Most of the time, Jehoshaphat really was a very good and godly king. But he was human too, and at times he did not do what God wanted him to do. That's going to be the focus of this article, and hopefully we all can learn some good lessons from the life of this king.
You still have your Bibles with you? If not, go and grab them! We'll be using them a lot today. Got them? Good. First turn to 1 Kings 16:29-31. Before we dive into Jehoshaphat today, we need to get a little background.
"In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria over Israel twenty-two years. Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him. He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him."
You got that? Yes, this passage is talking about Ahab, not Jehoshaphat. But as I said, we need a little background! First of all, let's remember who Jeroboam son of Nebat was. Remember Rehoboam? Well, when the kingdom split Rehoboam took two tribes and the new king Jeroboam took the other ten. Rehoboam's kingdom became known as Judah, while Jeroboam's kingdom was known as Israel. Jeroboam was a very godly man when he served under Solomon. It's a bit of a long passage, but below is a nice introduction on how Jeroboam became king. It's taken from 1 Kings 11:26-33, 37-38:
"Also, Jeroboam son of Nebat rebelled against the king. He was one of Solomon’s officials, an Ephraimite from Zeredah, and his mother was a widow named Zeruah.
Here is the account of how he rebelled against the king: Solomon had built the terraces and had filled in the gap in the wall of the city of David his father. Now Jeroboam was a man of standing, and when Solomon saw how well the young man did his work, he put him in charge of the whole labor force of the tribes of Joseph.
About that time Jeroboam was going out of Jerusalem, and Ahijah the prophet of Shiloh met him on the way, wearing a new cloak. The two of them were alone out in the country, and Ahijah took hold of the new cloak he was wearing and tore it into twelve pieces. Then he said to Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘See, I am going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hand and give you ten tribes. But for the sake of my servant David and the city of Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, he will have one tribe. I will do this because they have forsaken me and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Molek the god of the Ammonites, and have not walked in obedience to me, nor done what is right in my eyes, nor kept my decrees and laws as David, Solomon’s father, did...
...However, as for you, I will take you, and you will rule over all that your heart desires; you will be king over Israel. If you do whatever I command you and walk in obedience to me and do what is right in my eyes by obeying my decrees and commands, as David my servant did, I will be with you. I will build you a dynasty as enduring as the one I built for David and will give Israel to you."
Really, think of the bright future and possibilities Jeroboam had in front of him! Rehoboam had not followed in either David or Solomon's footsteps, and here God is promising Jeroboam a dynasty as big as David's! Unfortunately, Jeroboam did not choose to go with God in his kingdom. Scared that the Israelites would revolt when they worshiped at Jerusalem, Jeroboam set up a false capital of worship in his territory. And of course that means that there was much false worship and idols...just what God hadn't planned. So that's a brief synopsis of Jeroboam--read the full version in 1 Kings 12:20-14:20.
Now back to Ahab. What was so wrong with marrying Jezebel? Let's check out the Biblical text again:
"Ahab...married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him." ~1 Kings 16:30-31
So who were the Sidonians? From the little research that I've done, I've figured out the Sidonians were a very evil and supposed-to-be-abhorred group of people, who blatantly practiced false worship. In the passage on Jeroboam you read about how Judah--Rehoboam, and his two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, plus their fathers--had incorporated the Sidonian worship into their own lives, and had set up Ashtoreth poles everywhere in Judah. (Remember, that's what Jehoshaphat tore down in last week's article).
So Ahab--who's supposed to be following God--not only thinks nothing of committing the hideous sins of Jeroboam, but also takes to him a wife from an idolatrous nation...and now you're starting to get a picture of Israel's royal couple at the time of Jehoshaphat.
I've come to the point where I can almost predict what the Bible will say about the succession of kings, and so here's my general blueprint and plan:
"In the _______ year of __________________ king of ________, __________ succeeded his father __________ to the throne of ________. ___________ did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any king before him, and after he reigned ______________ years he laid with his fathers. __________ his son succeeded him to the throne."
In that above paragraph, insert a number (as in years). For the third blank (we'll get back to #2 in a second), decide which kingdom (Israel or Judah) you're talking about. Then put the opposite kingdom in that blank. For the second blank, put the name of the king who was currently ruling the other kingdom (your choices are either Israel or Judah). For the fourth & seventh blanks, put the name of the new king. For blank #5, insert the new king's father. For blank #6, put the kingdom that this new king is ruling. For blank #8, write in the number of years that this new king ruled (it could be anywhere from one year to fifty-some odd years). For the final (ninth) blank, put the name of the new king's son, the son who succeeded him as king.
So there you go, you've just played Biblical Mad-Libs! Really, though, it's quite sad. While Judah occasionally had a good, godly king (Jehoshaphat was one of them), Israel never had such good fortune. Every king was recorded as doing more evil than the king before him--but the records stop at Ahab! Ahab was absolutely the worst king that Israel ever had, and committed the most evil. (Oh and did I mention that Jezebel had Ahab initiate Baal worship throughout the land, too??)
That's as far as I'm going to go in this story for this week. No, we didn't get to Jehoshaphat, but we have covered some good background material needed to understand next weeks' story, which is on Jehoshaphat's interactions with Ahab. And through these stories on Jeroboam and Ahab we can learn some very good lessons--most definitely on how not to go about things! God loves us dearly, and only ever wants the best for us. It's clear from the stories on Ahab and Jeroboam how they weren't happy, and things didn't go as planned when they didn't follow God. Resolve today to follow God!
To be continued...
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