It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
They were not fully faithful to their God, a trend which began with Solomon himself.
originally posted by: MrBlaq
The trend started with King Saul, and not with Solomon.
Politics had nothing to do with it, if anything as with in later times
with the Herodians, politics is an impediment to serving God.
Trying to mix politics with the Spirit of God is like trying to
mix dog dung with diamonds.
originally posted by: DISRAELI
The first few kings of Judah, after Solomon’s time, neglected the link between politics and religion.
They were not fully faithful to their God, a trend which began with Solomon himself.
Solomon was also ultimately responsible for the breach with the northern tribes, because they were reacting to the forced labour which he imposed.
As a result, his descendants inherited a chronic state of war with the northern kingdom.
In both respects, the first repairs were attempted by Jehoshaphat, the fourth king of Judah (2 Chronicles chs17-20).
Following the example of his father Asa, he “sought the God of his father and walked in his commandments”.
“He did what was right in the sight of the Lord”.
Therefore the Lord “established the kingdom in his hand”.
One of the first things he did, in the third year of his reign, was to send out his princes to teach in the cities of Judah.
There were five of them, accompanied by two priests and nine Levites.
They had “the book of the law of the Lord” with them, and this provided the content of their teaching.
But this would not just have been about the laws.
The final version of the “book of the law”, the modern Pentateuch, also includes the history of Israel, the story of God’s dealings with his people.
The two elements necessarily go together, as we see from the Psalms (e.g. Psalm 78).
The laws were telling them what their God wanted them to do.
The history would be telling them why they should respect what their God wanted them to do.
This teaching work must always have been part of the priestly responsibilities, a much more important task than the routine of sacrifice.
So this remarkable expedition would have done more for the revival of true religion in Judah than any other reform which the king could have introduced (ch17 vv7-9).
My own theory, for what it’s worth, is that their “book of the law” would contain the material which modern scholars identify as the source “J”.
The reign of Jehoshaphat would deserve even more credit if his men were also responsible for collecting these materials together.
Once he got back to Jerusalem, he also set up an appeal court, to decide disputed cases.
This would include decisions on matters of bloodshed.
There had certainly been no proper appeal court organised in David’s time. This had meant that appeals were heard only after delays, if at all, arousing the discontent which Absolom exploited.
Jehoshaphat’s court was constituted by “certain Levites and priests and heads of families of Israel”.
It was under the supervision of the chief priest “in all matters of the Lord”, and under the supervision of the governor of the house of Judah “in all the king’s matters”.
Though I’m not sure where the boundary line comes, for under this law the Lord gets involved in both civil and criminal cases.
He charged them to give their judgements “in the fear of the Lord, in faithfulness, and with your whole heart…
Deal courageously, and may the Lord be with the upright!” (ch19 vv4-11).
Therefore “the Lord established the kingdom in his hand”.
All of Judah brought tribute and he had great riches and honour.
Wealth could be used to increase his power (and bring more om the men of Benjamin.
There were also the garrisons of the fortified cities.
Consequently “The fear of the Lord fell upon all the kingdoms of the lands that were round about Judah, and they made no war against Jehoshaphat”.
They even brought tribute. The Philistines brought presents and silver, the Arabs gave him 7,700 rams and another 7,700 he-goats (ch17 vv10-19).
Perhaps his boldest move was making overtures to build better relations with the northern kingdom, Israel.
This was religious policy as well as “foreign” policy.
It was about trying to restore the sundered halves of God’s people.
Israel was not yet a failed state which could be re-absorbed. That woulide that help.
He made a state visit to Ahab in Samaria, his equivalent of Nixon’s trip to China.
They agreed to join forces in an attempt to recover Ramoth-Gilead from the Syrians.
This conference is famous for the confrontation between the two prophets, Micaiah the son of Imlah and Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah.
Micaiah had been called in, at the suggestion of Jehoshaphat, to offer an alternative to the compliant enthusiasm of the professional prophets.
The prophet foretold a catastrophe, and he was right. The following battle saw the death of Ahab, while the army of Israel was “scattered upon the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd” (1 Kings ch22).
The next two kings of Israel were the sons of Ahab, Ahaziah and Jehoram.
Jehoshaphat joined Jehoram in another expedition, against the king of Moab. The story is told because the joint army ran into difficulties, and Elisha was consulted.
Again we see the respect of Jehoshaphat for the true prophets of the Lord, while Elisha admitted to respecting Jehoshaphat more than his own king (2 Kings ch3).
The king of Judah also co-operated with Ahaziah in a commercial project, building merchant ships to be sent to Tarshish (2 Chronicles ch20 vv35-37).
Eliezer the son of Dodavahu of Mareshah prophesied against the last-mentioned venture.
The prophets were he kings of Israel were still attached to the Sidonian Baal.
Up to a point, they had reason to be anxious.
The symbol of the new policy was the marriage alliance between the house of Jehoshaphat and the house of Ahab.
Just as the marriage alliance with
Nevertheless, Jehoshaphat deserves his reputation, for making a sustained effort to bring the Lord back into the governance of his kingdom.