Day 360: 2 Chronicles 17-20 | Read The Bible In A Year | Bible Study Commentary by Dr. Manny Arango

We're a couple days away from the end of our reading plan, which means you're about to be a part of the 6% of Christians that have actually read the entire Bible cover to cover. So stay tuned until the very end of this episode to hear about something special that we have planned just for you. Bible nerds, let's dive in to today's episode. ♪♪♪ Family, welcome to day 360. Can you believe it? 360 days of reading the Bible together. We are finally in our final week here on this Bible reading plan. Like, this is unreal. And today, we get to study one character in the entire Bible. His name is Jehoshafat, okay? Jehoshafat. Someone who should honestly be on the Mount Rushmore of Kings of Judah. It should be Hezekiah, Josiah, Jehoshafat, and like David in Solomon. That should be like the Mount Rushmore. But one, what looks like a small little mistake is actually going to cost Jehoshafat legacy and really what it's ultimately going to cost him is his son. And so, if you haven't done the reading for the day, ah, you got to get the reading done. I kind of want to challenge you to stop the video, pause the audio, go get the reading done, and come on back once it is done. For all of us that have done the reading, I'm going to give you context clues, then I'm going to give you nerdy nuggets, and then I'm going to give you, well, I'm going to give you as many nerdy nuggets as I can in today's episode, and I'm going to leave you off with the timeless truth, which was really personally challenging for me, not to steal my own thunder, but I'm a friendly individual who like I like to make friends.

I like to be a good friend, but it is Jehoshafat's friendship with the king in the north, Ahab, and that ultimately becomes his undoing. And what is one of his strengths, right? The northern and southern kingdom has been at civil war odds for a long time. And finally, because of Jehoshafat's diplomatic abilities, he brings peace. But it's abundantly clear that sometimes our biggest strengths or our biggest assets can also have corresponding liabilities. And that diplomatic vibe, that kind of like, I just want to be a friend with everybody, I want to be at peace with everybody, that ability to create peace with someone that you've been at war for a long time with also comes with the consequence of having to create friendships that are going to have insane negative implications for Jehoshafat's life and ultimately his legacy. And that's really, really sad. So context for these four chapters, okay, is Jehoshafat is the main character. We're going to see Jehoshafat in chapter 17, 18, 19, and 20. And really, his ultimate undoing, and you may not realize this, is going to be a marriage alliance. That's right. Chapter 18, verse 1 says, "Now Jehoshafat had great wealth and honor, and he allied himself with Ahab by marriage," okay? Ahab. Now, second Kings chapter 8, verse 17 is going to provide context here. And second Kings chapter 8, verse 17 tells us that the marriage was between Jehoshafat's son, Jehorim, and Ahab's daughter, Athaliah. Now, if you are familiar with the Bible at all and you hear the word Ahab, probably will immediately go, wait, are we talking about? Are we talking about Ahab, like the husband of Jezebel? Yes, it's exactly who we're talking about. We're talking about Ahab and Jezebel's daughter, Athaliah. So Jehoshafat, who loves the Lord, I mean, listen to this, this chapter 17, verse 1, "Jahoshafat, his son, succeeded him as king, and strengthened himself against Israel. He stationed troops in all the fortified cities of Judah and put garrisons in Judah and in town, and Ephraim, there's father, Asa captured the Lord, was with Jehoshafat because he followed

the ways of his father, David, before him, he did not consult the bales." No bales. He didn't consult the bales. Oh, the irony of this is so just like, oh, it's so painful. He didn't consult the bales, but sought the God of his father and followed his commands rather than the practices of Israel. The Lord established the kingdom under his control. devoted to the ways of the Lord. Furthermore, he removed the high places in the astral poles from Judah. So I want us to focus on this little verse, verse three. He did not consult the bales. He did not consult the bales. So Jehoshaphat in his personal life has the ability to not be tempted by the bales. But guess what happens? Because of a friendship, because of an alliance, because of camaraderie, because of, you know, having the wrong colleague, he is going to marry his son to his allies daughter and Ahab's married to a woman by the name of Jezebel. The word bale is in the woman's name. She's a priest of bale, and she raises her daughter to be loyal to bale and to hate Yahweh. So here's the, the context is in 2nd Kings chapter 8, 17. But I'm actually going to fast forward a little bit to 2nd Chronicles chapter 22, because how this gets played out is going to be really, really, really sad, because Jehoshaphat didn't fall prey personally to the bales. But bale is going to get to have his demonic way in the line of David. It says this, chapter 22, verse 10, "When Athaliah, the mother of Ahasiah, saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family of the house of Judah." Man, like this woman literally makes it her mission to destroy David's line, to undo God's covenant promise with David, to find every male heir and to murder them, to kill them. Like, I believe she is on assignment from hell, like to stop the Messiah from being born. And so here we have Jehoshaphat, who in his personal devotion to Yahweh, resist the bales. But then bale finds himself in Jehoshaphat's family, because he wasn't careful with who he made a marriage alliance with. And so although it didn't get in through his own personal practice, it got in through relationship, friendship, family, camaraderie, marriage, covenant, marriage alliance. And that, and you may not see how that has an immediate timeless truth implication for you and me, but it does, because your relationships will ultimately set the bar, set the standard for everything else in your life. And so, I mean, I could go on and on and on, but that's the context for all four chapters today, okay, is that Jehoshaphat's amazing. He's faithful to Yahweh. He resists the bales in his personal

practice, but because he didn't apply the same level of discipline from his personal practice, personal habits or personal religiosity to his relationships, eventually the relationships became the place where the enemy got a foothold into his family. And that is just sad. Don't skip, don't skip. Hey, if you are in the home stretch of reading your Bible, first of all, I'm so proud of you. Second, you probably know this, but you're my kind of people. I really enjoy hanging out with Bible nerds. So, I've got exciting news for you, and it's called the 6% Club. For anyone that has finished their entire Bible in a calendar year, we have exclusive content, newsletters, giveaways, live events. Oh yeah, live events, baby, and more all throughout the year. You can find out about all of that if you go to the bibledepartment.com/club to officially join the 6% Club. Why don't we call the 6% Club? Because only 6% of Christians have actually read their entire Bible cover to cover. And every year, Bible nerds like you finish our Bible reading plan, and we get asked, what's next? Well, we've got an answer, and you don't want to miss out. So, head over to the bibledepartment.com/club or click the link in the description to get access. We'll see you in the club. Let's go! So, 2nd Chronicles chapter 17 verse 3 becomes a really, really ironic statement, as it mentions that Jehoshaphat did not seek the bales. But this marriage alliance meant the future queen of Judah was the daughter of a priestess of Baal. He did not seek the bales, Jehoshaphat did not seek the bales. But because of this alliance, Baal very good king. Like I think he would have got scored 10 out of 10. Also remember, Ezra is dealing with a real life scenario where he's getting men to divorce their foreign wives. So this story is a perfect story to really bolster Ezra's claim that marrying foreign women will totally ruin you and your family and your legacy and your lineage. And so that's all the context. I think we need. Let's jump into some dirty nuggets. There's a lot of things to learn from our dude Jehoshaphat. Number one in chapter 17, he gets a great score and he even sends out Levi's to teach the Torah. Okay, so chapter 17 tells us this, got a flip back to it, says this in verse seven. In the third year of his reign, he sent his officials Ben Hale, Obadiah, Zechariah, Nathaniel, and Makiah to teach in the towns of Judah to teach. So he's sending out officials to go teach. This is incredible. He should totally be up there with that Mount Rushmore. But man, this marriage alliance is really, really, really going to be the thing that that reigns on the parade. Okay. Verse eight, with them were certain Levites, Shhemiah, Nathaniel, Zebadiah,

Asahil, some name I can't pronounce, another name that I can't pronounce, Adonaija, Tabahaja, in Tob, Adonaija, in the priest, Elishima, in Jehosham. Here we go. Verse nine, they talk 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. And here we go. Next verse, "The fear of the Lord fell on all the kingdoms of the land surrounding Judah, so they did not go against war with Drahasha fat." Okay. So you may want to think that those two verses are separate, but I actually think that they are one in the same. It is when his actual people learned the Torah that people outside of Judah are scared to even fight them. Okay. So we get a good score and we're sending out Levites, okay, to go teach the Torah. Now let's think about Ezra's audience. Ezra is a Levite who's teaching the Torah. So here you go. Like Ezra has kind of written himself right into the story in chapters in chapter 17. All right. Chapter 18, Jehoshaphat forced to fight with Ahab because of an alliance. Okay. So this is another like he wouldn't have ever even been on the brink of death. I mean, but what happens is Jehoshaphat is dressed like a king. Ahab is not. And the army, who's really the northern kingdom of Israel's enemy is absolutely going to almost kill Jehoshaphat. But there's this whole back and forth with whether or not there's a prophetic word that somebody can give. And Jehoshaphat is wise enough to know, hey man, none of these prophets are real. Like none of these prophets up here in Israel are real. Like, I mean, we're cool. We're friends, but let's not get it twisted. Like, I know these prophets are not real. Is there not a real prophet who can prophesy and that real prophet definitely comes back and has some really, really, really unsettling and uncomfortable things to say to Ahab in particular. So Ahab has surrounded himself with false prophets. Actually, the way that the true prophet kind of says this is there's a spirit that essentially has gotten permission from Yahweh to be a lying spirit in that all these prophets are full of a lying spirit, but that he is asked to the prophet who's going to tell the truth. In chapter 18, Jehoshaphat's talking to Ahab, okay. First of all, an alliance that shouldn't even exist, a friendship that shouldn't exist. And Ahab has consulted all these prophets to get a word before they actually go into battle. And it says this in verse six, but Jehoshaphat asked, is there no longer a prophet of the Lord here whom we can inquire of? Like Jehoshaphat understands, like, I don't even understand why he's talking to this man. If you have to ask whether or not there's a real prophet, like what are we talking about? And Ahab says back, the king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, there is still one prophet through whom we can inquire of the Lord, but I hate him

because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Makiah, son of Imla. Man, this is just rough. There are all these moments where, like, Jehoshaphat should balance, but he does not. Honestly, until it's almost like too late, it says this in chapter 18, verse 31, when the chariot commander saw Jehoshaphat, they thought, "This is the king of Israel," because he's wearing kingly robes. So they turned to attack him, but Jehoshaphat cried out, and the Lord helped him. God drew them away from him. This is now becoming a theme where God is just going to fight battles, okay? For Judah, because Judah is a vassal and Yahweh is the suzerain. For when the chariot commander saw that he was not the king of Israel, they stopped pursuing him. But someone drew his bow at random and hit the king of Israel, that's Ahab, between the breastplate and scale armor. The king told the chariot driver, "Wheel around and get me out of the fighting. I've been wounded." All day long, the battle raged, and the king of Israel propped himself up in his chariot, facing the air means until evening, then at sunset, he died. So Ahab has died, and Jehoshaphat nearly died, and then we transition into chapter 19, okay? And the big point of chapter 19 is reforms, religious reforms, okay? Jehoshaphat should be on that Mount Rushmore, especially because chapters like chapter 19. When Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, returned safely to his palace in Jerusalem, okay? Jehu the seer, the son of Hanani, went out to meet him and said to the king, "Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the Lord?" It's like for anyone from a priestly perspective, it's like you're not even helping our Jewish brothers, like these people are foreigners. They have forsaken David, they have forsaken the Torah, they have forsaken the temple, they have forsaken Jerusalem. Like they are foreigners, like they are essentially should be treated like uncircumcised Philistines. Those who hate the Lord because of this, the wrath of the Lord is on you, okay? So now Jehoshaphat is gonna get, he's gonna get some smoke. He appoints judges, not to fill the Lord beyond you, judge carefully, for with the Lord our God, there is no injustice or partiality or bribery, okay? So this is Jehoshaphat continuing to bring reform, he's appointing judges. And to be honest, the southern kingdom of Judah is thriving, okay?

And then we get to our last chapter, all right? Chapter 20 says this, "After this the Moabites and Ammonites was some of the Mianites came to wage war against Jehoshaphat. Some people came and told Jehoshaphat, "The vast army is coming against you from Edom, from the other side of the Dead Sea. It is all together and has is on tomorrow, what is now in Getty." I love this verse, this is verse three, "Alarmed Jehoshaphat, resolved to inquire of the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah. Alarmed Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord." Can I just ask you a hard question, this is a time of truth. When you're alarmed or like scared or like frightened, do you inquire of the Lord or do you do all kinds of other things? Because Jehoshaphat, he's scared out of his mind and then he inquires of the Lord. And what does God do? God gives them a strategy on how they are going to win against the Moabites and the Ammonites. This is Jehoshaphat's words to his men, verse 17 of chapter 20, "You will not have to fight this battle, take up your position, stand firm and see the deliverance of the Lord, that the deliverance the Lord will give you. Judah and Israel, do not be afraid, do not be discouraged, go out to face them tomorrow and the Lord will be with you." And then verse 23, same chapter, "After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out to the head of the arm." Verse 22, "As they began to sing and praise the Lord, set ambushes against the men of Ammon, in Moab and Mount Seer, who were invading Judah, and they were defeated." All right, that is chapter 20, and how does it end? Fantastic question. Here's how chapter 20 ends. As they began to sing and praise the Lord, set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab in Mount Seer who were invading Judah and they were defeated, period. And no point is it really explained, it's just like, yep, Yahweh started fighting. And what did he do? He used the worshipers because worshipers are warriors. Worshipers are warriors. That is like, you know, that this is how I fight my battles is not just like some cliche song. Like that's real. We fight our battles by worshiping the Lord, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Worship becomes warfare. This is an old testament, like historical reality, but in the New Testament, there's a spiritual reality that worship begins to activate the power of God to fight battles on your behalf. Verse 23, "The Ammonites and the Moabites rose up against the men from Mount Seer to destroy and annihilate them. As they finished slaughtering the men of Seer, they helped to destroy one another. When the men of Judah came

to the place that overlooks the desert and looked toward the vast army, they saw only dead bodies lying on the ground. No one had escaped. So Jehoshaphat and his men went to carry off the plunder and they found among them a great amount of equipment and clothing and also articles of value more than they could take away. There was so much plunder that it took three days to collect it. On the fourth day they assembled in the Valley of Barakah where they praise the Lord. This is why it is called the Valley of Baraka on this day." All right. Jehoshaphat is going to get a solid score. It could have been better, but this seamlessly leads us into our timeless truth of the day. Number one, worship is warfare. Simple. Like that is not even a debatable thing. They're in the middle of a battle. Can you imagine being a soldier and it's like, "Bring out the cheerleaders." Like, that's nuts. The second big lesson that you learn is that although Jehoshaphat was guarding himself against the bales, he accepted the same thing but in seed form. And sometimes we're so, you know, leery of like the big sins that we don't realize that there are small seeds that lead to big sins. And we don't have the security systems to alert us of the small seeds. So we compromise when it comes to small seeds, but then we're shocked when those small seeds grow into big sins. We've got an alarm system to guard against the big sins, but not the small seeds. And that's not just true for Jehoshaphat as he should have been just as leery as a marriage alliance as he was as consulting the bales. That's true for you and I. It's one thing to guard yourself against the big sins. I do that too, but it's another thing to not compromise when it comes to things like small seeds. That's relevant for you. That's relevant for me because that's a timeless truth. All right, tomorrow is day three sixty one. We're going to be in second chronicles chapters 21 to 24. We got day three sixty one three sixty two three sixty three three sixty four and three sixty five. Can you believe it? Just five days left on this Bob reading plan. Five videos left. If you are on a 360 day streak 360 down five to go. I'm proud of you. I love you. I see tomorrow. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible department podcast. Hey, we're almost there. I bet you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We're towards the end of the year and I'm so proud of you. If this episode and this year of reading through the Bible was helpful, how about you invite a friend to join you on the journey next year. To learn more about the show, head to the Bible department.com and to learn more about the six percent club, make sure you go to the Bible department.com/club. We'll see you right back here tomorrow.