Jehoshaphat
Judah · 870 – 848 BC · 25 years · 1 Kings 22; 2 Chronicles 17 – 20
His Story
Asa’s son, Judah’s great teacher-king: he sent princes, Levites, and priests through every city with the book of the law to teach. He fortified the borders, took tribute from Philistines and Arabians, and when Moab, Ammon, and Edom came in a vast host, proclaimed a fast and prayed the prayer of 2 Chronicles 20: “neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee” — and God set ambushes against the enemy while Judah’s choir sang, “Praise the LORD; for his mercy endureth for ever.”
His Sin — How He Displeased the LORD
His besetting sin was alliance: “Jehoshaphat… joined affinity with Ahab” — marrying his son to Ahab’s daughter Athaliah, which nearly destroyed David’s line a generation later. He twice went to war at Ahab’s side at Ramoth-gilead (nearly dying in Ahab’s robes), joined the wicked Ahaziah in a shipping venture God wrecked, and heard the rebuke he never forgot: “Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD?” (2 Chronicles 19:2).
The Good He Did
He walked in the ways of David, sought “the God of his father,” took away the groves, established judges in every city with the charge, “ye judge not for man, but for the LORD,” and in his terror prayed first and sang first. His heart was “lifted up in the ways of the LORD” (2 Chronicles 17:6).
The LORD’s verdict
“And he walked in all the ways of Asa his father; he turned not aside from it, doing that which was right in the eyes of the LORD: nevertheless the high places were not taken away; for the people offered and burnt incense yet in the high places.”1 Kings 22:43 (KJV)
How His Reign Ended
He died after 25 years, in which the land rested from war around him, and was buried with his fathers; his eldest son Jehoram — Athaliah’s husband — succeeded, and the alliance bore its bitter fruit at once.
Lessons for Believers Today
- Gifted, godly men fall at the point of fellowship: whom we join with, we are joined to. “Be ye not unequally yoked” is a king’s lesson before it is a youth’s.
- When you do not know what to do, Jehoshaphat’s prayer is the whole method: fast, gather, confess, fix your eyes, send the choir.