readily make you ask ‘what’s before this’? But let’s complete the line of thought first.  The aftermath was a war on Jehoshaphat. Three fierce enemies merged into one vast army.  The king was alarmed. Who wouldn’t? In his prayer, he even said ‘We have no power to face them. We do not know what to do’.  Now, let’s backtrack to chapter 19 for the why this happened. Verse four noted: ‘He went from Beersheba to Ephraim and turned them back to the Lord’.  Did you follow that? Jehoshaphat doing a really godly thing and then his enemies attacked him? What’s this? A seek Ye first and these bad things will be added unto you? Or maybe a delight yourself in the Lord and He will not give you the desires of your heart?

But is God confined to a domino effect? Will we shout ‘unfair’ based on that immediate tile before life’s halt? Have we not considered that it may be part of His artistry that prompted His move? Read further and you’ll see Jehoshaphat, despite the still-unsettled WHY issue, seeking help from the Lord. He was forward looking, believing in faith that God can and will save them. The only time he looked back was when he claimed God’s promises. It was never because of any felt ‘I earned and deserved these’. And so, to us who’ve been toiling hard to keep our faithfulness, 1 Peter 4:12 reminds us not to be surprised at the painful trial we are suffering, as though something strange were happening to us. It is because we share in Christ’s sufferings - - if we are to likewise to share in His glory. Let God line up those tiles for you. Accept His out-of-this-world and beyond-science grander design. You’ll soon realize that a stop here was because of a split off somewhere and that other line is continuing the beautiful pattern He has pre-set for you. Just zoom out to believe.