1 Kings 22:41-50 (NASB)
41 Now Jehoshaphat the son of Asa became king over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel. 42 Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned for twenty-five years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi. 43 He walked entirely in the way of his father Asa; he did not turn aside from it, doing what was right in the sight of the Lord. However, the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. 44 Jehoshaphat also made peace with the king of Israel.
45 Now as for the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, and his might which he showed and how he made war, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 46 And the remnant of the cult prostitutes who remained in the days of his father Asa, he eliminated from the land.
47 Now there was no king in Edom; a governor served as king. 48 Jehoshaphat built ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold, but they did not go, because the ships were destroyed at Ezion-geber. 49 Then Ahaziah the son of Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “Let my servants go with your servants in the ships.” But Jehoshaphat was not willing. 50 And Jehoshaphat lay down with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of his father David, and his son Jehoram became king in his place.
If you’ve read the whole Bible, you know that the Old Testament is an extensive historical account of the people of Israel. It is always interesting to me who the Bible focuses on and who is only briefly mentioned. Not surprisingly, prophets and kings get mentioned a lot more than average citizens. When it comes to teaching the Bible, Sunday School lessons seem to focus on certain people more than others, too. David, Solomon, Noah, Jonah, and even Samson get a lot of attention, while other people, like this king we are looking at today, get largely overlooked. I think if you polled the average Christian, few of them could tell you much about Jehoshaphat. Many people probably know nothing about him, but I think he, like Hezekiah, is a king that we should study and learn from.
This passage gives us an overview of Jehoshaphat’s life, but in order to piece his entire life story together, just like verse 45 tells us, we must read the account of his life in the Book of Chronicles as well. We also should read what 1 Kings tells us earlier in chapter 22. It is so interesting the way the Bible was written, for so many times things are mentioned out of chronological order. Here we see this happening. If you only started reading in verse 41, you might not realize there is so much written about him earlier.
Now let’s look closer at this text, starting with the verses 43-44. It says, “He walked entirely in the way of his father Asa; he did not turn aside from it, doing what was right in the sight of the Lord. However, the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. Jehoshaphat also made peace with the king of Israel.”
Did you notice that verse 43 doesn’t say he walked entirely in the way of God, but rather in the way of his father Asa? He did a lot that was good. 2 Chronicles 17:3-4 says, “And the Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he followed the example of his father David’s earlier days and did not seek the Baals, but sought the God of his father, followed His commandments, and did not act as Israel did.” But like his father Asa, Jehoshaphat didn’t do everything he should have done. He didn’t remove the high places where people sacrificed, and he made peace with the king of Israel. Now, if you only read this section, you might assume that was a good thing. Peace is a good thing, right? Not in this situation.
The beginning of chapter of 22 tells us the story. To summarize, King Jehoshaphat went to visit King Ahab of Israel. This is the same Ahab who was married to Jezebel, the woman who was killing all the prophets of God (1 Kings 18:4). Ahab asked Jehoshaphat to help him fight the Arameans to take back Ramoth Gilead, which was a city they had taken away from Israel. Jehoshaphat said yes, and pledged his men and horses for the battle and then he added, “Please request the word of the Lord first.” Jehoshaphat probably should have asked the Lord for advice before he pledged to help fight, for 1 Kings 22:6 tells us, “So the king of Israel assembled the prophets, about four hundred men, and said to them, ‘Should I go to battle against Ramoth-gilead or should I refrain?’ And they said, ‘Go up, for the Lord will hand it over to the king.’”
I want to know, where did these 400 prophets come from? 1 Kings 18 tells us how Jezebel had most of the prophets killed, and it also recounts the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal and how he destroyed all those false prophets. Now we see that already there were new prophets. Regardless of whoever these prophets were, Jehoshaphat knew they were not prophets of God for 1 Kings 22:7-8 says, “But Jehoshaphat said, ‘Is there no longer a prophet of the Lord here, that we may inquire of him?’ And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, ‘There is still one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, but I hate him, because he does not prophesy anything good regarding me, but only bad. He is Micaiah the son of Imlah.’ But Jehoshaphat said, ‘May the king not say so.’”
They summoned Micaiah, and 1 Kings 22:13-14 says, “Then the messenger who went to summon Micaiah spoke to him saying, ‘Behold now, the words of the prophets are unanimously favorable to the king. Please let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak favorably.’ But Micaiah said, ‘As the Lord lives, whatever the Lord says to me, I shall speak it.’”
While they waited for him, the false prophets kept ‘prophesying’, assuring the kings that they would win the battle. When Micaiah arrives, the king asks him if they should go to battle and he answers in verse 15, “Go up and succeed, for the Lord will hand it over to the king!” I think Ahab could hear the disdain or sarcasm in his voice, for he knew Micaiah was just telling him what he wanted to hear, for verse 16 says, “Then the king said to him, ‘How many times must I make you swear that you will tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?’”
Then Micaiah gives the real prophesy which states that if they go to battle they will not make it out alive, and Ahab turns to Jehoshaphat and says, “Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy anything good regarding me, but only bad?” (1 Kings 22:18). After another heated exchange, Micaiah is struck on the face by one of the other prophets and says, “If you actually return safely, the Lord has not spoken by me” (1 Kings 22:28).
Now, you would think that Jehoshaphat leaves after hearing the real prophecy, right? Micaiah told him he would die if he fights. Does he listen to Micaiah and go home? Nope. He listens to the voices of the false prophets. He stays and they go to war. We have to read the account in Chronicles to see what happens. In summary, Ahab dies and Jehoshaphat almost dies, but God spares him when he cries out to God. He almost died though, all because he did not listen to the right voice.
That should be a lesson for all of us today: the voices we listen to today determine our ability to follow God tomorrow. This is a topic I preach on a lot, but I think that is because the Bible talks about this a lot! What we listen to affects us. Jehoshaphat unwisely listened to the voices of the false prophets and allowed himself to go along with King Ahab and he barely escaped with his life. Thankfully, for Jehoshaphat, it was not too late to repent.
2 Chronicles 19:1-3 says, “Then Jehoshaphat the king of Judah returned in safety to his house in Jerusalem. And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him and said to King Jehoshaphat, ‘Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the Lord, and by doing so bring wrath on yourself from the Lord? 3 But there is some good in you, for you have removed the Asheroth from the land and you have set your heart to seek God.’”
Jehoshaphat repented, and he instructed his people to follow God. 2 Chronicles 20:20 says, “Jehoshaphat stood and said, ‘Listen to me, Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: Put your trust in the Lord your God and you will endure. Put your trust in His prophets, and succeed.’” But that is unfortunately not the end of his story. 2 Chronicles 20:35-37 says, “After this Jehoshaphat king of Judah allied himself with Ahaziah king of Israel. He acted wickedly in so doing. So he allied himself with him to make ships to go to Tarshish, and they made the ships in Ezion-geber. Then Eliezer the son of Dodavahu of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, ‘Because you have allied yourself with Ahaziah, the Lord has destroyed your works.’ So the ships were wrecked and could not go to Tarshish.”
He didn’t learn. He repeated his same mistake. But as our reading for today, in 1 Kings 22:49 explains, “Then Ahaziah the son of Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, ‘Let my servants go with your servants in the ships.’ But Jehoshaphat was not willing.”
Ellicott’s Commentary explains, “After the wreck of the fleet, manned, it would seem, by the subjects of Jehoshaphat, Ahaziah of Israel desires to renew the enterprise with the aid of Israelite and probably Tyrian sailors; but Jehoshaphat now refuses.” That means that although he unwisely aligned himself again with Israel, he repented again, but not before his entire crew was sunk.
So again we see a lesson: who we align ourselves with today has a powerful effect on tomorrow. It is just as Proverbs 13:20 says, “One who walks with wise people will be wise, but a companion of fools will suffer harm.”
We see, too, that Jehoshaphat’s unwise alignments negatively affected his family. After he died, his son Jehoram became king. Jehoram had married the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. If you think that sounds like a horrible idea, you are correct. 2 Chronicles 21:4-7 tells us, “Now when Jehoram had taken over the kingdom of his father and gathered courage, he killed all his brothers with the sword, and some of the leaders of Israel as well. Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned for eight years in Jerusalem. He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab had done, for Ahab’s daughter was his wife; and he did evil in the sight of the Lord. Yet the Lord was not willing to destroy the house of David because of the covenant which He had made with David, and because He had promised to give a lamp to him and his sons forever.”
2 Chronicles 21:12-15 continues on, detailing the judgment Jehoram faces because of his evil ways. It says, “Then a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David says: Because you have not walked in the ways of your father Jehoshaphat and the ways of Asa king of Judah, but have walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and have caused Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to be unfaithful as the house of Ahab was unfaithful, and you have also killed your brothers, your own family, who were better than you, behold, the Lord is going to strike your people, your sons, your wives, and all your possessions with a great plague; and you will suffer severe sickness, a disease of your bowels, until your bowels come out because of the sickness, day by day.’”
This is exactly what happened to him as 2 Chronicles 21:19-20 reports, “Now it came about in the course of time, at the end of two years, that his bowels came out because of his sickness, and he died in great pain. And his people did not make a funeral fire for him like the fire for his fathers. He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for eight years; and he departed with no one’s regret, and they buried him in the city of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.”
He died a gruesome death, and no one was sad because he was so horrible. Jehoram stands as a frightening example of the danger of marrying the wrong person.
He is also an example of what God means when He says that the sins of grandparents and parents powerfully affect their children and grandchildren, for all of this could have been avoided. What if Jehoshaphat had not made an alliance with Ahab? What if he had not given his son in marriage to Ahab’s daughter? What if Jehoshaphat had kept God’s commands and had not just destroyed the Asherim but had torn down all the high places of false worship? Would his children had followed God, too? We can’t know, but we do know by partnering with Ahab, Jehoshaphat set his children up to fail.
The choices we make today affect our future. Not just our future, but our children and grandchildren’s future as well. As followers of God, we must be careful about whom we form partnerships with. 2 Corinthians 6:14 says, “Do not be mismatched with unbelievers; for what do righteousness and lawlessness share together, or what does light have in common with darkness?”
It can be difficult to put this into practice. After all, we must have jobs and participate in the marketplace. I don’t think this directive in Corinthians means that we must only work for or shop at Christian businesses. I think it means the opposite of what Jehoshaphat did, though. He unequally yoked himself to King Ahab by giving his son in marriage to his daughter, and by agreeing to go to war with him against the Arameans. By doing those things he formed an alliance, signaling to his children and all the people of Judah that he approved of King Ahab. And by approving of King Ahab, he was giving his approval to Jezebel and the worship of Baal. It is no wonder his son went down the path that was laid out for him, away from the worship of the true God.
In our modern day, this mandate can be put into practice in several ways. An obvious one is by being careful who we marry. A believer should only marry another believer. We should not become mismatched by marrying an unbeliever. If we married before we became a Christian, and then we get saved but our spouse has not, the Bible tells us to stay married in the hopes that they will get saved too. But if we are a Christian, we must be careful to choose wisely whom we marry.
The same wisdom should be applied to whom we partner with in business. While it’s hard to find a job working with only Christians, we can be careful to partner with only Christians. In my own life, I have put this mandate into practice. In the business my husband and I run, we have turned down opportunities to partner with people who were not Christians, for we take this Bible verse seriously. With hindsight, not partnering with the people we had the opportunity to partner with proved to be the wisest decision we could have made. By not taking on partners, we own the entirety of our business. We trusted God instead of man. We work with many people who are not Christians, but working with people and partnering with people are two different things.
Partnering with someone who is not a Christian, either through marriage or through ownership in your business, or through close friendship, all influences us deeply. As Corinthians stated, “what do righteousness and lawlessness share together?” I think this should also cause us to pause and consider the Christian character of our future spouse, business partner, or close friends. Are these Christians following God the way we want to follow Him? Just because they say they are Christians, is their life reflective of their faith? Are they moral? Are they honest? Can their word be trusted? Do they lie or steal? Is God the number one priority of their lives or are they Christians in name only? If we partner with believers who are not following God well, they will have a negative influence on us as well. I have seen this happen, and I have experienced this firsthand. The company we keep rubs off on us. 1 Corinthians 15:33 warns, “Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company corrupts good morals.’” We should not think we are immune to other people’s bad behavior. Over time, we may find ourselves slipping down the slide of immorality, for it is really easy to become desensitized to sin.
Instead, we should be intentional in partnering with people who are passionately following God; people who have made God their priority. There are endless voices vying for our attention, trying to dull our minds and lead us astray. We must work to protect our ears and listen to the voice of God. Unless we set up guards around us, and surround ourselves with people who are also seeking the Lord’s voice, we could be easily led down the wrong path and find ourselves in danger of hurting not only ourselves, but the people around us, just like we see with Jehoshaphat.
The final lesson to be learned from this passage is: when we repent of our sin today, God will give us a new start tomorrow. Every time Jehoshaphat repented, the Lord had mercy on him. That is because God is faithful to forgive us when we cry out to Him and repent. If we find ourselves listening to the false prophets of this world, having formed mismatched alliances, we can repent and find a new start. His forgiveness does not always remove all the consequences of sin, but just as God did not take away Jehoram’s kingdom because of His promise to David, so God is faithful to forgive us because of His promise He made through Jesus. This is the Good News of the Gospel message: God’s mercies are new every morning! Let us rejoice along with Lamentations 3:22-23 which says, “The Lord’s acts of mercy indeed do not end, for His compassions do not fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.”
Let us strive to listen to the voice of God and not listen to the false prophets of this world. Let us pray for wisdom to discern which friendship and partnerships might lead us away from God so we can avoid those and avoid trouble. And let us repent when we begin to go astray. Let us cry out to God to help us follow Him. Then we can testify that the words of Jehoshaphat are true and tell others: “Put your trust in the Lord your God and you will endure.”
Pray: Heavenly Father, we pray that You would help us to listen to Your voice. Help us tune our ears to hear You when You speak. Please help us to love Your word so we read it daily, learning what You have spoken to us. Please help us by Your Holy Spirit, to make friendships and alliances with people who are following You so we are not led astray. Please forgive us when we listen to the wrong voice and disobey You. We love You and praise You for Your great grace and mercy. In Jesus name we pray, amen.
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