Bible Study - 2 Chronicles 17:10-19

Jehoshaphat’s Military Strength and the Fear of the Lord

Please turn to 2 Chronicles chapter 17. I'll read verses 10 to 19. And the fear of the Lord fell upon all the kingdom of the lands that were around Judah, and they made no war against Jehoshaphat. Some of the Philistines brought Jehoshaphat presents in silver for tribute, and the Arabians also brought him 7 ,700 rams and 7 ,700 goats.

And Jehoshaphat grew steadily greater. He built in Judah fortresses and store cities. And he had large supplies in the cities of Judah. He had soldiers, mighty men of valor, in Jerusalem. This was the muster of them by father's houses.

Of Judah the commanders of thousands, Adna the commander with 300 ,000 mighty men of valor, and next to him Jehohanan the commander with 280 ,000, and next to him Amasiah the sum of son of Zichri, a volunteer for the service of the Lord with 200 ,000 mighty men of valor, of Benjamin Elieta, a mighty man of valor with 200 ,000 men armed with bow and shield, and next to him Jehoshaphat with 180 ,000 armed for war.

These were in the service of the king besides those whom the king had placed in the fortified cities throughout all Judah, amen. So it begins here by saying the fear of Jehovah fell on all the kingdoms of the lands.

They were round about Judah, so they made no war against Jehoshaphat. What does that mean? That fear comes on all the kingdoms of the land? They recognize the greatness of the Lord. They recognize his capacity.

Doesn't necessarily mean that they begin worshiping him. In fact, it almost certainly doesn't mean that. But they don't, they cease to treat him as powerless and him as equal to other gods and they, especially in terms of war, they don't make war against Judah because they recognize that he is a great god.

Teaching the Law and the Nations’ Fear

And how does this relate to the teaching of the law previously? Remember in the previous passage, Jehoshaphat sent around princes and priests to teach the law. Well, presumably the fear is a result of all this teaching that's happening.

Now how it's a result of that is not immediately evident. He's teaching the people of Judah, so how is it that others begin to fear him? Well, by their activity in being law -fears, presumably they either prosper because of their law -keeping, or just the radical activity of tearing down idols, or it could be other ways that the teaching of the law has led the people to be apparently a different kind of people with a different kind of God.

But that connection shouldn't be lost on us though. Clearly, the teaching of the word of God leads to just a great change in the people. And it is interesting to see how even though God chooses the poor of the world, etc., and the weak of the world, that in general it is the case that those nations that have had his word have in general had the most prosperity.

Tribute from the Philistines and Arabians

And some of the Philistines brought Jehoshaphat presents in silver for tribute, and Arabians also brought him flocks, 7 ,700 rams and 7 ,700 male goats. Okay, so they bring him presents in order to secure his protection, most likely so that he doesn't attack them, but also maybe so that he would defend them.

Now, that's all an interesting situation with the Philistines if they are in the land of Canaan, because it's not clear how he could do that as a, it's not clear how that would be allowed. But for those who are outside of the land, that would be permitted.

And notice that this is people on the west, this is people on the east, so the Arabians being on the east, the Philistines being on the west, so it's kind of a mirrorism for the whole sets of people, both in Canaan, out of Canaan, etc.

Also, Samson was betrayed, he was turned over for 5 ,500 shekels, or pieces of silver, right? So, I find that interesting that it's five kings who give 1 ,100 pieces of silver, and here we have 7 ,700 related to the Philistines.

Maybe there's an illusion there about how they were giving quantities in 1 ,100, and now they're giving in five times that quantity, and now they're doing seven times that quantity in reverse, giving to God's people.

Jehoshaphat’s Prosperity and Defensive Infrastructure

And Jehoshaphat waxed great exceedingly, and he built in Judah castles and store cities. All right, so he grows great, and that his military might increases, he's able to defend the land through his infrastructure, just like, of course, David and others were.

And this is, once again, presumably connected to the people being taught, that because they're all taught, they are prospering in such a way that they have the capacity to do this, but then also maybe that they have the zeal and the lure to do it.

Yes. No, it wasn't always voluntary. It was right when there was a legitimate enemy, and you would oppress them by making them pay you tribute, right? So, that could be the case here. The question is, if they're doing that, what are the terms of the tribute?

And that's where it seems iffy that it would be completely permissible, but it's still the case that he has authority over them like that. Yeah, and then there's voluntarily tribute brought from people who just want protection, right?

Just want to be able to keep conducting trade, all those kinds of things. Right, yeah. A lot of people from all around bringing him things. I don't think he was going and extorting the money out of all the nations very far away, right?

Did he is oppressing the nations or not? I don't think that's how we should see it with the Arabians, maybe with the Philistines. Yeah, I wouldn't presume that with the Arabians. All right, so he has, okay, what are the works?

Jerusalem’s Fortifications and Men of Valor

There are various structures of, let me go ahead and read this first. And he had many works in the cities of Judah and Men of War, mighty men of valor in Jerusalem. Okay, yeah, so he has all kinds of structures, fortresses, store cities.

He also reinforces the capital city, and he has men of valor. That just means that they are able to defend the city well. All right, we've had a number of people, the kings spoken of as being great kings because they had a lot of men of valor.

David had gathered his men of valor to Jerusalem in 1 Chronicles 28 .1. So that is, yeah, it seems like there's an analogy being made to David once again, or a similarity being highlighted. Verse 14, and this was the numbering of them according to their fathers' houses, etc.

The Significance of the Army’s Numbers and Voluntary Service

So why does he include the number of the men, and what does it mean that Amaseah offered himself willingly? Well, the numbers are included to show his military might. When you have all these numbers lined up, it's pretty incredible how large they are, especially given some of the numbers that you saw before, where just one of these was about the size of the whole of Judah's army before.

And now he's got a lot of different armies of that size. And the fact that Amaseah offers himself willingly means that he is doing it without pay, right? A lot of these soldiers are getting paid by the king, right?

This guy is taking his resources and lending them. Presumably, these mighty men have men under them too, right? And so he's just throwing himself into battle with his men. All right, and yeah, the significance of that is that Jehoshaphat is an inspiring leader.

I think I mentioned this recently, but Psalm 110, right? People volunteer in the day of his power. They give themselves willingly in the day of Christ's power. That is a sign of a very good king, that someone would be willing to just volunteer, you know, sign up without pay.

Yes?

I guess that was kind of...

Yes, I think so. Wanting his protection, because he's a mighty king. Yeah, as far as being good, I don't know how much they're evaluating that, but yeah. Right, yeah. Verse 17, Okay, so these are the people of Benjamin, whereas just before we are reading people of Judah.

Benjamin’s Archers and Readiness for War

For Benjamin, we have these people who have bow and shield. And there were people during the time of Asa who also had bow and shield that were of Benjamin. So this seems to be something that they specialized in.

It was also said of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, which... What's the significance of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh? Who knows? Yes? Yeah, Transjordan tribes, right? On the other side of the Jordan. But for the southern kingdom, those people who are good with bow and shield are in Benjamin.

It's kind of interesting that Jonathan was, you know, an archer and everything. You see him in scripture training with a bow. So I wonder if that has anything to do with it, him being of Benjamin, of course.

Okay, the fact that, yeah, they're prepared to go to war just means that they're ready. It's not just arbitrarily they're placed over here, but they're ready to go at all times. That's... I mean, it seems like a significant thing to have people ready.

That doesn't cost you nothing. You know, once again, it speaks to a lot of capacity. Verse 19, these were they that waited on the king besides those whom the king put in the fortified cities throughout all Judah.

Jehoshaphat’s Service and His Coming Downfall

All right, they wait on him and that they do his bidding, possibly defending the city, but probably going off into offensive war. You know, if we're talking about Jerusalem, the main city, chances are it's not just being defended.

Chances are he is... This is where they're stationed to go out into offensive battle. And so he's able to go out and conduct his campaigns and whatever he needs to do. All right, and why does the Chronicler mention this?

Once again, in order to show the strength of Jehoshaphat, right? They're all waiting on him. They're all ready to serve him at any given time. Yeah, and so he is growing very great. In the next chapter, we're going to see his downfall, right?

So what was the cause of all his rise to power and everything? It's that he destroyed all the idols and he sought God, and he especially sought God by teaching the people. So not just seeking God personally, but leading the whole nation to seek God and teaching the whole nation.

And what's going to ruin all this? Well, it's the marriage alliance that he makes with Ahab. So he ends up becoming two close friends with the Northern Kingdom, and that is going to basically wreck the nation of Judah after it had kind of restored itself a bit.

It's going to wreck them for several generations. All right, any questions? Yes. Well, Jewish means you're of Judah typically, right? That's it. Yeah. So he is, yeah, Ahab is of the Northern Kingdom. I forget what tribe.

I assume Ephraim or something. Yeah. He forms a marriage alliance with Ahab to unite the two kingdoms. So they're still idolatrous, right? The Northern Kingdom's still idolatrous. And he ends up going to war on their behalf.

That's part of what the marriage alliance entails. And so God tells him, basically, why are you fighting battles that are not your own, etc. And yeah, this ends up being his downfall. But not only that, but think about the nature of the marriage alliance too, is that means his son is going to be led astray by a wicked woman who he's marrying, because that's what's happening, right?

It's Ahab's daughter, his son getting married. That son becomes king. And then he's influenced by idolatry. So I don't, what was that? Yeah, they're idolatrous. I mean, especially Ahab. He worshiped the Baals.

Like it's very, that one's really explicit. They build altars to Baal. Yeah. Okay. The reflection questions here are, what is the key to strength in the Christian life? To what degree can we expect prosperity as a result of faithfulness?

Faithfulness, Prosperity, and the Kingdom of Christ

And what ways could this passage encourage you regarding the kingdom of Christ? So, you know, I always throw out the obvious qualifier that the prosperity the Bible guarantees is not material things. Although it could have some effect in material things, and often does, because those who act wisely, yeah, don't suffer what other people would needlessly.

Sometimes though, serving Christ means losing the things that you have, of course. But there is great prosperity, holistically, and spiritual things, especially for those who serve God and those who know His law.

This is the, this is what's happening here is, Jehoshaphat seeks God and he finds Him. It's a really simple formula. So it's a really simple formula. And so few people get this. It is really interesting talking to people who, who talk about their walk with the Lord, etc.

And it really seems to come down to sort of these internal feeling struggles that they have, that they reinterpret as being attempts to seek the Lord or a relationship with the Lord. And it's not actually trying to figure out what He says in His Word.

Or maybe it's going to His Word, but kind of as a, I don't know, like as a positive reinforcement for their life or something. They're not actually going to it, submitting to it to be taught. They're going to it to get some kind of fuel for themselves, you know, and where they're already headed.

They're not seeking the Lord as one who is ruler over their life. And the one who does that, and then in addition, not just, you know, academically studies these things, but does so in a way of real submission, worshiping Him.

God blesses that richly. And I'm sure, you know, if you've seen that in your life, you'll, you'll know it's there because it's significant. And you've probably seen it in others. This is, this is the formula, you know.

And if you, yeah, you look around your brothers and sisters here in this church, and you think about which ones have, you know, grown a lot and stuff like that. And what is it in their life that's done it?

Is it not a serious submission to the Word of God, and actually going to it and being changed by it? And then, and then actually backing that up with a, with a, a devotion in worship. Not just, you know, some kind of overall feeling of serving God, but doing it in the quintessential fashion that He has, that He has given us, which is worship.

Worship, Hypocrisy, and Isaiah’s Rebuke

So many people relegate that to a secondary thing when it is the primary way that we are to serve Him. Now, because so many people are hypocrites, and they take the primary thing and neglect all the other things, like Israel did, right?

And Isaiah, for example, you know, God doesn't accept their feasts and everything, right? They've got the, the main thing, the primary thing, but then they've reduced everything else, and they only do the outward thing.

We've got the total opposite problem in our society, where most Christians, because of, even because of maybe misreading passages like that, they think that if they have all the other things, but don't have that, then they have it together.

But the reality is, apart from worshiping the Lord, you don't have the other things. And so, yeah, it's, it really is a simple formula. And so if you, so if you do it. Okay, any questions? Yes, Jason.

Yeah, yeah, so I mean, I do mean formal worship, right? So in part, I'm saying that the study of Scripture needs to be with submission to what God is saying. But then on top of that, it goes hand in hand with actually worshiping Him in the way that He is required, which means daily before Him, but also means, you know, on Sunday with the gathered assembly, you know, singing, praying, hearing Scriptures, all those things.

It's, but people take that kind of stuff lightly. And then churches as a whole take it lightly, so that even if the people are doing everything that the church has required of them, very little of it is actually worship.

And then, you know, it's a whole bunch of other, like church events and social things and stuff. And that's just, boy, that's a rough diet because you're still kind of laying the same time burdens on people, but not actually kind of directing them to the main thing that God has the church there for.

The Regulated Place of Worship and the Altar

It is the altar where we can worship Him. Did I mention that last time, the notion of an altar? I feel like I mentioned that. Maybe it was just at my house last week. But one of the things that struck me as I've read a number of Puritan works about worship is they talk about an altar as being like a place that God has ordained for worship to be.

And you see that in the Old Testament that there were altars that He had sanctified. And then you can't worship outside those places. You're not allowed to just construct your own altar and then do worship there.

It really is interesting the way you look at, especially the directory of private worship as part of the Westminster Standards. They don't use that term altar, other Puritans do, but they do talk about worship just being restricted to very few places.

You know, there's in the gathering assembly, there's privately by yourself, and there's with your family. And then on other occasions, either around meals or if you are traveling and there's no church nearby with other believers, they have these special exceptions where it would be appropriate.

But other times, but other ways, you aren't supposed to just worship together. God hasn't sanctified that altar. And so you've got all kinds of groups that will host worship events that have nothing to do with the church, which is supposed to be the pillar and buttress of the truth.

You know, once again, God's word and worship go together and they reinforce each other. And you have people worshiping at these altars that are not sanctified by God. It's kind of a substantial thing.

There's this one, one of the better or longer, the more complete works on family worship is called the family altar. I think it's from the 1800s, maybe. Maybe it's older than that. But that's kind of the point is that God has the two primary altars that he's given are in the church and the family.

And it shouldn't just be taken for granted that he has blessed families worshiping together. Like that's not something that you can just, that, oh, even if he hadn't commanded it, we'd still be able to do this.

It's actually by the command that we are able to do it. Yes. Well, we don't have a, I'm trying to remember. I remember what I said, but not the specific words. So what I was getting at was that when I was growing up, I would go to churches that have altar calls, right?

And they have you come up to the altar. And I was under the impression that like the little table that served the Lord's supper or something was the altar, or maybe the whole front area is called the altar or something.

But I think they were just using that as a metaphor for this is where like the real worship happens, like up here when you're, you know, getting good with God or whatever the case may be. But yeah, so I do think that's a confusing thing.

And then in Eastern Orthodox churches, they have like a literal altar, you know, up in the little back before the, behind the priest and everything. So it is a confusing thing, I think, for Protestant churches to sit, to talk about the front of the church as the altar in a metaphorical way about, you know, coming forward and stuff.

I was confused as a kid. I'm still a little confused. I still don't totally know what they meant. But yeah, okay.

Yes, right.

Workplace Worship and the Limits of Christian Gatherings

Yeah, so just going off of what the Westminster Directory of Private Worship says, you know, if people are traveling for work and stuff like that, and there's no one else around, that would be appropriate, right?

It's appropriate to pray with people. But I would, I would hesitate to make like a, like a, you know, more of a service out of it or anything. And then when you have, what I find very bad is these groups who are intentionally, because they, you know, they see their workplaces, the mission field, and a lot of ways that's good.

But what they do is they have workplace worship nights where they intentionally come into the workplace in the evening or even during the day and host a worship service. You know, there are these worship services they hold at Facebook and at Google and other places where a bunch of Christians get together and do that because they think that that is, that is like how the Spirit moves forward is by hosting these worship events.

I think that's weird for a few reasons. One, you've got a pretty diverse group of people. And if there's anything that people are gonna disagree on or should disagree on, like the thing that should kind of divide groups of Christians up is how you worship God, you know?

And so getting everybody together to do that is a little weird instead of primarily for social, you know, connections. Because that's the thing is you go to this and you can hardly meet anybody because the whole thing is just about singing.

And then, yeah, I forget what I was gonna say after that. But yeah, that's like the goal is basically to form a secondary church. And God has not authorized that. I don't think that we should see that kind of worship as blessed and potentially even and often divisive.

Like it is schismatic in some ways to do that kind of worship, yes. Like, you know. Yeah, I have a lot of thoughts that are all guidelines that come together, but they're so disparate in nature that I'm not sure I can really outline them all.

Parachurch Organizations and Church Authority

This is something that I would like to kind of formulate further. But in general, yeah, I think that the purpose of parachurch things should be to do what the church cannot do, first of all. Like, secondly, it should be, right, it should not be doing anything that the church has already been called to do directly.

If it is, then it's trying to supplant the church, right? And then secondly, it should basically function as an association of churches. That's the ideal. And that has a lot of implications for it. It shouldn't have officers that would function like the biblical offices.

Because if it does, basically you have a way of people doing the biblical offices without going through the route that God has given. But yeah, I think if you organize it like a church association, and there are churches actually sending their representatives, then that puts a lot of guardrails in place.

I mean, it depends on what it is, because parachurch could mean anything. Okay, so the Greek prefix para means alongside of the church, right? So like, for example, my friend Ken Powers is running a sermon hosting website, right?

You could call that a parachurch organization, but it's really because it's technology that helps the church. But that's not something I think needs to be necessarily governed by any kind of church, right?

It's just technology that he's making for people. But yeah, but if you do have things that elders should be doing, it should be elders doing those things, yeah. And the term that people use a lot of times in these associations is messengers, right?

A lot of people read, and I don't know what to think about this, but in Revelation, what it talks about to the angel of the church of Pergamum, et cetera, they read that as being, as talking about elders like the messenger that would represent that church.

And the letter goes to him, you know, that kind of thing. So for example, if you ever watch any of the coverage, the news coverage of the Southern Baptist Convention or anything, all the people who go are called messengers because they're all different elders representing different churches.

I think that that would be a good model for a lot of things. And that also covers a lot of the pay stuff that I'm concerned about, right? Because if they're already being paid by their churches, they're not trying to make their money through the parachurch institution.

And so it, yeah, a lot of these guidelines would solve a number of things, but okay. Anything else? Yes. Yeah, yeah. It's hard for me to say this stuff without people like kind of taking it as absolutely as it sounds.

No, I do think that if you read, okay, so if you go and read the directory of private worship, or it's also called directory of family worship, I think the things it says are pretty reasonable. So yeah, if you find yourself away from everything else, right?

If you have an occasion for it, that's kind of what it's getting at. If you have an occasion for being together, go ahead and pray together, worship together, whatever, right? If you don't and worship is the occasion, that's when it becomes a problem.

That's my interpretation of what it's saying, given the context and everything. Yes. Yeah, yes, yeah. Yeah, I mean, obviously it's not authoritative like the Bible is or anything, but the fact that so many of the best religious minds in history got together and came to those conclusions is a meaningful thing.

And I believe it's reflective. It is picking up on what I'm seeing in a lot of works that I'm reading and things like that. Does that answer your question or is that? Oh, it does. Okay. Yes. I'm sure you could get AI to summarize for you.

Yeah. Yeah, that really is it. Okay, so if you have an occasion for being together with other believers, you know, yes, God has providentially put you together. I think it even says it that way. God has providentially put you together at an appropriate time for prayer together as God would call you together.

However, you are not supposed to actively seek that out for the purpose of worship. Like that's the problem. Because then what you're doing is trying to form new altars, you know, that God is not authorized even by providence.

Closing Prayer for Receptive Obedience

All right. We can go ahead and end there. Let me pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the guidance that you give and this wonderful picture of the people of Judah growing in their prosperity just due to the word being taught.

We thank you for the taught word. We thank you for the preached word. We ask that we would be a receptive people, that we might likewise be prosperous under Christ as the people were under Jehoshaphat.

In Jesus' name, amen.