Elisha Meets Jehoshaphat – Jehoshaphat Battled Himself Series

ELISHA MEETS JEHOSHAPHAT – JEHOSHAPHAT BATTLED HIMSELF

SERIES – MESSAGES ON ELISHA – HIS LIFE AND MINISTRY Number 7

PART 1. JEHOSHAPHAT AND ELISHA

(Open up at 1Kings chapter 22). Ahab and Jezebel reigned in Israel (Samaria) and Jehoshaphat was king in Judea. The kingdom divided after Solomon. Ahab was very, very wicked, but Jehoshaphat was described in the following manner when he died - 1Kings 22 v 42 Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem, (and his mother’s name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi.) 1Kings 22:43 He walked in all the way of Asa his father. He did not turn aside from it, doing right in the sight of the LORD. However, the high places were not taken away - the people still sacrificed and burnt incense on the high places.” This king followed the Lord, but like us, he had some inconsistencies and failures.

Early in his reign, he was asked by Ahab to help him in a battle against the nation of Aram. This is how it is put - 1Kings 22 v 4 He (Ahab) said to Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to battle at Ramoth-gilead?” and Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.” My question is this – “Should Jehoshaphat have been in union with Ahab?” Another way to say that is, “Should a man of God join forces with the most wicked king in Israel's history?” “Does that smack of failure?” “Is that compromise?” When I read these scriptures, I feel uneasy about the situation, but it was political, and I was not there. I still don’t think it was correct, but you might think otherwise.

However, Jehoshaphat needed divine guidance and confirmation and he asked Ahab if there was a prophet of the Lord in Israel he could refer to about the battle (v 7). Well, that was good. Do you think there was a measure of uncertainty and doubt in Jehoshaphat‘s decision to come, and he was seeking some assurance? Jehoshaphat recognised that God was in control. Ahab gave him the name of Micaiah, the prophet, but then hastened to say that he hated him (v 8) because he spoke evil against him. Well, that was no surprise, was it! The true prophet of God must expose evil, and Ahab was evil. The two kings gathered the prophets (v 10). All the prophets serving Ahab advised him to go to battle for he would win, but Micaiah prophesied destruction and the death of Ahab. In verse 27 Ahab commanded that Micaiah be sent to prison to exist on scant rations of bread and water.

If you were Jehoshaphat, what would you have been thinking? Would you have continued on, or would you have gone back to Judah? Jehoshaphat decided for the battle, and in that I believe he was disobeying the Lord. Let us now read the account from verse 29 - 1Kings 22 v 29 The king of Israel, and Jehoshaphat king of Judah, went up against Ramoth-gilead, 1Kings 22:30 and the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I will disguise myself and go into the battle, but you put on your robes,” so the king of Israel disguised himself and went into the battle. 1Kings 22:31 Now the king of Aram had commanded the thirty-two captains of his chariots saying, “Do not fight with small or great, but with the king of Israel alone,” 1Kings 22:32 so it came about, when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, “Surely it is the king of Israel,” and they turned aside to fight against him, and Jehoshaphat cried out. 1Kings 22:33 Then it happened, when the captains of the chariots saw that it was not the king of Israel, that they turned back from pursuing him. 1Kings 22:34 Now a certain man drew his bow at random and struck the king of Israel in a joint of the armour, so he said to the driver of his chariot, “Turn around, and take me out of the fight for I am severely wounded.” 1Kings 22:35 The battle raged that day, and the king was propped up in his chariot in front of the Arameans, and died at evening, and the blood from the wound ran into the bottom of the chariot. 1Kings 22:36 Then a cry passed throughout the army close to sunset saying, “Every man to his city and every man to his country.” 1Kings 22:37 The king died and was brought to Samaria, and they buried the king in Samaria, 1Kings 22:38 and they washed the chariot by the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood (now the harlots bathed themselves there), according to the word of the LORD which He spoke. ? [and that was through the prophet Elijah].