Jehoshaphat, son of Asa, was a man who, “walked in the ways
his father David had followed.” As king
of Judah he continued his father’s fight against idolatry and went a step
further by sending his officials along with priests and Levites to all the
towns of Judah to teach the people the Word of God so that they would
understand their obligations under the Covenant.
The
fault that can be found in Jehoshaphat lies not with himself but with those
whom he chose to associate. Jehoshaphat
made a politically savvy, but spiritually foolish decision to ally himself with
Ahab, king of Israel, by having his son marry Ahab and Jezebel’s daughter. This familial alliance led Ahab to ask
Jehoshaphat to help him reclaim a city that had been lost in the previous wars
with Aram when Jehoshaphat’s father Asa had bribed them to invade Israel. Perhaps Jehoshaphat was naïve, perhaps he was
an idealist hoping to reunite the kingdom, but he agreed to help Ahab in the
proposed war.
Jehoshaphat
was not without caution, however, and he required Ahab to consult a prophet of
the LORD before proceeding. Ahab’s court
contained 400 prophets, but not one of whom served the LORD. When Micaiah spoke to Ahab the Word of the
LORD, he did not concur with the 400 false prophets that victory was assured,
instead he told Ahab that this venture would be a calamity that would cost him
his life. How did Ahab respond to the
truth, he locked Micaiah in prison intending to gloat over him when he returned
victorious.
Jehoshaphat
should have stopped right there, he was the one who asked Ahab to seek God’s
counsel, and now he had heard it, but he didn’t listen to it. In the ensuing battle, Ahab disguised himself
to try to avoid God’s judgment, while Jehoshaphat remained in his royal robes
and was nearly killed by enemy soldiers seeking to kill the king of
Israel. At the last possible moment, Jehoshaphat
realized his error and called out to the LORD who rescued him. Ahab did not thwart God’s Word through his
subterfuge, a “random” arrow hit him in an “unlucky” spot between the pieces of
his armor and killed him. The Word of
the LORD had been given to Ahab and Jehoshaphat, both of them failed to heed
it, and Jehoshaphat was very nearly caught up in the destruction that fell upon
Ahab. The Word of God is not to be
trifled with, it is our warning against error and our comfort in despair, to
seek it is certainly the correct first step, but we must still listen to it and
obey.
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