1 Kings 22:41–53 (NIV)✞: Jehoshaphat King of Judah, Ahaziah King of Israel
Passage
We’ve been in the land of Israel for the last few passages in Kings, but we now go back to Judah – for a few verses, before being back in Israel again.
In the last passage we read about the death of Ahab, bringing to a close the story of one of the worst kings in the history of God’s people. But because the book of Kings is telling the stories of both Israel and Judah, and kings in both kingdoms don’t tend to die at the same time as each other, we flip back to the nation of Judah and the king Jehoshaphat, who began his reign in the 4th year of Ahab’s reign.
We’re told a few things about Jehoshaphat that I’ll just mention briefly:
| Fact | Meaning? |
|---|---|
| His father was Asa | We already knew this, of course, we’ve already read about Asa’s reign, but this was definitely a good thing for the people of Judah: Asa was a good king, and Jehoshaphat followed in his father’s footsteps to also be a good king. In this case, “good” meaning “righteous.” |
| He was 35 when he became king | Of course a person becomes king when the previous king (often the father) dies or is otherwise dethroned, but at that day and age 35 seems late in life to my uneducated eyes. From an earthly perspective I feel that he’d be better prepared to lead his people wisely, already having lived a good amount of life before trying to take over as king. From a spiritual perspective it could have gone either way—by that point in life he already could have been entrenched in being righteous or entrenched in being sinful—but in Jehoshaphat’s case it worked out well. |
| His mother was Azubah, daughter of Shilhi | I don’t know if this is significant. |
| At this point, Judah still controls the land of Edom; there is no king there, there is just a “provincial governor” put in place by the king of Judah | This is something that could have completely gone over my head if the ESV Study Bible wasn’t pointing it out. More on this in a bit. |
We’re also told about Jehoshaphat’s righteousness:
In everything he followed the ways of his father Asa and did not stray from them; he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD. The high places, however, were not removed, and the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.
and then:
He rid the land of the rest of the male shrine prostitutes who remained there even after the reign of his father Asa.
We’re also told that he was at peace with the king of Israel, Ahab. I’m honestly not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. I think it’s a good thing; just because Ahab is evil, and the nation of Israel is straying from God more than the nation of Judah is, doesn’t mean Jehoshaphat shouldn’t be at peace with them. We did see in a recent passage, however, that Ahab managed to talk Jehoshaphat into joining him in a battle that may or may not have been a good idea, so it’s one thing to be at peace with your neighbour, but a righteous king would also need an extra dose of wisdom in dealing with an unrighteous one…
Which plays into a final account given about the rule of Jehoshaphat:
48 Now Jehoshaphat built a fleet of trading ships to go to Ophir for gold, but they never set sail—they were wrecked at Ezion Geber. 49 At that time Ahaziah son of Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “Let my men sail with yours,” but Jehoshaphat refused.
Here’s what the ESV Study Bible notes say on Jehoshaphat’s control over Edom, the sailing ships, and his refusal to involve the Israelites – keeping in mind that I’m quoting from the NIV which is using the term “provincial governor” and the ESV is using the term “deputy,” but of course it’s the same underlying Hebrew word they’re both trying to translate to English:
1 Kings 22:47 There was no king in Edom; a deputy was king. The Hebrew for “deputy” is otherwise used in 1–2 Kings only of Solomon’s various officials (1 Kings 4:5, 27; 5:16; 9:23); Jehoshaphat controls Edom as Solomon had controlled his various districts, which is why the “king” of Edom turns up in alliance with Judah in 2 Kings 3 in a noticeably supporting role. Judah’s control of Edom was not challenged until the reign of Jehoshaphat’s son Jehoram (2 Kings 8:20–22).
1 Kings 22:48 the ships were wrecked at Ezion-geber. Because Jehoshaphat rules over Edom, just as Solomon had, he is able like Solomon to build a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber (near Elath in Edom; cf. 9:26–28), but he does not benefit from them. These turn out to be not days of glory for the house of David but days of humbling (cf. 11:39).
1 Kings 22:49 Jehoshaphat was not willing. Solomon’s Israel was truly unified, but the current peace between Israel and Judah (v. 44) is little more than the absence of hostility. Whereas Solomon took Sidonians on board his ships (9:27), Jehoshaphat refuses even to have Israelites along. (As 2 Chron. 20:35 tells it, Jehoshaphat was originally willing to cooperate with Ahaziah to build the merchant ships. But after Eliezer prophesied against Jehoshaphat’s alliance with Ahaziah [2 Chron. 20:37], Jehoshaphat changed his mind, which is the situation described here in 1 Kings.)
ESV Study Bible
Finally, when Jehoshaphat dies his son Jehoram takes over as king of Judah.
The narrative then flips back to the nation of Israel to talk about the reign of Ahaziah in Israel, but the author(s) of Kings are pretty brief:
51 Ahaziah son of Ahab became king of Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel two years. 52 He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, because he followed the ways of his father and mother and of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin. 53 He served and worshiped Baal and aroused the anger of the LORD, the God of Israel, just as his father had done.
Thoughts
I worry that I’m constantly falling into a pattern whereby I just talk about what’s happening in the book of Kings instead of thinking about the spiritual aspects. Two things jump out at me from this passage, though:
First, having a commentary or other resources handy—I keep quoting from the ESV Study Bible over and over again—is very helpful. As I think I’ve mentioned before, it’s not always useful when I have a specific question—often, if there’s something specific I want to know about, the notes happen to be silent on that point—but it’s very good at pointing out things I otherwise would have missed. In this case, however, the notes were helpful on both points: I got an answer as to why Jehoshaphat didn’t want his men sailing with Ahaziah’s men (which I specifically wanted to know), and I got some detail about why Edom is being mentioned here (which I might not even have thought to have looked into).
But secondly, I already mentioned this above but I don’t see it as a coincidence that there is a long-reigning king in Judah (Jehoshaphat reigning for 25 years) who is good and righteous at the same time there is a long-reigning king in Israel (Ahab for 22 years) who is evil in the eyes of the LORD. We can’t read the Scriptures as some kind of morality guide (whereby you do good and are rewarded by God or you do evil and are punished by God), when God is orchestrating events in such a way that these points are specifically disproven in the history of the world. There were:
- Good kings who had long reigns
- Good kings who had short reigns
- Bad kings who had long reigns
- Bad kings who had short reigns
The lesson for the Christian, when reading the Old Testament, should not be “obey the Law and God will reward you.” It should be, “we are all sinners, every one of us, but God will do as He pleases.” And that sounds bleak, until I remember that one of the things that pleased God was to save me from my sin, and have a personal relationship with me.
By all means, I think it’s valid to read the Old Testament (not to mention the New Testament) looking for ways to teach myself to be better, but the cause and effect is important. Because I love God (and He loves me), I want to please Him, and finding parts of the Scriptures that help me to be more like Him is definitely a good thing. But the opposite is not true: finding parts of the Scriptures that help one to be more like God and trying to do them won’t make God love them, or love them more.
The High Places
I’m positive I’ve mentioned this before, but it seems to me that there’s a phrase mentioned here which is like a drumbeat throughout the books of Kings and Chronicles: “The high places, however, were not removed, and the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.” Does this mean Jehoshaphat was a bad king? I don’t think so; the text seems to be pretty positive about his reign. I think this just points to how entrenched the High Places were in these times.
But, again, I think I’ve already written about this.
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