Jehoshaphat – An Imperfect Reformer

Transcript

all right so a couple months ago um I x was on to give the x experation x um you know it's for me getting started x is often the hardest part finding a x topic and then kind of choosing an angle x to how to how to approach things um and x and then once that's kind of settled you x know progress happens quickly but I can x spend a lot of time sort of agonizing x about what we're going to talk about and x so a couple of months ago I Was x preparing for this this exhortation x which happened to be on the topic of x Jehosaphat and his uh great Deliverance x by the Lord um when he was being invaded x by Ammon and Moab and Edom and um you x have this awesome message to uh stand x still and see the salvation of the Lord x and brother Jims referenced that a x couple times in his Sunday school as x well um at the Red Sea Moses said the x same thing stand still and see the x salvation of the Lord and it's just a x really powerful kind of idea that x sometimes we get in our own way we worry x about how we'll affect deliverance we x just need to step back you know God's x got this under control uh this situation x is not mine to control but his um I just x need to stand still and and trust in him x wait for his x salvation um so so that was the the x topic that I eventually landed on but to x get there I I looked at the daily Bible x readings and many of us uh who prepare x exhortations will will look at that as x as a starting place um and the daily x Bible Rings had this proverb which is x pretty well known um I I was hoping x somebody in the room would would read it x and I even uh tried to push Jacob to to x do it and he was too wise he didn't fall x for my trap um because I had it in the x Whitecliff translation of the Bible does x anybody recognize that x verse okay so if I ever complain about x the old Eng in the King James version x sounding x archaic not being able to follow the x KJV uh it's a good thing we're not using x the White Cliff translation of the Bible x this was actually I believe the first x English translation of the Bible and it x wasn't from the texus x receptus um or any of the other texts x that the the King James version in later x more modern translations were based off x of it was actually a direct translation x from the Latin Vulgate x um so it's it's a translation of a x translation uh not from original x sources but it apparently was if you x call this English I'll try it f eaten a x beer grape and the teeth of son an x something like that is probably how it x sounded does that is that ringing any x bells yep x Chris yeah the two key words are there x right the grape and the the teeth right x so that's from Ezekiel 18 it's also from x the book of Jeremiah um the reading for x the day a couple months ago when I was x doing the X was was Ezekiel 18 uh so x let's see it there in plain x English the fathers have eaten sour x graps grapes and the children's teeth x are set on edge my parents had a grape x vine when I was growing up and the x grapes we got were never very good but x sometimes they were awful and if you had x unripe grapes they they kind of look x like these ones on the right and when I x saw that picture my mouth just started x to pucker because a sour grape is a is a x miserable thing to consume x um but but the idea of this proverb here x is x that in some way the children were x bearing the consequences of their x parents x sins that something that the parents had x done is now impacting the lives of the x children um and you remember Ezekiel and x Jeremiah in this time uh Judah was going x through captivity the Babylonians had x come in they'd uh demolish the temple x and taking people back to to Babylon x with them a really upsetting time in the x National History of God's x people and they understood that this was x judgment from God coming as a x consequence of their x sins uh but not just theirs the sins of x the x fathers so you get the idea that there x was this this x proverb reflected their National psyche x that they had the sort of victim x mentality that that they you know for x generations and generations Generations x God withheld judgment but now it's x coming and they're the ones that x children's teeth are set on edge they're x the ones that are bearing the x consequences um for the sins of their x previous ancestors and x generations so so this chapter Ezekiel x 18 was really interesting I I'm not sure x it was exhortation material maybe x somebody else could could translate into x an exert but it has all sorts of x interesting sort of philosophical x questions about um you know individual x accountability and Collective punishment x and um you know really this question x about how parents and children one x generation and the next are responsible x accountable to one another bear each x other the resp you know can bear the x punishment of the parents these sorts of x things and of course in our experience x we know that there's tons of ways in x which you know the actions of our x parents are enormously consequential on x the people that we become uh this is x something that of course I I'm thinking x about now that I have a daughter I'm x thinking well I got to make sure that x I'm making the right choices and and and x helping her I have to set her up for x success in all these ways uh you know x before this I I only thought about x myself or or maybe Hannah I had some x responsibility now that's that sphere of x influence is growing right um so just to x name a number of ways in which parents x can affect their children um about x emotional development x um making healthy lifestyle x choices uh attitudes towards education x um you know whether you're a good x student or a bad student you know your x parents help you with your homework that x kind of thing uh do they encourage you x to to to to be on top of it um you know x Financial choices you know parents often x thinking about like do I give the kids x an allowance teach them some fiscal x responsibility teach them how to make x good money x decisions um x things like substance abuse dealing with x conflict in relationships uh work ethic x in a very general way a lot of these x things we learn from our parents x um and if the parents aren't on the ball x right the children's learn the wrong x thing from the x parents um I think the remarkable thing x that we see in scripture is that God x gives us the grace to break out of x Cycles um of you know in some cases x there's there's abuse uh gener ational x trauma you often hear about uh trauma x that parents experience then kind of you x know it's it's mindboggling but it gets x passed on to the next x Generation Um but God gives us a way to x kind of break these destructive x generational patterns um by clinging to x him and calling him father you know you x know I don't my my old father my father x at the flesh I'm not speaking for myself x but you might say he was a bad man I x came to know the Lord God and his son x Jesus and I've been adopted into a new x family where we have different x behavioral standards and things so I x think the Bible allows us to break this x cycle even though from common x observation we do see parents affecting x children and vice versa then yeah yeah x yeah if I might just share a personal x story that kind of please do uh is an x example of what you're speaking of so uh x As I Grew Older I have a lot of trouble x to my feet and speaking with the x podiatrist he said well those problems x are created from pronating and uh and He x suggests okay I'm not sure if this has x been proven but that children that x pronate is actually from watching their x parents walk that if their parents x pronate that perhaps that's where you x learned it to see how a child is so x closely watching every movement of the x uh adults around them or particular x their parents you know so uh you know to x think that no one ever really taught you x how to walk okay all of a sudden the x child just starts walking but they are x mimicking what they they see around them x yeah that's a great x point I see it with Clara all the time x even the way she started saying you know x how tdd there's dude stting to say no x right she says it like Hannah no she has x this Rising thing at the end yes and I x was like oh she why is she saying it so x odd and then I heard Hannah saying it I x was like she's she's just mimicking what x she's heard from her mom um you know so x even like walking that's that's x fasinating you would think that x something like that would just come x naturally but there's some mimic in x excellent thank you x Chris um so I I think there's a really x positive angle the Bible gives us about x breaking free from you know the x influence of an evil generation to x precede us um but by the same right you x know you have um children who are free x to choose or reject god um we're not x necessarily Bound by the decisions of x our faithful parents either uh here's a x couple examples you've got David and x hezek x um they weren't perfect men but in x general we would say that they were they x were good men they held examples of of x being righteous x um let's x see x um yeah so they were they were right x that that would be an example of of x righteous men despite having lousy x parents um on the flip side you've got x absam you've got manasse um who had very x faithful uh parents and yet they kind of x went x sideways um and what scripture teaches x us and as I went through Ezekiel 18 I x was saying oh well each person is x accountable for their own sins right you x know those the people around us previous x generations can influence us but they x don't Define us right we're defined in x God's eyes based on um our own behavior x so Ezekiel x 18:5 if a man is righteous and does what x is just and x right if he fathers a son who is V x violent a shedder of blood who does any x of these things he goes on to list some x things and verse 13 the son shall surely x die his blood shall be upon himself so x the man is righteous he has a violent x son it's the son who x dies uh God's clear that each person is x accountable for their own sins um verse x 20 the soul who sins shall die um we x often go to this in sort of our x apologetics this is like a proof verse x that you know how can a Immortal Soul x die right x um but this is really talking about a x person the person who sins shall die the x son shall not suffer for the iniquity of x the father nor the father suffer for the x iniquity of the son right so that's x really interesting to me because yeah we x do have accountability for those within x our responsibility but ultimately our x children make their own decisions um you x know for now maybe I am responsible for x Claire's decisions because she's just a x little one I have to watch over her at x some point she's going to have to make x her own call um and that does x ultimately reflect on on the parents so x we have this expression right the Apple x doesn't fall far from the tree but I x think scripture tells us all the time x that that it can't like the children do x go in a different direction either For x Better or For Worse all the time in x scripture x um so we've looked at a few examples of x that um I wanted to explore a case study x where there was a little more ambiguity x involved um where the parents actions x likely did have consequences on their x children uh despite that ultimate moral x accountability resting on the children x the individuals themselves um and that's x ultimately what brought me to King x Jehosaphat and uh for the exhortation we x gone off in a totally different x direction different part of josette's x life but jash is a very complicated x individual um he's clearly upheld in x scripture as being a righteous King he x was a great king of Judah he had x fantastic reforms he did wonderful x things for his people and he followed x god um that was his import he's always x asking you know is there a Prophet of x the lord we can inquire upon right he he x does that with um with King Ahab and x then he does it later with Ahab ahab's x son x jehoram x um but but you know he he made some x questionable decisions as well so that's x what I want to look at a little bit so x that brings me back to sort of my title x slide uh the main characters um anybody x who familiar with the story of Carro x Adventure who these characters might be x on the x screen I got jeos at there in the center x because he's sort of the one that they x kind of all revolve x around may want to take a x guess all right so I x reckon the main characters in the story x of Jehosaphat are himself in the x center then you got actually I think I x got on the slide x I reckon that's x jehoram who jehoshaphat's x son you got Ahab and Jezebel Jezebel who x are who are the leaders of the Northern x Kingdom of Israel You' got their x daughter x athalia athalia ultimately is married to x jehoram um so in this picture you know x that maybe they're not married yet I x don't know what they're all doing posing x for a photo together or how I got this x but um lastly you may wonder who who the x other guys are so so Ahab had two other x sons who were who were Kings of Israel x after Ahab died uh ahaziah who only x ruled for about a year and then you've x got joram um so so joram was x brother-in-law to jehoram joram and x aalah are brother and sister you know x both the children of Ahab and Jezebel x athah marries jehoram jehoshaphat's son x so jam and x jehoram they do they you know just like x Jehosaphat and Ahab were were kind of x contemporary rulers of Judah and Israel x respectively their sons became x contemporary rulers of Judah and Israel x um and they had this close link through x ahab's daughter aalia so you can see at x that point of the history of the two x Nations uh things are getting really x cozy between Israel and x Judah this this marriage relationship x really really brings everybody a little x bit closer together um and ultimately x that's not for the better um so this is x going to be kind of like one of those x movies where they show you how things x end at the very beginning and then you x go through and you see all the details x that led to that ultimate conclusion x we're going to look at the lives of each x of these people um actually we're going x to look at their deaths we'll see that x each one of these people except for x Jehosaphat uh had a really poor and x untimely death x um so it's going to be a little Grizzly x but we'll get through it x um so ahab's the first to x die after con you remember he he went to x Jehosaphat and he convinced Jehoshaphat x to go with him to battle against the x syrians in ramoth x Gilead and jehoshaphat's out there x dressed like a king you know clearly a x Target and Ahab decides to go undercover x he's wearing kind of ordinary clothing x and The Archers shoot at random and and x let's just read it a certain man drew x his bow at random and struck the king of x Israel between the scale armor and his x breastplate there he said to the driver x of his Chariot turn around and Carry Me x Out of the battle for I am wounded and x the battle continued that day and the x King was propped up in his Chariot x facing the syrians until at evening he x died and the blood of the wound flowed x into the bottom of the x Chariot and the mention of the blood is x is actually significant because it later x states that they washed the Chariot in x the the pool of Samaria um and that was x a fulfillment of Elijah's prophecy that x in the place where dogs licked up the x blood of naboth shall dogs lick your own x blood remember that terrible story where x Ahab and Jezebel conspired to take x naboth's inheritance from him um he's x got that nice Vineyard or garden that's x close to the palace and Ahab says I want x it I'm going to get it Jezebel gets it x for him Neo dies um at Jezebel's hand x and and Elijah comes to him and says you x know this they're going to the dogss are x going to lick your blood in the same x place um so a very meaningful death from x that x perspective so ahab's the first one to x go ahaziah his his son is a a minor x character uh he only Reigns for that one x year um and he's really only notable for x his faithlessness after he falls through x this um I forget what they call it a a x lattice work I think you know he x experiences a fall he's injured he's x sort of languishing in bed and he goes x to uh the prophets of ba Eon so he these x were I believe a Philistine Pagan deity x that he goes to um to to see whether x he's going to get better or not and x Elijah comes to him and says you should x have inquired from the Lord why why are x you going to Baal to ask these questions x because you didn't go to the Lord you're x going to die uh so ahaziah does not get x better uh this is ahab's son number one x uh perishes x the next one is x jehoram so this is ahab's next x son uh excuse me this is not this is uh x jehosaphats this story gets particularly x confusing because there's uh jehoram is x sometimes called joram right x so Ahab and jehos vat both have sons x named joram essentially um although the x one is referred to as jehoram from time x to time um so I'm going to call the king x of Judah jehoram and the king of Israel x jham try to to break that x ambiguity we're not we're going to x explore how we got to this point but x jehoshaphat's son did not do well um he x had a very sad story indeed there's a x lot to learn about the character of this x person um and we'll get into that in due x time but ultimately God uh strikes him x with his sickness he has an incurable x disease it says in the course of time at x the end of two years uh his bowels came x out because of the disease he died in x great Agony um his people made no fire x in his honor uh he was 32 years old 32 x when he began to Reign he reigned eight x years at Jerusalem he departed with no x one's regret nobody was sorry to see him x go you know he just very poor Legacy um x yeah despicable King they buried him in x the city of David but not in the tombs x of the x Kings so that was that was jehoram x his peer his brother-in-law joram in the x northern kingdom uh lived quite a bit x longer um but also met an untimely dead x death x um this would be around the time where x jiu was anointed to be so so jiu we x remember he was the commander of joram's x army um he was basically one of the x generals x and Elisha goes in ji who tells them x you're going to be in command now it's x your job to clean up the mess in Israel x you've got all these these baale x followers I want to end ahab's Dynasty x it's Ahab and joram and ahaziah and x before Ahab it was omry and he was a x wicked King as well and you've got this x multi-generational dynasty of of wicked x rulers in Israel and Elisha um sends a x prophet to anoint jiu he's just captain x of of jorm's army at this time x but he he basically instigates a coup he x goes out and he finds joram um and he x shoots him you know between the shoulder x blades from The Chariot um it's a very x dramatic story I'm not going to read all x of it here um but he he goes after him x one after another jorm Falls Jezebel x Falls you know after he finishes with x jorm he keeps riding to x Samaria and uh says that when ji who x came to jezrael sorry j is not Samaria x uh Jezebel heard of it and she painted x her eyes and adorned her head and looked x out of the window and as J who entered x the gate she said is it peace you zimy x murderer of your x master I think this is very dramatic x like she's she knows the end is coming I x think she knows that that this is not x going to end well for her and so she x gets she gets all doled up she she you x know probably puts on her magnificent x robe looks the best she can because she x knows it's the end and this is how she x wants to be remembered I'm kind of x embellishing but this is sort of how I x imagine it in my mind's eye x um and she says says these bold words x right why does she say uz x Zim um that's a reference to zimy king x of Israel he only reigned for seven days x but he overthrew Ela who was the x previous King now we take for granted in x Judah right it was a con a continuous x line of Kings from David all the way x down um to zedekiah I think it was the x last king of Judah can I get a fact x check but but it was unbroken line right x they were all king after King son father x all the way through in in the in the x Northern Kingdom of Israel they were x constantly like overthrowing the ruling x family so zimy was one of those those x guys who was a um he was a general in x ela's Army and he saw the advantage when x Ela was I think he had been drinking or x something x and he killed Eli and he took power for x himself x so Jezebel's invoking that story he's x saying you remember this man who took x power from his master it's exactly what x J had just done with jehoram right by x putting him down he was a captain in x jorm's Army and now he's taking control x he's instigating this coup and he's x killing everybody related to jorm so x there's no claim to the throne including x Jezebel and she's saying you know it x didn't end well for Z he only reigned x for seven days before um omry who was x ahab's father took control um from zimy x so I know it's a lot of details it's a x lot of characters and and um it's it's a x lot of drama you know things did not go x very smoothly for this this Northern x Kingdom of Israel um certainly not for x Jezebel she gets tossed out of the x window and um it says her blood x spattered on the and the horses they x trampled on x her so not a get x end um and then the last one we'll just x cover briefly here is is x aalia so athalia was ahab's daughter she x was married to jehoshaphat's son joram x that was that alliance between Israel x and Judah x um we'll look into her story in due x course but basically she became queen of x Judah after uh joram and joram's son who x was also called ahaziah doesn't make x anything more clear um they both die ath x BEC the queen of Judah so you have this x this daughter of Ahab king of Israel x who's now the Regent of Judah that's the x extent to which Israel's x influence uh came to bear in Judah um x and it was really a bad situation she x killed all of um jehoshaphat's x grandchildren she made sure that there x was no other claims to the throne so x that she could consolidate power so it's x almost like Israel this person from x Israel is now kind of taking over in x Judah but you have jeho the priest and x um I can't remember the name of his wife x but they rescued joash who was the great x grandson of Jehosaphat and he's just a x baby at the the time they rescue him so x he's not part of this this purge of the x palace uh he he grows up to be I think 8 x years old when they coronate him in the x temple of the Lord and you've got AIA x which she realizes what's happening and x there's a rightful air to the throne x athalia comes in she says treason x treason and jeho x says well we let's not kill her in the x in the court of the Lord's House take x her outside and so this is a call this x an illuminated manuscript uh sometimes x in like the Middle Ages they would x create uh text of scripture and they x would put some some images in there or x some very ornate kind of big letter x decorated letter at the beginning of the x chapter and so this is one of those um x Graphics from an illuminated manuscript x depicting AA getting pulled out of the x temple um into the into the outside x Court where where she was x slain so that's uh the whole mle x crew doesn't end well and so I got x thinking about this x we read these these stories these x accounts of the Kings and some ways x they're not really x relatable because we don't live in a x ancient Bronze Age x monarchy um you know we try to follow x God's precepts as laid out in his book x but these historical what what is the x lesson for us I mean it's really these x stories are brutal x um I you know I I struggle with this a x lot kind of think well how do I how do x you make a relatable kind of lesson from x this I think what we'll see with x Jehosaphat is that despite all the good x things that he did for his country his x weak spot was this alliance with Ahab x and Ahab x represents say sin at large sin running x rampant um a man who has no control I x mean Ahab repents from time to time I x think he knows that x what he's doing is not right but he's x under the influence of his wife and he x he's totally powerless so x it's it it's almost like us when we x don't have God's spirit influencing us x in a positive way when we're not reading x the word and we have our our spiritual x strength our loins GED so to x speak Ahab is just this man who's sort x of blown about by every wind of Doctrine x you know he's got his wife in his ear x telling him one thing he's got a li and x the other telling him another thing and x he never seems to really listen to the x right thing um and as a consequence of x that like it we see how all his family x died like things went very poorly x ultimately for x him so why would josu fat want to get x involved with that uh that was kind of x my my key x question and uh we got 15 minutes here x so we'll get a little bit into I think x the early days of jehos his Good Start x um x um but but before we go on any any x thoughts or comments or x questions one of the lessons I always x take from thiso these stories is that x sometimes blood really is not thicker x than water you know Jehoshaphat kept x turning back to his family and his x family was no good uh where as you know x if had he stayed with his uh religious x Faith he wouldn't have been turning to x his family so like you say Jehoshaphat x was a great king but he he kept thinking x blood was thicker than x water right right he kept showing up for x for Ahab then he showed up for ahab's x son you know I got this problem with the x syrians can you come help me yeah and he x kept saying you know we are skin of skin x or however it is that Jehosaphat puts it x he keeps going back to their their x natural x heritage but there as you point out x there's no spiritual Heritage at x all excellent anybody x else all right let's take a look at x Jehosaphat x then so Jehoshaphat was the son of Asa x ASA was kind of a mixed bag he did some x good things but uhu also some x questionable x things uh he sold Treasure of the house x of the Lord to induce the syrians to x attack Israel um stuff like that it says x God struck him with a disease in his x feet you know he had some problems um x but he had a good son Jehoshaphat x Jehoshaphat reigned for 25 years um the x record of jehoshaphat's Reign is x primarily in 2 Chronicles although you x do have 2 Kings 3 which is a story uh x that does not occur in the book of 2 x Chronicles gives us a little extra x insight to the end of jehoshaphat's x Reign we'll talk about that later x um it's interesting he begins his Reign x by preparing for war with Israel uh in 2 x Chronicles 17 verse one we read J x Jehosaphat asa's son reigned in his x place and stren strengthened himself x against Israel um so he's just talking x about military strengthening himself he x he placed forces in all the Fortified x cities of Judah he set up garrisons in x the land of Judah in the cities of x Ephraim that ASA his father had captured x uh so there's a little reference here x suggestion of some hostility between x Judah and Israel um so just very quickly x I don't want to spend a lot of time on x this but uh still these slides from x another deck um basically if you look at x the two kingdoms after Solomon we have x the divided Kingdom of Israel and Juda x judah's on the bottom with rabom x Israel's on the top with x jbam um we read of constant war between x these two um these two x Nations war between rabom and Jobo x continually x we have war between abijam and jobal x there's war between ASA and Basha all x their days um during aso's Reign there x was was some peace where where you know x they weren't actively in war x um there was more war there was no more x war until the 35th year of of of this x was excuse x me Aces Kingdom um x okay so that I G skip through x this but you know you got Hannah I The x Seer saying to ASA that he's going to x have War for the rest of his x Reign x um there was war between ASA and Basia x king of Israel all their days there's a x civil war in Israel we referenced x um uh zimy and TIY and omry um so after x that quick seven day rule of of Zim x after he overthrew Ela you've got civil x war between timney and omry uh omry x comes out on top um and then Ahab his x son becomes the x king um so really this this alliance x between Ahab and Jehosaphat you know x this was breaking the pattern of all the x kings that preceded them from the time x of the United Kingdom until their time x there hadn't been a real peace between x Israel and x Judah and I think this get might give us x a little bit of insight into how x Jehosaphat saw himself as somebody who x could maybe bring those kingdoms back x together create an alliance and restore x Unity between Israel and Judah uh such x as there was during the time of David x and x Soloman um I think that it never quite x says that but that seems to be the x idea um at least Jehoshaphat saw as a x possibility where it wouldn't have been x possible in previous Kings x so that's one thought on x Jehosaphat um ultimately he leaves this x Legacy as a righteous King uh if you're x still in 2 Chronicles 17 I've got it up x on x the on the slide here x but 2 Chronicles x 17:3 the Lord was with Jehosaphat x because he walked in the first ways of x of his father David and sought not unto x the balum he sought to the Lord God of x his fathers and walked in his x Commandments and not after the doings of x Israel so the text goes on to say that x God established the kingdom in his hand x he receives riches and honor in verse x five x um in verse six it says that he took x away the high places of the asham out of x Judah took out the x Groves verse 7-9 Jehosaphat dispatches x the prophets to go throughout all the x cities of Judah and teach the people so x there's actually like an educational x campaign that takes x place um it says they they taught in x Judah and had the book of The Law of the x Lord with them and went throughout all x the cities of Judah and taught the x people x um yeah so that's that's really x interesting he his reforms are x definitely um right we talked about him x like making fortifying the defense x cities x um but he's also he's experiencing x riches he's getting great honor and x glory and abundance but he's also x educating people in the ways of the Lord x so there's like kind of x a monetary Improvement in the the nation x but there's also this the spiritual x Improvement that he's x working so I couldn't help but think of x Solomon and kind of the the prosperity x of the United Kingdom under under x Solomon in that time of extended peace x that he had and kind of this IDE of of x Jehosaphat maybe seeing himself as like x a modern day Solomon right you know many x generations later he's sort of a new x Solomon for the the kingdom of of x Judah x um you know during the son the son of x David's rule Solomon's wisdom was was x widely known um we've got ham here in x the top left the king of Ty uh who said x blessed be the Lord this day who's given x David a wise son to be over this great x people you have the Queen of Sheba a few x chapters later saying happy are your x servants who continually stand before x you and hear your wisdom blessed be the x Lord your God who has delighted in you x and set you on the Thrones of Israel x you've got at least these two Gentile x rulers who recognize the wisdom of God x in x Solomon and I I think Jehosaphat was x sort of modeling himself as a modern day x Solomon somebody who could uh be x recognized for his wisdom and his x dealings and maybe maybe bring the x kingdoms together again x um so I I wonder if that might have been x behind his friendship with with Ahab x because I don't see what Jehosaphat had x to gain otherwise it's Ahab who needs x jehos fat Jehosaphat doesn't need Ahab x everything's going great in Judah until x they get involved with x Ahab um so the the families are united x by marriage and 2 Chronicles x 18 um so in verse one josah had riches x and honor and abundance and joined x Affinity with x Ahab and after certain years he went x down to Ahab to Samaria and Ahab killed x sheep and oxen for him in abundance and x for the people that he had with him and x persuaded him to go up with him to x ramoth x Gilead x um so so I I'm reading from the King x James it says he joined Affinity with x Ahab does does anybody have a modern x translation I don't actually have it in x my x notes uh 2 Chronicles 18 ver1 x all x himself x okay he Allied x himself yeah yes V has made a marriage x Alliance I wonder if this is one of x those situations where the ESV is uh x interpreting a little bit like telling x us what this Affinity x means you know does the original x language actually tell us that there was x a marriage involved here or is that just x kind of implied I mean that's the facts x of the matter right x um he gave his son jehoram to be married x to x athalia um and that seems to be what's x being referred to in in chapter 18 this x this marriage x Alliance um x and then in 18:3 you know after killing x all these sheep and oxen in abundance he x has a great big party maybe this is the x wedding reception I don't know they're x together in Samaria feasting having a x party having a good time and Ahab gets x in jehoshaphat's year in verse three and x says why don't why don't you come down x to ramoth Gilead you know we're going to x be fighting the syrians you know it'd be x really great if you were there I I could x use your x help and and and josa answers I am as x you are and my people as your people we x will be with you in the war I think x maybe this is what brother Jim was x talking about just this you know I'm x with you brother I I'll help you out you x know the families are united you know x there's a common cause here they they x all hate the syrians um they want to x take back ramoth x Gilead um so jeash Fett joins him in b x battle and that's just the beginning of x this this terrible situation that ends x up happening x um yeah I I think my suggestion that x this was the marriage Feast is probably x not on solid standing uh I I think x because Ahab died many years later right x there's a long time um between jorm's x marriage to Ai and this this event where x they go up to ramoth Gilead and Ahab is x slain in his Chariot that we already x talked about but um you you can sense x that that that the two men are grow x growing closer they have family together x now when when family get connected right x things change relationships change um x it's a big deal x um I think this was jehoshaphat's major x mistake he never should have gotten x involved in this with this notorious x idolator did he not know what Ahab had x done with with naboth do you not know x about the idolatry everything Elijah was x trying to do to kind of keep the Bale x worshippers at Bay um H how was josah x ignorant of that or willing to you unite x himself with that that family uh just a x a massive blunder and you read x everything he did in in chapter 17 and x again in chapter 19 and um he does x wonderful things for his own country but x this was a a blunder brother x Chris we need to roll it back even a x little further and uh Jehoshaphat should x have questioned the marriage of AAR to x uh I believe it was jehoram uh because x it seems that that marriage is where x this began to you know this Alliance x began to take hold and that uh sometimes x I think in our modern day thinking we x can't appreciate how significant that x was down Through the Ages where wherever x there were kingdoms uh the intermarriage x I mean that often stopped Wars and or x created Wars and so forth so it was very x significant when families intermarried x from Kings to Kings you know perhaps x more than we appreciate even reading it x but anyways it seems like that that's x where this should have been nipped maybe x even in you know in the marriage itself x to say not to allow the daughter of Ahab x to marry your son x yep x 100% any other x comments I think we can probably stop x around here x um next week we'll go into uh 2 x Chronicles 18 a little bit more more and x look at this this battle at ramoth x Gilead x um I agree with brother Chris I think it x was the marriage between jehoshaphat's x son and ahab's daughter aalia that x brought the families together and x enabled Ahab to be able to make a x request like this to x Jehosaphat if he hadn't been linked to x Ahab through marriage you know jeash fat x might have been feeling like he could x say no but he didn't feel like he could x say no because of this connection that x they had so he goes to war with him at x ramoth Gilead and later after Ahab dies x and ahab's other son joram not to be x confused with jehoram josua son joram x king of Israel goes to war with the x syrians again many years later and he x asked Jehoshaphat the same thing and x once again Jehosaphat goes with the king x of Israel ahab's son this time and they x go to war with the syrians um actually I x think this time it's the the moabites x and the the um so I'll fact my x check myself right there um but it's the x same sort of situation asking for x military aid from Judah and jahash fat x feels like he can't say x no uh so there's some really interesting x parallels between uh the request from x military support from Ahab and the x request from ahab's son both of which x Jehosaphat fills both of which x Jehosaphat says is there not a prophet x of the Lord that we can go to um and so x we'll we'll spend a little bit bit of x time looking at those parallels uh next x week

Transcript

so we started looking at Jehosaphat last x week and um very interesting Bible x character lot to say about x Jehosaphat um I think when I find myself x kind of first delving into these x historical books it can be very x overwhelming to sort of get oriented x again and remember who who are all the x characters and what happened to lead us x to this situation that we're we're x describing the context is a little bit x foggy sometimes I apologize if we sort x of rushed into things last week without x all that background um going to try to x do a little bit of a better job of that x this week um so you hold me to it and x interrupt if I'm not clear on a x connection that maybe I'm taking for x granted um it's great when you're x presenting these classes because I x spent Monday Tuesday night and you know x part of Saturday preparing the class x right so I've been you know many hours x on end looking at the word trying to x read reread the accounts I actually I x didn't I won't say I read all the first x and 2 Chronicles but I skimmed through x both books just to kind of get the x framework and I'll I'll get into that a x little bit what I got from that activity x but i' I've been spend a lot of time on x this and you haven't necessarily so um I x want to make sure I I provide good x background here x um but just as a bit of a refresher from x last week so we started looking at these x characters x um I'll put the names up here too so x these were the I would say six people x six key people in jahash Fat's sphere of x influence and um I dug up the the family x tree there on the left just as a visual x aid here you can see the the family of x Ahab the family of x Jehosaphat um ahab's wife Jezebel is a x key character jehoshaphat's wife isn't x mentioned we don't know much about her x she's not part of the story x um so we're not going to talk about it x um you have Ahab and Jezebel's three x children two of the sons who would x become Kings and the daughter which x would become a queen of Judah through x marriage to jehoshaphat's son x jehoram um did I miss anybody talked x about x Jezebel yeah so these are sort of the x key characters when it comes to the x story of x Jehosaphat we looked at the uh sort of x the untimely deaths of of six of these x people Jehoshaphat you know lives to a x good old age by all accounts he's buried x in the tombs of the Kings of Israel you x know as befitting his legacy um you know x we don't read of him dying in battle or x suffering a disease or you know x suffering at the Assassin's hand as many x of the Kings of Israel did um you know x he seems to have a pretty normal end of x life the other six on the slide here did x not and so we looked at that briefly x last week and I I don't know if Chris x you want to take a stab at recounting x uh how they all x TI would say one maybe I so from left to x right the first guy there okay uh jorum x I believe died in battle all right jorum x I believe fell through the lattice work x if I got that x correct and uh that was a fell through x the L all right I'm sorry Jezebel of x course Jezebel had a famous uh or x inFAMOUS death y x uh got pushed out the window yeah Ahab x also I believe died in battle and uh so x it leaves jorum and aaliar that I'll x leave for Steve Davis to x answer so so the yeah so I think you got x at least three or maybe four of them um x ahab's first son ahaziah was the one who x fell through the lattice he only reigned x for two years he's the one that inquired x of the prophets of Baal erron you know x am I going to get better or x not and uh the prophet of the Lord says x because you went to the prophets of Baal x and you didn't consult with Yahweh x you're not going to get better so he x dies of his injuries right um that's x credit to chat GPT on the bottom left x there that's ahaziah fallen through the x the L work that's Ahab dying in battle x versus the x syrians this is jehoshaphat's son uh x jehoram x um jehoram and jorum are confusing x because they basically use the names x interchangeably so jehos has a son named x jehoram he's the one that's married x athalia God smites him with some kind of x bowel disease it says his guts fell out x at the end you know he suffered x immensely uh he did not die well um um x and says nobody missed him nobody x regretted that he was he wasn't buried x with the kings of his with his fathers x um you know he's just a terrible King he x loses to Edom he loses to the x Philistines he loses x libna x um yeah so like politically internally x domestically like everything is just a x mess for him and so he's not beloved by x the people at all he dies of uh terrible x disease uh the other jehoram who's x ahab's son uh he takes over after x ahaziah dies from falling through the x last work he gets killed by juu right x so uh ju kills him then we've got this x is x athalia um no that's Jezebel Jezebel x falls through the window like Chris said x and then aalia Jezebel's daughter um x many years later after she's queen of x Judah she takes over when her husband x dies she becomes the queen and that's x where you have the story of joash who is x jehoshaphat's great grandson joash uh x escapes when all of his brothers die x they're assassinated by Queen aalia x because they're heirs to the throne she x wants to consolidate power for herself x um so only joish remains and he's taken x as a as a little baby he's raised in the x household of jeho you know this is many x generations after the period that we're x talking about um but when JEA finally x produces the air to the throne joash x uh a cries treason treason they say you x know don't kill her in the house of the x Lord take her outside do it there and x that's that's her end so so you know x kind of saying this is like um one of x those movies where you find the the the x end of the story at the very beginning x and then the rest of the movie is just x like what did it take to get us to that x situation um so that's how we started x last week and uh today we're going to x talk a little bit more about um x jehoshaphat's partnership with Israel x and that's really what led to um all of x these events so any questions so x far all right so if you have your Bibles x let's turn to 1 Chronicles chapter x 17 where am I x going I's see 1 Chronicles I meant 2 x Chronicles x okay so we spent a little bit of time x talking about the the I I'll call it the x narrative framework like the characters x the events the things that happen um x we'll spend a moment talking about the x historical and scriptural x framework x so apologize it's kind of small I wanted x to get the whole timeline of the kingdom x of Judah from left to right on the x screen um so you can see Jehosaphat and x his son jehoram they're the fourth and x fifth Kings of Judah they rule from x approximately 872 BC to x 841 um and there's a little couple years x of co- Regency they call it um I didn't x figure this all out for myself I owe a x lot of the credit to this book this x author you'll you'll see him referenced x uh Edwin thely mysterious numbers of the x Hebrew Kings this is very often x reference when people are kind of diving x into these topics he did the math he x figured it all out there a lot of pages x of research um and whenever he does a x great job of kind of dealing with x supposed con contradictions when you x know it says that this King a reigned x from the 11th year of King B and then x you look at King B and how long he x reigned and you you start doing the math x and all things don't seem like they're x working out he works it all out and x there's a number of uh I'm not going to x call them tricks but sort of keys to x unlocking why you occasionally get x contradictions uh things like sometimes x they I'm not even going to try to x explain it here um but they have x um well the first thing is the co- x regencies which I allude to sometimes x the Son and the father have overlapping x Reigns um so when it lists the total x time that the the father is raining that x doesn't mean that the the son is then x raining at the end of that many years so x there's a few things like that he points x out that give us a little more x flexibility for working out the dates x anyway this isn't going to be about x dates we're not going to spend a lot of x time on that kind of topic because I x cheated and I pull it all from this x book um it's research excuse me I did my x research and thanks Phil for blowing it x up there yeah so so I think Phil was x just illustrating the Cod Regency x between jash vorum you see there's a x little bit of an over overlap there all x right so so I I looked x into um okay here's the second x chronicles x record so just as a refresher 1 x Chronicles is all about David 2 x Chronicles 1-9 focuses on the reign of x Solomon so you have the United Kingdom x of Judah and Israel together all 12 x tribes um after Solomon we know that RAB x uh and jeroboam uh divide they go to war x with each other rabo takes over the the x 10 tribes and the I'm sorry rabom is the x two tribes Judah and Benjamin in the x South you've got Jobo who made Israel to x sin with the 10 tribes in the north x right he institutes the false Worship in x uh Dan and x bethl and um it's it's bad news from x there there on out so the Chronicles x account from 2 Chronicles 10 to 2 x Chronicles 36 FOC is on the kings of x Judah um and this is the text that we'll x primarily be going to to look at the x life of x Jehosaphat um now if you compare the x timeline in x scripture uh to the timeline of events x right you've got jahash and jehoram x reigning for about 9% of the total time x of the kingdom of Judah if you look at x the scripture account and this is where x I say like I I skim through all second I x Les each of the um if you just want to x leave on the the main slide x there Phil I want to kind of make the x point that we've got um so the the x timeline at the bottom what this x represents is the text of scripture from x 2 Chronicles 10 to 2 Chronicles 36 the x number of verses that are allocated to x the reign of each of the x Kings so you've got x um I'm not going to x attempt to name all the kings but x starting at the left you would have this x first dark blue box representing the x verses that correspond to the reign of x rabone and then you've got his son x abijah in the light blue just a few x verses about him and then you have x ASA uh in the the next dark blue box x from the left to right I think you can x kind of see how how this is supposed to x be oriented the remarkable thing here is x like the the three really good Kings of x of Israel Jehosaphat Hezekiah and Josiah x there's so much written about their x reign um in fact it's sort of a x disproportionate when you compare it to x the actual number of years that they x spent ruling um like I just have manasse x here called out as an example U Manasseh x is Josiah's x grandfather um so manasse reigned for x over 50 years I think it says like 55 x years um but there's not a whole lot x written about him because he is mostly x allous a king you know it says he was x evil he made Israel to sin you have um x the account of his repentance at the end x um and that's about all that scripture x really records about the life of x Manasseh uh but he he reigned for many x many many years undoubtedly he had a lot x of influence or many things that x happened during his life but it's just x not recorded for us um I think that's x really x interesting um any thoughts or your x questions about how this was x done okay so I did the same thing for x Israel um and I kept the time scale the x same so x the the kingdom of Judah was x approximately 344 years so after Solomon x and the split with rabom and jbam the x two kingdoms x separate Israel goes on for um 200 x 7 x years they go into captivity into x Assyria um Judah goes for a total 344 x years so you can see when we bring up x Israel that their timeline is x comparatively x shorter um because of they're terminated x early by the x Assyrians x um now what I have on the bottom this x time it's First Kings 12 to 2 Kings 17 x so again I've excluded the period of the x United monarchy David and Solomon x starting with jeroboam and rabo now the x interesting thing with first and second x Kings is they include the accounts of x both the northern kingdom of Israel and x Southern Kingdom of Judah um it's really x trying to capture x both whereas the 2 Chronicles is really x focused from the southern Kingdom of x judah's x perspective 2 Chronicles talks about x what's happening in the northern kingdom x but it it's really from the perspective x of the kings of x Judah um the the king's account is much x different in that and then includes both x uh so in this case you can see you got x the the blue and the red so the Red x Kings are uh Kings of Israel the blue x kings are the kings of Judah um the x accounts are interspersed the point I x want to make on this slide is really x when you look at the kings of account it x it's all about this period that we're x going to be talking about um with aab x and Jo for um and part of that part of x the reason why there's so much text of x scripture allocated to the Reigns of x those kings is because you have the x prophets Elijah and Elisha who are x working at that time so even though x you've got you know whole x chapters that occurred during the Reigns x of Ahab or joram um in a lot of cases x those kings aren't even mentioned in x those chapters they might be you know x you know Elisha and the the account of x name in the Syrian right or the account x of the the Widow of zapad um The x Showdown on Mount x Carmel which does involve Ahab and x Jezebel to a greater extent but the x point is you got these huge narrative x sections that are all about what's x happening with Elisha and Elijah and not x so much uh necessarily just focing on x you know this King took the took the x Reigns when he was this age and he x reigned for however many years and x whatever he did x um it's not just that kind of x chronicl okay x so again the point here is um although x these Kings Ahab and joram only reigned x for let's say 16% of the entire period x of the Kingdom of Israel um there's a x disproportionate amount of scripture x that's uh pertaining to the time of x their rule um so so all that's very x interesting to me because it it shows x that this is a period where God is x intervening where God is is working and x also documenting his work for our x benefit in Holy Scripture x uh so worth worth looking x into any comments so x far yeah reminds the book of the judges x right where you've got uh you know so x many years of apostasy you know so many x chapters of the apostasy but when you x look at the time period it's really a x relatively small period of time x yeah x yeah when you raised your hand I was I x was just going to comment to something x that's been x to our readings is x thats uh you know from uh starting with x from Isaiah all the way through your x Minor Prophets always seem to be focused x around the x and a lot of the x prophets x Israel that's right x yeah you x know perhaps the message of what Elijah x and x elishah more directed the need of what x Israel was about that because they were x soting anyways x yeah I just found it doing the readings x this year that all the prophets will x always seem to be right about the time x of Hezekiah and uh and the kings that x followed Hezekiah for that short period x of time that's a great x Point yeah I I think I'm I'm trying to x think about how that sort of relates to x us and we live in a period of time where x we may say that God is is bit more x behind the scenes he's not directly x intervening in miraculous ways the way x we read about often times in x scripture x um he's not speaking through His x prophets there's no new scripture being x produced in our time um I think it's x important to realize that they were x extended periods of time in the biblical x period where God wasn't speaking as x openly either um and so we we read about x all the miraculous things that happened x during the time of Elijah and Elisha and x it it sounds amazing and know if I was x there if I saw those sorts of things of x course I'd be a believer you know I x wouldn't be a baale worshipper um yeah x we we live in a different time but there x were also periods intermittently uh when x God wasn't speaking as openly as he did x through these prophets x um so it's important to remember it x wasn't there was no it wasn't I think x sometimes I think about the the biblical x period and think oh God was working x openly all the time there were Miracles x happening all the time it it wasn't like x that so x um anyway that's an x aside any other comments appreciate that x yeah get the x mic what do you got Jason yeah I think x that's a good point Ben um because in x our day and age we could x say the amount of things that God's x showing us whether whether it be the x reestablishment of the nation of x Israel um through science you know x proving that it's impossible for it's a x mathematical impossibility that man x could arrive here from nothing so we x have all these conclusive things that x drive us to believe in a Creator um and x you know the heavens the the Earth life x itself how nature works all of these x things and I think it's um Paul says you x know you're without excuse God's created x all these things but you've turned to x the imaginations of your heart and x you've made your own x Idols um so if we're looking in our day x and age there's there's quite a bit x there where God is revealing himself uh x if we're paying attention yeah that's x true that's true even if we're not x seeing um the more miraculous splashy x sort of Miracles right life x itself that's a great x Point yeah okay okay great so I I wanted x to do this for myself personally um it's x edifying for me to look at the text of x scripture and what's there and I I found x that before doing the study of x Jehosaphat and I had done a study of x Elijah and Elisha a couple years ago I x think that's really when I first had x this dawning appreciation for the books x of kings and Chronicles um it's easy to x say oh they the historical books um it's x it's hard to describe some what's in x each one of them for me it was very x enlightening and I'd never heard in x Sunday school or any other class hey the x books of Kings it covers both Israel and x Judah the books of Chronicles it's x really about Judah and the Kings bit is x incidental to that x um so just a really high level kind of x takeaway x there x um next slide here I want to to share x was x um the table of contents for the Old x Testament um we're probably pretty x familiar with the contents of the the x Old Testament and and even Brother Rich x Denine in his Bible class uh just this x past week I think he was talking about x the Tanakh the Hebrew scriptures and the x uh it's organized in in three main x sections the law the prophets and the x the sacred x writings x um and so x so I guess in our Old Testament Bibles x how many books do we have in the Old x Testament anybody know off x hand 66 in the Bible there's 39 in the x Old Testament Joel you were going to say x that x yes and 39 in the Old Testament and 27 x the new so if you add up the number of x books here you don't get 39 x anybody have any ideas why that might x be you're only getting 22 in the Hebrew x scriptures y so uh it's on the slide x here so like first and 2 Chronicles are x combined Jeremiah includes Lamentations x the Book of Judges included the book of x ruthi Ezra Nehemiah yeah x um and then the the big one is the book x of 12 prophets which is actually all x right so there's the math 22 + 17 gets x you to x 39 x um and so the list that I'm working off x and there are different lists x um but this was this was actually in the x prologue of Jerome's translation of the x Vulgate The Vulgate was the I believe it x was the first Latin translation of the x Bible so you had um both the Old and the x New Testament the original Hebrew and x then the Greek books were translated x into Latin I don't remember exactly when x this was in the first couple of x centuries uh maybe third or fourth x Century actually uh for x Jerome um so so it's very very early x right um and so this is important x because when we think about our Bibles x and you know which ancient texts were x selected to be in our Bibles um there's x very early history of these books being x uh collated um and presented together as x a Hebrew Bible now that goes far be x before Jerome you have the seent Greek x translation of the Old Testament which x was originally written in Hebrew of x course that was in I think the 2 Century x BC so you you have these various lists x and translators who are putting together x their versions of the Holy scriptures x and they're always grappling with well x which books do we include um and and a x pretty consistent basis it's these 39 x books in our Bible and sometimes they're x combined right the the Chronicles or x Hebrew and I'm sorry judges and Ruth x being put together you know but the x content is the same um I thought that x was really x interesting x now if you look at the history of x Chronicles a lot of Scholars will tell x you that Chronicles was compiled during x the time of the Exiles I say compiled x not written because the original writing x comes from an earlier era um and we'll x look at that in just a x moment but the thought among a lot of x Scholars is that this the first and 2 x Chronicles have this focus on the x righteous Kings of Judah because the x people were in Babylon as x Exiles and in Babylon they were thinking x about right the sins of the fathers x remember we kind of started last week's x talk by talking about um that proverb x the the CH the fathers have eaten sour x grapes and the children's teeth are set x on edge and as an exile in Bible on x you're you're thinking well they did the x bad things and I'm bearing the x consequence I'm the one that actually x went into captivity God in his Mercy you x know forgave them and withheld judgment x for years and years and now in this x generation it's my family that has to go x to Babylon and bear the consequences of x the the unrighteous x fathers so that that whole mindset might x have been pervading and influencing the x compilers of the book ofr Chronicles to x hey we're going to look at Jehosaphat x we're going to look at Hezekiah and x Josiah and these righteous kings and x we're going to allocate most of the x history that we record to their x righteous Deeds so that you know the x children our children may then benefit x from their x example so I thought it was interesting x when you look at the breakdown in the x Hebrew Bible that you've got uh Samuel x and Kings written in this book of the x prophets and then you've got Chronicles x which is there with Ezra and Esther and x the Prophet Daniel and some of these x later writings that were more kind of x time appropriate for the period of the x Exiles and the return of the x Exiles let's x see so as we think about jahash that x most of our source materials in 2 x Chronicles uh chapter 17 to 21 uh if we x only had the books of the Kings uh we x would be limited to First x Kings x uh 22: 41-50 so let's go to let's go to x there briefly First Kings x 22 so as we mentioned earlier you know x Kings has the accounts of both the Kings x of Israel and the kings of Judah and it x kind of goes back and forth between each x of them x First Kings 22 picking up at verse x 41 Jehosaphat the son of Asa began to x Reign Over Judah in the fourth year of x Ahab king of Israel so they're x contemporaries josah ah Jehoshaphat was x 35 years old when he began to Reign he x reigned 25 years in Jerusalem his x mother's name was isuba the daughter of x sheli he walked in all the ways of Asa x his father he turned not aside from it x doing that which was right in the eyes x of the Lord nevertheless the high places x were not taken away for the people x offered and burnt incense yet in the x high places he's a great reformer he x doesn't quite get it all the way the x people are still um worshiping at the x high places he made peace with the king x of Israel that's notable and then verse x 45 the rest of the acts of jehos his x might that he showed and how he wared x are they not written in the book of The x Chronicles of the kings of x Judah now it's possible that you know x just briefly reading through that you x would say oh he's talking about the 2 x Chronicles account right the rest of the x acts of the Kings I don't think that was x the case actually I think both Kings and x Chronicles refer to Source material that x was older than the books themselves I'll x tell you why I think that uh if you turn x to 2 Chronicles 20 verse 34 x actually before we get there let's go to x 2 Chronicles chapter 19 so 2 Chronicles x 18 WI a chapter earlier I'm sorry for x jumping all over the place here 2 x Chronicles 18 is all about jehoshaphat's x alliance with Ahab Jehosaphat marries x off his son to ahab's daughter Queen x aaliah and jehoram get married at the x very beginning of 2 Chronicles 18 a few x later years later they get together and x they're having a feast in x Samaria ahab's invited jehos fat down to x this great feast um it says well hey x since you're here I've been mean to ask x you about the syrians right they took x ramoth Gilead from us why does Ben Hadad x king of Syria get to hold on to to x ramoth Gilead that's our land and x jehoshua says my people are as your x people I will go with you to battle and x you have the whole account of jashad and x Ahab going to war with Syria and x jehoshaphat's wearing the uh the king's x Garb and ahab's going undercover and all x benh hadad's men go after jeash you x whole the whole situation Ahab dies x right and then we get to 2 Chronicles 19 x so ahab's dead and it says jehos fat the x king of Judah returned to his house in x peace to x Jerusalem and juu verse two J who the x son of hanani the Seer went out to meet x him and said to King Jehosaphat should x you help the ungodly and love them that x hate the Lord therefore is wroth upon x thee from before the Lord not to be x confused with J the uh the king of x Israel right this is juu the son of x haniah the prophet and he rebukes josa x he says what are you doing dealing with x these guys in in Israel right you're x supposed to be helping those that love x the Lord not bail worshiping Ahab and x Jezebel so he's rebuked by the prophet x of the Lord um so I only I only really x mention that at this point to introduce x juu right there's this Prophet that was x active and we don't really hear too much x about x J but if you turn the page over to 2 x Chronicles x 20 verse x 34 now the rest of the acts of x Jehosaphat first and last behold they x are written in the book of juu the son x of hanani who is mentioned in the book x of The Kings of Israel x so this tells us that there is a x contemporary chronicler to Jehosaphat x somebody who's keeping the Records who x lived at the same time as Jehosaphat who x was the prophet of the Lord and he he x wrote a book now we don't have his book x in our Bible but it's very likely that x the books we do have in our Bible were x compiled based on his his x writings but yeah occasionally in x scripture you read about the these other x books books these lost books like in in x uh Joshua it references the book of x jasher or something like that and it's x like oh it would be interesting if we x had those books but the Bible that we x have likely was written um by people x that were drawing on those Source texts x um and for me that just you know that's x that's an interesting thing to know it x shows that there's some credibility to x the words that we have that there there x were Faithful Men Who who looked at the x available text written by contemporaries x this isn't something that you know x speculating based on Word of Mouth x tradition or or legends that were passed x down to generations and eventually got x written down and oh people will often x accuse the Bible of just being a book of x Legends right x um that's that's not actually the case x there was attribution there was Source x documents uh This was done in a very x scholarly uh and and thoughtful x manner so just something to bear in mind x we have a lot of reasons to be confident x in the text of x scripture thoughts or comments before we x go x on all x right x so let's move x on as I mentioned uh jahash Fett's Reign x is primarily recorded in 2 Chronicles x there is one account in 2 Kings 3 which x which is not present in the book of x Chronicles um and again this may be a x little bit of bias shown for the the x good things jehos fat did x um if we look at I'm just going to move x through this fairly quickly um 2 x Chronicles 17 you get the summary that x the Lord was with jehos fad because he x walked in the ways of his father David x he didn't seek Baal uh but he sought the x god of his father and walked in his x Commandments not according to the x practices of Israel x um so in verse five we read that the x Lord established the kingdom in his hand x and all Judah brought to Jehosaphat x presence he was he had riches he had x honor and abundance um in verse six we x read that his heart was courageous in x the ways of the Lord uh he took the high x places in the asham out of x Judah x um this is interesting in verse 10 the x fear of the Lord fell upon all the x kingdoms of the lands that were round x about Judah so that they made no war x with x Jehosaphat so he has peace in his time x as well God is fighting his x battles um we talked about 2 Chronicles x 18 briefly that's sort of the the x alliance that he makes with Ahab we'll x skip over that for now let's go to 2 x Chronicles x 19 x um so we read about the prophet J in the x first couple vers versus juu concludes x his rebuke to Jehosaphat by saying verse x three nevertheless there are good things x sound in you in that you have taken away x the Groves out of the land the ashon out x of the land and have prepared your heart x to seek x God x um so you know despite his alliance with x Ahab and that gets called out right he x shouldn't have been allied with the x Northern Kingdom of Israel um there was x still a lot of good that jahash x did and jash that dwelt at Jerusalem x verse four and he went out again through x the people from BBA to Mount Ephraim x that's kind of the the furthest point x south and the furthest Points North it x says he goes out into all the people of x the land and he teaches them about the x Lord he brings them back to the Lord God x of their fathers verse five he set x judges in the land throughout all the x fence cities of Judah City by City he x said to the judges take heed what you do x for you judge not for man but for the x Lord who is with you in the x Judgment wherefore now let the fear of x the Lord be upon you take heed and do it x for there's no iniquity with the Lord x Our God no no respect of persons nor x taking of gifts so they're saying well x like you are being charged with a judge x over God's people now in this position x of authority to administer Justice you x can't be taking bribes you can't be x turning a blind eye you have to see the x way that God does and and judge the way x that God does you can't uh take gifts x you can't respect persons um so this is x a really strong position against sort of x the corruption that we see in Justice x systems all over the world right um we x have a Justice problem as human beings x uh our Justice and judgment is not x perfect and um God's is this is jehoshua x trying to uphold that same x standard uh verse 9 x um actually I don't think we got to x verse 9 verse 8 in Jerusalem did x Jehoshaphat said of the Levites and of x the priests and the chief of the fathers x of Israel for the Judgment of the Lord x for controversies when they return to x Jerusalem and he charged them saying x thus you will do in the fear of the Lord x faithfully and with a perfect x heart and what CA soever shall come to x you of your brethren that dwell in their x cities between blood and blood between x law and Commandments statutes and x judgments you shall not you shall even x warn them that they tresp not against x the Lord and so wrath come upon you upon x your brethren this do and you shall not x trespass and behold old amariah the x chief priest is over you in all the x matters of the Lord and zebediah the son x of Ishmael the ruler of the house of x Judah for all the king's matters also x the levite shall be officers before you x deal courageously and the Lord will be x with the good um so I think it's really x remarkable that jehos fat went he he x kind of mixed with the people and he was x a preacher of righteousness himself he x brought the people back to the Lord he x appoints these judges uh it reminded me x of of x Moses right is with Jethro I think x Jethro is the one that comes to Moses x and says Moses you you can't do this by x yourself you need help and he points um x I think the council that would later x become the Sanhedrin um the 70 uh rulers x in x Israel so jehos is doing the same thing x he's sing up judges and the way it's x written it kind of reminded me of um our x judicial system so we have like the x district court and then you have the x Circuit Court of Appeals and then the x final court is the Supreme Court so the x most uh influential cases uh go to the x Supreme Court if you have an appeal that x is rejected by the the circuit courts I x think you can petition the Supreme Court x to to hear your case so a lot of the the x kind of key decisions are made at the x Supreme Court of the United States and x all reads that way with he's got the x City by city in verse five he's got uh x judges at Jerusalem and then all else x fails you've got the high priest who's x like the ultimate Arbiter of cases um x that we read about amariah the chief x priest in verse x 11 so I don't know if that's kind of how x things worked out but he's put a lot of x thought he's there's a lot of x organization that goes into judicial x reform in the time of x Jehosaphat um what else um we're not x going to talk about today but kind of x the the hital moment of jehoshaphat's x Reign occurs in this time of crisis when x it's him vers Ammon Moab and Edom these x three enemies of of Israel a lie and x they invade his land and um there's this x remarkable sort of situation where where x uh it's the stand still and see the x salvation of the Lord the Lord x intervenes and jvat offers this this x this wonderful prayer um asking for God x to to help the people and he x does um so we'll say that for maybe uh a x future class

Transcript

okay so uh last Sunday in December um x still making our way through jashia fat x uh my goal was to to wrap things up x today um but then I also heard I might x have the opportunity to go for another x week so if we get the bonus week we're x going to be doing uh let's see jehoram x and aalia I would say as sort of the x next chapter of the story here uh we'll x try to finish Jehosaphat today x uh let's see so turn your Bibles to 2 x Chronicles chap 20 that's where we're x going to be spending most of our time x today so so far we've looked at King x Jehosaphat the time period that he lived x in his marriage Alliance to the house of x Ahab in the Northern Kingdom of Israel x we looked at the textual account of his x life kind of the focus in 2 Chronicles 7 x through 20 um and then some incidentals x that appear in the First Kings and x second Kings accounts uh but primarily x the focus being that Chronicles account x um we kind of dived into some x interesting stuff with uh the book of ji x who the chronicler uh whose book was not x recorded in our Canon of x scripture but is alluded to a couple of x times um we looked at jahash Fett's x excellent domestic policies the reforms x that he enacted Within the the two x tribes of Judah and Benjamin that he x reigned over he we looked at the way in x which he traveled throughout Judah and x he taught the people the word of God and x he also appointed judges from City to x City throughout Judah he taught them to x uh to deal with equity and to have x righteous judgment to see the way that x God sees to not take bribes or withhold x Justice or show x partiality um he really did wonderful x things for the nation of Judah but where x he got into trouble is with his x alliances with the house of Ahab first x Ahab then ahab's son ahaziah and after x ahaziah ahab's other son x jehoram or joram as he's also x known um but then he counterbalanced him x look at what he did in his own country x he got rid of the the baale worship and x he got rid of the ashra um and a lot of x these sort of Canaanite Pagan rights x that were still part of the worship in x Judah um so he did many good things for x his people x um now you could see I I kind of x thinking of for a name of the series I I x was kind of struck on Jehosaphat the the x imperfect reformer because he he was a x reformer he wanted to change things he x wanted to make things better but he x didn't do it perfectly if you compare x the Reformation that he was doing in x Judah to the kind of reformation that x was happening in Israel it's an x altogether different scene so we'll x spend a couple minutes thinking about um x what was happening in Israel today x so this is uh Ahab and x Jezebel x um so let's let's look x at we've got this this marriage alliance x between Jehosaphat and Ahab and his x family jehoshaphat's x son uh jehoram marries Ahab and x Jezebel's daughter athaliah and so the x two families were x connected I always the key question in x my mind studying this is why would he do x this why is he making this this alliance x with with Israel with these notorious x idolators in the northern kingdom um x we'll just run through some of some of x the ahab's greatest hits right so things x kind of this is in roughly chronological x order but in First Kings 16 uh he he x marries Jezebel Jezebel was the daughter x of a sidonian king a man named x ethbaal um and this this would have been x directly contrary to what the law stated x in Deuteronomy 7 verse 3 and 4 do not x intermar with x them this was referring to the x Canaanites when the children of Israel x went into the land uh the law was x advising against inter marriage with the x Canaanites of course I think the broader x principle is don't Forge alliances with x the world that's what the law was really x teaching uh Deuteronomy 7:3 says do not x give your daughter daughters to their x sons or take their daughters for your x sons for they will turn your children x away from following me to serve other x gods and the Lord's anger will burn x against you and will quickly destroy you x this is exactly what was happening Ahab x mared Jezebel forges this alliance with x the sidonian King x Ethel which we actually don't really x hear much about them or really what you x know what was the benefit of that x Alliance there wasn't War With The x Phoenician king um but there's not a l x said of it Beyond this what we do read x about is Jezebel instituting bail x Worship in Israel on a scale that had x never been before been seen um she goes x after the prophets of Yahweh um we x remember that story about Obadiah hiding x the prophets in the caves because they x were being persecuted she would have x killed them all if he hadn't hidden them x um that's not today's story but this was x the influence of Jezebel the consequence x of marriage um to foreign ruler's x daughter uh let's see what else uh Ahab x built an altar for Baal this is in First x Kings 16:32 he erected an altar for x baale in a temple he built in Samaria so x there there was also a temple erected in x Samaria uh just leading Israel deeper x into Baal x worship we read about Ahab constructing x an Ashera pole This was um a relic of x Canaanite x religion um he provoked God more than x previous Kings the the Bible explicitly x states that Ahab did more to provoke the x Lord's anger than all the kings of x Israel before that's including Jobo x right the one who is consistently x referred to as he who made Israel to sin x right Jobo the son of nead the first x king of Israel uh really sort of put x those 10 tribes in the north down that x bad path by creating sort of a x hybridized x um kind of Yahweh wor but with a lot of x AP paste kind of elements right the x golden cows and den and berseba um a x priesthood that wasn't the real x priesthood that God had ordained so it x kind of looked like the real article but x it was different it wasn't what God x intended um so he kind of put Israel on x this path now in the time of Ahab you x have like this next level like this x isn't even Yahweh worship at all it's x not even any semblance of Yahweh worship x it's it's just straight up baale right x that's what Jezebel brought in so we we x often think about jeroboam as being sort x of that notoriously Wicked King because x he put Israel in that bad path but about x Ahab it says he provoked God more than x any previous King and so that's that's x really saying something we talked x touched on this already he allowed x Jezebel to kill God's x prophets okay so here's a big one right x naboth naboth's Vineyard this was his x inheritance that was close to the temp x the palace walls and Ahab wanted to x expand his footprint a little bit he x wanted to get that nice Garden that was x next to the palace and kind of add it to x his x Holdings um nebo's not selling it's his x inheritance is very important to him uh x so Jezebel pulls some strings and she x ends up having Neo executed right they x they bring in the false Witnesses and x they um they destroy his family uh x it's not in the book of Kings but um x elsewhere I don't know if I have the x reference I don't think I do oh Second x Kings n so this is is much later we read x about nebo's Sons had also been killed x right and that's important because the x inheritance would have gone to them so x not only did Jezebel have to kill this x righteous man she had to kill his sons x too that's that's just awful a very very x Wicked person um and so we we hear about x ahab's character he's repeatedly x referred to as being vexed and Sullen I x think the King James version says like x heavy and displeased like when he can't x get the vineyard he's heavy and x displeased he just gets into a mood and x and the only thing that can make him x feel happy is is getting what he wants x through these sinful means of his his x wife Jezebel uh so he has no Reign Over x her he you know she she does what she x thinks he wants and he benefits from it x the way that he he would like to x benefit and and God says you know this x is this this can't stand x um I think I'm a little bit out of order x here uh but the next example I have is x failing to destroy Ben Hadad benh Hadad x was the king of Syria Syria and Israel x were at War um but it gets a little bit x confusing um if you're in First Kings 20 x which you're probably not I'm going to x flip x there we're just running through the x laundry list of uh ahab's kind of x miserable x Reign um he has all kinds of problems x right in First Kings 20 he's he's at war x with the syrians x um verse two Ben Hadad sent Messengers x to Ahab king of Israel and says thus x says benad thy silver thy gold is mine x your wives also your children even the x goodliest you belong to me he just says x all the stuff that you value I'm taking x it it doesn't belong to you anymore x right he's the bully on the schoolyard x just kind of asserting his will he he's x saying you don't know it yet but this is x what's about to happen I'm going to take x all your stuff everything you care about x um so that tells you about the the kind x of guy Ben haad is right um and actually x Ahab ends up beating him beats him twice x beats him in the plains and in the x valley right they say oh he's the god of x the the plans we're going to fight in x the valleys and vice versa right but God x is God everywhere he's Sovereign x um so God actually wants Ahab to defeat x benh Hadad but when the time comes Ahab x calls benad my brother the guy that was x taking his kids and his wives and his x money is my brother love that x guy so so whereas God had marked Syria x for Destruction um Ahab even foils that x right even when it's in his interest to x to be aligned with x God uh he he messes that up x somehow uh he consults the false x prophets for guidance uh before going x into battle um you remember there's Mike x the prophet he says I hate that guy he x never prophesies anything good about me x I got like 400 other guys here who who x will tell me exactly what I want to hear x um and those guys by the way they were x they're supposedly prophets of of Yahweh x but not the not the real ones right x jehos could see past that uh but that's x not what Ahab wanted to x hear uh he refused to repent fully he x does Rend his garments he puts on sacko x after this issue with naboth and Elijah x calls him out about his sin um he does x appear to uh repent but you know in the x next chapter look we're just talk x talking about he's just he's still x surrounded by these these uh prophets x are just telling him what he wants to x hear it almost seems like one of those x Sor I got caught not Sor I did it x situations right he's he's not happy x with the way the situation plays out x with with Elijah rebuking him and x everything x um but I I don't know if he really would x have done things me differently so x anyway we we've kind of worked the list x pretty good here there was none Who Sold x himself to do uh what was evil in the x sight of the Lord like Ahab whom Jezebel x his wife incited that's kind of the x closing remarks on ahab's x life so again the the question that just x kept coming back to me is why does jehos x have anybody anything to do with this x rotten character um and we don't really x know I mean the Bible doesn't really x give an answer to what jehoshaphat's x motives were um you can only really x speculate I got a few ideas I'll share x and love to hear yours as well but I x think it's noteworthy to to see that x this wasn't a one time thing either kind x of the the the key joining moment x between Ahab and jehoshaphat's family x was this marriage Alliance um in 2 x Chronicles 18 x ver1 um the King James version says that x they were joined in x Affinity um and I had kind of speculated x I think I think in the first class on x the series that maybe the ESV is being a x little bit interpretive here and saying x that you know this making Affinity is a x marriage x um I I looked into this a little more x and it does seem like this this x terminology that King James uses um the x Hebrew is suggestive of of wedding of of x joining in x marriage you can see a couple examples x there on the screen it's also translated x in law as in like Jethro was Moses's x father-in-law so you have sort of that x Affinity like through marriage Through x The Binding of of matrimony so I I think x they're really is it's pretty clear that x this is talking about ahaziah um I'm x sorry not ahaziah uh jehoram bearing x apala Ahab and Jezebel's x daughter um so you've got the marriage x Alliance years later there's a military x Alliance we read about the great feast x that they have um and and uh Ahab x suggests that they go up to war and take x back ramoth Gilead ramoth Gilead was x actually one of the Cities of Refuge in x the tribe of GAD I believe had been x taken by the syrians and ahab's like we x got to we got to take it back this is x our territory it belongs to us we need x to take it back and Josh vet says I am x as you are my people as your your people x my horses as are as your your horses you x know what I have belongs to you right so x really the language of unity unified in x purpose and desire to go after x raymont x Gilead um josua is rebuked for this x right and we have good reason why I mean x Psalm 26 I hate the Assembly of x evildoers I will not sit with the wicked x here's jehos he's having a feast they're x killing the fatted calf up in Samaria x jehoshaphat's invited so he's he's up x there partying with Ahab and Ahab uses x that opportunity to draw him into uh x this war against x Syria um from 2 Chronicles 19 x uh the prophet of the Lord comes to x Joshua and says should you help the x wicked and love those who hate the Lord x because of this wrath has gone out x against you from the x Lord um and that one's worth looking at x if you're in 2 x Chronicles x 19 we spent some time in 2 Chronicles 18 x last week or two weeks ago uh just x looking at that battle for Ramo Gilead x and that's the one where the archers are x shooting at random and they happen to x strike Ahab even though he's not wearing x his his kingly garments uh and they get x him he dies he bleeds out in his Chariot x right and they they wash it in the pool x Sam x area Joshua on the other hand is dressed x up as the king and the syrians do Target x him uh so The Archers are are going x after Jehosaphat initially and somehow x he escapes in 2 Chronicles 19 we read x that the king of Judah returned to his x house in peace to Jerusalem I think x that's a reference to what just happened x in the previous chapter in the previous x chapter they were at War Ahab didn't x survive it but Jehosaphat returns to his x house in x peace x um so you have that kind of linking the x two chapters together and immediately in x verse two juu the son of hanani the Seer x goes out to meet jehos and he delivers x the this rebuke from the x Lord so it's not really an ambiguous x thing you know should Jehoshaphat have x been allied with Israel or not um you x know knowing what we know about Ahab x probably wasn't a good idea no the x prophet of the Lord actually says you x know he was out of line by getting x involved with x Ahab any comments or questions so far x got the x microphone Chris I know you're good for x one whenever you're x ready if you like to we can x uh I under the law I think naboth would x have been only able to sell that up to x seven years anyhow right uh I I think x when they sold The Possession It would x revert after seven years in other words x if you bought in the fourth year you'd x pay less than if you bought in the third x year or something like that as well x right so yeah the Sabbath year of return x perhaps you know Ahab wasn't worried x about the law any longer at that point x anyhow but uh I don't know if it was in x nebo's power to sell it eternally or x perpetually anyhow you x know and maybe that's you know being a x righteous man maybe that was his push x back it's like it could never really x belong to you anyway that's great x Point thanks x question all right so we have Jehosaphat x and Ahab any anybody else before we move x on x it's it's always so much to cover and I x I don't like skimming over things but I x want to make the point that there was x basically three alliances here it's it's x with Ahab it's with ahab's first son and x ahab's Second x Son um so you have this ship building x Venture with ahab's first son who takes x over after Ahab dies King ahaziah uh he x he goes into this ship building Venture x with Jehosaphat and that ends badly uh x God judges them and then after ahaziah x dies Jehosaphat Alles with with ahab's x next son whose name was jehoram and they x go to war against the moabites because x the moabites have rebelled against x Israel they used to pay Ahab tribute and x sheep and they stop paying their tribute x after Ahab dies jehoram is like what x what's going on with this you know you x guys have always paid my father it's x time to pay up and so they go to war he x says hey jash can you come with me to x war um so he he keep this is a pattern x of behavior on jehoshaphat's side he x wants to be involved with the Northern x Kingdom of x Israel all right so a couple thoughts on x this um one that occurred to me was you x know jhosua might have SE seen himself x as as a uniter somebody who could bring x back the the United monarchy um somehow x he could pull together Israel and Judah x into a single Kingdom once again we know x that after the time of Solomon there was x uh a series of Wars between Israel and x Judah x um and maybe Jehoshaphat saw his place x you know remember he's only the fourth x king of Judah at this point it's still x relatively a relatively new situation x this sort of division between the tribes x maybe he thought he could Stitch things x up again it's just speculation x um I I do wonder if he was also looking x to kind of continue the moral reforms x that he was doing in Judah and extend x that to the 10 tribes in the x north remember whenever he shows up he's x asking for a prophet from the Lord he's x trying to influence the people in Israel x the king in Israel at least to listen to x the prophets of the Lord uh we see that x in SEC Second Kings um I'm sorry 2 x Chronicles 18 Mike where he calls for x Mike IIA we see it again in First Kings x 3 that's that third alliance with now x ahab's Second Son x jorum and it's the same situation x they're out in the field of battle he x says isn't there a Prophet of the lord x we can inquire about and it's it's x actually Elisha that time Elisha x Elijah's x predecessor is there with x him so we won't go to that passage quite x yet but it does seem like maybe he's x trying to introduce the teaching of the x Lord and consultation from the Lord a x little x more um couple ideas I x had x um I wonder if this question has ever x crossed other's minds people have ideas x about this as well I'd be happy to hear x it so just uh feel free to interrupt me x if you like um another possibility is he x was just doing x what kind of came natural and what he x saw Ahab doing um we know that uh Ahab x had this alliance with Ben haad we just x mentioned it a few minutes ago x um yeah I'm not going to repeat this but x this whole situation where you know Ben x haad is is going to take all of his x stuff and um he doesn't have a problem x with that Ahab defe beats him in battle x he he asks if he if he still lives he x says that Ben Hadad is is his brother uh x which is remarkable after the Syrian x King threatened his x family x um yeah lots of interesting stuff x happening in First Kings 20 x and22 but this is sort of the same x situation where you know Ahab makes an x alliance with Ben haad even though he x shouldn't have josva is doing the same x thing with Ahab x um there's also the marriage alliance x between Jehosaphat and Ahab that mimics x the marriage between Ahab and Ethel the x king of x sidonians um you know the the man who x raised Jezebel to be ahab's x wife x um so there's a little statue here of x they think this was what Ethel looked x like um a painted figurine that they x found in um one of these TS one of these x um excavation sites uh basically a big x Mound where you know many centuries of x many generations of people live in the x same place and over time it kind of x builds up and it's it's great because x it's stratified into all these different x layers and depending on which layer x you're and you can kind of tell which x period of History it belongs to so they x found this this little statue I've got x the image in the bottom right there of x the eth Bale at least they think it's x eth Bale it could also be Ahab or Ben x haad according to the article I was x reading they're not sure who exactly was x I went with f Bale uh because it suited x my purposes um but uh yeah so the golden x headband he's suggests sort of the royal x lineage um you know a few other things x that they found interesting it was in x this this um Tel called Abel Beth mayaka x which is up there in Northern Israel uh x it was at the crossroads of these three x kingdoms of the sidonians the syrians x and the Kingdom of Israel so they don't x really know who it belonged to um and we x don't know much about King eth bale of x sidon um except that he was married at a x marriage alliance with Ahab through his x daughter x Jezebel um so maybe jeash is just seeing x this and he's saying this is what the x the other nations are doing this is what x I'm going to get involved in as well so x he he marries his son to Jezebel's x daughter um and I one point I I can make x sort of made the passing remark that x it's difficult to know what the takeaway x is uh when when we're reading this we x read the Epistles we read the New x Testament and the teaching is just so x clear the application is so clear x and I I think it's clear here too but x it's not really expounded upon quite the x same way we just see this pattern of x behavior where jehoshaphat's getting x involved where he probably shouldn't be x and it's having really bad consequences x for his family in the first class we x looked at all those people in the family x photo and except for joset all six of x them die untimely unnatural deaths um x and it's through this association with x with the Bale worshipping House of of x Ahab excuse me um so I just thought of x these these two passages from from 1 and x 2 x Corinthians x um do not be unequally yolked with x unbelievers for what partnership has x righteousness with lawlessness or what x Fellowship has light with x Darkness uh this is often cited in the x context of of marriage I think like the x marriage Union which is definitely x appropriate for the story at hand here x but it should also apply to like our x friendships or our business ventures or x anybody that we're getting involved with x even if it's like the people that we we x have enjoy Hobbies with right we have x similar interests in what what what are x those alliances and maybe Alliance is x too strong of a word um or some of the x more passing sort of acquaintances that x we we inevitably do have right we're not x cloistered away from the world x right so so what how are we supposed to x think about those x relationships um outside of the family x of God um I I don't have any concern x about my relationship with any of you uh x because I know that you all are a x positive influence on me that you have x the right orientation headed to the x kingdom and you know we all want to go x there together right we're poting in the x the same direction Ahab was not directed x the same way that Jehoshaphat was the x reforms he was enacting in Israel were x very different from the reforms x Jehoshaphat was doing in Judah so x Jehosaphat if that was his intention was x to persuade Ahab and his family in a x better Direction um there was a lot of x uh sort x of x inertia in in a different direction that x he was going to have to course correct x and and obviously wasn't able x to that makes sense so it is x thought-provoking for us um in our x associations outside of the Ecclesia to x think about you how much am I invest in x this what's realistic in terms of my x ability to influence others for x good and I don't want to under settle x that short because I I'm all about I I x think Bible's very clear about x associating with people outside of uh x the house of Christ to to bring them in x a in the right direction so that that x that's a good motive um but are we going x after the Ahab of the world or people x that actually are liable to be x influenced by x us um second passage uh First x Corinthians 15 do not be deceived Bad x Company ruins good x morals and for me you know I morals that x I have that are good are very x susceptible to failing I I'm I'm x self-aware enough to realize that um x that I think of the the passage in job x who can bring a clean thing out of an x unclean it's it's not possible um to x bring clean out of the x unclean x um now a lot of things become possible x through Christ and through the power of x God in the in the New Testament but um x the general principle is that you can't x make a glass of dirty water clean by x adding clean water to the dirty water x water right it just creates more dirty x water um and that's sort of that inertia x I was referring to before that that bias x towards contamination that's what the x Old Testament is all about um SE making x the difference between the clean and the x unclean um and then we we learn in the x New Testament about how we can become x clean even though we we are by nature x unin and so there's that kind of x remarkable exception that we've all been x uh granted the opport to enjoy uh but in x general the principle is you can't do x that there's there's clean and unclean x so I I think this is the the lesson that x the whole account of jehos and his life x and challenges and triumphs and failures x kind of brings us to this um kind of x grappling with this this association x with those outside of outside of the x eclesia yeah any thoughts or comments on x that x and in that um you know most of us have x um acquaintances x neighbors people that we spend a lot of x time with uh through work or through x Hobbies as you said x and uh I know for x myself um I wish that I was better x at sharing my faith or getting my x friends to uh take an interest in my x faith not sure how I can do that better x you know I think sometimes I would uh I x would try and do that simply x by trying to be a good example right but x I think it's more than just being a good x guy you know I think that we need to x speak of our faith and be that light in x the Dark x World x um yeah I don't know really where I'm x going with it other than I know you know x one example I could share and I'm sure x everybody has got similar examples but x you know I have a lot of acquaintances x and friends who I do bike riding with x cycling with and um you know there was a x time where I was getting a lot of phone x calls and texts you know on Friday and x Saturday saying hey we got a Sunday x morning group ride coming up you know x can you come um and it would be easy for x me to you know be swayed that way if I I x if you know if I was susceptible to that x I suppose right x um and now I think that that's given me x one opportunity where I can say look you x know my faith is really important to me x and I have a commitment on Sunday x mornings and um the phone calls don't x come anymore the texts don't come x anymore occasionally they do you know x you're you're still doing that church x thing Steve you know stuff like that I'm x just curious if other folks have x examples where they've been able to like x share their faith more like I was x impressed when we at Brother's class Ben x and you were talking about how you had a x Bible class at work um you I think those x things we to try and do more you know x bring people out more we've got a x wonderful hope um and I think we're x doing a disservice to our x friendships with folks when we're not uh x sharing the faith as much yeah was that x uh was it pen and Teller one of those x guys said like they don't respect x Christians that don't evangelize because x if they really believe what they say x they believe you know wouldn't they be x trying to save us all right interesting x yeah yeah thanks for sharing this x anybody else have thoughts along those x lines struggle with those kinds of x questions I I think talking about your x faith is is very challenging and um x especially when you get the sense that x people don't want to hear about it um x aren't x interested Josh fat to his credit he he x doesn't roll over for Ahab when he says x hey I got all these I got 400 prophets x telling me to go up to war and things x are going to go great right you got that x guy who brings out the horns he's like x with these horns we're going to push the x syrians he's he's even like uh he's x doing object lessons and it must have x been very convincing and compelling it's x like all right let's go I got my horses x Josh was very strong militarily um he x was a great Ally to have I'm sure um so x so why not just go for it he says no we x got to consult the Lord we got to see x what the Lord has said say about this um x so I I do think he made that extra x effort to to be Winsome and to to share x with Ahab but x um hopefully we don't have friends like x Ahab um I think that's another kind of x it's not an apples and apples sort of x comparison for us usually um we talk x about the slippery path of Youth when x you are coming up right you you have x lots of opportunities to make friends x with people like aab or Worse x um x yeah anybody x else all right x I'm trying to think about I don't want x to get into anything I got another x segment here I think I'll say for for x next x week x um so we'll probably x stop right after this let's go quickly x through 2 Chronicles x 20 you know Ben just looking at that x slide I can't help but notice the quote x on the top left from 2 Chronicles 18 you x know I'm as you are my people as your x people it reminds me so much of the Book x of x Ruth right yeah that's right x um x anyway so Ruth says that something along x those lines that to Naomi right in that x situation Ruth is the m she's sort of x the outsider to Israel right she seeking x to make an affinity with Naomi right x your people will be my my people yeah x yeah your God my God yeah and that's x what we want our friends to do right x yeah x exactly yeah it's interesting that quote x you mentioned that Steve um in 2 Kings x 3:7 Jehosaphat says almost identically x the same thing to to ahab's son joram x when they're going to war with Moab so x it's an entirely different context it's x many years later but it's I am as you x are my people as your people you know x will be with you my horses are are as x your horses or something like that x um it's not making any x difference uh I think it's a x nice x thought that we are among our people x when we're here you x know um x I remember being x um you know back to sort of the cycling x theme that I was talking about I x remember going down to the World x Championships that were held in Richmond x Virginia in 2015 and there were you know x thousands and thousands of bike nerds x like me there and a friend of mine said x to me this is awesome where it's like x these are our people and I thought to x myself you know that's kind of funny but x no my people are different x yeah right you know my people are the x people that are in this room you know x yeah um x yeah that's x great everybody has their their thing x right um for us it's it's the community x that we have through Christ so it's x wonderful to have that commonality and x to be have the same direction

Transcript

all right well uh this is my last x opportunity to wrap up Jehosaphat and I x think I really did need the extra week x um hopefully uh we've been becoming more x familiar with his life as we go on uh x he's a really interesting King uh one of x the greats for sure x um so let's get right into it um x actually before we get right into it I x did bring a prop x this is a study booklet that was x published um for the New England x Christadelphian Sunday School x Association there was a study day in x Worcester x Massachusetts uh October 1976 Robert do x you remember that yeah okay you were x there all right probably folks you know x were I don't know if anybody in this x room uh would have been there for it but x this was put together by uh brother Ron x Abel and brother Colin Badger it was a x study of Josiah Hezekiah and x Jehosaphat um and so I just wanted to x share um the summary that that brother x Ron put together for Jehosaphat who had x great riches and honor and much business x in the cities of Judah Gentile Powers x paid him tribute and brought gifts and x God blessed him with the reign of Peace x he had need of nothing more yet his very x Prosperity made him a valued Ally of x King Ahab who induced him into a foolish x military Venture right the questionable x alliances we looked at last week um x which nearly cost him his life the king x who stood with his God and His Zeal x against Nations uh Heathen worship x experienced the bitterness of failure x through compromis in his marriage x Military and Commercial x alliances now this is this is where we x get to the lesson a disciple must not x only love the truth he must also hate x iniquity jehoshaphat's Prosperity led x him to help the wicked and love those x who hate the x Lord um yeah so I thought I thought that x was interesting um so let's get into the x material for this week in last week's x class we looked at josaphat's x questionable x alliances um and I want to run through x them briefly again uh but this time x using a map of Judah and the surrounding x Nations for some of the geographical x context so you can kind of see where x things are happening um so the First x Alliance that we see is is with Ahab um x after bringing the two kingdoms through x he he United the two kingdoms of Israel x and Judah in marriage so you have this x marriage in 2 Chronicles x 18 jehoshaphat's son to ahab's daughter x right they get married couple years x later Ahab hits him up he says hey we're x having a feast in Samaria come on up x you're totally welcome we'll kill the x fatty calf they have a big feast and x Ahab uses it as an opportunity to x suggest hey well why don't we go back x and take raymo Gilead it was a City of x Refuge in the tribe of GAD um it was was x taken by the syrians we're going to x retake it right you have the whole story x of you know Ahab being dressed up I'm x sorry jehoshaphat's dressed up ahab's x dressed down they don't know who he is x um and The Archers Target who they think x is the king of Israel it's actually x Jehoshaphat Jehoshaphat amazingly x survived Ahab is struck by an Archer's x Arrow at random and dies he pleads on x his Chariot um so clearly a negative x outcome from that Alliance um this was x predicted by the prophet mikah I saw all x Israel scattered on the mountains as x sheep that have Shepherd and after the x fact you have the prophet juu who x confronts jahash and says should you x help the wicked and love those who hate x the Lord because of this WTH has gone x out against you from the Lord I think x that's really a key text to x understanding the life of jhosua and x sort of the spiritual lessons for us I x remarked in the first class how some of x these historical books it's a little x more difficult to discern the spiritual x lessons I I think if you're reading the x the gospels or the Epistles you know you x getting that exhortation material like x directly input into your brain as you x read the text here you have to read x about this historical account say well x what's what's there for me to learn from x this and and the prophets help us out x here right so J is warning us about x alliances with those who hate God x brother Steve yesterday I can kind of x refer back to his comments since he's x not here he was talking about his x cycling buddies and the associations he x has with people outside of the Ecclesia x um and and that's always a I I think a x little bit challenging for me me you x know where is that that level of comfort x at what point am I you know feeling a x sense of Fellowship um around interests x outside of the Ecclesia um but hopefully x none of us are are having friendships x with people who hate God you know x unfortunately much of the world is x disinterested and unless we have some x sort of relationship or commonality that x we can build a relationship to bring x them to to introduce them to Christ and x we should always be trying to do that I x I think we all struggle with that and we x want to be more effective of when we x have those those sorts of opportunities x with people outside of the Ecclesia um x but if we if we never interface with x them at all how are we going to share x the the gospel message right this is x different this is making an alliance um x with somebody who hates God I mean they x were idolators in Israel I'm yeah the x northern tribe of Israel um they were x instituting baale Worship in there um x they had a corrupted form of Yahweh x Worship in Israel um and they weren't x doing about it so Jehosaphat was out of x line and um we have to make sure that x we're never in that kind of situation or x equivalent in our time so that's the x First Alliance uh the second Alliance is x with ahaziah who was ahab's son took x over when Ahab died uh this was a x strictly an economic Alliance where the x two kings embark on this merchant ship x building Endeavor in E on gber um x interestingly EAS on gber is you can see x there at the bottom of the screen it's x at the top of the that's the Gulf of x akaba um kind of opposite to the Red Sea x after the Persian Gulf split I think I'm x say I think I got that right not the x Persian Gulf um it's the Red Sea splits x into the Gulf of akaba and the Suz on x the other x side excuse me okay so this is strictly x an economic Alliance there's no x aggressors if you're looking at the x table in the top left I'm trying to kind x of show um you know where the alliance x is uh this is all relative to Jehosaphat x and Judah um if there's an enemy in this x case there is none because it's just an x economic Alliance and which parties are x uninvolved when you look at um Israel x and the other surrounding x Nations so um I've got Edom highlighted x there as an ally because Edom x facilitated this Eon gber is in the x region of Edom so although Edom is not x mentioned um actually Edom is mentioned x we'll come back to x that um feel free to interject if x there's any questions as we go along x just put your hand up or shout it out um x third Alliance is with ahab's next son x joram who goes against Moab after their x King Misha stops providing tribute to x Israel now this one's really interesting x because you do have that explicit x alliance with Edom it says that they x went down below the Dead Sea they met up x with Edom and then they go after Moab x because Moab stopped paying tribute Moab x was paying tribute as long as Ahab was x in power because Ahab was kind of what x they call a strongman ruler he was able x to kind of enforce uh his will on the x Nations around them and so they were x paying him tribute um when he dies and x his sons take over the tribute stops x coming in jorm says hey we got to get x these guys back in line I need my x monthly allowance of I think it was x 100,000 sheep per year um so he x persuades jehos fat to go to war with x Moab also Edom so keep that in x mind the fourth and final Alliance which x I want to talk about today is what I'll x say is an alliance with god um and this x is a very different sort of event in x jehoshaphat's x life in this case there's no mention of x Israel or any other x Ally you've got Edom Moab and um Ammon x lined up against Judah all three of x these nations come up against x Jehosaphat um as the aggressors right x jehoshaphat's playing defense this case x so this is a very diff different sort of x situation in jehos Fat's x life x um so I want to talk about that a little x bit today but before we get into that x just a note on timing we looked at the x geographical context let's look at the x chronological context now uh here's a x timeline showing the Reigns of the Kings x of Israel and Judah During the period x that we're interested in you can see x Ahab starts to rule around x 874 before Christ x and you know there's a few more years of x Asa in Judah and then Jehosaphat has a x co- Regency with his father uh but he x really takes the Reigns in x 868 when ASA x dies so one interesting thing to note x right off the bat is that most of x jehoshaphat's Reign has elapsed by the x time you get to the period where he's x making this alliance with Ahab um that x Alliance can be precisely dated to the x time of ahab's death because when they x go up to ralth gillad Ahab doesn't come x back right um so we can we can kind of x pinpoint the timing of that event x um now there was the marriage Alliance x which preceded that right and all we x know from 2 Chronicles 18 uh verse two x is that some years had elapsed since x their children had been married and Ahab x convinces them to go up to ramoth gillad x so I don't know exactly when in the x timeline that would have been maybe two x three years before but I think the x significant that I took away from x looking at the Timeline here um I'm not x just putting up dates to put up dates uh x we we should learn something from this x is that most of jash Fat's Reign uh was x characterized by righteousness all these x alliances these these problems that he x runs into are in the latter part of his x Reign he reigned for 25 years and I x would say it's really just the last five x years or so that he sort of gets into x trouble with these uh ungodly x alliances if you read 2 Chronicles 17 x all these wonderful reforms that he does x appointing the Levites going into all x the the tribes and cities of Judah and x teaching the word of the Lord um all x these great things are described are x happening for you know all these these x early years 15 20 uh years of his x Reign x um so what's the lesson I guess um I x don't know if it's really my place to x say this but you know we don't want to x stumble at the Finish Line right that's x always the challenge um you know you you x put everything into serving God and x doing things the way that God desires um x and then in your your latter years um x you don't want to to make the mistake x now Jehosaphat was always faithful he x just stumbled a little bit with these x alliances um and I don't want to x minimize that because it caused a lot of x problems uh so the next alliance with x ahaziah it we don't know exactly when it x happened but it had to happen in this x two-year period where he was reigning um x you know he didn't he didn't live very x long after he took the throne he fell x through the lattice he got sick um you x know we won't get into his life but um x this ship building Venture that we x talked about down in Ean gber x um you know God did not approve of it x God wrecks the ship so once again x there's a very negative outcome uh to x each of these x alliances then finally the the alliance x with jorum we can't date this precisely x either it likely occurred towards um the x beginning of jorm's Reign just because x the aggression was triggered by Misha x the king of Moab refusing to pay tribute x of sheep that he had to Ahab once ahab's x no longer in power he stops paying the x tribute um so you get the sense it was x probably happening pretty early in x jorm's x reain um so here's x approximately the timeline for when x these events that we've been considering x um are occurring any questions so far in x comments all right I got to say I've x really enjoyed kind of diving into this x there's there's just um four or five x critical stories we need to know about x jehoshaphat's life to really get a x picture and I I hope that in this last x class we can just kind of bring them all x together and gain some sort of x concluding lessons about his x life so before we move on there's x there's one point of archaeological x interest I thought I'd share with yall x um and this is a Discovery from 1868 x called the Misha steel has anybody ever x heard of x this it's it's called the Misha steel x because it was authored by King Misha of x Moab who's referenced in the Bible in 2 x Kings 3 he's the one that stopped paying x the tribute of sheep to uh ahab's x children um and so this was a a Bas salt x Stone tablet essentially that was x discovered by an Anglican missionary in x what is present day Jordan um x back in August of x 1868 now when they discovered this they x made a papermache x um kind of like an impression of it so x they got the content they copied the x content of the steel without actually x having it that's just how they made x copies of these things I suppose um and x at the same time they were looking for a x way to obtain the actual physical item x from the local inhabitants who had a x claim on it so during these negotiations x the steel ended up being smashed as an x act of defiance against the Ottomans who x were being who were putting pressure on x the local bedan tribes to hand the steel x over to the I think it was the x Germans um the German archaeologist who x was discovering x it um but they managed to later get the x fragments of the tablet and they put the x thing back together because they had x that papermache impression so you can x see uh in the picture there's there's a x bunch of cracks that's because of uh the x destruction that occurred after it was x discovered anyway I thought you'd find x that interesting here's an excerpt of x what the steel says this is translated x from kind of the the glyphs that the x moabites Wroten I am Misha king of Moab x omry was king of Israel and oppressed x Moab during many days his son Ahab x succeeded him and he also said I will x oppress x Moab the king of Israel and he's x presumably talking about jorm at this x point the king of Israel fortified jahaz x and occupied it when he made war against x me and Kosh drove him out before x me you may recognize that reference to x Kosh he was a foreign God in this case x Misha is giving Kos uh the credit for x for thwarting the the the efforts of x joram um you know as usual these foreign x Kings when they're recording their x history they don't tell the full story x they always tell it in a light that's a x little more favorable towards them um so x let's let's pick up the story uh as a x appears in 2 Kings 3 it's a little bit x different um and this isn't the full x story but kind of the the critical x moment right you've got this Alliance we x mentioned that it's it's joram it's x Jehoshaphat and also the king of Edom x right they got the king of Edom to come x along and it's not going well for the x king of Moab he saw the battle was going x against him he took with him 700 x swordsman to break through opposite the x king of Edom they couldn't break through x he took his oldest son who was to reign x in his place and offered him for a burnt x offering on the wall presumably to Kos x right and there came great wrath against x Israel and they withdrew from him and x returned to their own land and so you x can see how he would then give credit to x Kos because he had sacrificed his son on x the wall as the armies of Jehosaphat and x joram and Edom came up against him he he x kills his his his son the heir to the x throne and and Kos is appeased and and x and there's great wroth against Israel x we don't know what that great wroth was x what exactly happened to turn the tide x of the battle because everything was x going well for the x alliance um but this this death of this x offering this human offering seems to x changed the now however that happened x obviously it wasn't Kos there's no Kos x but it was something that King Mesa saw x fit to attribute to his x God so I think that's pretty interesting x because at first glance the campaign x against Moab in Second Kings x 3 could say hey it actually went x reasonably well we didn't look at all x the successes they had but um they they x do invade the land they Conquest many x cities they stop up wells and it talks x about them scattering stones and things x like that um but in the end they do have x to retreat so something drives them back x and so this third Alliance kind of x completes that triplet you have the x alliance with Ahab ahaziah and joram in x each case something bad happens um x actually I have a slide for x this so here's the x summary x um yep you got Ahab dying Jehosaphat x barely escaping um and the rebuke by the x prophet of God in the alliance with Ahab x you've got the alliance with ahaziah x where the ships are wrecked and again x the rebuke by the prophet of the Lord um x we have the great wrath whatever that x was um in this incident with with the x king of Moab which we just talked about x and the Allied Army forced to retreat x and then you know spoiler aler uh what x we're going to talk about today is this x amazing Deliverance that occurs when x Jehosaphat doesn't stand with any other x Nation but he stands with God and every x other Nation opposes him and yet he has x this wonderful deliverance and and I x think this really shows this is the x paradigm shift from when we're making x alliances with the world and trusting in x the hand of man to to prosper us and x when we trust in God to deliver us and x God x alone so we're going to look at 2 x Chronicles 20 next if you'd like to turn x there any questions or comments up to x this x point come on Chris I'm x ready anybody at x all all right let's wrap this thing up x so 2 Chronicles 20 is really this is the x most amazing chapter about Jehoshaphat x and x really one of the one of the best x stories I I would say in all the Old x Testament really it's it's just x incredible um you have this thread of x war in verses 1 and x two um came to pass after this also the x children of Moab children of Ammon and x with them other besides the ammonites x very confusing kind of language about x who is coming up against Judah here um x some newer translations will talk about x a third party called the meunites if you x have a ESV or NSB something like that x you might have meunites um this is x likely a reference to Edom in some x regard if you look at verse 10 verse 22 x and verse 23 you see references to mount x Seer so really it's Ammon Moab and the x inhabitants of Mount Seer who are coming x up against jehos where's Mount Seer it's x in Edom Mount SE is always a reference x to Edom this might not be all of Edom x this might be some subset of Edom you x know these people were tribal there were x factions it might not be Edom at large x it's coming up against Jehosaphat in x this P In this passage um but I think we x can basically say that this is Edom in x Rebellion against jeash fat now well x notably in chapter 20 we don't see x Israel reference jahash fet when he has x these three invading armies coming up x against him he doesn't hit up uh joram x or whoever was the king at that time x we'll look at Theon ology shortly he x doesn't hit up the king of Israel for x assistance um this is this is really x focusing on God for x intervention so in verses 3 to 12 x Jehoshaphat declares a nationwide fast x in verse three uh he goes into the x temple to offer this this prayer in x Desperate time of need he says we do not x know what to do but our eyes are on you x it's so powerful right we're helpless we x don't have any answers Lord but we're x watching you to see what you do x um putting this is like the most x apparent uh statement of trust in the x Lord that I think J josah can make then x you have jeziel the prophet of the Lord x who who the spirit of the Lord comes x upon Him delivers this message from God x he sayso not be afraid or discouraged x for the battle is not yours but God's uh x 2 Chronicles 20:15 he says in verse 17 x stand still and see the salvation of the x Lord x right so once again you don't need to do x anything uh you don't know what to do x and you don't need know you don't need x to do anything you just need to trust in x me the Lord is x saying x um yeah stand firm Hold Your Position x see the salvation of the Lord on your x behalf um so the next day the J jahash x and the people bow and worship the x Levites praise God loudly um and jehos x appoints this singers to in fact lead x the army so the Army is marching out to x confront these Invaders but he puts the x singers and the Levites in front of the x army they're actually leading the Army x these are not combatant people these are x not armed soldiers they're they're x people singing the Praises of the Lord x who go out in x front and they say give thanks to the x Lord for his love endures forever verse x 21 and verse 22 to 24 let's just read x that x where am x I and when they began to sing and to x praise the Lord set ambushments against x the children of Ammon Moab and mount x Seer which were come against Judah and x they were smitten and the children of x Ammon and Moab stood up against the x inhabitants of Mount Seer utterly to x slay and Destroy them uh and when they x had made an end of the inhabitants of x seer everyone helped to destroy another x and when Judah came toward the watcht in x the wilderness they looked unto the x multitude and behold they were dead x bodies Fallen to the Earth and none x escaped so really this dramatic turn of x events here um thanks to the people's x faith in the x Lord if you go on read verses 25- 28 you x read about they plundered the the armies x it took them three days to collect all x The Spoils of War from this invading x army they returned to Jerusalem x rejoicing with music and praise in the T x it's great it's fantastic verse 29 the x fear of God was on all the kingdoms of x those countries when they had heard that x the Lord fought against the enemies of x Israel so the realm of Jehosaphat was x quiet for his God gave him rest round x about so really this is like the x happiest of endings this is a great way x for Jehosaphat to sort of conclude his x Reign you know he's kind of at this x crisis moment um and you know he x completely devotes it to the Lord he x puts it in the Lord's hands and the Lord x comes through in a magnificent way um x really powerful story and I know we've x just kind of breeed through it very x briefly here um but I'm trying to put x this in the context of the the total Arc x of jehoshaphat's life and see what he x has learned from you know being a x faithful man but then making these x alliances with the ungodly nation of x Israel and then finally being in the x position where he has to trust in the x Lord because there's nobody else going x to help him and all of his enemies are x coming up against him x um so what I what I really hope to see x in this is that jehos has learned x something that he's a changed man as a x result of this experience but there's x some there's some difficulties with this x um let me just Advance x here so hopefully you have your Bibles x with you and and you're open to 2 x Chronicles 20 um x 2 Chronicles 20:30 I have the text on x screen here just to to make it kind of x clear you get to verse 30 and sort of x the conclusion of that narrative account x about this this massive Invasion and x God's Deliverance says the realm of x jahash is quiet for as God gave him rest x round x about and then he had these sort of x concluding remarks about the life of x Jehoshaphat um this is the typical x language we find summarizing the life of x Kings um you know he reigned over Judah x 35 years old when he began to Reign he x reigned 25 years his mother's name you x know he walked in the ways of his father x he did what was right in the sight of x the Lord you know with the qualifier the x high places however were not taken away x the people had not yet set their hearts x upon God and their fathers so although x he was a very righteous holy man um the x Reformation wasn't complete he wasn't x able to completely convert the heart of x the people of Judah there were still x some high places x that he was not able to purge out inly x this is all sort of the language we hear x when we're summarizing the life of a x king right um we're out of the narrative x account describing the battles x describing you know this happened then x this event happened then this happened x we're looking at this through the long x uh through a long lens x right now the rest of the acts of x Jehosaphat verse 34 From First to Last x they're written The Chronicles of juu x the son of haniah all this is the x wrapping up sort of language you know x and then we get to verse 35 after this x and we we hear another narrative account x we hear the story about his alliance x with ahaziah and the ship building x Venture and I was just really confused x about this because it seemed like we're x getting to the conclusion verse 35 x through 37 are all about this disastrous x this the second Alliance right with x aazah in the ship building and then the x next verse which is the first verse of x chronic Les 21 talks about jehoshaphat's x death so you have this section from 35 x to 37 highlighted in red that seems a x little bit out of place to me at least x um you know on screen I have you know it x begins with after this well after what x right what what narrative account can we x link this to we're just hearing the x summary of jehoshaphat's life so it x doesn't make sense to say after this now x I don't want to I I can't change the x words scripture or anything like that x but I do know that from time to time you x do have segments of scripture that are x are sort of out of place that through um x the transcription process they they get x moved around and things like that um now x I I think you would have to be have very x strong evidence to say that something x like that has happened I'm not a scholar x I can't make that claim all I'm saying x at this point is that this seems a x little bit out of place um and if you x look at the the chronology you know that x when this is happening it's very x difficult to put 2 Chronicles 20 and x this amazing deliverance from amm and x Moab and x Edom to to fit that x in x um if we just go back oh I'm in x trouble into this kind of this timeline x right when exactly is is this event x happening if the thing with x ahaziah happens during the reign of ahaz x there's only really like a year or two x years maximum in which the events of 2 x Chronicles 20 could occur uh before the x alliance with ahaziah but after the x alliance with Ahab against x Samaria and it it's very strange that x Jehosaphat would have this Triumph of x Faith uh where he does not rely on x alliances with any other Nation it x relies on God Alone in the midst of this x triplet of three alliances with the x Kings of x Israel it it struck me as odd and I x think there's I think there's probably a x solution to this um besides the the fact x that this account with ahaziah seems a x little out of place in the x text um and this is where really the x challenge here is is fitting together a x chronology of jehoshaphat's life that is x harmonized with the order in which x events are presented to us in scripture x um now the the we know that scripture is x not always presented chronologically but x we typically would assume that it is x unless we have reason to believe x otherwise so why do we get this section x from verse 35 to 37 about the alliance x with ahaziah in a section that's x concluding jehoshaphat's life that x likely is after these three uh ungodly x alliances um and I think there's maybe a x key to it when we look at the history of x the nation of x Edom so Edom was actually subjugated by x King David uh in 2 Samuel uh verse 8 um x This Record appears after David's king x after he's brought the ark into x Jerusalem he receives the promises x everything's going really well for David x as a king this is before his sin with x Bas Sheba in 2 Samuel 8 we read David x made a name for himself when he returned x from striking down 18,000 in x the valley of salt he put garrisons in x Edom throughout all Edom he put x garrisons and all the Ed MIT became x David's servants and the lord gave x Victory to David wherever he x want um now this is likely what would x have enabled uh Jehosaphat and ahaziah x to have their ship building Venture down x in Eon gber uh because Edom was x subjugated they were able to go down x there and just set up shop build the x shipyards um and in fact in First Kings x 22 the parallel account we get x a um an explicit statement about that x so First Kings x 22:47 there was then no King in Edom a x deputy was King so this is sometimes x called like a vassel king this is a king x that was deputized by the ruler which x would would have been jehos fat and King x Judah the king of Judah um so he was x basically subject to Judah even though x he was administering the territory of x Edom there's no King in Edom a deputy x was King Jehosaphat made ships of tar to x go to ofer for gold but they went not x for the ships were broken at Eon x gber so that was God's displeasure um he x ruined their their x Fleet okay so Edom enables that alliance x with ahaziah to build the ships um we x talked about how Edom goes with jehos x fat and king joram of Israel to fight x against Moab in 2 Kings 3 so you've got x Edom is together for for at least two of x the first three alliances he Edom isn't x mentioned in the uh the war against x ramoth Gilead with Ahab so you've got x Edom there right along so it doesn't x really make sense that Edom is one of x the aggressors the men of Mount Seer is x one of the aggressors in 2 Chronicles 20 x when they come against jehos fat alone x at the valley of x barot does that make x sense I think there's some reason to x show there's there's a there's sort of a x slipping away of Edom you know the x control that Israel and Judah have x around the nation x is sort of failing right they've they've x lost to Syria when they lost ramoth x Gilead um Israel lost the tribute to x Moab now you see Edom is finally Fallen x away and is Fallen away from the x influence of Judah in 2 Chronicles 20 I x think it makes sense for the rebellion x in the early half of 2 Chronicles 20 to x occur after these three alliances um x even though you have that sort of x description of the alliance with ahaz x um in the kind of concluding section x concluding remarks about josette's life x so certainly something you can't really x be dogmatic about x um you know when you're trying to piece x together the chronology here's another x way of looking at it x um so I guess just in sort of our final x moments here as we we wrap x up if jahash continued to make a line es x with aziah and then joram after this x remarkable deliverance from God where he x really showed his trust and his x character as somebody who had faith in x God x alone you know that would be x disappointing um of this great spiritual x Triumph in a sense and then he goes back x to his old ways of lying with the world x that's disappointing and and I in some x ways that's more representative of The x Human Experience we do backslide we do x fail even though we're trying to be good x people and even though you know x Jehosaphat at large he's a righteous x king of Judah he's one of the x best um so in a way it would be typical x for him to go back to his old ways of x allying with the Nations around x him and uh that presents its own warning x right we may have spiritual triumphs in x our lives where you know God comes for x through for us in a huge way because we x completely cast our reliance on x him on the other hand I think there's x there's good evidence to believe that x this is an event that occurs in the the x very last years of jehoshaphat's life x after he's learned the lesson of these x three disastrous alliances with the x Kings of Israel um so there's there's x lessons for us either way um and I don't x want to lionize Jehoshaphat x unnecessarily um I I don't want to x certainly State one thing when you know x there's a little bit of ambiguity in x scripture about the order of these x events um but I I would like to see the x valley of Bara as this sort of crowning x moment for jehoshaphat's life I think x there's there's a x reasonable reasonable evidence to x believe that that's the x case um you josa had his failings he x wasn't a perfect man um and and taking x this lesson to to ourselves I I think we x do need to be critical about x how we find ourselves aligned with the x world the sorts of alliances that we x make how interweaved we are we certainly x think about it like with with marriage x right that's a huge thing there's no way x you can underestimate how much of an x effect the person you marry is going to x influence you for the rest of your life x um I mean there's no getting away x there's no undoing um it's just it's x going to change you right the person x that you choose to spend your life with x and if they don't have the same goal x goals and objectives think about aalia x we haven't really gone into the life of x aalah and jehoshaphat's Son x jehoram um but it was a mess it ended x very poorly for both of them and athia x was the product of her environment too x right her mother was introducing bail x worship into Israel uh her her father x was was um you know going after nebas x Vineyards and killing the prophets of x the Lord and x um you know so they they were they were x going in the opposite direction of what x jat was trying to achieve in in Judah um x so that marriage Alliance just doesn't x make sense and um I can imagine for x parents looking at their children and x and who they're they're dating or who x they're marrying that that that's a huge x cause for concern because it can be so x impactful um but it could impact other x things too right it's you know I don't x think it's who you go bike riding with x on on Saturday mornings um you know I I x would see that more of an opportunity x for right we we can't distance I don't x think jeash should have had nothing to x do with the northern tribes but he just x isn't able to exert the influence that x he needs to on on Ahab and uh he he x commits in a big Way by marrying off his x his son to ahab's daughter x um but we should be thinking you know x before going into business like these x partnersh a Business Partnership would x be a huge entanglement um we got to make x sure that we're on the right on the same x page with people that we're most closely x affiliated x with um so there there's definitely x lessons to learn from these these x historical books that's that's just x about all I have for today um for for x this series I've really enjoyed studying x jehos I knew like bits and pieces about x Jehosaphat but kind of stitching it all x together to get the big picture uh was x was really um helpful for me I hope uh x this was useful to you as well any any x comments or questions yeah Chris you you x finally uh poked me and and prodded me x enough to to come up with something but x so when you're talking about alliances x uh in our personal relationships I think x the key word is uh certainly starting x with yoke you know do not yoke yourself x in the sense of you mentioned the x partnership because when we uh certainly x yoke ourselves to someone else now we x cannot walk away you know we are tied to x them I mean that is certainly the red x line after that it gets a little grayer x as to what you know how close you should x be but yeah if you ever tied into a x relationship where you can't walk away x from it then you know then you're asking x for trouble at that point x yeah has anybody ever had the experience x of kind of getting a little bit too x committed x to a situation like x that hey x um all your points there was a brother x that I knew that worked as a x machinist and uh made different you know x metal sort of items and the the sheet x metal shop took on a contract uh x military contract and they started x making x armaments and so this brother asked if x he could not be a part of that those x projects but the the management would x allow it and he just wasn't comfortable x making bullets and different armaments x that were going to be used to harm x people so he ended up you know leaving x that job at a considerable pay cut to go x to a different sheet metal shop uh I I x just thought it was an interesting you x know these are matters of conscience x sometimes that we all have to make our x choices through you know prayerfully and x that one for him was easy there was no x way he was going to do that but we can x run into these complications x uh in in the sort of world that we live x in where things are sometimes not as x simple as we'd like them to be right x yeah the real world application is x always more difficult so in that x situation he was able to walk away he x didn't have a a commitment he wasn't x contractually obligated to continue in x that Venture uh with the the armaments x production um whereas maybe if he had x owned the shop and he had been engaged x with those guys directly that would have x been he could of pulled out of it if he x had to change a heart or something like x that yeah if there was more kind of x financially tied in and I mean I know he x lost money leaving the shop but it was x it was worth it for him to do it but x yeah it wasn't his business and you know x sometimes we can be too tied in like you x said and we kind of just put it in the x back of our mind well I'm just making x the Armament I don't know what's x happened with them once they leave here x yeah yeah great example x anybody x else I don't think I I've quite been in x a situation like that where I felt the x potent potential to be compromised by an x opportunity uh to get involved with a x company x or um another person or say x um always been sort of a individual x contrib in the sense that I I I didn't x own a business or a partnership or x anything like that um you know I think x coming up there's always that question x about you know who who are you going to x marry so I definitely encountered that x um had to think very critically about x that x um but yeah lots of applications here