2 Chronicles 17

2 Chronicles 17 (NIV)✞: Jehoshaphat King of Judah

Passage

In this passage we move on from Asa to Jehoshaphat. Asa was a mostly good king, but one who faltered in the end and moved away from God. Jehoshaphat, on the other hand, seems to have been a good king throughout his reign. (I tried to compare the 2 Chronicles version of events with the 1 Kings version of events, but couldn’t find a good correlation that just describes Jehoshaphat’s reign in Kings. I probably just missed it.)

Jehoshaphat’s reign is covered in a very straightforward manner – perhaps because he was a good king, so not much nuance is required! Just going through the chapter:

• He strengthened Judah militarily
• He followed God, as his father¹ David had done; because of this, God blessed him and made him wealthy
• He removed the high places and Asherah poles, which were a perennial problem in Israel/Judah
  • Given the fact that I’ve been writing about high places so much lately—and expect to continue doing so for the duration of the Old Testament!—I’ll say that it’s possible Jehoshaphat didn’t remove all of them. Conflicting accounts are given as to how well his father Asa did in this regard. But the author(s) of Chronicles are definitely viewing him as doing the right thing in regard to high places and/or Asherah poles.
• He sent a bunch of his officials, along with Levites and Priests and the Book of the Law, and they went around the country teaching people from it. (The Old Testament, as we have it, didn’t exist in this state at that time, but the Book of the Law essentially refers to the first five books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.)
• Jehoshaphat became so powerful that the fear of the LORD fell on all of the surrounding nations, who refrained from trying to go to war against Judah. The Philistines and the Arabs even brought tribute. (At this point in history I’m not sure what people group was referred to as the Arabs. I’ll assume they were ancestors of the same people groups that are referred to as Arabs in today’s world, but I could very well be wrong on that.)

Thoughts

The only thing I’ll call out here is that sons are not doomed to follow in the footsteps of their fathers – or, as in this case, can choose which parts of their fathers’ lives to reject and which to emulate.

Asa was a very good king… until he wasn’t. Jehoshaphat, on the other hand, seems to have followed the good example of his father (and his ancestor David), while not rejecting God at the end of his life as his father did.

I typically reject simplistic readings of the Bible—especially the Old Testament—in which people are used as object lessons; “emulate this person,” and “don’t be like that person.” However, even if the Bible is more nuanced than that—way more nuanced than that!—it’s also clear that we should choose who to emulate and who not to emulate. Jehoshaphat chose wisely.

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Footnotes

• Another reminder that the Old Testament often uses the term “father” when we would probably use the term “ancestor.” ↩