Medicine For America Series

Daniel Webster wrote, “History is God’s providence in human affairs.”

The Book of Deuteronomy contains promises of blessings or curses. The effectiveness of a nation is determined by God’s blessings or curses coming upon a nation’s armed forces, economic systems, families and especially whether or not that nation is called by the name of the Lord. (Deuteronomy 28)

Biblically examining the rule of kings who oversaw the nations of Judah and Israel reveals the truth, God blesses obedience and He chastens for disobedience. Instead of hanging onto this world’s view, Christians can come to understand the Lord’s view of the reign of kings by reading the two Books of Chronicles. 2 Chronicles 17-20 reveals God’s view on the reign of Jehoshaphat. Understanding how God worked in the life of Jehoshaphat helps us understand how the Lord wants to work in America.

Jehoshaphat ruled over Judah in Jerusalem for twenty-five years. (2 Chronicles 20:31). The Bible says, “[Jehoshaphat] did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.” (1 Kings 22:34; 2 Chronicles 20:32) Holy Spirit illuminated Christians will be praying for an earthly ruler of whom God will say, “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.” “The Lord was with Jehoshaphat because in his early years he walked in the ways… [King] David had followed.” (2 Chronicles 17:3) “His heart was devoted to the Lord… (2 Chronicles 17:6) “The Lord established the kingdom under his control.” (2 Chronicles 17:5)

Christians who apply the medicine of prayer for America’s healing will ask the Lord for a leader like Jehoshaphat, “In the third year of his reign he sent… five officials out “to teach in the towns of Judah. With them were…” nine Levites and “the priest Elishama and Jehoram.

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.” (2 Chronicles 17:7-9) “The fear of the Lord fell on all the kingdoms of the lands surrounding Judah, so that they did not make war with Jehoshaphat… Jehoshaphat became more and more powerful; he built forts and store cities in Judah and had large supplies in the towns of Judah.” (2 Chronicles 17:10,12)

The United States of America enjoy the same blessings that God’s people did because of the Biblical conviction of her Founding Fathers. The University of Houston, Political Science Department researched the sources our Founding Fathers used most frequently in forming our present system of government. From the pool of nearly 15,000 documents from our founding period, the researchers selected 3,154 documents they considered most significant to our Founding Fathers. After 10 years of investigation, the researchers determined that the Founding Fathers quoted heavily from three intellectuals. They were Montesquieu, Blackstone, and Locke.

However, the most interesting conclusion from the research was that the Founding Fathers were even more dependent upon the Bible than they were these three intellectuals. The Bible was quoted 4 times more than Montesquieu, 16 times more than Blackstone or Locke. Ninety-four percent of the quotes of the Founding Fathers were based on the Word of God. Thirty-four percent of those quotes were direct from Scripture and the remaining 60% were taken from quotes where they had used the Bible to arrive at their conclusions. The Book quoted most often by the Founding Fathers was Deuteronomy.