Jehosophat — Ken Baird

Scripture's Lessons from the Lives of Kings

Whenever I have a lesson like this to teach, I'm reminded of that portion of the scriptures. In Corinthians, these things were written for learning and admonition upon whom the ends of the ages come. God has preserved the successors and the faiths of these people and these kings particularly.

The story of the king is always interesting because they have this tremendous influence. And they demand our attention. It was wonderful when Ezra had good kings and it was bad when they didn't because they had such widespread influence.

Jehoshaphat's Successes, Failures, Crisis, and “After This”

Now our lesson today is about a very wonderful man called Jehoshaphat. And I want to record about Jehoshaphat, first of all, his successes. Then I want to record his failures. Then I want to talk about his crisis.

And then I want to talk about the after this in his life. Quote, after, colon, or dash, this, the after this of his life, unquote, incidentally. All those quotation marks, you can't hear them when I say them, but they're there.

So, we want to talk about the after this of his life. Now, Eliot van Ryn, and I'm not going to do this except just to demonstrate Eliot van Ryn, I don't know whether he told you here, about a brother who had a message.

And during this message he would do this. He'd say a few words and he'd do this. And he repeated that. And he'd do this, say a few words, and then he would do this. And they asked him why he did that, and he said, well, that's quote, and unquote.

And so, the after this is quote. It's quote from Scripture. After this. You know, there are a few of them in the Scripture. I haven't made a study about the after thises of the Scripture, but they're interesting.

And it's too bad that he didn't finish in the Scripture account as well as he might have. That is true of Solomon. You know, I think that, I think that we as Christians don't need to relax our vigil at any time in our Christian experience.

Every dissensation we've had in the Scriptures have started well, but they haven't finished it. And that's going to be true even of the Millennials. It just shows the inability of a human being to stay with God's principles.

It shows the inability of the flesh to cope. It just will not cope. The flesh is opposed to God. And that's true in a very spiritual sense. I think it's true even in some of our assemblies. They talk about it.

But sometimes there's an after this. Well, we'll try to get to that. That's going to be a long way down the road, and I'll try to get there. But let's notice, first of all, his successors. The successors of this man's Jehoshaphat have had a godly father.

I think that Asa's rule over the children of Israel has to merit the commendation of the Lord, although he did something in his life that was very ill-advised. He relied on the king of Syria instead of the Lord, and he had to be rebuked.

Now, Jehoshaphat comes along, and I'm sorry to say, before we get through what I've studied this morning, that he will do the same thing that he pointed out. Now, this should make us, indeed, careful that we don't set bad precedents possible to do that.

Jehoshaphat Walks in the Ways of the Lord

Now, he started out well. In the 17th chapter of 2 Chronicles, we read,. And Jehoshaphat, his son, reigned in his stead, and strengthened himself against Israel, which were the enemies of Judah at that time.

And he placed forces in all the said cities of Judah, and set garrisons in the land of Judah, and in the cities of Ephraim, which Asa, his father, had taken. And the Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he walked in the first ways of his father David, and sought not to fail him.

There was a reason for the Lord's favor. Now, I think that sometimes we get the impression that things, the circumstances, don't go right in our lives. That we haven't been living right. Sometimes I facetiously say, when I get a whole string of thoughts right, and they all turn red just before I get there, I say, well, I must not be living right.

And we're inclined to gauge our spiritual condition by circumstances. But let me say this, that when a man's ways please the Lord, he may accuse his enemies of being deceitful, God does indicate, by his blessing upon us, that we are doing what he wants us to do.

And conversely, he indicates by his lack of blessing, that we're not following on in the paths of the Lord. Now, Jehoshaphat went on for God. He walked in the ways of his father David, and the next verse says,.

And but not to the Lord God of his father, and walked in his commandments, and not after the things of Israel. Therefore the Lord established the kingdom in his hands, and all Judah brought to Jehoshaphat's presence, and he had riches and honor in abundance.

Now, God was able to bless him. God cannot confirm a wrong pathway of a Christian with his blessing. Now, I know that sometimes we have to take circumstances into account here. Sometimes we are blessed.

And I think of this particularly, if God waited for us to be in a perfect spiritual condition before he blessed us, he'd never have done this. He just wouldn't do it. But, because we're not in that perfect spiritual condition, but we are in our overall spiritual condition, we indeed can merit the blessing of the Lord.

But he does not confirm our lives if we're walking away from the Lord. He does not confirm them with blessings. He does confirm them with blessings. The Lord showed to Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat, I am pleased with the way you're doing things.

Seeking the Lord for Wisdom and Guidance

Now, the reason was that he walked with the Lord. The Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he walked in the first ways of his father David. Now, first of all, what was the secret of his success? Verse 4, taught to the Lord, God of his father.

But, taught to the Lord, God of his father. He got into the presence of the Lord. He tried. He sought the presence of the Lord for wisdom, for leading, for guidance. Now, it doesn't say that here. But I think I know.

He was a king. He had responsibilities. And he wanted to know how that he might serve his people well. He sought to the Lord, God of his father. And then because of that, he walked in his commandment.

He walked after the kings of Israel. We will seek the Lord. We will walk in his commandment. We will fellowship with him. We will indeed walk in his commandment. Now, this was the policy of Jehoshaphat.

He prayed. He got into the presence of the Lord. He was concerned about the leading and guidance of the Lord in this matter of being king. And what king wouldn't that be? I know when President Lyndon Johnson was, and I think Harry Truman said the same thing.

When they were forced into office through the death of their predecessors, they asked for the prayer of a gospel. I remember that. Both of them did. They asked for the prayer of a gospel. They were concerned about having all this responsibility pressed upon them.

They fought. They wanted the Lord to help. I'm glad I live in a nation like that. They felt the overwhelming responsibility. I am president of the United States. And I've got some responsibility. This man had responsibility.

So he fought for the Lord God of Israel. You know, it's wonderful to having it. It's sensible, isn't it? Isn't it wonderful in our lives, when our lives are perhaps at a dead-end corner, we don't know which way to go, to have the Lord to go to?

It's wonderful the guidance that we can get when we're asking for it. He wants to guide us. It's wonderful for the peace of mind that we can get when we pray. I may have told you that I had a, more or less, some problems.

Not too long ago I had a bunch of mental and character, but they were piling up. And I got into the presence of the Lord and I had it out. With the Lord, I laid those things out. I spread them out. When I got up off my knees, I had a peace that was real.

And then I challenged my own mind. Why didn't you do this before? Oh, how, how much it would relieve our minds if we just do like Jehoshaphat did. He fought, he fought, he come out to the Lord. This was purposely done.

He just simply didn't say it first. He fought the Lord. So, the result was he walked in his commandments. Not actually doing, or the kings are doing with Israel, the kings of Israel. Therefore the Lord established his kingdom in his name.

He wanted that kingdom to be established. That's what he was praying about, I believe. And all due to God's, Jehoshaphat's presence. And he had riches and honor and abundance. You know, the people of God can detect, I think, when we're in fellowship with the Lord.

I think they can. I think the people of God are aware of that. Israel was, Judah rather, was aware of the fact that this man was seeking the Lord. And it influenced their attitude towards it. They brought him in their presence and he had riches and honor and abundance.

They're back with him. You know people want to be led. They revere, they do revere a good leader. And Jehoshaphat was, he was acting right. Thank God for that. He was acting right and they took it into account.

And they were glad. Now, in verse 6, his heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord. Moreover, he took away the high places and groves of Judah. Now, this was a part of his reform. This was a part of his ascent.

Removing Idolatry from Judah

This is a negative thing. He did some positive things first and then he started on the negative things. He took away the groves and the high places. The high places in those days were used in their idol worship.

I don't know why they chose the high place. Maybe it was breezy up there. And they planted groves so that they could be comfortable in their worship. And they associated the two together, the high places and the groves.

As a matter of fact, even the temple, if you'll remember, was built on the high place. It was a threshing floor of horn and magenta clay. And the threshing floors were built on the high places so the wind would get to them.

And that's the site of the temple. Now, the heathen followed suit, or when they worshipped Baal, they followed suit. They established the high places and they built groves there. Built trees. You remember Gideon cut down a grove because that's where they took shelter.

Gideon cut down the grove and destroyed the altar of Baal. So the House of Ad did the same thing. Now he says there are some things that need to be saved in those days, in my kingdom. So he went to work and he cut down those groves.

And he destroyed those high places. Destroyed them just like Gideon. Now you know, this to me, this means this. There are things in our lives that need to be judged. There are things in our lives that we need to take away.

Tear down, cut out, eliminate. Now I know this is negative. This is negative, not positive. That's not good. That's bad. We need to judge ourselves in this respect. And so that, we have to chalk up as one of his successes.

He got rid of the high places and the groves. Perhaps we could do well to get rid of some of our idols. Now I'm not going to dwell long on that subject because I might tramp on your clothes. I don't dwell tramping on people's clothes particularly.

But you know we can have idols. Anything that takes the place of God is an idol. We can make idols out of an automobile. Young men I think do that particularly. Teenagers I think as well. That car, old car, tells you that.

And it can really take the place of a motor. Or a motorcycle. Now I believe in driving a car that will give you a reasonable expectancy of reaching your destination. But I don't think we ought to make idols out of them.

Or anything for that matter. Anything. Okay. Okay, they got rid of the idols. They, they, they cut down the groves and destroy the high places. Okay, it's part of it. Part of his success. And it's a part that you and I have to consider in our lives.

We need to get rid of some things sometimes in our lives. Now next he, he caused the law to be taught. In verse 7 we read there,. And in the third year of his reign he sent his princes, Even to Ben-Hel and Boabediah, and to Zechariah, and Nebuchadnezzar, and Micahiah, to teach in the cities of Judah.

And with them he sent Levite, Even to Nebuchadnezzar, and Nebuchadnezzar, and Zebediah, and Esau, and Shemiramot, and Jehoshaphat, I'll tell you some of these are tongue twisters, and Adonijah, and Zephijah, and Tob-Adonijah, Levite.

And with them Elishema, and Jehoram, three. And Etan, and Judah. And had the book of the law of the Lord with them. And went about to all the cities of Judah and taught the people. Isn't that marvelous?

Oh, how necessary is this. Teaching the people of God. And learning, learning from the law. Pardon me, this is the only Bible they have. And I'm presuming this refers to the Genesis. The Bible should move it.

They needed it. And they taught it. That same thing happened in every time the man remembers. He read the law. Remember they, I'll tell you, they didn't stop at a novice. They were there all day. And they read the law and he gave it to sin.

He expounded it, in other words, which is the same thing. So here, this has to be taken into consideration. This returns to the books, returns to the law. You and I, you and I need to be sure that this word has a real place.

I don't mean just a psalm that says it. I mean to study it. Or it is so necessary. That was certainly a huge credit. Now because of this, in verse 10, read there,. And the fear of the Lord fell upon all the kingdoms of the land that were round about Judah, so that they made no war against each other.

Isn't that remarkable? The fear of the Lord. The Lord influenced people to leave Jehoshaphat alone. Now God can do that. He has to. Well I just quoted it. When a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be ashamed of him.

Here is the fulfillment of that. He wouldn't let them make war with Jehoshaphat. You know, God can show his favor. And it's real. Believe me, it's real. Verse 11, I want to say this with you please. And some of the Philistines brought Jehoshaphat back.

And tribute silver. And the Arabians brought him forth 7 ,700 men and 7 ,700 eagles. Jehoshaphat lacked grace exceedingly when he built him Judah castles and cities of war. Now he made provisions for all the cities of war so that they would have food in the right time.

So that they would preserve their food. And he had much business in the cities of Judah and the men of war, men of valor, were in Jerusalem. Now he built up, he built up and on. These are the members, numbers of them according to the house of their fathers.

Of Judah, the captains of the thousands. Abner, the chief, and with him mighty men of valor. Three hundred of them. Then there was Japhon, J-H-O-H-O-N-H-O-N, a man, letter. And with him there were 218 ,000, verse 15.

Amittiah, 200 ,000 with him, in verse 16. Goliath, 200 ,000 with him in verse 17. Jehovahad, with him, 180 ,000 in verse 18. Now that makes one million, 160 ,000 men. That is quite a standing army. He knew he had enemies and announced the prevention with the son of Sheol, Jehovah, Harry.

We have enemies too and we need to prepare for our enemies. The enemies that you and I have are real. I'm going to talk more about that later. Now I want to notice some of his failures. It was well that he fortified himself and we need fortification too.

Jehoshaphat's Unholy Alliance with Ahab

Now let's talk about his failures. Failures, we have to go to chapter 18 for this. Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honor and abundance and joined the synodies with Ahab. Why? What did he need as Ahab? In certain years, after certain years, he went down to Ahab to Samaria and Ahab killed sheep in Austin for him in abundance.

I should think he would. He had a standing army that should really come to his rescue when it needed him. And for the people that he had with him that persuaded him to go up with him to reign with Julius.

Now you know some of these unholy alliances, and this was an unholy alliance, can really get us into trouble. It can really get us into trouble. Now I could wax eloquent on this for the rest of the morning about unholy alliances.

I'll say this, I'll say this, and let's go with that. I think Satan's greatest victory in the life of a Christian is to link him up to an unfaithful God. I think more is accomplished in one fell swoop in that area, an unholy alliance.

We should be unguarding against it. I don't know why he did this. Oh, I suppose that he thought of their beginnings together, but Ahab was very, very gullible. And he compounded his wickedness. And so, because of his alliance, he got himself into a war, and he almost got himself killed.

Because he went, he went up, and they fought. And they went into this war against his enemies. He said in verse 3, Ahab king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat king of Judah, Wilt thou go up with me to reign with Gilead?

And he answered him, I am as thou art, and my people as thy people. Not quite. And we will be with thee in the war. Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, Inquire, I pray thee, unto the king of Israel, I pray thee, at the word of the Lord today.

And therefore the king of Israel gathered together of the prophets, 400 men, and said unto them, Shall we go to reign with Gilead the battle, or shall we forbear? They said go up, for the God will deliver it into the king's hands.

They knew that that's what the king wanted to do. Here, I think I made a statement the last time I was here. When we ask for advice, we generally want the advice that we want. And that's the advice that we want.

We really want advice. And we want somebody to confirm our faith. And that's what he did. And that's what he got. Now these 400 prophets were not prophets of the Lord. Jehoshaphat knew that. Jehoshaphat says I want a prophet of the Lord.

So they got Micaiah. And he was not on good terms, incidentally, with Ahab. And, did I get his name correctly? Yes, Micaiah, the son of Ammon. And so he says I want to hear what he has to say. So Micaiah comes on the scene.

And he, Ahab says now, he said that Micaiah before he ever got there. This was not on Micaiah's terms. He said I hate that man. He never prophesied good concerning me. So when Micaiah came on the scene, he says shall we go up to the reign of Gilead?

Micaiah says go up. For the Lord will prosper you and deliver you. It'll be delivered in Jeremiah. And he didn't believe him. He says this can't be true. He says I told him, I told him. You know, you just can't believe some people.

And then Micaiah came up on the truth. He said I saw the angels of the Lord, some of them, coming into his presence. Serious, they're called serious. And he says now, how are we going to get Ahab up to that battle so he can claim?

It was Ahab's time in the middle. So one of the spirits said I'll go and be a lying spirit in the mouth of this prophet. And I'll incite him to go up. And so he said go ahead, if you say so. That's what he wants to hear.

And then he said this true prophet of the Lord said this is going to be easy. He warned him, absolutely. And he said, he tells him in verse, let's see where did we begin on that. Verse 23 of the 18th chapter.

Then Zedekiah the son of Sinanoth came near and smote Micaiah on the teeth and said put away the spirit of the Lord to me to keep him to thee. And Micaiah said behold I'll succeed in that day and I'll go in and entertain this and hide thyself.

Then the king of Israel said take thee Micaiah and carry him back to Ammon the governor of the city and to Joash the king's son and say let the king put this fellow in prison and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction until I return in peace.

And Micaiah said yes I'll certainly return in peace. Then hath not the Lord spoken on thee. And he said unto Harkon. And he said Harkon all ye people. So they went up to this battle and they had said now I'm going to frustrate this man's prophecy.

I'm going to disguise myself. He won't know me from an ordinary soldier. Jehoshaphat went up and his kingdom rose. Well the enemy, the Moabites, surrounded Jehoshaphat and thought they had the king of Israel.

But God miraculously turned them away. They made it their mind he was not the king of Israel. You see he was the king they wrote. So it looked like Ahab had frustrated the prophecy of Micaiah. But a man drew a bow at a venture and shot a sparrow into the earth and it went through the dark and it landed between the joints of Ahab and Sodom and inflicted a fatal wound.

Jehoshaphat's Crisis and the Victory of the Lord

That archer could not be Micaiah of light. They had died. You would think that he had learned his lesson. Now later in chapter 20 he is beset by a crisis. And incidentally this crisis was caused by the fact that he went up to fight with Ahab because the same people came back.

Only they got more with them. Not only more at this time but Amnon and the Israelites. Three of them. Three nations ganged together. Now the start of this whole thing was when they went up and made an alliance with Ahab.

And the ill will that he got from the Moabites at that time was crisis. This is what we call your chickens coming home to the roost. Be not deceived God is not lost. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

So right this is his reason. Now he doesn't have one nation. The Moabites fight against him. He has the Ammonites. He has the Edomites. He's not kin to the presence of the Lord. So he's in verse 3 of chapter 20.

And Jehoshaphat peered and set himself to seek the Lord and proclaim the faith throughout all Judah. And Judah gathered themselves together to ask help of the Lord. Even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord.

They sought the Lord. Now the Lord gave them an instruction. All right get your army up and go down there. And incidentally he reassured them through the message of Jehaziel, the son of Zechariah. The son of Jemiah, a prophet of the Lord.

And he told them you're going to get this victory and you're not even going to fight. But take your army and go down there. And they went. They went just as the Lord instructed them. And you know what happened?

Those three nations kept fighting among themselves. And they eliminated each other. Now it's interesting to me to note that there are three nations, the Moravians, the Ammonites, and the Edomites. They wanted to fight.

So they thought he said it. We have a threefold enemy. We need to be on guard. And we need to get into the presence of the Lord about that enemy. Our health is in the Lord because he can save us. We can be defeated if we are not dependent upon the Lord.

Our enemies are too strong for us. We have to remember that. Now they're not too strong for the Lord. And I don't mean to infer that we should live our lives in mortal fear of our preset enemy. I don't mean that.

But I mean we need to be very, very realistic about the enemy that we have fighting against. All right. They destroyed each other. And the spoil was so great they were three days. Now this was an army.

And an army can gather a lot of spoil. They were three days. And then they were destroyed. Now this has a lovely occasion. And I should have spent more time, saved more time for it. You and I have won a battle.

Christ's Victory and the Christian's Spiritual Triumph

We're more than conquered. We can look lovely. We're more than conquered because we haven't fought. And yet the victory is ours. Christ's is ours. And we fought. He gained the victory single-handedly.

And we are more than conquered. Just like Jehoshaphat that didn't have a thing to do. Didn't have anything that he needed to do. You and I have a victory that will never fail. Because of Christ. A victory that we have gained and we didn't have to fight.

The “After This” and Jehoshaphat's Second Alliance

Oh, what a story book this is. Now that after this, verse 35 of chapter 20. And after this, did Jehoshaphat say to Judas, join himself with Ahaziah, king of Israel, who did very wickedly. Jehoshaphat, will you never learn?

Never learn. Okay. He joined himself with him to make ships to go to Carthage. And they made ships. And Ezekiel gave her. And Eliezer, the son of Godavar, or Maharshal, prophesied against Jehoshaphat saying, because thou hast joined thyself with Ahaziah, the Lord hath broken thy works, and the ships were broken, that they might not be able to go to Carthage.

Unholy alliances for commercial purposes aren't very good either. And we have to learn that. And just after this, we are not to make unholy alliances. It's an obscuring area of our lives. When it says, The anonymous for the oath together with unbelievers, that means didn't pardon, it's the same as it means suffered.

And there was an after this. And I'm sorry to have to read that about Jehoshaphat. After this, he made an alliance with Ahaziah, who had done very, very wickedly. You and I need to keep from those encumbering all alliances.

And just to then hold on to it. Father, we do thank thee for thy word and for what we have learned from Jehoshaphat today. We pray, Father, that we might take these things to heart and then make pleas to the Lord and speak to the Lord.

And his guidance and his leading is ever involved in these things.