Bible Study - 2 Chronicles 18:1-5

2 Chronicles 18:1–5 and Jehoshaphat’s Alliance with Ahab

All right, please turn to 2 Chronicles, chapter 18. No. Now Jehoshaphat had great riches and honor and made marriage alliance with Ahab. After some years, he went down to Ahab in Samaria, and Ahab killed an abundance of sheep and oxen for him and for the people who were with him and induced him to go up against Ramoth-Gilead.

Ahab, king of Israel, said to Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, will you go with me to Ramoth-Gilead? He answered him, I am as you are, my people as your people. We will be with you in the war. And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, inquire first for the word of the Lord.

And the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, 400 men, and said to them, shall we go to battle against Ramoth-Gilead or shall I refrain? And they said, go up, for God will give it into the hand of the king.

But Jehoshaphat said, is there not here another prophet of the Lord of whom we may inquire? And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, there is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, Micaiah, the son of Imla, but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but always evil.

And Jehoshaphat said, let not the king say so. And the king of Israel summoned an officer and said, bring quickly Micaiah, son of Imla. Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, were sitting on their thrones arrayed in their robes, and they were sitting at the threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria.

And all the prophets were prophesying before them. And Zedekiah, the son of Chenanah, made for himself horns of iron and said, thus says the Lord, with these you shall push the Syrians until they are destroyed.

And the prophets prophesied and said, go up to Ramoth-Gilead in triumph. The Lord will give it into the hand of the king. Amen. Verse one says, now Jehoshaphat had riches and honor and abundance, and he made a marriage alliance with Ahab.

Jehoshaphat’s Riches, Honor, and Imminent Downfall

So riches and honor, we've seen that he's been faithful to the Lord and the Lord has blessed him. He has sought the Lord, and the Lord has been found by him. He has, the Lord has given him much wealth.

So this is basically the result of all his faithfulness that's come before. And then, why does the Chronicler repeat this here? Because it is important for this transition. He has, God has given him much, but here he is going to initiate his own downfall and basically the downfall of Judah for three generations.

So he has it all, but it's about to trade it away. What is the significance of the phrase of riches and honor in 1 Chronicles? So early in 1 Chronicles 29, 26 or 28, it was used to describe the Lord's exaltation of David.

So I will go ahead and pull that up. Thus David, the son of Jesse, reigned over all Israel. The time that he reigned over Israel was 40 years. He reigned seven years in Hebron and 33 years in Jerusalem.

He died at a good age, full of days, riches, and honor. And Solomon, his son, reigned in his place. Okay, so he died full of days, riches, and honor. Here, Jehoshaphat has riches and honor in comparison to David being frequent.

He has basically, he's almost restored that throne and then he throws it away here. All right, who is Ahab? Well, let's go ahead and read this related passage in 1 Kings. 1 Kings 16, verses 29 through 34.

Ahab’s Idolatry and Wicked Reign

In the 38th year of Asa, king of Judah, Ahab, the son of Omri, began to reign over Israel. And Ahab, the son of Omri, reigned over Israel and Samaria 22 years. And Ahab, the son of Omri, did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him.

And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, he took for his wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbal, king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him.

He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. And Ahab made an Asherah. Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.

In his days, Heel of Bethel built Jericho, and he laid its foundations at the cost of Abiram, his firstborn, and set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son, Segub, according to the word of the Lord, which he had spoke by Joshua, the son of Nun.

So Ahab, very wicked king, married Jezebel, wicked woman, sat this time under his reign. The people are rebuilding Jericho, the very thing that God said was a cursed thing to do, and anyone who did it would lose their firstborn by it, and so he did.

And then on top of that, he erected an altar to Baal in Samaria. Remember, the kingdom in Israel has changed from Jeroboam to Omri, and then Omri's son here is Ahab. So Ahab, continuing this additional line in Israel, serving the Baals, and doing so in Samaria, right?

He goes to Samaria to meet up with him as first two, and after certain years, he went down to, and after certain years, he went down to Ahab to Samaria. Okay, all right. Why does he make a marriage alliance with Ahab?

Marriage Alliances and the Beginning of Jehoshaphat’s Fall

Well, the idea is to strengthen yourself. This is why you make alliances. You make marriage alliances in order to strengthen your kingdom. So he's borrowing strength from Israel, which he shouldn't be doing.

He should be trusting in the Lord, especially given that right now, Israel is not even ostensibly serving the true God the way that they are serving Baals. Why does the chronicler record this event? Because it indicates the beginning of Jehoshaphat's fall.

Notice that if you were reading Kings, you would see a lot of narrative about, you'd see a lot of narrative about Ahab, and then you'd wonder, why does the chronicler just jump here right in the middle of Ahab's life?

Well, he's not interested in the kings of Israel. He's interested in Judah, and this is important for the kings of Judah because this is going to set their trajectory for a while here. All right, so let's read 1 Kings 21, 20 through 22.

Ahab, Elijah, and the Certainty of Divine Judgment

All right, this is actually a fairly long passage, so maybe I won't read the whole thing, but in short, it's his interaction with Elijah. I'll go ahead and read this. Ahab said to Elijah, have you found me, O my enemy?

He answered, I have found you because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord. Behold, I will bring disaster upon you. I will utterly burn you up and will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free in Israel.

And I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha, the son of Ahijah, for the anger to which you have provoked me and because you have made Israel to sin.

And of Jezebel, the Lord also said, the dogs shall eat Jezebel within the walls of Jezreel. Anyone belonging to Ahab who dies in the city, the dogs shall eat, and anyone of his who dies in the open country, the birds of the heaven shall eat.

There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord like Ahab, whom Jezebel, his wife, incited. He acted very abominably and going after idols as the Amorites had done. And the Lord cast out before the people of Israel.

And when Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went about the dejectedly. And the word of the Lord came to Elijah, the Tishbite, saying, have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me?

Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the disaster in his days, but in his son's days, I will bring the disaster upon his house. For three years, Syria and Israel continued without war.

But in the third year of Jehoshaphat, the King of Judah came down to the King of Israel. Okay. So this is the lead into the scene that we're seeing here. They were without war. And then in the third year of Jehoshaphat, he goes down to the King of Israel.

So he joins him to go to war. And this is what we're going to see. All right. Oh, and the details about the marriage alliance, it's Jehoshaphat's son, Jehoram, and Ahab's daughter, Athaliah. Athaliah ends up coming the queen mother who basically tries to kill the whole line of Judah.

And one of the kings is a small boy who hides in the temple until he's seven years old, and then ascends to the throne. And the priest has Athaliah killed. Yes.

Going Down to Samaria: Geography and Spiritual Direction

It says that Jehoshaphat went. Yes. But if Ahab is the northern kingdom and Jehoshaphat the southern kingdom, is that like a Hebrew expression that he's going down spiritually?

Yeah, well, they're not necessarily looking at a map with the compass rose, first of all. But then secondly, it is significant because when you go to a place of worship, you go up to a place of worship, you go up to Zion, you go up to Jerusalem.

But here he's going from Jerusalem to Samaria where the temple of the Baal is, right? So I think it is an intentional thing. He's going down. He's leaving a place of true worship to go to this place of false worship.

So yeah, that's a good observation. So right before this, in that narrative, in 1 Kings, he had killed Naboth. He repents of his wickedness when he's confronted by Elijah. But of course, Chronicler doesn't talk about this because he's concerned with Judah.

But if you think about the conjunction of these things, what's happening in Kings, it's really concerned about Ahab and all his sins. So it's talking about his greed, right? That he can't have enough and so he's got to go get Ramoth Gilead.

And here, what's it concerned about? It's concerned more about Jehoshaphat's covetousness, right? He has riches and honor that God has blessed him with and that's not enough for him. He's got to go seek more strength with Ahab.

Ahab’s Hospitality and the Temptation of Covetousness

All right, 2B, and Ahab killed sheep and oxen for him in abundance and for the people that were with him and moved him to go up with him to Ramoth Gilead. Okay, and so here you see up, you know, away from this place that's considered down, even though it's a mountain of worship, right?

Samaria. So continues consistently speaking of Samaria's downward. Ahab is killing sheep and oxen here, not in worship. This just is an entertaining guess, but that is kind of part of the picture here too is that he's being, all these different things that Jehoshaphat could get out of it, all the hospitality, et cetera, is attractive to him and he's being brought into that.

Proverbs 23, three says, do not desire, let me see. Let me read the whole passage here. When you sit down to eat with a ruler, observe carefully what is before you and put a knife to your throat if you are given to appetite.

Do not desire his delicacies for they are deceptive food. That's pretty much what's going on here. Is he should not be enjoying all this hospitality from Ahab, he should rather recognize that he's making alliances with people he shouldn't.

That was Proverbs 23, one through three. There's also the proverb that says a stingy man is inwardly calculating. I forget where that one is. Oh, here it is. It's 23, six and seven. Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy.

Do not desire his delicacies, for he is like one who is inwardly calculating. Eat and drink, he says to you, but his heart is not with you. You will vomit up the morsels that you have eaten and waste your pleasant words.

Ramoth-Gilead and the Chronicler’s Focus on Jehoshaphat

All right, why does he want to go to Ramoth Gilead? He lost it to Syria. And now he wants to go get it back from Syria. All right, and what differences exist with this passage and the corresponding passage?

Well, let's see. Yeah, the passage in 1 Kings 22, three gives this explanation for why he wants to go. The chronicler mentions the matter of sheep and oxen. So let me go read that again. I should pull up that.

If I made that, would it be easier? But, oh yeah, yeah, 22, three should have been there. And the king of Israel said to his servants, do you know that Ramoth Gilead belongs to us and we keep quiet and do not take it out of the hand of the king of Syria?

Okay, so, and yeah, in Kings, that's very plain what's going on. But then here it's talking about the sheep and oxen instead. Really, it's focusing on what's going on in Jehoshaphat's mind here in Chronicles rather than in Kings where it's more concerned about with what Ahab wants.

All right, verse three. And Ahab, king of Israel, said to Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, will you go with me to Ramoth Gilead? And he answered him, I am as you are and my people as your people, and we will be with you in the war.

All right, so yeah, and he wants him to go to have sufficient forces to be able to recapture the city. Jehoshaphat agrees to this because he feels beholden to him, of course, given the marriage alliance, maybe even given the situation of hospitality.

You know, you can imagine that someone who's trying to manipulate you would do that. And then if you say no, you say, after you've eaten all my sheep and oxen, you tell me no. And then what differences are there with the corresponding verse in 1 Kings?

Okay, so yeah, the chronicler moves the mention of the battle to the end of the verse, replacing the mention of horses. This detail becomes then part of Jehoshaphat's speech, right, we will be with you in the war instead of being before where it's not really a part of his speech.

And then, yeah, there's some other things. Jehoshaphat is called king of Judah to match Ahab's title, king of Israel. Yeah, the pronouns and antecedents are mixed around so that before Ahab was the chief subject in 1 Kings and then Jehoshaphat is the chief subject here in the order of things.

Remember, you can go to srbc .org slash chronicles and it will show you the diff of these things, basically what's changed between Kings and Chronicles, how the chronicler reorganizes the telling of the story to emphasize the kings of Judah.

Inquiring of the Lord Before Going to War

All right, verse four. And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, please inquire first for the word of Jehovah. Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, 400 men. What is he supposed to inquire?

Whether they will succeed if they go to war. Jehoshaphat asked for this because he follows the Lord. He wants to know what's right. But then Ahab, does he gather so many prophets because he really cares too.

It seems pretty clear that he's trying to convince Jehoshaphat. I've got 400 prophets for you. 400 prophets of Yahweh who all say, we should go up the battle. Isn't that good enough for you? Of course, you can always find many people who will say false things.

So it doesn't really mean a whole lot of anything. When Elijah opposed the prophets, there were 450 prophets of Baal and 400 of the prophets of Asherah, which is interesting because here it's 400. And not only here is it 400, but in Kings, it was about 400.

Here, it just says it's 400. It doesn't explain that it's approximating. It seems, you know, intent to say, you know, this is 400, it's basically like that 400 of the Asherah. So I think it's kind of intentionally comparing these to false prophets, even though these are prophets of Yahweh.

The False Prophecy at Ramoth-Gilead

5b, and said to them, we will go to Ramoth-Gilead to battle or will we go to Ramoth-Gilead to battle or will I forbear? And they said, go up, for God will deliver it into the hand of the king. Now in 1 Kings 6, it said, then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about 400 men, and said to them, shall I go up against Ramoth-Gilead or shall I refrain?

Do you see all these little changes the Chronicler is making? Like before, it's just Ahab. Should I go up or should I forbear? And here it's, shall we go up or shall I forbear? Right, he's doing a lot more to include Jehoshaphat in this escapade, in the way that he's recounting the story.

Because the focus here, unlike in 1 Kings, where it's primarily about Ahab and Ahab's sin, and Jehoshaphat is mentioned as he's along for the ride. Here, Jehoshaphat is the primary actor and we're concerned about whether or not he's going to be tempted into sin by Ahab.

Is this a faithful prophecy? No, it is not a faithful prophecy. It is interesting how vague it is. Go up for God will deliver it into the hand of the king. You know, what king, what God? In 1 Kings, it was Lord, the Lord, right, Yahweh.

Here it's been changed to God. Now that happens a lot. Chronicles drops Yahweh a lot and just puts God, but it doesn't make the prophecy more vague here than it would have been otherwise.

Yes, basically to continue the tradition of the Septuagint.

So Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Old Testament. The, as you get closer to the time of the New Testament, they start having that certain reverence for the name that expresses itself by not saying Yahweh and instead just saying the Lord.

But that's interesting. I believe it's very providential because Jesus being called the Lord so much. And at this point, Yahweh has just morphed into the Lord. It makes a platform where Jesus can be called the Lord in an intentionally ambiguous way.

So you could see, oh, this is saying he's God. This is saying he's Yahweh, right? Whereas if they had maintained Yahweh, they wouldn't have been calling him Yahweh, right? They would have just called him the Lord and there wouldn't have been that interesting overlap.

So I do believe it was providential that over time it would be dropped. And that's why in the New Testament, you never see, you know, all these passages they're quoting from the Septuagint just say the Lord.

They don't say Yahweh. So it was providential, but I don't think it should be maintained. Yes. Yeah. That. Well, no, they, yeah, I mean, it's just because they didn't want to. I don't know how to articulate it exactly.

I mean, why are they afraid exactly of saying the name? I don't know. It's a reverence for the name to not write it down. I don't know if it's the same one that they have now where if it gets written down and then it gets destroyed because they don't want any possibility of the name of God being destroyed, they don't put it in paper.

Like that's the issue now. I don't think that's really what the issue was then, but it was some kind of reverence.

Yeah. I felt like one of the condemnations were you want to take his name in vain, so let's not say it.

Right, yeah. Right, yeah. Yeah, that change is happening also in Hebrew manuscripts. It's not just happening in Greek. Sorry. Yeah, I was misimplying that. Yes.

They tried taking the Tetragrammaton and translating from Hebrew to Greek. It didn't work very well. I don't know what that means. Like transliterating the letters? Because it would come out. I don't want to say, yeah, they tried doing it.

Okay.

Yeah, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Okay. What differences exist between this verse and the corresponding one in 1 Kings? I already mentioned the I versus we. That's kind of the main one.

And then also Lord with God. Okay. Any other questions about this passage? Great. Andrew Case does have a book on the divine name that includes a lot of this history and stuff. I have read it before, but yeah, I forget a lot of the details.

But he recently, in the past year, made a second edition of that. So you can find that online. Of course, it's free, easy to find and read. I do have a physical first edition, yes. Okay. All right. All right.

Remembering the Lord’s Past Kindness

So the reflection question here is, what implications does the Lord's past kindness have for your continued faithfulness? What kinds of friendships should Christians avoid? For what things should you inquire of God?

Yeah, a lot of thoughts on, boy, each one of these questions. The thing that you see throughout the Psalms, and I think I mentioned this on Sunday, as it said, but they did not remember what the Lord had done, right?

Just, man, this is a problem people receive from the Lord's hand and then not remember what he did, be unappreciative and go sin against him, or cease to trust him for strength. What kind of friendships should Christian avoid?

Christian Friendship, Worldliness, and Evangelistic Relationships

Yeah, more and more, I just feel like there's not really a value in maintaining friendships with non-Christians. I mean, I have a few, but there are various levels of closeness and none of which are very close.

So that's something to think about. I used to think, oh, this is important to have these friendships for evangelistic reasons or whatever the case may be. You know, you'll have plenty of those opportunities if you're faithful and bold enough.

Yes. Did you see in the text, kind of warns us of even more subtle warning where even being aware of people who, quote unquote, call themselves Christian.

For their variability? Sure, yeah, this is not some king from a very foreign country, right? This is just Israel. So yeah, this applies also to, to yet nominal Christians, things like that. We should keep ourselves away from all kinds of worldliness.

Yeah. Yeah, it's hard for me to take any of those things seriously because what they're trying to do is take something that's true, as he spoke with sinners, et cetera, and turn it into something very different.

He wasn't hanging out in the brothels, you know, when he's talking to prostitutes and tax collectors. Like he's not, he's not just like buddy, chumming around with them or anything. And that's what people want to imply was going on, or they're using a little, you know, parlor trick of speech to try to make it sound like that.

But it's clear that that's not what was happening. So yeah, that's kind of the thing. Like, what do we even mean by associate? Yeah, I'm not saying don't talk to them. I'm not saying don't share the gospel with them.

But yeah, that's very different from, you know, have them as companions. Yes. Also. Right, right. Yeah, it's someone who's welcoming in to hear the teaching, right? If someone's not receptive to the teaching, has very different disposition to any of those people.

And the kind of people we're talking about are people who don't want to hear it, you know, and being friends with them, and maybe you'll get a chance at a later time or whatever the case may be. That's very different.

Friendship Across Denominational Differences

Yes. Have you ever had the experience where.

You have an unbelieving friend, you share the gospel with them, they get saved, but then they don't want to adopt Reformed theology? Have you ever had that happen? Of course. Yeah. What's the question?

Like, should you be friends with them? No, no, well, the question is have you ever seen them? Yes.

Yeah, I think that you should, I think that your closeness as friends is going to naturally, it should naturally be proportional to the degree to which you hold a common faith, you know? And ideally, if you're very serious about the Word, you're going to be closest to other people who are very serious about the Word, and that's a good thing.

And it will make you more isolated from people who are not. That's something that God will make good on on judgment day if you have to lose friends and relatives.

Yes. But what happens if someone from Calvary Chapel will be a little bit insulted by saying, hey, I read the Bible a lot, I'm learning Greek and Hebrew,.

You're saying you're more serious? I guess, what do you do in that situation? It depends on how serious they are, and by serious here, I'm overloading that term, obviously, but, and how sincerely they mean that comment.

Do they really understand or misunderstand, or can they really just not tolerate any form of correction? I'd say you don't have to bear the weight of all those things, because people are going to, this is going to happen at any time you try offering truth to people, they will take it as an insult, right?

Rather than seeing it as you trying to help them, give them a gift or whatever. And if they're going to do that, then sure. Like, just, you don't have to worry about how they respond to it. If they really are confused, legitimately and not just because they have the improper, an improper posture towards truth, you can explain.

But, yeah, I increasingly am just disappointed at the way that people will. I will, I feel like a lot of times I will, I don't always present the truth in the most gentle manner, but sometimes when I do, in just the most gentle manner it can be presented, just the fact that what I'm saying implies that they have done wrong.

Not even if I'm saying that they've done wrong, but necessarily, they know that it means they just are very insulted. And I can't do anything about that. I can't say, oh, but it's okay. It's okay if you've sinned, you know?

Like, what am I supposed to, what are you supposed to do there? So, I don't know. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, it is important to remember that the Lord's in charge of all this. The battle belongs to Him. And so, really don't worry about the situation as though you're responsible for producing the right results and someone else, God, is responsible for that, and just leave it to Him.

And don't worry too much. But, yeah. Yeah, I remember someone I was talking to about money and ministry, and I'm just explaining what I believe a verse means, you know, not being hostile or anything. He says, and so you think that everyone who doesn't believe this is a filthy simoniac and blah, blah, blah, blah.

I'm like, well, I didn't say that, but you've said it, you know? But, like, there's just no way to hold, there's just no way to hold a position about something that implies something uncomfortable without making people upset.

Prayer, Wisdom, and Seeking God’s Will

There's just no way. So, just don't even hope for that. Okay. Okay. For what things should you inquire of God? This is good, because Joe Oshefat shouldn't be involved in this at all. Yeah, I was recently, I think some of you saw something I had said online about this.

But, yeah, there are a number of times where people will say about something that seems pretty clear what the wise choice is. They'll say, well, I'll go pray about that. I'll tell them, why are you gonna do that?

Why are you gonna pray? You shouldn't pray for this. The right answer is right here. Prayer is good, but the reason that a lot of people are praying is just to kind of gin up a sense of affirmation. Like, yes, I have peace of my soul about this now.

I'm gonna take that as confirmation from God that it's okay for me to choose this course of action, et cetera. And that's really what's going on here. There's already an obvious course of action, and they're looking for just consolation that it's okay to continue in the unwise course of action.

And there will be lots of people willing to tell you that, tell you what you wanna hear. All right, any questions? Yes. We are going to see that subsequently. I mean, there's two answers. One, I think the natural answer is people will say what you wanna hear.

But we are going to find out that God held a council with all his angels and a lying spirit, who I believe was Satan, showed up and offered to go be a lying spirit in the mouth of all the prophets. And so God said, go.

So they are actually all being led astray by a demon, by Satan himself. Yes. That they are false prophets. Yes. Yeah. Micaiah, the true prophet? Yeah, he says it sarcastically. He's not, he doesn't tend to be understood that way.

And he's not. I think, and that's, I do believe that that's a really good example of how it's not a lie to say something untrue that's not intended to be taken falsely. Right. So he says, go up, you'll be fine.

He says, didn't I tell you that this guy always, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, it's pretty clear that they don't believe he means that. And he knows that they're not gonna believe him. All right, let's go ahead and pray.

Dear heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We ask that it would guide us this evening, that we would be people who desire to do your will and do not come to you in prayer, just looking for affirmation of our own will, but genuinely are seeking yours.

In Jesus' name, amen.