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Family, welcome to Day 360. Can you believe it? 360 Days of Reading the Bible together. We are finally in our final week here on this Bible reading plan. Like, this is unreal. And today we get to study one character in the entire Bible. His name is Jehoshaphat. Okay, Jehoshaphat. Someone who should honestly be on the Mount Rushmore of Kings of Judah. It should be Hezekiah, Josiah, Jehoshaphat in, like, David in Solomon. That should be, like, the Mount Rushmore. But one what looks like a small little mistake is actually going to cost Jehoshaphat legacy. And really what it's ultimately going to cost him is his son. And so if you haven't done the video for the day, ah, you got to get the reading done. I kind of want to challenge you to stop the video, pause the audio, go get the reading done, and come on back once it is done. For all of us that have done the reading, I'm going to give you context clues. Then I'm going to give you nerdy nuggets, and then I'm going to give you. Well, I'm going to give you as many nerdy nuggets as I can in today's episode and going to leave you off with a timeless truth, which was really personally challenging for me not to steal my own thunder, but I'm. I'm a friendly individual. Like, I like. I. I like to make friends. I like to be a good friend. But it is Jehoshaphat's friendship with the king in the North, Ahab, and that. That ultimately becomes his undoing. And what is one of his strengths? Right. The Northern and Southern kingdom have been at civil war odds for a long time. And finally, because of Jehoshaphat's diplomatic abilities, he brings peace. But it's. It's abundantly clear that sometimes our biggest strengths or our biggest assets can also have corresponding liabilities. And that diplomatic vibe that kind of like, I just want to be a friend with everybody. I want to be at peace with everybody. That ability to create peace with someone that you've been at war for a long time with also comes with the consequence of having to create friendships that are gonna have insane negative implications for Jehoshaphat's life and ultimately his legacy. And that's really, really sad. So context for these four chapters, okay, is Jehoshaphat is the main character. We're going to see jehoshaphat in chapter 17, 18, 19, and 20, and really his ultimate undoing. And you may not realize this is Going to be a marriage alliance. That's right. Chapter 18, verse 1, says, Now, Jehoshaphat had great wealth and honor, and he allied himself with Ahab by marriage. Okay, Ahab. Now, 2 Kings, chapter 8, verse 17 is going to provide context here. And 2 Kings 8, 17 tells us that the marriage was between Jehoshaphat's son Jehoram and Ahab's daughter, Athaliah. Now, if you are familiar with the Bible at all and you hear the word Ahab, you probably will immediately go, wait, are we talking about. We talking about Ahab like the husband of Jezebel? Yes, it's exactly who we're talking about. We're talking about Ahab and Jezebel's daughter Athaliah. So Jehoshaphat, who loves the Lord. I mean, listen to this. This. Chapter 17, verse 1. Jehoshaphat, his son, succeeded him as king and strengthened himself against Israel. He stationed troops in all the fortified cities of Judah and put garrisons in Judah and in towns in Ephraim. The that his father Asa had captured. The Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he followed the ways of his father David before him. He did not consult the Baals. No Baals. He didn't consult the Baals. Oh, the irony of this is so just like, oh, it's so painful. He didn't consult the Baals, but sought the God of his father and followed his commands rather than the practices of Israel. The Lord established the kingdom under his control, and all Judah brought gifts to Jehoshaphat so that he had great wealth and honor. His heart was devoted to the ways of the Lord. Furthermore, he removed the high places in the Asherah poles from Judah. So I want us to focus on this little verse, verse 3. He did not consult the baals. He did not consult the baALS. So Jehoshaphat in his personal life has the ability to not be tempted by the Baals. But guess what happens because of a friendship, because of an alliance, because of camaraderie, because of, you know, having the wrong colleague. He is going to marry his son to his ally's daughter. And Ahab's married to a woman by the name of Jezebel. The word BAAL is in the woman's name. She's a priest of baal, and she raises her daughter to be loyal to BAAL and to hate Yahweh. So here's the. The context is in second kings, chapter eight, 17. But I'm actually gonna fast forward a little bit to second Chronicles, chapter 22, because how this gets played out is going to be really, really, really sad because Jehoshaphat didn't fall prey personally to the Baals, but, but BAAL is going to get to have his demonic way in the line of David. It says this, chapter 22:10. When Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family of the house of Judah. Man, like this woman literally makes it her mission to, to destroy David's line, to undo God's covenant promise with David, to find every male heir and to murder them, to kill them. Like I, I believe she is on assignment from hell, like to stop the Messiah from being born. And so here we have Jehoshaphat, who in his personal devotion to Yahweh, Paul, resist the Baals. But then BAAL finds himself in Jehoshaphat's family because he wasn't careful with who he made a marriage alliance with. And so, although it didn't get in through his own personal practice, it got in through relationship, friendship, family, camaraderie, marriage, covenant, marriage alliance, and that. And you may not see how that has an immediate, timeless truth implication for you and me, but it does, because your relationships will ultimately set the bar, set the standard for everything else in your life. And so, I mean, I could go on and on and on, but that's the context for all four chapters today. Okay, is that Jehoshaphat's amazing. He's faithful to Yahweh. He resists the Baals in his personal practice, but because he didn't apply the same level of discipline from his personal practice, personal habits, or personal religiosity to his relationships, eventually the relationships became the place where the enemy got a foothold into his family. And that is just sad. So 2 Chronicles, chapter 17, verse 3 becomes a really, really ironic statement as it mentions that Jehoshaphat did not seek the Baals, but this marriage alliance meant the future queen of Judah was the daughter of a priestess of baal. He did not seek the Baals. Jehoshaphat did not seek the Baals. But because of this alliance, BAAL came into his land, into his palace, into his family. Perhaps that is why he misses out on being a very good king. Like I think he would have got scored 10 out of 10. Also, remember, Ezra is dealing with a real life scenario where he's getting men to divorce their foreign wives. So this story is a perfect story to really bolster Ezra's claim that marrying foreign women will totally ruin you and your family and your legacy. And your lineage. And so that's all the context I think we need. Let's jump into some dirty nuggets. There's a lot of things, a lot of things to learn from our dude. Jehoshaphat number one in chapter 17, he gets a great score, and he even sends out Levites to teach the Torah. Okay, so chapter 17 tells us this. Gotta flip back to it says this in verse 7. In the third year of his reign, he sent his officials, Ben Hale, Obadiah, Zechariah, Nethanel, and Micaiah to teach in the towns of Judah to teach. So he's sending out officials to go teach. This is incredible. He should totally be up there with that Mount Rushmore. But, man, these marriage alliance. This marriage alliance is really, really, really going to be the thing that. That reigns on the parade. Okay, verse eight. With them were certain Levites. Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebadiah, Asahel. Some name I can't pronounce. Another name that I can't pronounce. Adonijah, Tobijah and Tob. Adonijah and the priests, Elishema in Jehoram. Here we go, verse nine. They talked throughout Judah, taking with them the book of the law of the Lord. They went around to all the towns of Judah and taught the people. And here we go, next verse. The fear of the Lord fell on all the kingdoms of the land surrounding Judah. So they did. Did not go against war. Jehoshaphat. Okay, so you may want to think that those two verses are separate, but I actually think that they are one and the same. It is when his actual people learn the Torah that people outside of Judah are scared to even fight them. Okay, so we get a good score and we're sending out Levites, okay, to go teach the Torah. Now let's think about Ezra's audience. Ezra is a Levite who's teaching the Torah. So here you go. Levi, like Ezra, has kind of written himself right into the story in chapters, in chapter 17. All right, chapter 18, Jehoshaphat forced to fight with Ahab because of an alliance. Okay, so this is another. Like, he wouldn't have ever even been on the brink of death. I mean, but what happens is Jehoshaphat is dressed like a king, Ahab is not. And the army, who's really the northern kingdom of Israel's enemy, is absolutely gonna almost kill Jehoshaphat. But there's this whole back and forth with whether or not there's a prophetic word that somebody can give. And Jehoshaphat's wise enough to know, hey, man, none of these prophets are real. Like, none of these prophets up here in Israel are real. Like, I mean, we're cool, we're friends, but let's not get it twisted. Like, I know these prophets are not real. Is there not a real prophet who can prophesy? And that real prophet definitely comes back and has some really, really, really unsettling and uncomfortable things to say to Ahab in particular. So Ahab has surrounded himself with false prophets. Actually, the way that the true prophet kind of says this is there's a spirit that essentially has. Has gotten permission from Yahweh to be a lying spirit, and that all these prophets are full of a lying spirit, but that he is actually the prophet who's going to tell the truth. In chapter 18, Jehoshaphat's talking to Ahab. Okay, first of all, an alliance that shouldn't even exist, a friendship that shouldn't exist. And Ahab has consulted all these prophets to get a word before they actually go into battle. And it says this in verse 6. But Jehoshaphat asked, is there no longer a prophet of the Lord here whom we can inquire of? Like, Jehoshaphat understands, Like, I don't even understand why he's talking to this man. If you have to ask whether or not there's a real prophet, like, what are we talking about? And Ahab says back, the king of Israel answered, Jehoshaphat, there is still one prophet through whom we can inquire of the Lord. But I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always. But always bad. He is Micaiah, son of Imla. So this dude is an actual real prophet. And Ahab is so immature that he's like, sounds like a toddler. He's like, I don't like him. He's mean to me. Man, this is just rough. There are all these moments where, like, Jehoshaphat should bounce, but he does not, honestly, until it's almost, like, too too late. It says this in chapter 18, verse 31. When the chariot commander saw Jehoshaphat, they thought, this is the king of Israel because he's wearing kingly robes. So they turned to attack him, but Jehoshaphat cried out and the Lord helped him. God drew them away from him. This is now becoming a theme where God is just going to fight battles, okay? For the Judah, because Judah is a vassal and Yahweh is the suzerain. For when the chariot commander saw that he was not the king of Israel. They stopped pursuing him. But someone drew his bow at random and hit the king of Israel. That's Ahab. Between the breastplate and scale armor, the king told the chariot driver, wheel around and get me out of the fighting. I've been wounded. All day long the battle raged, and the king of Israel propped himself up in his chariot, facing the Arameans until evening. Then at sunset. At sunset, he died. So Ahab has died, and Jehoshaphat nearly died. And then we transition into chapter 19, okay? And the big point of chapter 19 is reforms, religious reforms, okay? Jehoshaphat should be on that Mount Rushmore, especially because chapters like chapter 19, when Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, returned safely to his palace in Jerusalem, okay, Jehu the Seer, the son of Hanani, went out to meet him and said to the king, should you help the wicked and love those who hate the Lord? It's like for anyone from a priestly perspective, it's like, you're not even helping our Jewish brothers. Like, these people are foreigners. They have forsaken David. They have forsaken the Torah. They have forsaken the Temple. They have forsaken Jerusalem. Like they are foreigners. Like they are essentially should be treated like uncircumcised Philistines. Those who hate the Lord. Because of this, the wrath of the Lord is on you. Okay, so now Jehoshaphat is going to get. He's going to get some smoke. He appoints judges now that fear the Lord be on you. Judge carefully. For with the Lord our God, there is no injustice or partiality or bribery. Okay? So this is Jehoshaphat continuing to bring reform. He's appointing judges. And to be honest, the southern kingdom of Judah is thriving. Okay, and then we get to our last chapter. All right? Chapter 20 says this. After this, the Moabites and Ammonites, with some of the Menites, came to wage war against Jehoshaphat. Some people came and told Jehoshaphat, a vast army is coming against you from Edom, from the other side of the Dead Sea. It is all together in Hazazan. Tamar, what is now in Getty? I love this verse. This is verse three. Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah. Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved. Inquire of the Lord. Can I just ask you a hard question? This is a timeless truth. When you're alarmed or, like, scared or, like, frightened, do you inquire of the Lord, or do you do all kinds of other Things, because Jehoshaphat, he's scared out of his mind. And then he inquires of the Lord, and what does God do? God gives them a strategy on how they are going to win against the Moabites and the Ammonites. This is Jehoshaphat's words to his men. Verse 17 of chapter 20. You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your position, stand firm, and see the deliverance of the Lord, that the deliverance the Lord will give you Judah and Israel. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you. And then, verse 23, same chapter. After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out to the head of the of the army. Verse 22, as they began to sing and praise the Lord, set ambushes against the men of Ammon in Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated. All right, that is chapter 20. And how does it end? Fantastic question. Here's how chapter 20 ends. This theme of Yahweh just kind of miraculously fighting battles for you continues. Okay. As they began to sing and praise the Lord, set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab in Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated. Period. At no point does it really explain. It's just like, yep, Yahweh started fighting. And what did he do? He used the worshipers. Because worshipers are warriors. Worshipers are warriors. Warriors. That is like, you know, that this is how I fight my battles is not just like some cliche song like, that's real. We fight our battles by worshiping the Lord, the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords. Worship becomes warfare. This an Old Testament like historical reality, but in the New Testament, this a spiritual reality. That worship begins to activate the power of God to fight battles on your behalf. Verse 23. The Ammonites and the Moabites rose up against the men from Mount Seir to destroy and annihilate them. After they finished slaughtering the men of Seir, they helped to destroy one another. When the men of Judah came to the place that overlooks the desert and looked toward the vast army, they saw only dead bodies lying on the ground. No one had escaped. So Jehoshaphat and his men went to carry off the plunder, and they found among them a great amount of equipment and clothing and also articles of value, more than they could take away. There was so much plunder that it took three days to collect it. On the fourth day, they assembled in the valley of Berakah where they praise the Lord. This is why it is called the Valley of Baraka on this day. All right, Jehoshaphat is going to get a solid score. It could have been better. But this seamlessly leads us into our timeless truth for the day. Number one, worship is warfare. Simple like that. It's not even a debatable thing. They're in the middle of a battle. Can you imagine being a soldier? And it's like, bring out the cheerleaders. Like, like, that's nuts. The second big lesson that you learn is that although Jehoshaphat was guarding himself against the bales, he accepted the, the. The. The same thing, but in seed form. And sometimes we're so, you know, leery of, like, the big sins that we don't realize that there are small seeds that lead to big sins. But. And we don't have the security systems to alert us of the small seeds, so we compromise when it comes to small seeds. But then we're shocked when those small seeds grow into big sins. We've got an alarm system to guard against the big sins, but not the. The small seeds. And that's not just true for Jehoshaphat, as he should have been just as leery as a marriage alliance as he was as consulting the Baals. That's true for you and I. It's one thing to guard yourself against the big sins. I do that too. But it's another thing to not compromise when it comes to things like small seeds. That's relevant for you, that's relevant for me, because that's a timeless truth. All right, Tomorrow is day 361. We're going to be in Second Chronicles, chapters 21 to 24. We got day 361, 362, 363, 364 and 365. Can you believe it? Just five days left on this Bible reading plan. Five videos left. If you are on a 360 day streak. Whoo. Three hundred and sixty down, five to go. I'm proud of you. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow. Peace.