THE STRONG START: Jehoshaphat walked with the Lord.
- 2 Chronicles 17:3-19.
- Detail the various things the passage describes.
A FIRST STEP: We try to secure God’s blessings with a little bit of compromise.
- 2 Chronicles 18:1.
- We’re going to unpack all the consequences of this wrong step in a moment under the next point, but let’s just pause for a moment here and consider this small action.
- Ahab’s reputation precedes him – he is notorious as one of the most evil kings that Israel ever had. (Note here that the kingdoms are separated into Israel and Judah.)
- There are a couple things we get out of v. 1:
a. Jehoshaphat makes an alliance with this evil king.
b. The context of the verse sure makes it sound like it had to do with maintaining the wealth and honor that he had acquired up to this point.
- Adding those things up, it’s a warning to us that Jehoshaphat wasn’t running off after obviously evil things. Money is morally neutral; it is often a blessing from God. God had (as chapter 17 indicates) been blessing him greatly.
- The problem is that he presumably starts trying to hold onto it by means other than just trusting God.
- This can happen in our lives with:
a. Money (doing questionable things at work).
b. Power (crushing people).
c. Relationships (manipulating, gossip).
- Also, note that nothing immediately went off the rails. Verse 2 says “some years later.” There was not an immediate fall off a cliff after the compromise.
WHERE THAT OFTEN LEADS: We find ourselves stuck.
- 2 Chronicles 18:2-27.
- Jehoshaphat finds himself stuck as this situation deteriorates. It’s not that he’s without choices, but he’s compromised and the choices apparently seem too expensive to him to pursue.
- This is a passage with some really interesting examples and details.
- Steps:
a. vv. 2-4 – Yes, but let me check.
- The alliance formed by marriage is deepened as Ahab requests they go to war together.
- This is an example of how compromise often slowly gets wider and wider as you can’t get out.
- The thing that is the most fascinating to me here though is Jehoshaphat’s “Yes, but let me check” in vv. 3-4. In v. 3b he gives a very strong “yes” to that question; in v. 4a he then says, “Let’s check with the Lord.” To you see the compromise there? If you’re truly seeking God’s direction, you’re not going to answer until you talk to God first.
- This is a gigantic problem for many believers. We commit ourselves to something that we want to do or someone that we want to please and then afterward we say, “Well, of course, I need to pray about it.” Taking a job, dating someone, partnering with someone – we say, “Yes, but let me check.”
b. vv. 5-8 – Questionable religious talk.
- It’s interesting that religion is not completely dismissed or derided in this passage. It is, however, compromised.
- They actually have a slew of prophets – 400! But what they are preaching is false.
- Often when we are on the road of compromise, we want some kind of religious overture to cover up our questionable activities. Usually we can find someone who invokes God’s name while not following His commands.
c. vv. 9-27 – Directly disobeying God.
- This confrontation makes it all too clear what’s true and what’s false. There’s no longer an opportunity to cover it with happy God talk.
- Jehoshaphat is there listening to all this and he is stuck. It’s clear what’s right and what’s wrong. It’s clear that he is allied with the guy on the wrong side of this battle. It’s clear that there is no simple way to extricate himself from this after all the ways he’s connected himself to Ahab up to now.
d. vv. 28-34 – He is in danger because of the compromise.
- Jehoshaphat makes the incredibly dumb decision to go into battle in full royal attire while Ahab (apparently unnerved by the prophecy) goes in disguise. This ends up with Jehoshaphat almost getting killed. He would have if it had not been for the intervention of God.
- For us, the danger may not be life-threatening, but it doesn’t mean that we don’t end up taking hits because of the compromise.
THE END OF MANY COMPROMISES: We don’t lose everything but we do lose things of value.
- 2 Chronicles 19:1-3.
- There are, of course, total train wrecks where there seems to be nothing but ashes left in its wake.
- More frequently, though, there is some damage but not total destruction. What happens here is typical.
- Verse 2 brings out the compromise that Jehoshaphat had entered into. It’s a confirmation from God about everything we discussed under the previous point: he had entered into a morally compromised situation.
- These compromises do have consequences and that’s one reason we need to be wary of situations like this.
- Verse 3 points us to the mixed legacy aspect of what we’re saying there.
- He had still done a lot of good but that didn’t undo the damage this compromise brought.
- Note that this isn’t the end of Jehoshaphat doing good for God. In 19:4-11 it spells out more good that he did for God.
AT LEAST HE LEARNED HIS LESSON? Given some time, Jehoshaphat repeats his mistake.
- 2 Chronicles 20:35-37.
- It would be a neater and cleaner ending to this if I could report that Jehoshaphat learned his lesson from the compromise and lived faithfully the rest of his life. But, frustratingly, that’s not the way the story ends.
- Right at the end of his story we see him entering into a similar situation. And again God brought punishment.
- It’s a sobering coda to this story: those who have done good for the Lord and who have made a mistake to compromise are not immune to repeating their mistake.
