This
week, we are looking at the life of a king of the Jewish people named
Jehoshaphat. Yesterday we saw that as a result of King Jehoshaphat’s
willingness to trust and follow the Lord, Ezra explains that the Lord blessed
the new king. The new king’s rule became firmly established and the Jewish
people viewed the new king with high regard and respect. The Jewish people and
surrounding nations presented King Jehoshaphat with gifts in order to honor
him.
King
Jehoshaphat responded to the gifts and honor that he received from others by
deflecting all of the glory to the Lord. Instead of becoming proud, King
Jehoshaphat took pride in trusting and following the Lord. However, King
Jehoshaphat would soon make a decision that would impact his life in a powerful
way. A decision that Ezra records for us in 2 Chronicles 18:1:
Now
Jehoshaphat had great riches and honor; and he allied himself by marriage with
Ahab. Some years later he went down to visit
Ahab at Samaria. And Ahab slaughtered many sheep and oxen for him and
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 against Ramoth-gilead?"
And he said to him, "I am as you are, and my people as your people, and we will be with you in the
battle." Moreover, Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, "Please
inquire first for the word of the LORD."
In
an attempt to protect against attacks from the northern kingdom of Israel, King
Jehoshaphat entered into an alliance with the Northern Kingdom of Israel, who
was led by a man named King Ahab. As part of that alliance, King Jehoshaphat allowed
his son to marry the daughter of King Ahab.
Now
to fully understand the significance of this alliance, we first need to
understand who King Ahab was. You see, as a part of his rule, King Ahab and his
wife Jezebel led the northern kingdom of Israel to worship false gods and
destroyed the prophets of the Lord in an attempt to purge the Lord from northern
kingdom of Israel. So, in an attempt to provide peace for his people from
potential attacks from the northern kingdom of Israel, King Jehoshaphat made a
commitment with a king and his wife who hated the Lord.
Ezra
then explains that several years after entering into this commitment with King
Ahab, King Jehoshaphat made a visit to King Ahab. After flattering King
Jehoshaphat with a large and lavish party in his honor, King Ahab convinced the
king to join him in a military campaign against the nation of Aram in order to
regain a portion of the northern kingdom that had been taken by the King of
Aram.
And
as a result of his commitment that he had made with King Ahab, King Jehoshaphat
agreed to join forces in a military attack of the nation of Aram. However,
before launching their attack, King Jehoshaphat asks King Ahab to ask for the
Lord’s guidance and direction regarding their attack. After seeking the counsel
of the prophets of the false gods; after resisting the idea of consulting the
prophet of the one true God, King Ahab finally sends for a man named Micaiah,
who was the only prophet of the Lord that was left in the northern kingdom. We
see Ezra record the counsel that this prophet gave in 2 Chronicles 18:18:
Micaiah
said, "Therefore, hear the word of the LORD. I saw the LORD sitting on His
throne, and all the host of heaven standing on His right and on His left.
"The LORD said, 'Who will entice Ahab king of Israel to go up and fall at
Ramoth-gilead?' And one said this while another said that. "Then a spirit
came forward and stood before the LORD and said, 'I will entice him.' And the
LORD said to him, 'How?' "He said, 'I will go and be a deceiving spirit in
the mouth of all his prophets.' Then He said, 'You are to entice him and prevail also. Go and do
so.' "Now therefore, behold, the
LORD has put a deceiving spirit in the mouth of these your prophets, for the
LORD has proclaimed disaster against you."
Now I want us to take a minute and imagine
ourselves in this event from history as King Jehoshaphat. Place yourself in his
shoes. You just heard the prophet from the Lord explain that this military
campaign will result in defeat and death. What would you do? How would you
respond? We see how King Jehoshaphat responded in verse 28:
So the king
of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah went up against Ramoth-gilead. The king
of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "I will disguise myself and go into battle,
but you put on your robes." So the king of Israel disguised himself, and
they went into battle. Now the king of Aram had commanded the captains of his
chariots, saying, "Do not fight with small or great, but with the king of
Israel alone." So when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, they
said, "It is the king of Israel," and they turned aside to fight
against him. But Jehoshaphat cried out, and the LORD helped him, and God diverted
them from him. When the captains of the chariots saw that it was not the king
of Israel, they turned back from pursuing him. A certain man drew his bow at
random and struck the king of Israel in a joint of the armor. So he said to the
driver of the chariot, "Turn around and take me out of the fight, for I am
severely wounded." The battle raged that day, and the king of Israel
propped himself up in his chariot in front of the Arameans until the evening;
and at sunset he died.
As
a result of the commitment that he had made to King Ahab, King Jehoshaphat
ignored the warning of the prophet Micaiah. As a result of the commitment that
he had made to King Ahab, King Jehoshaphat allowed himself to be used by King
Ahab in a way that placed him in a vulnerable situation. As a result of the
commitment that he had made to King Ahab, King Jehoshaphat almost lost his
life.
Only
the Lord’s gracious intervention spared King Jehoshaphat’s life. And as King
Jehoshaphat safely returned to Jerusalem, the King was met by a messenger from
the Lord with a message from the Lord. A message the Ezra records for us in 2
Chronicles 19:1:
Then
Jehoshaphat the king of Judah returned in safety to his house in Jerusalem.
Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him and said to King
Jehoshaphat, "Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the LORD
and so bring wrath on yourself
from the LORD? "But there is some
good in you, for you have removed the Asheroth from the land and you
have set your heart to seek God."
The prophet Jehu, who was the son of the prophet Hanani
who had confronted King Asa with his lack of trust in the Lord, is sent by the
Lord to confront King Jehoshaphat. The prophet basically says to King Jehoshaphat “Should
you really be making commitments to help those who hate the Lord and who love
others who hate the Lord? Should you really be making commitments with those
who hate the Lord that result in you making decisions that the Lord hates and that
result in you experiencing the consequences of the Lord’s right and just response
to those decisions? King Jehoshaphat, your problem is not that you are not
devoted to the Lord. Your problem is the decisions that you make because of who
you choose to make commitments with”. Then,
shortly after this confrontation with the prophet, we see King Jehoshaphat’s
devotion and trust in the Lord put to the test in 2 Chronicles 20:1:
Now it came
about after this that the sons of Moab and the sons of Ammon, together with
some of the Meunites, came to make war against Jehoshaphat. Then some came and
reported to Jehoshaphat, saying, "A great multitude is coming against you
from beyond the sea, out of Aram and behold, they are in Hazazon-tamar (that is
Engedi)." Jehoshaphat was afraid and turned his attention to seek the
LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. So Judah gathered together to
seek help from the LORD; they even came from all the cities of Judah to seek
the LORD.
Faced
with a foreign army that threatened to remove the Jewish people from that land
that the Lord had promised them, King Jehoshaphat turned his face to seek the
Lord. King Jehoshaphat led the Jewish people to gather together in the capital
city of Jerusalem to fast and seek the Lord’s protection and intervention in
the lives of the nation.
By
fasting, the Jewish people were taking the time that they would normally spend
eating to pray for the Lord’s presence and protection. And it is in this
context that King Jehoshaphat leads the nation in a powerful prayer that Ezra
records for us in verse 5:
Then
Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the
LORD before the new court, and he said, "O LORD, the God of our fathers,
are You not God in the heavens? And are You not ruler over all the kingdoms of
the nations? Power and might are in Your hand so that no one can stand against
You. "Did You not, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land
before Your people Israel and give it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend
forever? "They have lived in it, and have built You a sanctuary there for
Your name, saying, 'Should evil come upon us, the sword, or judgment, or pestilence, or
famine, we will stand before this house and before You (for Your name is in
this house) and cry to You in our distress, and You will hear and deliver us.' "Now behold, the sons of
Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom You did not let Israel invade when they
came out of the land of Egypt (they turned aside from them and did not destroy
them), see how they are
rewarding us by coming to drive us out from Your possession which You have
given us as an inheritance. "O our God, will You not judge them? For we
are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us; nor do we
know what to do, but our eyes are on You."
Notice
how King Jehoshaphat approached the Lord in prayer. King Jehoshaphat approached
the Lord by proclaiming the Lord’s character as the One who is large and in
charge over the universe and who rules over the universe. King Jehoshaphat
approached the Lord by proclaiming the history of the Lord’s activity in the
lives of the Jewish people. King Jehoshaphat approached the Lord by proclaiming
how the Lord had led the Jewish people to the Promised Land.
King
Jehoshaphat approached the Lord by proclaiming how the Jewish people had built
the Temple according to the Lord’s command as the place where the Lord was to
be worshipped. And King Jehoshaphat approached the Lord by proclaiming the
Lord’s promise to deliver the Jewish people if they Jewish people sought the
Lord in times of trouble.
After
proclaiming the Lord’s character, history, and promises, King Jehoshaphat
approached the Lord in prayer with his request that the Lord judge the foreign
army that was repaying the good that the Jewish nation had done for them over
their history with evil.
You
see, King Jehoshaphat’s devotion to the Lord led him to lead the Jewish people
to seek the Lord and His help in time of trouble. Friday, we will see how the
Lord responded to King Jehoshaphat’s request...
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