2 Chronicles 20

     Once upon a time, the Moabites and Ammonites with some of the Meunites came to wage war against Jehoshaphat.  There came some men that warned him, "A great army from beyond the sea has come against you, and they are already in En-gedi!"
Jehoshaphat, being a God-fearing man, was afraid and set his face to seek the Lord. He called a fast
throughout all Judah. And the people of Judah gathered to seek Jehovah.

     Jehoshaphat's prayer is recorded in 2 Chronicles 20:6-12.

   “O LORD, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you.
Did you not, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend?
And they have lived in it and have built for you in it a sanctuary for your name, saying,
'If disaster comes upon us, the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before you—for your name is in this house—and cry out to you in our affliction, and you will hear and save.'
And now behold, the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom you would not let Israel invade when they came from the land of Egypt, and whom they avoided and did not destroy—
behold, they reward us by coming to drive us out of your possession, which you have given us to inherit.
O our God, will you not execute judgment on them? For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”

While Jehoshaphat prayed,  Judah was standing before the LORD with their infants, their wives, and their children. When he finished, the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel, a member of the priestly clan. Jahaziel then gives what has become one of the more familiar Old Testament prophecies on war:

Thus says the LORD to you, ‘Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God’s. [...] You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the LORD on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.’ Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed. (15, 17)

Jehoshaphat bowed with his face to the ground and all the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem worshiped the Lord.

The next day, they were up at dawn and went out to the wilderness of Tekoa. Jehoshaphat reminded the people that they should, "Believe in the LORD your God, and you will be established; believe his prophets, and you will succeed." Then he appointed those who were to praise and sing. 
As the singing began, the Lord set ambushes against the men who were invading Judah, and they began killing each other. 

The adventure concludes:

When Judah came to the watchtower of the wilderness, they looked toward the horde, and behold, there were dead bodies lying on the ground; none had escaped. When Jehoshaphat and his people came to take their spoil, they found among them, in great numbers, goods, clothing, and precious things, which they took for themselves until they could carry no more. They were three days in taking the spoil, it was so much. On the fourth day they assembled in the Valley of Beracah, (the Hebrew fern, the valley of blessing) for there they blessed the LORD. Therefore the name of that place has been called the Valley of Beracah to this day. (24-26)

The Lesson
Okay, nice story, but what does it have to do with the Runaway Bride?  
This:
  It is the story of how to behave so that the Lord fights your battles against a stronger enemy. KatieLyn lost because she did not properly identify the enemy; she never suspected that the devil would work through her mother. But a marriage partner is a HUGE thing, and Satan used the biggest weapon available, a jealous, doubting mother.  KatieLyn lost because no reliable source warned her; as far as we know, her dad never did a thing to stop the fighting. Was he clueless? I don't know, but a man's role in the home as husband and father is to hear God and act.  KatieLyn lost because because she did not sing praises that would have drawn God to battle for her, but tried to fight a stronger foe on her own. When her mother brought the fight to her, she fought back. She did not seek the Lord at first, and by the time that she finally did, she was seeking Him about a battle that she had already lost.  She did not have the strength to rise at dawn and believe in the Lord. Her faith in God and her first love in life had already been destroyed by doubt. 



Scripture quoted from the  ESV (English Standard)
Link to Ferrell Jenkins' © photo of the Valley of Beracah and a bit of a geography lesson!