LXI.

JEHOSHAPHAT.

PROSPERITY.

2 CHRONICLES XX. 30.

"So THE REALM OF JEHOSHAPHAT WAS QUIET: FOR HIS GOD GAVE HIM REST ROUND ABOUT."

1. JEHOSHAPHAT is not unlike Hezekiah and Josiah. In fact the latter kings of the house of David were by no means dissimilar. The old man often returns to the character of the child, and the advanced stage of the history of a nation and a family closely resembles its beginning. It is often the case that the circumstances of life have brought out powers and energies which sink again when those circumstances are removed. And this is more particularly the case in the middle period of life. Events build up a superstructure which falls when the support of those events is removed. In the history of

nations, when the national energy has been worn out to a certain extent, the characters of kings and heroes return more to the type of the earlier and more elementary days of the national history. In the life of man too it is often the case, that when the middle age of pressing circumstance and keen excitement has passed away, old age becomes emphatically a second childhood, and the characteristic features of the boy come out again, when the hair grey and the brow ploughed with the share of time. In connection with this thought it is interesting to watch in the line of the kings of Judah the simple and childlike characters which from time to time appear after the type and model of their father David, Jehoshaphat in the middle of the line and Josiah near the conclusion.

is

2. Jehoshaphat's personal character seems to have had very distinctive features in it. The principal circumstance of his life is connected with the battle of Ramoth-Gilead. He succeeded his father Asa on the throne, about that unhappy period when conspiracy and usurpation were marking the history of the kings of Israel. We read but little of him until the time when Ahab sent to him, saying, Know ye that Ramoth

Gilead is ours, and we be still and take it not out of the hands of the king of Syria: wilt thou go with me to battle to Ramoth-Gilead? and Jehoshaphat said, I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses. And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, "Inquire, I pray thee, at the hand of the LORD today." And the king of Israel had gathered together four hundred prophets, but not satisfied with these, Jehoshaphat said, Is there not a prophet of the LORD besides, that we may inquire of him? Ahab mentioned Micaiah the son of Imlah, but said that he hated him. And Jehoshaphat said, "Let not the king say so." After the prophecy of Micaiah the two kings went down to battle-Jehoshaphat boldly in his robes and Ahab in disguise. In the midst of the attack Jehoshaphat was saved by the Providence of GOD.

We are told that though he walked in the ways of Asa his father, doing that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, and turned not aside from it, nevertheless the high places were not taken away; the people still offered and burnt incense in the high places. We are told also that this Jehoshaphat "had riches and honour in abundance," nevertheless that "he

joined in affinity with the wicked house of Ahab."

He seems also to havé placed forces in all the fenced cities of Judah, and set garrisons in all the land of Judah and the cities of Ephraim; and that in all this GOD was with him because that he walked in the first ways of David his father; therefore the LORD stablished the kingdom in his hand. And all Judah brought him presents and again we are told, he had riches and honour in abundance. One result of all this great earthly success was to lift up his heart in gratitude to God as the giver of it all.

Another result was to lead him vigorously to assail idolatry, and establish a kind of mission consisting of princes and Levites and Priests to teach in all the cities of Judah; five princes, two priests, and nine Levites. And as they went they taught in Judah, and had the book of the law of the LORD with them, and they taught the people.'

The effect of all this movement on the part of Jehoshaphat was remarkable, for the fear of the LORD fell on all the kingdoms round about Judah, so that none made war on Jehoshaphat; and this feeling went so far that the 1 See 2 Chron. xvii. xix. xx.

Philistines brought him gold and silver presents, and the Arabians brought him seven thousand seven hundred rams and seven thousand seven hundred he goats. The end of all this prosperity was that he waxed strong exceedingly, and that he built castles or palaces and cities of stone; and we are told that he had much business in the cities of Judah, besides men of war-mighty men of valour. It was in this state of things that he went up with Ahab to Ramoth-Gilead to battle, and after the battle he returned to Jerusalem in peace.

But his coalition and alliance with Ahab were severely reproved; and Jehu the prophet came and said, "Shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the LORD? therefore is wrath upon thee from the LORD; nevertheless there are good things found in thee in that thou hast prepared thy heart to seek GOD." Impelled by this reproof, Jehoshaphat set to work to bring back the people to the LORD GOD of their fathers; and he set judges over the land, and his special instruction to these judges was, that they should "take heed what they did, for that they judged for the LORD and not for men."

After this he had a signal triumph over his