Day #182

Sermon - Audio
2 Chronicles 19-23 - Audio
2 Chronicles 19-23 - Reading
Daily Insights - Please Comment

2 Chronicles 19.1: Jehoshaphat escapes with his life, but it is a terrible defeat.

• 19.1: The one who speaks to Jehoshaphat is Jehu, son of Hanani the seer who had spoken to Jehoshaphat’s father Asa. We see the next generation of prophets and kings interacting. The question is: Will Jehoshaphat react to Jehu with the same anger as his father had responded to Hanani and so move from goodness to rejecting God.
• 19.2: The word “love” indicates a commitment to a treaty. This is not an emotional bond, but of political promises.
• 19.3: There is an affirmation that while Jehoshaphat has messed up in a big way, that his heart is really committed to God. What he needs to do is get his heart realigned. This is the moment where we wait and wonder if he is going to get angry like his dad, Asa and pursue wickedness or if he will stay seeking the LORD.
• 19.4-8: We see the response of Jehoshaphat. Instead of following his father’s anger he calls people to live faithfully and he himself lives up to his name: “The LORD is judge”. The setting up a system of judges in the land tells them that they judge for the LORD (not the king) and calls on them to fear the LORD.
• 19.11: A system of honest courts was central to Judah living up to her role as God’s covenant partner. Courts were not an afterthought or add-on to a faithful nation, they were essential.

2 Chronicles 20: As we found in chapter 19 we discover that a comparison is being drawn between father, Asa, and son, Jehoshaphat. When Asa faced Baasha in a fearful situation he allowed that fear to drive him away from trusting God. Now his son faces a much more fearful situation. Will he allow his fear to drive him to God or away from him?

• 20.2: The armies that are threatening Israel are about 25 miles away and the only city between Jerusalem and En-Gedi is Bethlehem. The way is open for a direct attack on the capital.
• 20.3: Jehoshaphat’s heart is immediately revealed: he runs to God.
• 20.4: The leadership of Jehoshaphat is seen as people come from all over Judah to seek God’s solution to their present situation. The fast that is put in place shows the intensity of their desire for God to lead them.
• 20.5: This action by Jehoshaphat recalls the prayer of Solomon at the dedication of the temple. Jehoshaphat is doing everything, as he should. (See verses 8-9).
• 20.6: The prayer of confidence shows that Yahweh is unlike other gods. Other gods were regional in nature, as the nations understood them. They did not reign over all, but only over certain parts of the world.
• 20.12: In 2 Chronicles 16.9 we're told, “the eyes of the LORD go back and forth across the earth to strongly support those who are fully committed to him. “ This commitment speaks first of all about a military commitment. Here we find a slight reverse in the language, so that the people’s eyes are on God looking for that strong support. Again, in a father son comparison we wait to see if God will be good to his word.
• 20.15: These words recall the promises and call of God as the people enter the land. They are called on to be bold and courageous, trusting that the battle is God’s.
• 20.18-19: The centrality of worship in a faithful covenant nation is highlighted.
• 20.21: “established” (ESV) and “Believe” are the same word in Hebrew. The point seems to be that when we believe in God that he will act in ways that will establish or root our faith even deeper in him.
• 20.21: Jehoshaphat reflects being a person of wisdom by having many counselors.
• 20.21: “holy attire” is also “holy beauty”. The priests wear attire that is beautiful and in line with the God who they are going to worship.
• 20.26: Beracah means blessing.
• 20.28: They come back to the place they started: the temple. This is God’s throne and it shows that he is seen as the true king of Israel.
• 20.30: Rest is one of the ultimate blessings of the covenant.
• 20.32: Here we find that Asa, in spite of his failures, is still seen as a good king. His son, however, is better.
• 20.33: The truth of leadership. Jehoshaphat has done all he can to turn the people to God, but they are still not there. Unlike the king they pursue God only when the situation demands it.
• 20.35-37: This incident reminds us that Jehoshaphat always had a hard time staying away from alliances with the Northern Kingdom. Each time he tries, it ends miserably.

2 Chronicles 21.1-3: Jehoshaphat seeks to create a strong and good kingdom by placing his sons in different towns where they may bring royal influence and justice to the nation. He establishes each of his sons in a different city giving them the resources they need to live and carry out their task.

• 21.4: Jehoram becomes king, but he is not satisfied with the gifts and place he has been given. In his desire for more he follows that ways of the kings of Israel who had a habit of wiping out their real or supposed rivals.
• 21.5: Jehoram reigns 8 years on his own, but he also has a 3-year co-regency with his father, Jehoshaphat. Apparently reigning with his just and righteous father did not rub off on him.
• 21.6: Jehoram’s marriage to Ahab’s daughter had earlier caused the monarchy trouble. Jehoshaphat allowed that marriage alliance to draw him into a battle in which he was nearly killed. The aligning of the two households neither pleased God nor benefited Judah.
• 21.6: To do evil means to do the kind of things that rob people of peace and wholeness. Jehoram show his evil heart by robbing his brothers of their lives. While we are not told of other evil things he did, we can imagine that if one is willing to rob his family of wholeness, he was willing to do the same and more to the nation.
• 21.9: One of the continuing truths of Chronicles is that an army is no help if its leader is unfaithful. Jehoram’s father-in-law Ahab dies in battle. Here Jehoram finds himself surrounded by the enemy and has to break through their lines to protect his life.
• 21.10: Libnah was an important city for the protection of Jerusalem from attack. For a city that was meant to protect Jerusalem to revolt shows how bad things have gotten under Jehoram’s rule.
• 21.14-15: The punishment is in keeping with the covenant curses in the book of Deuteronomy. We can never fully understand both Chronicles and Kings without seeing them as intimately connected to the covenant teaching of Deuteronomy.
• 21.20: A sad ending to a horrible rule, “he departed to no one’s regret”. His place of burial (not in the tombs of the king) shows that he is not considered to be a true king of Judah.
• Chronicles 22: Ahaziah’s reign is brief from 842-841 B.C. It is also a sad and broken reign that follows the footsteps of his father. As with his father he fails to live up to his name. Ahaziah means “vision of the LORD.” Ahaziah neither gives others a vision of the LORD nor cares to see such a vision.
• 22.3-4: Evil counselors who have links to the court of Ahab’s family lead Ahaziah in bad directions. One of the continuing lessons of the book of Chronicles (and the book of Proverbs) is that good counselors help build a wise and good king, while bad counselors powerfully influence a king to act in evil and self-destructive ways.
• 22.9: Ahaziah’s burial is based not on his good, but on that of his grandfather, Jehoshaphat.
• 22.10: With her son dead and her place of power about to be lost, Athaliah decides to kill off the royal family to maintain her place of power.
• 22.11: In a daring move Ahaziah’s sister hides one of his sons. In taking this risky move we find one who finally lives up to her name, Jehoshabeath which means “Fullness of the LORD”.

“A priest engineers a coup [ chapter 23 ]. For sheer narrative excitement, this chapter is a high point in 2 Chronicles. The preceding chapter ended with a reference to the fact that the priest Jehoiada concealed the very young son of the previous king during the six years that Athaliah ruled (22:11–12). Chapter 23 narrates, blow by blow, how Jehoiada makes his move to establish seven-year-old Joash as king and depose the wicked queen. Jehoiada stage-manages the entire drama, which is narrated with such vividness that we readily relive it in our imagination. It is a story of the defeat of evil and the triumph of good.” ESV Literary Bible

• 23.1ff: One of the most interesting things about this coup is that Yahweh is not mentioned as part of it, empowering it, protecting it etc. Instead it is well planned, carefully executed, and courageously pursued. The sense of what happens seems to be reminiscent of the book of Esther where God is not mentioned and yet one knows he is behind the scenes. In this case, since the coup seeks to restore the Davidic line and bring people to live in accord with the covenant it is assumed that God will bless it because of his faithfulness to strengthen those who are firmly committed to him (see 2 Chronicles 16.9).
• 23.3: In the entire chapter that tells of the uprising and coronation Joash is never mentioned by name. It is not the king who is center stage but the High Priest, Jehoiada. The importance of the temple, the work of the priests, and the place of worship is an ongoing focus of the writer of Chronicles.
• 23.13: The queen’s cries of treason may have been an attempt to rally support to her cause. Such a claim, however, is hollow since she has no claim to the Davidic line. It is also likely that the queen idea that any of David’s house had survived, so she assumes that the child standing there has no more right to the throne that she does.
• 23.21: “the city was quiet” The word “quiet” means to be tranquil and at peace. This description of the city tells us what a place of terror it had been under the queen.