Sermon on 2 Chronicles 18,1-19,3

Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,

The passage of Scripture for this morning’s sermon, leaves us with all kinds of questions, I’m sure. Who are these kings and ? Where do these prophets and and come from? Why is it that we find 400 prophets at the same time at the king’s beck and call? What is the significance of this city Ramoth-gilead? What are we to make of the vision of Micaiah of some heavenly proceedings? What about this arrow that seemingly unintentionally kills king Ahab? I could list lots more questions. And the mere number of these questions can make you ask yourself why we should actually read and study these kind of stories in the first place. They seem to be simple historical accounts of the people of Israel of so long ago. What good are these stories to us now? It would be a lot easier to read a section from one of Paul’s letters or from the gospels. It is usually lot easier to apply a message like that to our daily lives. To make the point even stronger: some say that we should do away with the OT altogether. We are the people of God of the new covenant, so the OT, it is said, is in fact irrelevant to our faith and the church of Jesus Christ. Reading through this history of the alliance between Ahab and Jehoshaphat can reinforce such a view on the irrelevance of the OT. Yet, when we carefully study this passage, we find that it is a lot more than a random part of history. Admittedly, it provides only a brief glimpse, a snapshot of the history of the people of God. But if we study this text in the context of redemptive history, we find that it tells us a great deal about who God is and it also teaches us important lessons about our relationship with God. So then, what do we learn from 2 Chron 18? Well, since the is God’s revelation of and about himself to us, we will first of all learn something about God. We find the king of Judah entering into an alliance with the king of Israel. This constituted a direct threat to the preservation of the Davidic line from which the Messiah was to be born. Yet God proves to be faithful to his promises. He does not allow his plan of salvation to be jeopardised by the ignorance or arrogance of man. In the process we are taught not to simply pass God’s Word by because we don’t like it, or because it doesn’t suit us. And we are also taught that those who do listen to God, will not be left without a shepherd, as it says in Micaiah’s prophecy. And this in turn directs our thoughts to the Good Shepherd, our Lord Jesus Christ. He takes care of us. He is the living Word of God. And in the obedience to this Word lies joy and life, indeed, eternal life. These things we will consider this morning with the following theme and points:

God preserves his people in spite of the overconfidence of Judah’s king 1. Jehoshaphat allies with Ahab 2. Ahab ignores God 3. God saves Jehoshaphat

1. Jehoshaphat allies with Ahab To understand the significance of this history, we must take a look at the ‘bigger picture’. We must, so to speak, enlarge the snapshot so that we are presented with a panoramic view of the history of the people of God. Two kings play a role in this history: king Ahab of Israel and king Jehoshaphat of Judah. Ahab was the son of , a former army commander who had taken control

1 of Israel by killing others who laid claim to the throne. In 1 Ki 16, 25 it reads: “Omri did what was evil in the sight of the LORD , and did more evil than all who were before him. For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat.” Jeroboam, you may remember, was the first king of the kingdom of Ten tribes of Israel. He instituted his own religious cult in Betel and Dan. Omri was just like him, worshipping idols and making the Israelites do the same. This is the line from which Ahab descended; he was of the house of Omri. He even managed to make things worse by marrying Jezebel of Sidon and making the worship of Baal and Asherah the official state religion beside the worship of JHWH . Jehoshaphat was the king of Judah, the kingdom of two tribes. He was of the house of . He was the fourth king of Judah since the split with Israel. He was a good king. In 1 Ki 22,43 we find: “He walked in all the way of Asa his father. He did not turn aside from it, doing what was right in the sight of the LORD .” Now from a superficial historical point of view we see two kings, two leaders of a once united kingdom, who make an alliance with each other. But from a redemptive historical point of view we see an entirely different picture. The godless house of Omri, of which Ahab was a true representative, was the part of the people of God which had for the larger part abandoned God. The kingdom of Israel was a kingdom of idolaters. If this kingdom was allowed to, in a way, reunite with Judah just like that, then the worship of the only God of heaven and earth would be compromised. God had promised David by means of the prophet that his house would always reign until the coming of the Messiah (2 Sam 7). The Messiah was to be the lawful king of the people of God and therefore he had to be a son of David. But if the house of David turned away from God and worshipped idols, the covenant would be broken, and the line of David would not persist. The salvation of the world depended upon the existence of the house of David. Any threat to this Davidic line was a threat to the fulfilment of God’s promise of salvation in Jesus Christ. So this is the bigger picture: the mortal enemy of God, Satan, is trying to undermine God’s plan of salvation. And in Jehoshaphat’s case he appears to almost have succeeded. Why is that ? Let us see. In vs 1 of our text we read that Jehoshaphat was a rich king, a man who received great honour and praise. And this high position must have gone to his head because vs 1 continues with the mention of a marriage alliance between the house of David and the house of Omri. Indeed, in chapter 21 we find that his son Jehoram married a daughter of Ahab, . In this way the royal house of David was connected to the house of Omri. Inadvertently the words of Paul spring to mind in 2 Cor 6,14-16: “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? What agreement has the temple of God with idols?” This NT text describes exactly what the fault was of king Jehoshaphat: he allied himself to the enemy of God’s people in a way that was bound to be detrimental, to say the least, to the fulfilment of God’s promises of salvation. In 19,2 the prophet Jehu says the same to Jehoshaphat: “Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the LORD ?” Jehoshaphat crossed the line by seeking an alliance with Ahab. He crossed the line of the covenant that God had made with his people and the house of David. Within the covenant God had promised to care of his people. They were his people and he was their God. How could Jehoshaphat ever expect the covenant with God to remain intact when he also made a covenant with the enemy of God? It is impossible to give your love to two people. Like the Lord Jesus said in a different context (Lk 16,13): “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.”

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Still, we must be more specific. We must read all the Scriptures carefully in this context, for this text may lead one to believe that, in our time as well, all and any association with unbelievers is wrong. Yet we find that the apostle Paul also says in 1 Cor 5,9-10: “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people – not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.” So, obviously, children of God are not forbidden all contact with unbelievers. It is rather the nature of such an association or friendship which determines if one is allowed to entertain it or not. And this is where Jehoshaphat went wrong. He was allowed to have contact Ahab, the apostate king. But not to make an alliance with him! Not to go into battle with him! God was the ally of Jehoshaphat, no one else! God demanded that he follow him and obey him and not be induced by Ahab to go with him (vs 2)! Jehoshaphat was in fact restoring the relationship between the two kingdoms, he was ignoring the gap that existed because of sin and idolatry. Jehoshaphat allied with Ahab as if nothing had happened. But the only way for the kingdom of Israel to be reunited with the kingdom of Judah was by means of repentance. Ahab should have repented of his idolatry. He should have gotten rid of all the statues and altars of Baal and Asherah. Then the way to God would be opened again. God will not associate with sin – that is, with unrepented sin. For us, the people of God of the NT, this has great significance. We may associate with people outside the Christian church, but we must not ally with them, not to the extent that we let a godless way of life or of thinking influence our faith and Christian walk of life. It should rather be the other way around! Our walk of life and manner of speech must always be such that our unbelieving friends, family or colleagues see and understand in whom we put our trust. It is like Peter says in 1 Pt 2,12: “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honourable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.” Our intention must always be to shine forth the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ in any social contact we maintain, so that the people around us see where they are wrong and repent and turn to God. God will forgive the repentant sinner. That is the only way in which the covenant with God can be restored. As a result of the marriage alliance between Jehoram and Athaliah, Ahab requests that Jehoshaphat go into battle with him. The proceedings of this battle demonstrate how a king who has abandoned the God of his fathers goes about his business and where it leads him. Which brings us to our second point.

2. Ahab ignores God By far the larger part of our text is about the asking for the word of the LORD regarding the campaign that Ahab and Jehoshaphat mean to undertake against Ramoth-gilead. At the court of king Ahab there are 400 prophets who supposedly pass on to him the will and word of God. But their conduct is, to say the least, quite suspicious. They don’t come across as prophets of the LORD at all. For one, after Ahab asked the question “Shall we go to battle against Ramoth-gilead, or shall we refrain?” they instantly have their answer ready. They don’t say that they must pray or sacrifice or anything like that to inquire of the LORD for his answer. It is quite obvious that they only said what they know Ahab, their lord, wants to hear. They are the spokesmen of their king, not the spokesmen of their God. Jehoshaphat realises this as well. He may be an arrogant king, but he is not ignorant. Although he is wrong to make an alliance with Ahab, he still feels that he is acting in good faith. He truly wants to hear the word of God. Therefore he asks for

3 another prophet (read: a real prophet) to give, say, a second opinion. Then Ahab brings Micaiah the son of Imlah forward. Yet he hates him because he never says what Ahab wants. It is only for the sake of Jehoshaphat that Ahab sends someone to fetch him. It is striking to see how deep Ahab has fallen. Apparently Micaiah has prophesied more often in his presence and he always prophesied something that Ahab did not like. But instead of listening to the prophet of the LORD and examining himself, Ahab simply ignores and avoids him. Speaking of repentance: Ahab is confronted with the word of God many times. He knows that he is on the wrong way, but he simply pushes God aside. He closes his ears to the words he doesn’t want to hear. In all of this he doesn’t even come close to any kind of repentance. In the background of his reluctance to listen to Micaiah is a pagan perception of the concept of prophecy. In those days, in pagan religions, the prophets influenced the godhead instead of the godhead the prophets. If the prophets spoke disapprovingly about the plans of the king, then the godhead would act accordingly. The godhead would listen to his prophet and do what he wanted; at least, that was the whole idea. That is why Ahab didn’t like the prophesies of Micaiah. In his perception Micaiah tried to make God work against him. In addition to telling Ahab of God’s disapproval, Micaiah also, in Ahab’s mind, made God effectively work against him. That’s why he didn’t want to let him speak, let alone listen to him. Here we see clearly why Jehoshaphat was not allowed to make an alliance with Ahab. Ahab had abandoned God. He did not want to listen to his word. He did give the impression. He had no less than 400 prophets at his disposal! But we are not fooled. There was only one prophet at that court at the time who spoke the word of God, and that was Micaiah. The 400 prophets were only to let Ahab hear whatever he wanted. He made believe that God was at his side. But in reality he ignored the word of God and justified his actions by listening to his own version of it. And where did this lead him? We know how the story ends. Ahab went against the word of God and he died as a result. The way of the one who abandons God leads to destruction. All the raging of the 400 prophets and the impressive display of Zedekiah who made for himself horns of iron (vs 10) could not mask the fact that what they said was not the word of God but the word of man. For us this is a serious warning. We are not like Ahab. We have not abandoned God. On the contrary, he is our Father! So when we have to make many choices in our lives, we must be careful. Not just about questions about how far we let our contacts with unbelievers develop. We have to make sure that we are not, in any situation, tempted to listen to our own version of the truth. We can go out of our way to make our own words and opinions sound impressive and persuasive. But we must be careful that we are honest. Are we letting the whole of Scripture speak to us? Are we not selective readers? Are we not letting our wishes and viewpoints take precedence over what God wants us to do? We must be careful Bible readers, always examining ourselves, not too quickly satisfied with what we find, especially not when what we find conveniently coincides perfectly with what we want it to say. We must read carefully and study God’s Word with each other so that together we find the correct meaning of God’s word for our lives, under the guidance of the Spirit of God.

3. God saves Jehoshaphat The prophecy of Micaiah was clear enough. At first he told Ahab what he wanted to hear. But Ahab knew, possibly from the way Micaiah spoke, that he was not being truthful. So then Micaiah spoke the true word of God and told Ahab that he saw the people of Israel without a shepherd, thus prophesying the imminent death of Ahab.

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Ahab was an unworthy shepherd who made his people follow him in idol worship. He would pay for his disobedience with his own life. Micaiah continues to explain why all the other prophets prophesied the words Ahab wanted to hear: they were led by a lying spirit, sent out by God himself. Therefore it says in vs 22: “The LORD has declared disaster concerning you.” The same fate would be Zedekiah’s, the false prophet. It is surprising that Jehoshaphat still agrees to go with Ahab into battle. He should have known better. He probably did know better. Maybe he felt that he had to fight. Maybe he didn’t want to break the alliance. The text doesn’t explain his actions, although it does condemn them. Even more surprisingly we find that God saves him nonetheless! The explanation for this is found in 19,3: “Nevertheless, some good is found in you, for you destroyed the Asherahs out of the land, and have set your heart to seek God.” Especially that last part is important. Jehoshaphat sought God. His alliance with Ahab was wrong, but, again, Jehoshaphat acted in good faith. This does not excuse his action (he is actually punished for it says 19,2b), but it does explain why the Lord God saves his life and, even more, keeps the line to the coming of the Messiah intact. God did exactly the opposite of what Ahab set out to do. After hearing the word of God Ahab disguises himself so that the soldiers of the enemy would not target him. Yet he tells Jehoshaphat to wear his robes, which make him recognisable as the king, the commander of the army. Ahab thus anticipates the plan of the king of Syria who indeed orders his soldiers to go after the king of Israel. And if Ahab’s plan had succeeded, Jehoshaphat would have been killed instead of Ahab and Ahab himself would have emerged as the ruler over Israel, Ramoth-gilead and via his daughter Athaliah also over Judah! This would have put the fulfilment of the promise of God in great jeopardy. But God did exactly the opposite. He let an archer shoot an arrow at random to strike Ahab so that he died from loss of blood. God killed Ahab. But Jehoshaphat cried out and the LORD God saved him, and not only him but also the Davidic line from which the Messiah would once come. And now the Messiah has come. God has proven to be a faithful God. He has revealed himself once again as the reliable God who keeps his word. He has given the true shepherd, the Good Shepherd, our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Word of God in the flesh. Whoever believes him and obeys him, will never be disappointed. The way of the man who abandons God leads to certain death. But the way of the man who puts his trust in the Good Shepherd leads to life, to everlasting life.

Conclusion Do you see, brs and srs, what and how much we can learn from a single historical event in the history of the people of Israel? We found that God has made sure that the Messiah would come to save those who believe in him from eternal damnation. We found that we must never corrupt our faith by means of an alliance with the enemy of God; never let Satan lead us away from God. And we found that those who believe in God, listen to his words, and accept the Good Shepherd, will find everlasting life. Let us take these lessons to heart and carry them in our hearts and in doing so honour and glorify our God and have life in his Son Jesus Christ. Amen.

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Liturgy

 Votum and Salutation  Sing: Ps 19,1.2  Reading of the Law  Sing: Ps 19,3  Prayer  Scripture and Text reading: 2 Chron 18,1-19,3  Collections (& announcements)  Sing: Ps 115,2.4.5  Sermon  Sing: Ps 23,1-3  Prayer  Sing: Hy 25,1.3  Benediction

Questions for sermon discussion with the children

1. Why and how does the still have something to say to us? Are they not just simply stories from a long time ago? 2. Why was it wrong of Jehoshaphat to make an alliance with king Ahab? 3. Are you allowed to have friends from outside the church? Explain. 4. Why did God still save Jehoshaphat?

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