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3) About Jehoshaphat
After this Jehoshaphat further reforms Judah. But the Moabites and Ammonites invade. Jehoshaphat prays a most remarkable public prayer,
“O LORD God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rule not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee? Art not thou our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever? And they dwelt therein, and have built thee a sanctuary therein for thy name, saying, If, when evil cometh upon us, as the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we stand before this house, and in thy presence, (for thy name is in this house,) and cry unto thee in our affliction, then thou wilt hear and help. And now, behold, the children of Ammon and Moab and mount Seir, whom thou wouldest not let Israel invade, when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them, and destroyed them not; Behold, I say, how they reward us, to come to cast us out of thy possession, which thou hast given us to inherit. O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee.” (2Chronicles 20:6-12)
The people of Judah are given a miraculous victory against the Moabites and Ammonites in a place up from Engedi near Tekoa in a place afterwards called; the valley of Berachah
And on the fourth day they assembled themselves in the valley of Berachah; for there they blessed the LORD: therefore the name of the same place was called, The valley of Berachah, unto this day. Then they returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, and Jehoshaphat in the forefront of them, to go again to Jerusalem with joy; for the LORD had made them to rejoice over their enemies. And they came to Jerusalem with psalteries and harps and trumpets unto the house of the LORD. And the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries, when they had heard that the LORD fought against the enemies of Israel. So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet: for his God gave him rest round about. (2Ch 20:26-30)
The warning from Jehu at the death of Ahab was not enough. In 1 Kings 22:49 it is recorded that Jehoshaphat refused a co-operative merchant venture shortly after with Ahaziah the son of Ahab. The Kings record does not explain why. The record in Chronicles explains why,
And after this did Jehoshaphat king of Judah join himself with Ahaziah king of Israel, who did very wickedly: And he joined himself with him to make ships to go to Tarshish: and they made the ships in Eziongeber. Then Eliezer the son of Dodavah of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, Because thou hast joined thyself with Ahaziah, the LORD hath broken thy works. And the ships were broken, that they were not able to go to Tarshish. (2Ch 20:35-37)
Jehoshaphat had to refuse the offer as the ships were broken!
But already there must have been a tie Jehoshaphat had with Ahab's house. This tie would almost ruin the kingdom of Judah. At some point the son of Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, married the daughter of Ahab, whose name was Athaliah. When the warning is given to Jehoshaphat against alliance with Ahaziah son of Ahab, the son of his own son Jehoram's union with Ahab's house would already be at least 11 years old whose name was also Ahaziah.
This tie by marriage of the two Royal houses might explain why the unsatisfactory reform that Joram king of Israel carried out in removing an altar of Baal after the death of father and brother was enough to bring Jehoshaphat on side. When Joram king of Israel, calls Jehoshaphat to go to battle against Edom, Jehoshaphat agrees to go. Significantly Jehoshaphat replied
I will go up: I am as thou art, my people as thy people, and my horses as thy horses. (2Kings 3:7)
They are given a victory, but only because of Jehoshaphat, Elisha is blunt before them both,
And Elisha said, As the LORD of hosts lives, before whom I stand, surely, were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not look toward thee, nor see thee. (2Kings 3:14)
The truth was that Jehoshaphat's son, Jehoram, who was at that time newly co- regent with his father was married to the sister of Joram the king of Israel. The plot and subtle influence is thicker as whereas Ahab is dead, Jezebel his wife is still alive in Israel. Joram, himself was not a Baal worshipper, but his mother still was, and, as Jehu shows plainly, Baal worship was still allowed, and popular, despite the miracles of Elijah.
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There was some footage placed on U-tube of 6 IDF soldiers dancing as a group on duty in Hebron, more often the scene of warfare as the city is a point of tension in Israel. It was swiftly taken down and the implication was that they would face discipline. If it is not considered good form that soldiers dance on duty, what would the world think of an army who goes into battle singing a love song? Which army? An army of Israel of course.
