Whenever I have a lesson like this to
teach, I'm reminded of that portion of the
scriptures.
In Corinthians, these things were written for learning
and admonition upon whom the ends of the
ages come.
God has preserved the successes and the fates
of these people and these kings particularly.
And the study of the king is always
interesting because they have such tremendous influence.
And they demand our attention.
It was wonderful when Israel had good kings
and it was bad when they didn't because
they had such widespread influence.
Now our lesson today is about a very
wonderful man called Jehoshaphat.
And I want to record about Jehoshaphat, first
of all, his successes.
Then I want to record his failures.
Then I want to talk about his crisis.
And then I want to talk about the
after-this in his life.
Quote, after, colon, or dash, this, the after
-this of his life, unquote, incidentally.
All those quotation marks, you can't hear them
when I say them, but they're there.
So we want to talk about the after
-this of his life.
Elliot Van Ryn, and I'm not going to
do this, except just to demonstrate.
Elliot Van Ryn, I don't know whether he
told you here, about a brother who had
a message.
And during this message he would do this.
He'd say a few words and he'd do
this.
And he repeated that.
And he'd do this, say a few words,
and then he would do this.
And they asked him why he did that,
and he said, well, that's quote and unquote.
And so, the after-this is quote.
It's quote from the scripture.
After-this.
You know, there are a few of them
in the scripture.
I haven't made a study about the after
-thises of the scripture, but they're interesting.
And it's too bad that he didn't finish
in the scripture account as well as he
might have.
That was true of Solomon.
You know, I think that we as Christians
don't need to relax on our vigil at
any time in our Christian experience.
Every dispensation we've had in the scriptures has
started well.
But they haven't finished yet.
And that's going to be true even of
the Millennium.
It just shows the inability of a human
being to stay with God's principles.
It shows the inability of the flesh to
cope.
It just will not cope.
The flesh is opposed to God.
And that's true in a very spiritual sense.
I think it's true even in some of
our assemblies.
They say, well, but sometimes there's an after
-this.
Well, we'll try to get to that.
That's going to be a long way down
the road, and I'll try to get there.
But let's notice, first of all, his successors.
The successors of this man, Jehoshaphat, have had
a godly father.
I think that Asa's rule over the children
of Israel has to merit the commendation of
the Lord, although he did something in his
life that was very ill-advised.
He relied on the king of Syria instead
of the Lord, and he had to be
rebuked.
Now, Jehoshaphat comes along, and I'm sorry to
say, before we get through with our study
this morning, that he will do the same
thing that he pointed to.
Now, this should make us, indeed, careful that
we don't set bad precedents possible to do
that.
Now, he started out well.
In the 17th chapter of 2 Chronicles, we
read, And Jehoshaphat, his son, reigned in his
stead and strengthened himself against Israel, which were
the enemies of Judah at that time.
And he placed forces in all the cities
of Judah, and set garrisons in the land
of Judah, and in the cities of Ephraim,
which Asa, his father, had taken.
And the Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he
walked in the first ways of his father,
David, and sought not to fail him.
There was a reason for the Lord's favor.
Now, I think that sometimes we get the
impression that if things, if circumstances don't go
right in our lives, that we haven't been
living right.
Sometimes I facetiously say, when I get a
whole string of thoughts right, and they all
turn red just before I get there, I
say, well, I must not be living right.
And we're trying to gauge our spiritual condition
by circumstances.
But let me say this, that when a
man's ways please the Lord, he makes even
his enemies his people, God does indicate by
his blessing upon us that we are doing
what he wants us to do, and conversely,
he indicates by his lack of blessing that
we're not following on in the paths of
the Lord.
Now, Jehoshaphat went on for God.
He walked in the ways that his father,
David, and the next verse says, but sought
to the Lord God of his father, and
walked in his commandments, and not after the
things of Israel.
Therefore the Lord established the kingdom in his
hands, and all Judah brought to Jehoshaphat's presence,
and he had riches and honor in abundance.
Now, God was able to bless him.
God cannot confirm a wrong pathway of a
Christian with his blessing.
Now, I know that sometimes we have to
take circumstances into account here.
Sometimes we are blessed.
And I think of this particularly, if God
waited for us to be in a perfect
spiritual condition before he blessed us, he'd never
have done this.
He just wouldn't do it.
But, because we're not in that perfect spiritual
condition, but we in our overall spiritual condition,
we indeed can merit the blessing of the
Lord.
But he does not confirm our lives that
we're walking away from the Lord.
He does not confirm them with blessings.
He does confirm them with blessings the Lord
showed to Jehoshaphat.
Jehoshaphat, I am pleased with the way you're
doing things.
Now, the reason was that he walked with
the Lord.
The Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he walked
in the first ways of his father David.
Now, first of all, what was the secret
of his success?
Verse 4, taught to the Lord, God of
his father.
But taught to the Lord, God of his
father.
He got into the presence of the Lord.
He taught him.
He taught the presence of the Lord.
For wisdom, for leading, for guidance.
Now, it doesn't say that yet.
But I think I know.
He was a king.
He had responsibilities.
And he wanted to know how that he
might serve his people well.
He taught to the Lord, God of his
father.
And then because of that, he walked in
his commandments.
Not after the kings of Israel.
We will seek the Lord.
We will walk in his commandments.
We will fellowship with him.
We will indeed walk in his commandments.
Now, this was the policy of Jehoshaphat.
He prayed.
He got into the presence of the Lord.
He was concerned about the leading and guidance
of the Lord in this matter of being
king.
And what king wouldn't that be?
I know when President Lyndon Johnson was, and
I think Harry Truman said the same thing.
When they were forced into office through the
death of their predecessors, they asked for the
prayer of a gospel.
I remember that.
Both of them did.
They asked for the prayer of gospel.
They were concerned about having all this responsibility
pressed upon them.
They fought.
They wanted the Lord to help.
I'm glad I live in a nation like
that.
They felt the overwhelming responsibility.
I am President of the United States.
And I've got some responsibility.
This man had responsibility.
For he fought for the Lord God of
Israel.
You know, it's wonderful to have it.
It's sensible, isn't it?
Isn't it wonderful in our lives, when our
lives are perhaps at a dead end corner,
we don't know which way to go, to
have the Lord to go to.
It's wonderful the guidance that we can get.
When we're asking for it, He wants to
guide us.
It's wonderful for the peace of mind that
we can get when we pray.
I may have told you that I had
more or less some problems not too long
ago.
I had a bunch of mental and character,
but they were piling up.
And I got into the presence of the
Lord, and I had it out.
With the Lord, I laid those things out.
I spread them out.
And when I got up off my knees,
I had a peace that was real.
And then I challenged my own mind, why
didn't you do this before?
And oh, how, how much it would relieve
our minds if we just do like Jehoshaphat
did.
He fought.
He come out to the Lord.
This was purposely done.
He just simply didn't say first.
He fought the Lord.
So, the result was He walked in His
commandments.
Not actually doing, or the kings, or doing
with Israel, the kings of Israel.
Therefore the Lord established His kingdom in His
name.
He wanted that kingdom to be established.
That's what He was praying about, I believe.
And all Judah brought to Jehoshaphat's presence.
And he had riches and honor and abundance.
You know, the people of God can detect,
I think, when they're in fellowship with the
Lord.
I think they can.
I think the people of God are aware
of that.
Israel was, Judah rather, was aware of the
fact that this man was seeking the Lord.
And it influenced their attitude toward it.
They brought Him to their presence.
And He had riches and honor and abundance.
They're back with Him.
You know, people want to be led.
They revere, they do revere a good leader.
And Jehoshaphat was, he was acting right.
Thank God for that.
He was acting right.
And they took, they took it into account.
And they were glad.
Now, in verse 6, his heart was lifted
up in the ways of the Lord.
Moreover, he took away the high places and
drove Judah.
Now, this was a part of his reform.
This was a part of his success.
This is a negative thing.
He did some positive things first and then
he started on the negative things.
He took away the droves and the high
places.
The high places in those days were used
in their idol worship.
I don't know why they chose the high
place.
Maybe it was breezy up there.
And they planted groves so that they could
be comfortable in their worship.
And they associated the two together, the high
places and the groves.
As a matter of fact, even the temple,
if you remember, was built on the high
place.
It was the threshing floor of Ornan and
the Jebusite.
And the threshing floors were built on the
high places so the wind would get to
them.
And that's the type of the temple.
Now, the heathen followed suit.
And when they worshipped Baal, they followed suit.
They established the high places.
And they built groves there.
Built trees.
You remember, Gideon cut down a grove because
that's where they took shelter.
Gideon cut down the grove and destroyed the
altar of Baal.
Well, Jehoshaphat did the same thing.
Now, he says there are some things that
need to be changed in my kingdom.
So he went to work and he cut
down those groves.
And he destroyed those high places.
Destroyed them just like Gideon.
Now, you know this to me.
This means this.
There are things in our lives that need
to be changed.
There are things in our lives that we
need to take away.
Tear down.
Cut out.
Eliminate.
Now, I know this is negative.
This is negative.
Not positive.
That's not good.
You have to get it.
We need to judge ourselves in this respect.
And so that we have to chalk up
as one of his successes.
He got rid of the high places and
the groves.
Perhaps we could do well to get rid
of some of our idols.
Now, I'm not going to dwell long on
that subject because I might tramp on your
clothes.
I don't dwell on tramping on people's clothes
particularly.
But you know we can have idols.
Anything that takes the place of God is
an idol.
We can make idols out of an automobile.
Young men, I think, do that particularly.
Teenagers, I think, do that.
That car.
Old.
I tell you.
That automobile.
And it can really take the place of
a motorcycle.
Or a motorcycle.
No, I believe in driving a car that
will give you a reasonable expectancy of reaching
your destination.
But I don't think we ought to make
idols out of them.
Or anything for that matter.
Anything.
Okay.
Okay, they got rid of the idols.
They cut down the groves and destroyed the
high places.
Okay, it's part of it.
Part of it, you say.
And it's a part that you and I
have to consider in our lives.
We need to get rid of some things
sometimes in our lives.
Now, next he calls the law to be
taught.
In verse 7 we read there, And in
the third year of his reign he sent
his princes, Even to Ben-Hael and Boabediah,
and to Zechariah and Nephimeel and Micaiah, to
teach in the cities of Judah.
And with them he sent Levite, Even to
Nehiah, and Nephimeiah, and Zebediah, and Israel, and
to Meramoth, and to Xenophon, I'll tell you,
some of these are tongue twisters, and Adonijah,
and to Phrygia, and told Adonijah, Levi, and
with them Elisha, and Jehoram, and they taught
him Judah, and had the book of the
law of the Lord with them, and went
about to all the cities of Judah, and
taught the people.
Isn't that marvelous?
Oh, how necessary is this, teaching the people
of God.
And learning, learning from the law, I mean,
this is the only Bible they had.
And I'm presuming this refers to the Pentecost.
The Bible for Moses.
They needed it.
And they taught it.
That same thing happened in every town in
the land.
Remember.
He read the law.
Remember they, I tell you, they didn't stop
at an hour.
They were there all day.
And they read the law.
And he gave it to them.
He expounded it, in other words.
So here, this has to be taken into
consideration.
This returns to the books.
Returns to the law.
You and I, you and I need to
be sure that this word has a real
place in our lives.
I don't mean just for a psalmist.
I mean to study it.
And to read it.
For it is so necessary.
That was certainly a huge credit.
Now, because of this, in verse 10, read
there, And the fear of the Lord fell
upon all the kingdoms of the land that
were round about Judah, so that they made
no war against each other.
Isn't that remarkable?
The fear of the Lord.
The Lord influenced people to leave Jehoshaphat alone.
Now God can do that.
He has to.
I just quoted it.
When a man's ways please the Lord, he
makes even his enemies to be ashamed of
him.
Here is the fulfillment of that.
He wouldn't let them make war, Jehoshaphat.
You know, God can show this favor.
And it's real.
Believe me, it's real.
Verse 11, And some of the Philistines brought
Jehoshaphat back.
And tribute silver.
And the Arabians brought in false.
7,700 in.
And 7,700 eagles.
Jehoshaphat lacked grace exceedingly when he built in
Judah castles and cities of war.
Now he made provisions for all the cities
of war so that they would have food
in the right time.
So that they would preserve their food.
And he had much business in the cities
of Judah and the men of war, men
of valor, were in Jerusalem.
Now he built up an army.
These are the numbers of them according to
the house of their fathers.
Judah, the captains of the thousands.
Abner, the chief, and with him mighty men
of valor.
300,000.
Then there was Zephanim, Jehoshamim, a man, better.
And with him there were 218,000, verse
15.
Amityah, 200,000 with him, verse 16.
Uriah, 200,000 with him, verse 17.
Jehoshaphat, with him, 180,000 in verse 18.
Now that makes 1,160,000 men.
That is quite a family.
He knew he had enemies and announced the
prevention that with the son of Sheol he
would prepare it.
We have enemies too.
And we need to prepare for our enemies.
The enemies that you and I have are
real.
I'm going to talk more about that later.
Now I want to notice some of his
failures.
It was well that he fortified himself and
we need fortification too.
Now let's talk about his failures.
We have to go to chapter 18 for
this.
Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honor and abundance
and joined the synod with Ahab.
Why?
What did he need of Ahab?
And certain years, after certain years, he went
down from Ahab to Samaria and Ahab killed
sheep and oxen for him in abundance.
I should think he would.
He had a family that could really come
to his rescue when they needed him.
And for the people that he had with
him and persuaded him to go up with
him to reign with him he did.
Now do you know some of these unholy
alliances?
And this was an unholy alliance.
It can really get us in trouble.
Now I could wax eloquent on this for
the rest of the morning about unholy alliances.
I'll say this.
And let go of that.
I think Satan's greatest victory in the life
of a Christian is to link him up
to an unfaithful God.
I think more is accomplished in one fell
swoop in that area.
An unholy alliance.
It's beyond our reach.
I don't know why he did this.
Oh I suppose that he thought of their
beginnings together but Ahab was with him.
Very guessable.
He compounded his wickedness.
And so because of his alliance he got
himself into a war and he almost got
himself killed.
Because he went up and they fought and
they went into this war against his enemies.
He said in verse 3 Ahab king of
Israel said unto Jehoshaphat king of Judah Wilt
thou go up with me to reign with
Gilead?
And he answered him I am as thou
art and my people as thy people.
Not quite.
And we will be with thee in the
war.
Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel Inquire
I pray thee unto the king of Israel
I pray thee at the word of the
Lord today.
And therefore the king of Israel gathered together
other prophets 400 men and said unto them
Shall we go to reign with Gilead the
battle?
Or shall we prepare?
They said go up for the God will
deliver it into the king's hands.
And they knew that that's what the king
wanted to do.
Here.
I think I made a statement the last
time I was here.
When we ask for advice we generally want
the advice that we want.
And that's the advice that we want.
We really want advice.
And we want somebody to confirm that.
And that's what he did.
And that's what he got.
Now these 400 prophets were not prophets of
the Lord.
Jehoshaphat knew that.
Jehoshaphat says I want a prophet of the
Lord.
So they got Micaiah and he was not
on good terms incidentally with Ahab.
And did I get his name correctly?
Yes, Micaiah.
Some of them were.
And so he says I want to hear
what he has to say.
So Micaiah comes on the scene and he
Ahab says now he said to Micaiah before
he ever got there this was not what
Micaiah said.
He said I hate that man.
He never prophesied good concerning me.
So when Micaiah came on the scene he
said shall we go up to the reign
of Gilead?
Micaiah says go up.
The Lord will prosper you and deliver you
from evil.
It will be delivered in your name.
And he didn't believe him.
He said this can't be true.
He said I told you, I told you.
You know you just can't believe some people.
And then Micaiah came up on the truth.
He said I saw the angels of the
Lord, some of them coming into his presence.
Spirits, they're called spirits.
And he says now who are we going
to get Ahab up to that battle so
he can win?
It was Ahab's time has run out.
So one of the spirits said I'll go
and be a lying spirit in the mouth
of his prophet.
And I'll incite him to go up.
And so he said go ahead.
That's what he wants to hear.
And then he said this true prophet of
the Lord said this is going to be
his defeat.
He warned him.
Absolutely.
And he said, he tells him in verse
let's see where did we begin on that.
Verse 23 of the 18th chapter then Zedekiah
the son of Sinonah came near and spoke
to Micaiah the chief and said quick away
let the spirit of the Lord speak unto
thee.
And Micaiah said behold I'll succeed in that
day and I'll go into an inner chamber
to hide thyself.
Then the king of Israel said take thee
Micaiah and carry him back to Ammon the
governor of the city and to Joach the
king's son and say let the king put
this fellow in prison and feed him with
bread of affliction and with water of affliction
until I return in peace.
Micaiah said yes I'll certainly return in peace.
Then hath not the Lord spoken unto me.
And he said unto Harkon and he said
Harkon all ye people.
So they went up to this battle and
they have said now I'm going to frustrate
this man's prophecy.
I'm going to disguise myself.
They won't know me from an ordinary soldier.
Then Jehoshaphat went up and he kingly robed.
Well the enemy, the Moabites, surrounded Jehoshaphat and
thought they had the king of Israel.
But God miraculously turned them away.
They made it their mind he was not
the king of Israel.
He was kingly robed.
So it looked like Ahab had frustrated the
prophecy of Micaiah.
But a man drew a bow and a
venture and shot a arrow into the earth
and it went through the park and it
landed between the join where they had stood
on.
And inflicted a fatal wound.
That archer could not Micaiah was right.
And they had died.
You would think that he had learned his
lesson.
Now later in chapter 20 he is beset
by a crisis.
And incidentally this crisis was caused by the
fact that he went up with to fight
with Ahab because the same people came back.
Only they got more with them.
Not only the Moabites at this time but
Amnon and the Israelites.
Three of them.
Three nations came together.
Now the start of this whole thing was
when they went up and made an alliance
with Ahab.
And the ill will that he got from
the Moabites at that time caused his crisis.
This is what we call your chickens coming
home to roost.
Be not deceived, God is not lost.
So what were men for?
That's what he was for.
He was for that particular reason.
Now he doesn't have one nation.
The Moabites fight against him.
He has Amnon and he has the Israelites.
He got in the presence of the Lord.
So it reads in verse 3 of chapter
20.
And Jehoshaphat steered and set himself to seek
the Lord and proclaim the faith throughout all
Judah.
And Judah gathered themselves together and asked help
of the Lord.
Even out of all the cities of Judah
they came to seek the Lord.
They saw that now the Lord gave them
an instruction.
All right, get your army out and go
down there.
And incidentally he reassured them through the message
of Jehaziel, the son of Zechariah, the son
of Jeneiah, a prophet of the Lord.
And he told them you're going to get
this victory and you're not even going to
fight.
But take your army and go down there.
And they left.
They went just as the Lord instructed them.
And you know what happened?
Those three nations stopped fighting among themselves.
And they eliminated each other.
Now it's interesting to me to note that
there are three nations, the Moabites, the Ammonites,
and the Needomites.
They wanted to fight so they thought each
other.
We have a three-fold enemy and we
need to be on guard and we need
to get into the presence of the Lord
about that enemy.
Our help is in the Lord because we
can fail.
We can be defeated if we are not
dependent upon the Lord.
Our enemies are too strong for us.
We have to remember that.
Now they're not too strong for the Lord
and I don't mean to infer that we
should live our lives in mortal fear of
our three-sided enemy.
I don't mean that.
But I mean we need to be very,
very realistic about the enemy that we have
fighting against.
All right.
They destroyed each other and the spoil was
so great they were three days.
Now this was an army.
And an army can gather a lot of
spoil.
They were three days and then Now this
has a lovely occasion and I should have
saved more time for it.
You and I have won a battle.
We're more than conquered because we haven't lost
it.
We're more than conquered because we haven't fought.
And yet the victory is ours.
Christ fought and he fought.
He gained the victory single-handed and we
are more than conquered just like Jehoshaphat that
didn't have a thing to do.
He didn't have anything that he needed to
do.
You and I have a victory that will
never fail because of Christ.
A victory that we have gained and we
didn't have to fight.
Oh, what a story book this is.
Now that after this, verse 35 of chapter
20.
And after this did Jehoshaphat say to Judith,
join himself with Ahaziah, king of Israel, who
did very wickedly.
Oh, Jehoshaphat, will you never learn?
Will you never learn?
Okay.
He joined himself with him to make ships
to go to Carthage and they made ships
and Ezekiel gave them.
And Eliezer, the son of Godavar, or Morishach,
prophesied against Jehoshaphat saying, because I have joined
myself with Ahaziah, the Lord has broken my
works and the ships were broken that they
might not be able to go to Carthage.
Unholy alliances for commercial purposes aren't very good
either.
And we have to learn that.
And just after this we are not to
make unholy alliances in any area of our
lives.
And it says, be ye not on this
for the oath together is unbelievable and he
did not pardon.
It's the same as it means nothing.
And there was an after this and I'm
sorry to have to read that about General
Knapp.
After this he made an alliance with Ahaziah
who had done very, very wrong.
You and I need to keep from those
encumbering all alliances.
And just pretend holy and holy.
Father we do thank thee for thy word
and for what we have learned from Jehoshaphat
today.
We pray, Father, that you might take these
things to heart and then make pleas to
the Lord and speak to the Lord in
his guidance and his leading you ever and
always.
And be