Bible Study - 2 Chronicles 17:7-9

Jehoshaphat Sends Teachers Throughout Judah

2 Chronicles 17, beginning in verse 7. In the third year of his reign, he sent his officials Ben-Hel, Obadiah, Zechariah, Nethanel, and Micaiah to teach in the cities of Judah. And with them the Levites Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebediah, Asahel, Shemiroth, Shemiramoth, Jehonathan, Adonijah, Tobijah, and Tobedaniah.

And with these Levites, the priests Elishamah and Jehoram, and they taught in Judah, having the book of the law of the Lord with them, they went about through all the cities of Judah and taught among the people.

Amen. Amen. All right, this first verse says, also in the third year of his reign, he sent princes, even, etc., all these different people, sent princes to the city. Okay, the third year of his reign, it means he's quickly moving into focusing on spiritual things.

The Identity and Role of Judah's Princes

Obadiah had only reigned for three years, and the priests and the Levites were said to give security for three years to Judah. And anyway, it's interesting that here he is giving security to Judah through the Levites after three years have passed.

The, what kind of princes are these talking about? These are various officials under him, you know, they're his representatives that he's sending there. Ben-Hel is just transliterated here as a name.

There are some versions of the Bible, well, specifically the Septuagint translates this as a title for them all, just sons of valor. So in other words, he sent his princes, even his sons of valor, and then lists them all.

There is a, there is a conjunction here, and, but a lot of times conjunctions in Hebrew can be used appositionally, so it may just be introducing the rest. So he may be saying he had sons of valor, and these are their names, and so Ben-Hel is not, could just be a description of all of them.

All right. Yeah, and these are political liaisons ensuring that the people are educated properly. Is that a question, James? Yes. Okay. I do not think so, no. That's long before that time. Yeah. Yeah, I'm trying to think though, because there are multiple Zechariahs, but no, I don't think any of these, any of these are related.

Teaching the Law as National Strengthening

Okay, and then, what are the princes to teach? Princes are to teach the law of God, evident from the fact that the priests are teaching with them, and their job is to teach the law. Why are they teaching the cities?

That's where people are. How does this relate to the preceding verses? Well, all this has to do with strengthening the nation. Before, he fortified cities, removed false worship, et cetera, with political strength, and now he's actually going forward and educating them.

Yes. You're asking if the political authority are there to enforce? They may be, yeah. They may be. Chances are they've got military, et cetera, associated with them. Okay, verse 8, and with them, the Levites, all those names, et cetera, and then with them, Elisham and Jehoram, the priests.

Okay, why does Jehoshaphat send the Levites? Well, so that they would teach the law. Why does he send priests? Because they're especially informed about the law. So he's sending Levites who are generally informed, priests who are, you know, especially of the higher ranks, to make sure that everyone's well-taught, not just taught, but well-taught.

Yes. I guess piggybacking on what Brady said, do you think it's like a form of legitimacy? Like he's legitimizing and showing a united front.

By sending political authorities to? Yes. Yeah, he's just involving all the forces he has available for this kind of thing. Yeah, and the priests are named. This demonstrates the quality of the instruction.

You know, we don't know who these people are today, but if they were courted then, the suggestion is that these were notable people whose names are worth recording. Okay, verse 9. And they taught in Judah, having the book of the law of Jehovah with them.

The Book of the Law and the First Five Books of Scripture

What is the book of the law of the Lord? That is the book of Moses, the first five books of the Bible. In Nehemiah 9, let's go ahead and read that. Verses 1 through 3, it says, Now on the twenty-fourth day of the month, the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth and with earth on their heads.

And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place and read from the book of the law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day.

For another quarter of it, they made confession and worshipped the Lord their God. Okay, so it's the same thing here. The law of the Lord is referring to the first five books. Helps you know that it's the first five books because a quarter of the day, you could probably get through, you know, a good chunk of the first five books.

But you couldn't do more than that. So, yeah, it's talking specifically about Moses' books. All right, yes, and of course, the fact that they have the book of the law with them means that that's what they're going to teach.

They are going to be teaching this. It's not just a, you know, talisman or anything. And they're equipped to teach it. They are not just nominally capable of it. All right, 9b, and they went about throughout all the cities of Judah and taught among the people.

So, the Levites teaching through all the cities means that the whole nation is going to be educated in the ways of the Lord. The importance of teaching them. All classes of society are educated when it says that this is among the people.

This is not just him teaching the leaders of different areas. This is him teaching all the people. And what is the importance of them teaching? Sorry, how does this relate to the teaching activity of the princes?

The Civil, Moral, and Ceremonial Dimensions of the Law

So, it complements the teaching activity of the princes. You could imagine that it may be the case that the princes take up the civil matters of the law and the priests take up the ceremonial aspects of law, right?

If the law has three categories, the moral, civil, and ceremonial, it might be appropriate for the princes to teach the civil aspects of the law. The king in Deuteronomy is required to make a copy of the book of the law for himself and then from that to be able to understand it well enough to judge well.

So, that suggests that they would be capable of teaching those kinds of things, the things that they have to know from the law in order to be able to judge well. All right, 1 Samuel chapter 7, let's look at that.

Samuel judged all the days of his life and he went on a circuit year by year to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah and he judged Israel and all these places. Then he would return to Ramah for his home was there and there also he judged Israel and he built there an altar to the Lord.

All right, what is the purpose of Samuel's itinerant ministry? It's in order to dispense justice. So, he goes around, he renders judgments to those who come to him. You know, they have matters that they need adjudicated.

They come to him when he's close to them and one of these places in his circuit, Bethel, Gilgal, Mizpah, and then back to Ramah. However, of course, this is in 1 Samuel 7. This is the very last part of 1 Samuel 7.

Who knows what comes right after 1 Samuel 7? It's 1 Samuel 8, 1 Samuel 8 where the people want a king. Samuel's doing all this and it's not sufficient for the people. Him judging by moving around, etc., not good enough.

They want a king. They want something more. All right, and then how does this passage relate to 2 Chronicles? Well, this is a fuller version of that ministry. Instead of just one man going around trying to do everything, Jehoshaphat is a king who's got the priests and he's got the, he's got other princes that he's sending out and he's sending them all out to do all of this.

So, he's got much more capacity than mere Samuel does. All right, the people wanted a king. They were wrong to go for the king at the time that they did. They should have waited for the Lord to give them a king, but now we have the Davidic king, right?

Now they have the Davidic king, so we're pass all at this point and he actually is fulfilling the thing that they were longing for is someone who would not just go around and spread himself thin and not really be capable of doing it all, but one who's actually capable of ruling everyone through large forces.

Public Reading and Popular Education Under Ezra

All right, Nehemiah 8, 1 through 12. Let us read that as well. And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the water gate, and they told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel.

So, Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, both men, women, and all who could understand what they had heard on the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it facing the square before the water gate from the early morning until midday, and the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand.

And the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law. And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose. And beside him stood Mattathiah, Shema, Ananiah, Hariah, Hilkiah, and Maaseah on his right hand, and Paddaiah, Mishael, Malkijah, Hashem, Hashpadonah, Zechariah, and Meshalam on his left hand.

And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above the people. And as he opened it, all the people stood. And Ezra blessed the Lord and the great God, and all the people answered, Amen, Amen, lifting up their hands.

And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Also, Jeshua, Bonnie, Sherebiah, Jamin, Aqab, Shabbatai, Hodiah, Maaseah, Kalita, Azariah, Josabad, Hanun, Peliah, the Levites helped the people to understand the law while the people remained in their places.

They read from the book, from the law of God clearly, and they gave the sense so that the people understood the reading. And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people, said to all the people, This day is holy to the Lord your God.

Do not mourn or weep, for all the people wept as they heard the words of the law. Then he said to them, Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine, and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord.

Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, Be quiet, for this day is holy. Do not be grieved. And all the people went their way to eat and drink, and to send portions to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.

All right, so for this question, how do the people react to the teaching of the law? Well, they react with weeping. Presumably, they're repentant, hearing their sins, not having heard the law taught. It's showing them what's wrong.

But they are commanded to rejoice instead. Yes, they should repent of their sins, but law is good, and they have it on this special day where they're about to celebrate the Feast of Booths. And so they are commanded to enjoy what they have learned.

The Health of the Church Depends on Understanding God's Law

And then, how does it relate here? Well, it shows another example of popular education in Judah. We don't have very many examples of this. We are told that the priests are supposed to teach, but we aren't given many narrative examples.

These are the few examples that we have here. You know, possibly Samuel, depending on how it's not very explicit about all the teaching. But then here with Ezra, and then with, in the book of Nehemiah, and then with Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles.

Okay, reflection question. How does understanding the law of God relate to the health of the church? What role does teaching play in your life? In what ways can you promote biblical instruction? Yeah, this is, of course, an important thing for the health of the church.

It's just one of the most important things. I mean, we understand that that's a focus of the worship service too, is that the preaching is taught, or is it the word of God is taught, and then that the law of God be well understood so the people can follow God and enjoy the way of life that he's given.

You have a question?

Is the, in verse 4,.

Oh, that's interesting. In verse 4? Oh, of 2 Chronicles, or Nehemiah? Yes. Oh, okay. Yeah, you think it had like a cross on it and stuff. Okay, yeah, this is, of course, very important. A lot of people will downplay teaching as being important.

You know, they'll talk about, it's not about religion, it's about relationship. And a lot of times what that means is it's not about actually knowing what any of this says. It's just about feels.

Biblical Precedents for Teaching God's People

Yes, and that's related because you're saying, why weren't they taught, or?

So I'll give you a list of passages if you want to write them down or look at the video later where you can hear me repeat this. 2 Chronicles 15 .3, Deuteronomy 33 .10, 2 Kings 17 .27, Ezra 7 verse 3 and verse 25.

Let me go ahead and read that Deuteronomy one because I think that's probably going to be the most direct one. So that's at the last part of Deuteronomy where Moses is blessing all the people and everything.

So they're called to teach there. And then, let's see what we have in 2 Chronicles 15. 2 Chronicles 15 .3, yeah, at some point I'll get my notes in a digital form where I can just hover and see these verses real easy.

Oh, so remember this that we read in a couple of chapters ago? For a long time, Israel was without the true God and without a teaching priest and without the law. What that suggests is that after the time of the judges, they did have teaching priests.

That's an interesting passage. During the judges, right, or before. But after, yeah, Israel was much more taken care of. All right, let's see what Ezra 7 says. Ezra 7 verse 3 says, okay, that is not relevant.

I must have put that down wrong. I could, no, that's probably not it either. Okay, yeah, I wrote down one of those verses wrong. It was, it's not Ezra 7 .3. It must've been something else. But Ezra 7 .25 says, and you, Ezra, according to the wisdom of your God that is in your hand, appoint magistrates and judges who may judge all the people in the province beyond the river.

All such as know the laws of your God and those who do not know them, you shall teach. Whoever will not obey the law of your God and the law of the king, let judgment be strictly executed on him, whether for death or for banishment or for confiscation of his goods or for imprisonment.

Okay, so we have a specific command to Ezra.

Yeah, all right.

So that's, yeah, we don't have a lot of explicit commands, but we do have Ezra being commanded to do it. We do have a statement that it was this normal thing after the time of the judges and that there was something obviously deficient during the time of the judges.

At least that's how I interpreted that passage when we went through that, is that when he was talking about those former times being the time of the judges, it seems to fit the things he says of it. Okay, yeah.

Public Teaching, Civil Government, and Religious Liberty

Of course, this is especially important for the nation of Israel to have teaching because they have a covenant with God and they need to know God's word, need to follow the law. But it has always struck me why this is not a part of other kingdoms as well or non-kingdoms like our own.

I think if I were to become president, if I were king for a day, one of the first things I would do is start some kind of official teaching program. Like it wouldn't, it might not be anything expensive.

It might just be with my own money too. It might be as simple as like starting a YouTube channel and just say, everybody, please watch this. Because I think that just having people understand the basics of civics and justice and things like that would do absolute wonders for changing people's minds about things.

So much of political persuasion right now is basically just appealing to people's fleshly desires rather than actually educating them at all in justice. And so you just start off with whatever nonsense they already believe as foundation and then you appeal to that, whatever that is.

You just go ahead and grant them that ground and then appeal rather than ever trying to change it or ever trying to teach people what's right. And that just seems like a really sensible thing for a wise ruler to do is to use his platform to teach in some measure or to appoint good teachers.

When we went through, I think it was on family worship. We went through family worship and I was evaluating some of the claims that Presbyterians would make about how kings need to do things to enforce religion.

And I mostly approved of almost everything that they were saying because most of it was not statements about using the power of the sword as such. It was basically using the power of an authoritative voice to encourage people in good.

And I do think it's reasonable for things like, for example, the institution of our holiday of Thanksgiving. I think that was a totally reasonable thing for the president to say or I'm not sure who passed it exactly.

I think it was George. George Washington was involved in that, right? Does anybody know? It was way later? Okay, it was some more famous president there, right? Okay, around Lincoln. Okay, well, anyway, you have this acknowledgement that God has blessed the country and then you use your voice to say, hey, I'm going to make a holiday off.

There's no enforcement of it. You know, if a business still wants to be open on Thanksgiving, they're welcome to, but you're using your position to encourage people to give thanks to God. So even though I'm opposed to the government using their sword to actually enforce religion and take away liberty of conscience and the worship of God, that just seems like a perfectly reasonable thing to do.

Okay, any questions? Yes.

More of a statement. I think, I could be wrong. I think the president of El Salvador, he was asked a question by a young boy who was asked, no, it's okay to read the Bible. And he uses positions that absolutely it's okay to read the Bible.

And I was like, looking into it, it's like the president of El Salvador is actually endorsing Bible reading. Okay, yeah, that's good.

Right, right.

Yeah, that was my, sorry. That was the underlying point. It wasn't everybody go eat turkey. It was, you all should give thanks to God. Take this day to give thanks to God. Okay, yes. Yeah, I would say yes.

I guess my only hesitation is that I wouldn't want to necessarily recommend something that would distract from the local church because I think that's where most people's minds would immediately go is basically like some kind of parachurch thing that goes out and teaches kind of independent, the local church.

I wouldn't be a fan of that, but yeah, absolutely more people need teaching. And I'm not sure what the answer is because a lot of people think they want that, but then like, don't really, you know what I mean?

It's kind of hard to describe it, but I remember interacting with a lot of people at one of my former workplaces where there were a number of Christians, or people who profess Christ, who were thinking about starting seminary and stuff like that.

But whenever I would talk to them about their church situation, which was just something very, very superficial, you know, typically heavily charismatic, right? Not, and they saw it as, well, you know, the church isn't there to teach me.

The church is there for these other things and for, you know, the emotional aspects and, you know, the teaching I'm going to get from the seminary that I'm going to go to. And that always just seemed very, yeah, I don't know how you, I don't know how you correct that apart from a work of the Spirit.

Loving the Truth and Resisting False Teaching

It does seem like there's almost a willful ignorance that's going on. Yeah, it says in 2 Thessalonians 2, it speaks of those who are given over to deception because they do not love the truth. It just seems like that's the case.

With a lot of people that ultimately they don't necessarily want the truth. Yes, right, right. Yeah, I mean, those are supposed to cycle into each other.

Yeah, so I mean, that is the answer, right? The question, I was kind of taking the question, is there any way that you can kickstart the Reformation on this? Right, but one that is not, one that would actually reach apart from some, once again, you know, widespread revival, just, yeah, of course, the Holy Spirit needs to work in any of these cases.

But yeah, are there ways that are more, that are means that are going to be more influential? Yeah, I don't know how else to say it. I guess one question you could ask, is there a way for the Church to be better about evangelizing or for churches to work together to educate or something like that?

And there's probably a lot of answers to those questions, but I don't think there's, I can't think of anything that's the big one missing thing. Yeah, I mean, there are a lot of those means, but every one of those, I think, well, there are already churches trying, you know, to reach more people.

That's, so I don't, I don't see any of those as like, oh, here's the big thing.

That everyone's missing. Yes. I remember my last church, I really talked to some great heirs, and one lady told me that ever since World War II, it's just been a slow, steady decline.

Okay. When it was having a slow, steady decline?

Oh, like people going to church or Christian faith in America. Right. Where was that? What kind of church? Oh, she was just talking about the church in general. She was like, she went to college during the 50s.

Right. Yeah.

But a lot of that is because the teaching's so bad. Like, why even stay for it? I think that, yeah, it's funny because a lot of people watered down the teaching in order to keep people from leaving, but then it actually, people left faster in the process.

Yes, Daniel. And what's the takeaway from that? Right. Yeah. Well, we are guaranteed there will always be plenty of false believers, right? So that's part of the problem. I guess the thing that we have to aim for is the purity of the churches that exist.

Yeah. You know, the passage that says vengeance belongs to the Lord in Deuteronomy is talking about false professors. Like, that's what it's talking about. And yeah, that's what often comes to mind is man, that's really where vengeance needs to be because it's one of the biggest harms to the church.

It's all the false professors in the churches.

Yes. Didn't Peter talk about judgment starting in the household of God first? Right. Yeah. Judgment does start in the household of God. Okay, anything else?

Prayer for Faithful Teachers and Congregational Instruction

All right. Let's go ahead and pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your kindness to us. You have given us a good King, Jesus Christ. He has sent teachers. He has given elders and fathers of homes to teach children, to teach congregations.

We pray that you would continue to bless this work, that you would raise up men for the task. In Jesus' name, amen.