Bible Study - 2 Chronicles 17:1-6

Jehoshaphat Strengthens Judah

2nd Chronicles chapter 17. 2nd Chronicles 17, Jehoshaphat, his son, reigned in his place and strengthened himself against Israel. He placed forces in all the fortified cities of Judah and set garrisons in the land of Judah and in the cities of Ephraim that Asa, his father, had captured.

The word was with Jehoshaphat because he walked in the earlier way of his father David. He did not seek the Baals but sought the God of his father and walked in his commandments and not according to the practices of Israel.

Therefore the Lord established the kingdom in his hand and all Judah brought tribute to Jehoshaphat and he had great riches and honor. His heart was courageous in the ways of the Lord and furthermore he took the high places in the Asheron out of Judah.

Amen. Well now we've come past Asa to Jehoshaphat and you will finally have the question answered, was he known for his jumping abilities? There's nothing in here about him jumping. Sorry to disappoint.

Anybody heard that phrase before, right? Jumping Jehoshaphat? Okay, okay. Too many blank stares. All right. Yeah, bad joke, sorry. All right. Let's, I try to, with the transition of every king, have us try to recite the kings that have come before.

All right, so first Davidic king? David, yes. Second one? Solomon. Next one? What's that? Oh, Rehoboam. Rehoboam, yeah. Not Jeroboam. Jeroboam's a bad guy. He's the king of Israel. All right, and then after him?

Depending on which one you're looking at. Yeah, depending on if you're looking at Kings or Chronicles. Yeah, Abijah. And then? Asa. And then, yeah. And then Jehoshaphat. Okay, so here we are. Good deal.

Jehoshaphat's Military Strength and the Chronicler's Emphasis

All right, so verse 1, "...and Jehoshaphat, his son, reigned in his stead and strengthened himself over Israel.". All right, Jehoshaphat is indeed Asa's son, and he strengthened himself over Israel, meaning that he built up his military might.

This is a phrase that's used for Solomon in chapter 1, verse 1. It's a phrase that's used for Rehoboam in chapter 12, verse 13. This is the first time that it's been used since Solomon and Rehoboam. So Jehoshaphat is a particularly good king who is built up and, yeah, strengthens himself over Israel.

Actually, builds up the forces and everything. Okay, and how does this relate to the preceding context? Well, it all describes the transition in power from Asa to Jehoshaphat. These verses that we're looking at today and going on even from this are not in Kings.

This is a lot of details that the Chronicler is adding to let us know how strong Jehoshaphat was as a king. Verse 2 says, "...and he placed forces in all the fortified cities of Judah and set garrisons in the land of Judah and in the cities of Ephraim, which Asa, his father, had taken.".

All right, so Asa placed fortified cities, placed forces, excuse me, in the fortified cities in order to protect them. The cities are fortified, but you obviously can always add more soldiers to them, so he does that.

And then he also builds up garrisons. So these are different in that the garrisons are not associated with cities in particular. Next question here is, what is the significance of also doing this in the cities of Ephraim?

If you remember, Asa was encouraged by Oded to take over the cities in Ephraim. That means that he was given divine permission to push the border northward and to intrude into land that Israel had, and he had taken that over.

So now Jehoshaphat, following after him, is building it up. There's a lot of pretty direct statements that Asa is, or excuse me, Jehoshaphat is finishing what Asa started. So Asa got these cities in the land of Ephraim, and then he is building them up.

Jehoshaphat's Faithfulness to the Lord

Verse 3, and Jehovah was with Jehoshaphat because he walked in the first ways of his father David and did not seek the Balaam. Okay, so Jehovah is with him, the Lord is with him, in that there is divine favor on Jehoshaphat's activities.

Why is that? Because he walks in the ways of his, the first ways of his father David, meaning David in the earlier part of his life before he, yeah, before he had sinned against the Lord, etc. Seems to be alluding to Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah, but he is saying that, yeah, it's saying that he is following after the Lord just as David did, especially during David's best years.

And this is an interesting way to phrase it, given that Asa had a, had a good first half of his run and then a poor second half. You don't usually think of David as being marked by a bad second half, even though he had sinned because he was restored by God.

But there are, but the way that this is being presented, I think, is once again trying to draw parallels between these kings. So he is, so it's even describing David as having a good first half, like Asa had a good first half, etc.

All right. And then the alternative of seeking the Balaam. Today we think about not seeking after God, and if seeking here means worshiping him, just not worshiping anything. Or, you know, you can interpret it more spiritually about worshiping the self or other things.

But for them, they didn't have all the, all the influences that we do that would cause us to be so irreligious. Right? We are people of a lot of wealth and things like that that make it very easy. And also, you know, there's a pervasive kind of atheism about, that would make it very easy just to any kind of religiousness.

Their temptation constantly was to serve other gods. It seemed like other gods were helping people, so they would go to other gods. They would go to the Balaam. Even when it's not being spoken in the texts of a lot of these other kings as they turn away from serving the Lord, the undertext, and sometimes it is directly spoken, is that they are serving the Balaam, that they are serving other gods.

Also, the M here, if you're confused by that, why isn't it Baals? M is just the Hebrew plural suffix, so that's why there's, you know, the seraphim or Elohim, which is God, but is literally plural gods way of speaking of God.

He is, it's just the plural word for God. Okay. Verse four, but he sought the God of his fathers and walked in his not after the deeds of Israel. So, he is following after his father and what his father should have done for his whole life, but what his father had done for the half of the first half of his life.

He complies with the command of Azariah. Remember, Azariah had said that if he seeks the Lord, then the Lord will be found, and this is what Jehoshaphat is doing. He is seeking the Lord, and the Lord has favor on him.

The Lord is with him, but if he departs from the Lord, then the Lord will depart from him. Yeah, the Chronicler speaks of Jehoshaphat's father singularly. So, it says, but he sought the God of his father, not just fathers.

So, it could mean, it could mean David since David was just mentioned, but it seems to be that he has in mind, particularly, Asa and the, in light of the command that was given him by Azariah. There's just a very, it really is kind of a theme verse for 2 Chronicles in a lot of ways.

If you seek the Lord, he'll be found by you. If you forsake him, he will forsake you. All right, the deeds of Israel as opposed to walking in the Lord's commandments. Walking in the Lord's commandments, obviously, obedience in general, but most particularly in worship.

And the deeds of Israel would be false worship. What kind of false worship does Israel have? Somebody knows. Yes. Okay, the ashram. What else? There's something in particular. Yeah, they, right, well, they have a second and third temple.

Yeah, they've got the golden calves. Yeah, the golden calves that they're serving. So, they have high places. They have false gods, all kinds of things. Okay, therefore, Jehovah established the kingdom in his hand, and all Judah brought to Jehoshaphat tribute, and he had riches and to honor and abundance.

Divine Establishment, Tribute, and the Blessing of God

So, what does it mean that the Lord established the kingdom in Jehoshaphat's hand? This is a phrase that was used before about David being established on the throne in 1 Chronicles 7, and it was used of Rehoboam in 12 .1.

Basically, it just means that God gave him a lot of strength. God is blessing him with status among his people and with the surrounding nations. So, if you are established, it means that all the foundation points would be secure.

And what are the foundation points? It's basically just the willingness of the people to serve and then the fear of the nations that they would not harm you. And then, the significance of all Judah bringing tribute.

Yeah, they think of him highly enough that they bring basically their voluntary taxes. This is the mark of a good king is that people are so eager to support this king that they voluntarily bring tribute.

This is what you see of Christ repeatedly throughout Scripture. In the Old Testament, the prophecies, you know, the kings of the earth coming to bring tribute, et cetera, in Isaiah. The wealth of nations being brought in.

The idea is people are so enamored with this king that they voluntarily bring their tribute. Tribute being just another word for tax. You know, a powerful king is able to take the taxes, but a very, very good king just gets them without even forcing it because people are so eager to lend themselves to him in the day of his power, as it says in Psalm 110.

Significance of having riches and honor. He has the blessing of the Lord. David had said, and I believe this was in 1 Chronicles 16, he had said that riches and honor come from the Lord, or he said that in second person, come from you.

This phrase, riches and honor, is particularly in Chronicles, has to do with blessings from God. Okay, 6a, and his heart was lifted up in the ways of Jehovah. The ways of Jehovah, once again, being his commandments, particularly pertaining to worship.

And then what does it mean for Jehoshaphat's heart to be lifted up in those ways, for him to delight in the things of God? How does that compare with Asa's disposition? Well, it accords with his original disposition.

So if you remember, Asa was so excited to hear the word from Azariah that he took courage and went and attacked the people that he should attack in order to make the Lord's kingdom go forward further.

He was just very excited to do so, and so Jehoshaphat is too. This is not apathetic compliance. This is not just following the patterns that have been set. This is, he is excited to serve the Lord. 6b, and furthermore, he took away the high places and the ashram out of Judah.

Okay, so taking these things out of Judah, such a love for true worship that he gets rid of them. He has a love for the true God, and this is, once again, matching Asa's activities. It had described how Asa had taken away, somebody remember how it was phrased exactly?

It was talking about taking away the high places, but then later on it talked about, but he left the high places. I forget what it was. And the way a lot of people understand that, I think is right, is that it's talking about high places in the land of Israel rather than in the land of Judah.

Spiritual Inheritance and Faithfulness Across Generations

So anyway, he's doing what Asa has done. He is getting rid of high places, high places being competing places of worship. Okay, so the reflection questions here are, what does faithfulness look like in the Christian life?

Does faithfulness of previous generations impose any obligation on you? And how specifically ought you to walk in the ways of the Lord? That middle question is probably the most unusual as far as things that you may have contemplated before.

You've probably contemplated what does faithfulness look like in the Christian life or how ought you to walk in the ways of the Lord. But if you've never thought about the particular obligation that sits on you, given your spiritual inheritance, depending on the various sources of your inheritance, it is worth contemplating that you have a special duty before the Lord.

If you were raised by Christians in a Christian home, that is a significant thing, and you need to be faithful to the God of your fathers. Now, the idea of that phrase, God of your fathers, in the Old Testament, is talking about the nature of a covenant, et cetera, that is not, that I don't mean when I talk about the God of your fathers in a biological sense, but if you have been blessed by being raised up in a Christian home, that is not a gift that should go unappreciated where you don't respond with that with a corresponding zeal for the Lord.

Secondly, if you have been introduced to the faith in a way that gives you a good spiritual inheritance just from a theological tradition, and not just theological tradition, but a tradition of practice and worship, et cetera, we are all heirs of a lot, and some of us more than others, depending on when you came to the faith.

So I came to the faith as a child, then was introduced to Reformed theology in 2006, and that was a real blessing. I feel like I could have gone for another decade and never even heard about it. There was nothing about the way I was going about the Christian life that I think would have introduced me to Reformed theology until maybe 10 years later.

I mean, I wasn't, YouTube was brand new in 2006. I wasn't going to learn it from YouTube. It wasn't, it was only, and I was actively against watching YouTube in particular because I hated the Flash player, and it wasn't until, you know, it wasn't until significantly after YouTube came out that they finally ditched the Flash player and had actual HTML5 video.

So it was a long time before I would watch YouTube videos at all, but that's how a lot of people come to the Reformed faith, and I got to, you know, the Lord introduced that into my life a long time before.

It might have come more naturally just by chance, and yeah, it's a real blessing. And then on top of that, just think about the things that Scripture says, especially as we go through the second commandment right now in the catechism.

What it's, the second commandment talks about God visiting the iniquity to the third or fourth generation, talking about the consequences that travel down through generations. Not the son bearing the guilt of the father, but there are real consequences for sin, and everybody knows that.

You have a father who wrecks his life, that's going to have some impact on you, and it's probably going to have some impact on the next son, and so on. And what that verse is guaranteeing is that even in religious things, you disobey or you seek other gods.

That has an impact even to the fourth generation, but God shows mercy unto thousands of those that love Him. If you are in the chain, either biologically speaking, you know, as your, or through your household or through another spiritual inheritance, and you are part of a chain of God showing mercy unto thousands, how awful would it be to throw that away and to get rid of that run and reset it for all those who would come after you?

But that's what a lot of people end up doing, because they are not aware of the inheritance that they have received. So I think that point in particular is worth thinking about, and it is in the subtext here as we see all the comparisons between Asa and Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat continuing in the way of his father singular, emphasizing that not just fathers in general like it talks about elsewhere, but him thinking precisely in line with the command that was given to his father to seek God and he will be found.

The Growing Obligation to Use Spiritual Resources

All right. Any questions or any thoughts about this passage? Right. Yeah. And I think the obligation is increasing in some ways. You know, it was excusable not too long ago to be pretty ignorant of a lot of these things, but increasingly they are, those resources are very accessible.

And that's true at different levels, right? If you're a layman just kind of encountering the resources that are made easily available, they are increasingly accessible and have been for the past several decades increasing in accessibility.

But then it's also true for those who are in ministry and those who are in the publishing space and academic space, that those works are much more accessible, but the more people just crank out their own thoughts without taking seriously the inheritance that they've been given and the works that are increasingly available to them in less accessible forms, but still increasingly accessible.

And what I mean by that is just the increased archival of resources, the digitization, and then translation abilities with AI, really incredible. It's I'm always very disappointed when I see people write on things and it's evident that they have not thought through much by way of older resources.

And that is becoming increasingly inexcusable depending on your particular station or what kind of a work you are writing. But yeah. I saw one guy, this is, there was this book published. I forget which author it was, but it was some, one of these more popular female authors on the Ten Commandments.

And there was a review of this by one of the editors, I think one of the general editors of the Gospel Coalition. And he had said that this was the best book that he had ever read on the Ten Commandments.

Now, if you've ever read the Puritans, you know that they wrote tons of books on the Ten Commandments. So I've not read her book. Maybe it's all right. But I suspect that if you actually read a lot of the Puritans, like I would expect a general editor of the Gospel Coalition to have done, you wouldn't so easily throw out that accolade.

But anyway. Okay. Yeah. First one is go to those sources in the measure that's appropriate. You know, I don't want to lay heavy burdens on everyone to be a bookworm or anything like that. I think there's something very reasonable about being a salt-of-the-earth, meat-and-potatoes kind of person who just does their work and is faithful in church and everything.

But if you are given to more reading, or you're just, or the alternative is sitting around and watching entertainment or whatever, then yeah, take that inheritance seriously by going to it. And especially as you face problems that you're working through, yeah, go to those sources.

Yeah. That would be part of it. But then the other part of it is just in practice in general. So half of it's theological, right? A lot of people abandon their theological inheritance and then they have very, very bad theology.

But I don't want to make this just about theology. This is really about more than that. You know, be involved in your church, be a good churchman. If you are the heir, not just of good theology, but good practice, you know, put that to use too.

Like really be faithful to God, building on the obedience of whatever you had from your physical family and then whatever you had from the spiritual family that you have. Hebrews 13 says that as well, right?

Remember those who introduced you to the faith and consider their pattern of life and follow it. Remember, as Hebrews 13, 7, remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

Now, some people interpret that as only referring to the apostles, but I believe it's an obligation that is laid on each one of us and the particular people who have introduced us to the faith. Consider those who introduced you to the faith and those who nourished you in the faith, those who, uh, you have an obligation to stand on their shoulders and do something more with what you have.

Uh, if you were to take those blessings and then, uh, throw them aside, that's not good. You know, just to give you an analogy, and I think I've made this analogy before. My, uh, my grandfather, or I'll talk about my great-grandmother, you know, my, my great-grandmother who raised my grandfather, she was very poor.

You know, I think, I think at one point they had eight kids and they just lived in a trailer, like a, by a trailer. Like I'm not talking about, you know, a nice single wide that you might find today. You know, this is smaller than that, where everybody's just sleeping on the floor kind of situation.

And, uh, yeah. Uh, and so my grandfather grew up in those kinds of conditions. He made a little more of himself, you know, made sure that my, uh, father and then his brothers and sister were able to go to college.

You know, they made a little more of themselves and then, you know, I've tried to make a little more myself, et cetera. And so just looking at a material perspective about wealth, you know, each generation trying to, trying to appreciate what their parents gave them and build more on that.

And that, that was the goal. That was the goal of my grandfather is he's trying to, you know, work at a factory job, trying to make a little more for his kids, et cetera. Now let's say someone comes along and decides to throw it away all on booze, right?

And just live a, live a life that's like the prodigal son and just throw all that away, not make anything of themselves. Uh, that would, that would be a real shame because you had built up such a, the family had built up such a run there that could really give momentum to anyone who wanted to take that seriously.

I guess it's just a, it's a wonderful inheritance. And that's, that's what a lot of people do with their, with their church inheritance, right? Is they will, uh, they will not stand on the shoulders of those who introduced them to the faith and they will not be inspired by them and look to their way of life and imitate it and try to take that and improve a little.

Uh, the other thing that this should give you is some humility. It's expected that you would improve a little. And so you don't want to take that improvement and then look at the past generation and look down on them for any of that because it's supposed to be the case that you're making more out of what you have because you're starting off with a better inheritance.

Um, yes. Yeah. Well, I'm just talking about those who raised you. You know, if you're adopted into a family, uh, it's the same, it's the same thing. You have to take what, whatever blessings God raises you with seriously.

And so I'm, I'm taking Hebrews 13, seven, not to just refer to the one individual who explained to you the faith, but basically the, the starting circumstances you got. And for me, I would say it doesn't just apply to the fact that I started in a Christian home, but also that I got an early introduction to reform theology as a late teenager, early adult, you know, as a 19 year old.

Yeah. Yes. Or you completely fall away. Oh, or so you're asking, what are some ways that it's just like kind of in between where it's yeah. Yeah. I mean, it would just be a, uh, cultural, you know, just following the, the pattern of, you know, just barely attending or whatever the case is not being involved with the body, that kind of thing.

Or not really. Um, I mean, there are all kinds of ways. I don't, it's, it's not just about attendance. Of course, it's about just participation and investment in general. So if you've got something in mind, yeah, sure.

That would be a good one. Right? So, so that's an example, right? My, my father, uh, we had family devotions occasionally. It wasn't, it wasn't much, but it did happen occasionally and it left an imprint on my mind.

And when I discovered that there's this actual practice called family worship, and that it's supposed to be more than just occasionally, et cetera, you know, I'm building off of what I, what I experienced from my father, but then I'm also realizing, okay, it needs to be more frequent.

It needs these several aspects need to be different, et cetera. But I appreciate what I received. And then I'm trying to build on top of that. Uh, so that would be, that would be one where, uh, where the alternative is to, you know, depart from that practice or something.

Or maybe if I were to have taken that occasional practice and then just turned it into a nothing practice, which is, I guess, the trajectory I was on until I, until I learned more about family worship.

But yeah. Okay. All right. Well, let's go ahead and pray. Uh, dear Heavenly Father, we thank you once again for your word. We thank you for the spiritual inheritance, which we have received. Uh, every one of us here today has received something very good, uh, because we have, uh, received your word and we have, uh, been placed in a church that loves your word.

So we ask that we would make good on this blessing that you have given and that those who come after us, those who we would raise either in our homes or introduced to the faith or, uh, nurture in the faith, we ask that, that, uh, they would continue in the faith, uh, going even beyond the faithfulness with which we have walked.

In Jesus' name. Amen.