Sermon on 2 Chronicles 17–21: King Jehoshaphat and the security of God's Word
A sermon from Latimer Church on the reign of King Jehoshaphat and the theme of trusting God's Word through every circumstance.
Summary
This is a solo sermon delivered at Latimer Church, most likely by Senior Pastor James de Costobadie (Costa), working through 2 Chronicles 17:1–21:3 and the reign of King Jehoshaphat. The sermon argues that the only secure foundation in life is the Word of God, demonstrated through three episodes in Jehoshaphat's reign: his early faithfulness and prosperity, his foolish alliance with the wicked King Ahab and near-disaster at Ramoth Gilead, and his prayer and fasting in the face of a vast invading army. The preacher draws direct application to the congregation at Latimer Church, including a call to fast and seek the Lord ahead of a significant transition into a new church building. The sermon closes with a warning that even at the end of his reign Jehoshaphat repeated his error of making ungodly alliances, and that God's judgment on those alliances only confirmed the trustworthiness of His Word.
Key Takeaways
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Introduction: Where is your security?
Well, life, as we know, is like a box of chocolates — thank you, Tom Hanks. You never know what you're going to get. There is good, there is bad, there is unexpected, there are twists and turns. And through it all, there is a question for every person: where is your security? When things turn to custard, when things do not work out as we would have written the script ourselves, when we're so quickly exposed in life — where will our security have been? Where are we putting our trust?
Today we are looking at King Jehoshaphat, who teaches us above everything else that the only secure foundation in life is the Word of God. If we trust anything else, in the end we will come unstuck by life itself. As we read through the four chapters of King Jehoshaphat, we'll find that whether he does good or whether he does ill, the Word of God comes true in every single instance. And that's why it's the thing on which to build our lives — because it always comes true. It's the one thing that will never let us down.
Jehoshaphat gets the second longest account in the book of Chronicles given to a king. On balance, he's shown to be a bright spot among the kings of Judah. I don't know how you'd rank him out of ten, but he probably gets a seven, or maybe an eight. He has a couple of unfortunate episodes where he persuades himself he can sort out his own security, and neither time ends well — which reinforces the main message: you should always find your security in life in the Word of God.
There are three different episodes — there's a lot that goes on in his reign — but three different episodes for us to learn from, all reinforcing that we should always trust the Word.
Chapter 17: Jehoshaphat lived and taught the Word, and thrived
First of all, from chapter 17: Jehoshaphat lived and taught the Word and thrived. Very simple — he lived the Word, he taught the Word, and he thrived.
Chapter 17 is radiantly positive about Jehoshaphat. We read in verses 1 and 2 that he goes from strength to strength. He strengthens himself against Israel. Israel was in the north — that was the ten tribes — and they had turned away from the Lord. Outrageous: they had the scriptures as well, but they became apostate. Jehoshaphat is down in the south, king of Judah, and God's enemy is his enemy. He makes the right choice. He strengthens himself against the north, against Israel, puts garrisons in Judah to strengthen the south and the towns of Ephraim that his father Asa had captured.
Then we see what underpinned his strength — he lived the Word of God. Have a look at verse 3:
"The Lord was with Jehoshaphat because in his early years he walked in the ways his father David had followed. He did not consult the Baals but sought the God of his father and followed his commands rather than the practices of Israel in the north. The Lord established the kingdom under his control, and all Judah brought gifts to Jehoshaphat so that he had great wealth and honour. His heart was devoted to the ways of the Lord. Furthermore, he removed the high places and the Asherah poles from Judah."
He lived the Word of the Lord. Notice four words. First of all, he walked — we're told in verse 3 he walked in the ways his father David had followed. Walking there means walking according to the law of the Lord. God had spoken his law, and Jehoshaphat said, that law I will follow. Because that's what a believer is — a believer is someone who allows the Word of God to shape their life, to affect the path that they take. At every decision point in life, they might naturally think one thing, but then they look at the Word and think, actually, I'll go this way instead.
Naturally, they might think, I'm very frustrated with my parents. Then they read the Word and it says, honour your parents. And so they go that way and don't say what they would have said. Naturally, perhaps they're drawn into endless online purchasing. And then they read the Word, and the Word says, beware of greed, which is idolatry. And they think, actually, I need to stop this — stop the scrolling, cut down on the purchasing. Naturally, perhaps they begin to doubt God's goodness, and then they read, "the love of the Lord endures forever," and so they say, that I will trust. So he walked in the ways of the Lord.
Secondly, he sought. We've seen this in the book of Chronicles — there's a big play on what you seek in life, what you're looking for in life. Look at Jehoshaphat in verse 4: he didn't consult the Baals but sought the God of his father and followed his commands rather than the practices of Israel. When I first became a Christian, there was a book that was quite popular called Search the Scriptures — a book of devotionals to help you read the Bible for yourself. And really that's what Jehoshaphat did. He sought the scriptures, sought the Lord in the scriptures. He didn't just tick the box — he wanted to know what this tells him about God. He sought the Lord.
Then thirdly, we read in verse 6 that his heart was devoted to the ways of the Lord. In other words, Jehoshaphat cared about God and what God thought. He didn't just say, my life, my choices. It mattered to him what God was doing. Now, it's very instructive for us that his heart was devoted, because a person shows that they are really a follower of the Lord when their hearts are changed. We all know as kids you can do the right thing for the wrong reason. You can do things because you're told to, because you have to — it's just part of growing up. But it's different when you want to do something, when someone is actually motivated because they're changed, when they actually want to be like this — not because someone's standing over them, not because someone's wagging the finger, but because their desires have actually been changed. You can't keep a good person down when they want to behave in a certain way.
Jehoshaphat's heart was devoted to the ways of the Lord. A person shows that they are a real follower of the Lord when they want to follow him with their life. This is one of the three great ministries of the Spirit of God. First, the ministry of salvation, where he regenerates us — that is, gives us a new heart. Secondly, the ministry of sanctification, when through that new heart he changes us to become more like Jesus, so that we want to become more like Jesus. And then thirdly, the ministry of service, where he equips his people with gifts so that they want to serve him. And all together it comes from having a new heart where we're actually motivated in a different way.
You can tell that someone's become a follower of the Lord when they want to follow his ways. They don't just serve to fill a gap — they're keen to. They don't just give money because they have to, or because that's what's expected. No, it's because they want to. What else would we want to give our money to that's better than the work of the gospel? And that's really what we want for us as a church — not to become eggheads, growing in knowledge for its own sake, but growing in the kind of knowledge that changes our hearts. That's what Jehoshaphat was like. His heart was in it.
And then that fourth word — verse 6 — he removed. He removed the high places, he removed the Asherah poles. He remembered the second commandment: you shall have no idols. And he thought, that's an idol, it's got to go. Part of how we show that we're a follower of the Lord is nurturing some qualities but removing other aspects of life, because you cannot have those two things sitting alongside each other. It's not just a case of wanting to become more like Jesus positively — it's also a case of actually rooting out, digging out, these other things.
I know less than nothing about gardening and horticulture, and many of you will be experts in that. But I imagine it's not just a case, when you go into a ramshackle garden, of planting a few pansies to cover up everything else. No, you've got to get in there and actually dig some things out and get rid of them before you put the nice plants in. That's what Jehoshaphat did in Judah, and that's what every follower of the Lord needs to do as well — to find the areas that we've got to get rid of.
So there's a lesson here for us: to walk, to seek, to devote, to remove — in other words, to live by the Word. And for Jehoshaphat, he thrived because of it.
The other part of it is that he taught the Word. He lived and taught the Word. Have a look at verse 7: in the third year of his reign he sent these officials — with nice simple names — out into the countryside, and with some Levites with even more simple names. And what do they do? Verse 9: they taught throughout Judah, taking with them the book of the law of the Lord. They went around to all the towns of Judah and taught the people. They taught the people what God had said. For what God has said in the past, God is still saying today. He doesn't change his word, he doesn't change his tune, he has the same message today.
So Jehoshaphat's aim was to saturate the land with the Word of God, so that every person — from least to greatest, from youngest to oldest — would know the Word, would hear the Word. Imagine a land, a country that's perhaps had a drought and has gone brown and baked hard. Sometimes in Canterbury by the end of the summer you see the brown hills as you drive north. And then as water comes, as the rain comes, it springs back to life. Well, for the soul of the nation, the Word of God was the water — is the water — because it's the living, life-giving Word of God that brings life to our souls, that actually springs us to life again.
And if you find you've gone dry in life, perhaps because of the difficulties and very great hardships that some people go through — it kind of makes us go brown at the edges — but then you get back into the Word and you're saturated with the Word, it actually brings a joy back into our life again. It's what we want at Latimer: for the church to be soaked in the Word of God. Not just to talk about it, not just to have piles of Bibles sitting on the side closed — that doesn't prove anything to anyone — but actually opening it and having an appetite to read it. Yes, on a Sunday. Yes, joining a growth group so that we can help each other in that, not just for yourself but for others. But also individually, or as a family, getting into the Word. It might just be a little bit, just a little bite-sized chunk each day, but getting into it so that we're saturated with the living and active Word of God.
The point here is that as the king lives by the Word and elevates the Word of God, there's a wonderful outcome. Verse 10: the fear of the Lord fell on all the kingdoms of the land surrounding Judah, so that they didn't make war with Jehoshaphat. Some Philistines brought Jehoshaphat gifts and silver as tribute, and the Arabs brought in flocks — 7,700 rams and 7,700 goats. Well, who doesn't need some more rams and goats? That's what the nations around bring — in worship of the living Lord God and his king Jehoshaphat on the throne. In other words, he thrives, and the nation thrives, because he lives and teaches the Word of God.
It reminds us of our greater king, Jesus — who lived by the Word, of course. He walked in the ways of the Lord, he sought his Father, he devoted himself to the Lord, he removed the sin of the people. And Jesus, who taught the Word of the Lord — "this is why I've come," he said, "to preach to the people." And that's why, in Jesus' kingdom, the people thrive. Spiritually, that will be true for us if we let the Word of God dwell in us richly, if we saturate ourselves in the Word of God — we will prosper spiritually.
This week I had a message from a family at Latimer who were going through a very difficult time, with different members of the family facing difficult things. And the person who messaged me said, "But the Lord is good and faithful. We trust him whatever the outcome." Now, you can only say that when you're saturated in the Word of God, because it's not what you see and it's not what you feel, but it is the reality. The Lord is good and faithful. We trust him whatever the outcome. But you only say that when you're saturated with the Word of God.
So that's the first thing from Jehoshaphat. He lived and taught the Word and thrived, and the nation thrived.
Chapter 18: Jehoshaphat ignored, then remembered the Word, and survived
Then into chapter 18 — things not so good. The king has made a great start, and then you read verse 1 of chapter 18: now Jehoshaphat had great wealth and honour, and he allied himself with Ahab by marriage.
Oh my goodness. Jehoshaphat, what are you doing? Ahab — you remember him — he's the wicked king of Israel in the north. The only person worse than him in the kingdom was his choice of bride, Jezebel. So they make quite a pair between them. And Jehoshaphat, in his wisdom, goes and makes an alliance with him by marriage. This is a disaster. He has managed to bind himself to the most wicked person against the Lord.
What you get in chapter 18 is both things happening simultaneously: Jehoshaphat making a ridiculous decision, and at the same time his conscience still operating — he knows he's not done the right thing.
Verse 2: years later he goes down to visit Ahab in Samaria. Ahab puts on a feast for him, and in the feast urges him to attack Ramoth Gilead. Verse 3: Ahab king of Israel asks Jehoshaphat, "Will you go with me against Ramoth Gilead?" And can you believe it — Jehoshaphat replies, "I am as you are, and my people is your people. We will join you in the war." Oh no, don't do it. You shouldn't ally yourself with Ahab against the Lord. But anyway, he does.
But at the same time his conscience is operating. Verse 4: he also said to the king of Israel, "But first seek the counsel of the Lord." So he knows what he ought to do. So the king of Israel, Ahab, brings out the prophets. Now we have to understand — these are prophets, but they're not real prophets. They're on the king's payroll. This is like a country in our time that has a dictatorship with a state church. You get those countries — a totalitarian regime where the state church is actually quite useful to them because it puts a divine stamp of blessing on what the regime wants to do. A bit like Hitler, actually, back in the day. Some of Hitler's contemporaries, like Himmler, were avowed atheists and wanted to get rid of the church altogether. But Hitler was a bit more shrewd than that. He thought, actually, the church can serve me a good purpose here, because it can put a divine stamp of blessing on what I'm doing. So that was why Hitler was quite a fan of the state church. It's not an uncommon tactic.
Well, Ahab was very much the same back in his day. He's got his prophets, so he wheels them out. And of course, they always say what he wants them to say. But Jehoshaphat smells a rat. Verse 6: he says, "Is there not a prophet of the Lord here whom we can inquire of?" To which Ahab says in verse 7, "Well, there is still one man through whom we can inquire, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah son of Imla."
Now, you know someone who tells you the truth in life — the person who will say what is uncomfortable, the person who will tell you what you don't want to hear — is of course your friend. That's the person you value in life. And that's why the Word of God is so precious. The Word comes from outside us to tell us what we don't want to hear. And that's what Micaiah is like to the king — he tells him the word of truth. That's what the Word of God is like to us. It tells us to flee temptation — in other words, delete the app and get rid of that thing that shouldn't be there, rather than consume what it feeds you. Or the Word tells us to seek first the kingdom rather than our ease and comfort, when all I want is another quiet night in. The Word of God cuts into our self-protecting comforts and tells us what we don't want to hear.
Well, it's the same here. They call for Micaiah the prophet. There are the two kings, verse 9, dressed in their royal robes. Ahab's flock of prophets are still parading before them, and the next one in line is this man called Zedekiah, who's wearing these ridiculous iron horns. He declares, "This is what the Lord says: with these you will gore the Arameans until they are destroyed." He's telling Ahab exactly what he wants to know — that God will give him the victory. And it all sounds marvellous. It always sounds marvellous, doesn't it? God's in this, you should definitely go for it. The trouble was, he wasn't.
Now Micaiah is called on to come forward before the kings. Verse 12: interestingly, the messenger who's gone to summon Micaiah gives him a tip. He says, "Look, the other prophets are predicting success for Ahab, and if you value your status you might want to give a similar kind of message." But verse 13: Micaiah said, "As surely as the Lord lives, I can tell him only what my God says."
So he arrives, and the king says, "Well, what should we do? Should we go to war?" And Micaiah in the first instance encourages him — yes, you should. And Ahab knows: you're not telling the truth, Micaiah. And so Micaiah gives him the truth. The truth is: you will go to war, because your lying prophets have promised you victory, but it will not work out that way. Verse 16: "I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd, and the Lord said, 'These people have no master. Let each one go home in peace.'" In other words, they're going to be scattered in battle and destroyed.
Now the false prophets who were there don't take kindly to Micaiah calling them false prophets. Zedekiah, verse 23, comes up and slaps him in the face and says, "Which way did the spirit from the Lord go when he went from me to speak to you?" Micaiah replied, in a word of irony, "You will find out on the day you go to hide in an inner room" — in other words, you will see what you cannot see at the moment, on the day it comes true.
The king of Israel orders, "Take Micaiah and send him back to Amon. Put this fellow in prison until I return safely, and give him nothing but bread and water." And Micaiah promises: "If you ever return safely, the Lord has not spoken through me."
So God has spoken through Micaiah — this will end in disaster. Ahab pushes on, and Ahab tries to form his own plan. The plan is: I'll go in disguise. He says to Jehoshaphat, "I've got an idea. I'll go in disguise. Why don't you go dressed up — put a crown on your head — and I'll just slip in in disguise." Now why Jehoshaphat agrees to this, I mean — but the word of God has been given, and the word of God will come true.
So the enemy chariot commanders see Jehoshaphat and begin to think it's the king of Israel. But then when they get a closer look, they realise it isn't, and the Lord helps him away — God rescues him from the battle. And as for Ahab, no such luck. Verse 33: someone, in a moment of irony, drew his bow at random and hit the king of Israel between the sections of his armour. What are the chances of this being at random, when the word of God has decreed it? Suddenly, out of nowhere, this arrow comes through the air and into Ahab's heart, and the king is mortally wounded and dies.
Jehoshaphat ignored the Word of God, but then remembered it just in time. This alliance was so foolhardy, but kind of just in time he remembered it, and so he survived.
Sometimes in life when we make a mistake, the key is not to persevere in that, but to remember what God says and to come back to him. Maybe it is a case of having made a foolish alliance. In life, there are ways of making tangible alliances with real people that we should not be tied up with, that will not serve us well. But more often than not, it's the hidden alliances of the heart that are the problem — where we become inwardly attached to the things of this world, addicted to things in this world that will not help us and will not serve us well. In other words, we've ignored the Word of God that says put him first.
Maybe we've become addicted to a standard of living we could never imagine changing, or a set of worldly goals for our kids we label as loving parenting, or whether it's the relentless prioritisation of our diet or fitness or something else — which is where our hearts become committed, rather than committed to God himself. We need to wake up. We need to remember the Word, to come back to it quickly, so that we can survive. Because the danger of drift is always real.
So that's the lesson from chapter 18. Chapter 17: he lived and taught the Word of God and thrived. Chapter 18: he ignored, then remembered the Word of God, and survived.
Chapter 20: Jehoshaphat fasted and trusted the Word, and the people revived
Chapter 20: Jehoshaphat fasted and trusted the Word, and the people revived.
Now chapter 19, which we won't look at in detail — the prophet comes and rebukes him, and Jehoshaphat learns his lesson and turns the people back to the Lord again. But at the beginning of chapter 20, it's not long before he's facing another challenge. Have a look at verse 2 of chapter 20: some men came and told Jehoshaphat, "A vast army is coming against you from Edom, from the other side of the sea."
When you're the king, there's just always another challenge around the corner. Because that's what it's like when you're fighting on God's side. You never get a let-up in this life. You and I, we're part of a spiritual war. And as long as we're living, until we make it to the new creation, there will always be another challenge. I'm always reminded of that great opening scene of Gladiator. You remember Gladiator? Maximus fights the battle against the Germanic hordes — all those tons of flaming arrows and all of that. He comes back, having won the great victory, and he sees his boss, the wise old Emperor Marcus Aurelius. And I think Maximus thinks, I've done it, I've defeated the enemy. And Aurelius leans forward and says, "There is always another battle left to fight." Now that's what it's like as a Christian, isn't it? There's always another battle left to fight. That's what it's like for the king of Judah.
So here he is, facing this vast army — that must be absolutely terrifying. You'd see the tanks line up, see all their military equipment, absolutely vast numbers of soldiers. And we read that he was alarmed in verse 3. So he's not totally stoic about it — he's pretty scared about what could happen. But then in his alarm he falls the right side of the line. Verse 3: Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord. He's learned from chapter 18. He's learned from his previous mistake. He resolves to inquire of the Lord and he proclaims a fast for all of Judah. And the people of Judah came together to seek help from the Lord — indeed, they came from every town in Judah to seek him.
When there is this army against them, what are they going to do? They seek the Lord. They look to him. They don't trust in themselves.
Now, in the Christian life, we face battles as well, every day. As a church, we face battles. I think I said this a few weeks ago — I was talking to an American man who has great experience of churches moving into new buildings, and he has helped many churches with this over many years. I said, "Are there any common themes?" He said, "Yes. There are always new opportunities, good opportunities that come, and there is always a great danger." He said, "I see churches fall into the great danger nearly every time, which is a spiritual malaise." I said, "Why is that?" He said, "Well, I think it's because you feel like you've reached the end of the journey when you move into the building. It's been such hard work to get there, and you sort of collapse into the building. But of course, it's not the end of the journey — it's the beginning."
The building is just a platform for the gospel and for people. And we've got such a job to do: to welcome people in, to welcome people from this congregation, to help each other, to welcome people from the four o'clock congregation who need a new home and are going to join other congregations, to welcome people from the surrounding area. We need to be on tip-top form. But it's just so difficult to do. And that's why we've invited people to fast as well in this term ahead, before we move in — whether it's a day a week, or a meal, or whatever it is. Maybe not if we're breastfeeding mums or have suffered from eating disorders. But we could fast from something else — from technology, or in some other way — so that we seek the Lord, so that when we move in we're actually on tip-top form, ready to be of use to the Lord.
Well, that's what Jehoshaphat did. And the people trusted. He then proclaims this great prayer, verse 6: "O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you." What a statement, in the face of this enormous, terrifying army. He says, "No one can withstand you." He's got his eyes on the Lord and not just on the battle in front of him.
When you come to verse 12: "O our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power to face this vast army. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you." He's looking upward at the Lord, not at the enemy.
And then this prophet comes to reaffirm him — Jahaziel. Look at what Jahaziel says in verse 15: "This is what the Lord says to you: do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army, for the battle is not yours but God's." And verse 17: "You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your position, stand firm, and see the deliverance the Lord will give you."
In our spiritual battle, this is exactly what we need to do — not suddenly take up arms in our own strength, but look at what Jesus has done for us. We face in the devil an enemy far greater than us, far more powerful than us, always alert, always ready to fight, always cunning, always more powerful than us. But when you look back to the cross of Christ, what you see is God fighting the battle for us. We're the onlookers, and God wins the decisive victory against the devil. The way that he defeated him was to take out from him our sin. The devil only had one weapon against us, which is our sin. But once he takes it out from us, the devil has got nothing more. You know, it's like taking the turret off every tank that's against you — suddenly you're left with a tank, but it's useless. That's what the devil is like when he doesn't have our sin to hold against us. And that's why we're able to take up the gospel armour and to fight against him.
Now the question is: as we do so, what will we trust? Here, Jehoshaphat and the nation fasted and trusted the Word of God. And you see it worked out well, because verse 30: the kingdom of Jehoshaphat was at peace, for his God had given him rest on every side. And one day we'll know that eternal peace for ourselves.
The question for us is: will we trust his Word? Will we believe it? Will we believe that we are in a battle? Will we believe the promises of this wonderful eternal future ahead? Will we believe, in our darkest days, that God still loves us, that he hasn't forgotten us? Will we believe that God is still with us?
Jesus tells us that one of Satan's aims is to take the Word out of our hearts. And so our aim as Christians is to put the Word back into our minds, back into our hearts, and back into our lives. John Wesley: "Oh, give me that book at any price — give me the book of God." Because if we don't have this, what on earth are we going to trust in this life, in our darkest days, as well as into the next life?
Conclusion: The end of Jehoshaphat's reign
Jehoshaphat, at the end of his reign, actually goes and does the same thing again — makes another alliance he shouldn't, to create a fleet of trading ships. And God simply wrecks them. They never do set sail. Which confirms that during his better days, he was right to trust the Word of the Lord. There is no security outside of this Word.
And in our darkest days, here is the one word that can help us: the perfectly good, lovingly spoken, incomparably wise, breathtakingly hopeful, eternally true, living and enduring Word of God.