"In Jesus was life; and the life was the light of men" (John 1:4).
We are now well past the halfway mark of reading through our Bible in one year. Israel's behavior of idolatry, their defeat, repentance, and returning to God, has become an established pattern. However, we see that God's love, mercy, forgiveness, and faithfulness to His people remained unchanged throughout Israel's generations. In today's reading in Chronicles, we see that Jehoshaphat's "blind spot" was his tendency to make alliances with evil kings. This sin of idolatry (seeking a kings' help instead of seeking God) may have even been connected to a tragedy in Jehoshaphat's family that occurred after he died. Jehoshaphat had seven sons and he gave them great gifts of silver, gold, and cities. He made his firstborn son, Jehoram, king of Judah. Once Jehoram had established his kingdom, he killed his brothers with the sword.
2 Chronicles 21:6, says, "And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab had done, for he had the daughter of Ahab as a wife; and he did evil in the sight of the Lord". As we have read, Jehoram's father made an alliance with the evil king Ahab. He even told him (perhaps prophetically) that he and Ahab were as "one". Jehoram was undoubtedly influenced by his wife, Ahab's daughter. Relationships have the potential for bringing things into our lives that can destroy us. God warns through Solomon in the book of Proverbs about the importance of wisely choosing our friends and associates.
Jehosaphat overall "did what was right in the sight of the Lord" (2 Chron. 20:32). However, even as king he was unable to turn the people from idolatry. Verse 33, says, "Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away, for as yet the people had not directed their hearts to the God of their fathers". It would have been easy for him to have given up and joined in worshiping other gods in the "high places". Yet, he did not turn aside to the worship of false gods. The Lord blessed Jehoshaphat for this, nevertheless he and his family reaped the consequences of the evil alliances he made. There are several important lessons we can learn from Jehoshaphat's life. We are to follow God and remain faithful to Him regardless of what happens around us. We are reminded that we do reap the results of our actions in many situations, although we may come to repentance and receive the forgiveness of God.
The Lord was never far from the kings of Judah and Israel. We are reminded in Acts 17:26-28, "And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being". We are living in darkness if we do not know God. John says in John 1:4, "In Him (Jesus) was life; and the life was the light of men". We are in darkness if we have not trusted Jesus as our Savior. We need God to enlighten us with salvation! We need to "grope for Him and find Him". Deuteronomy 4:29, says this, "But if you shall seek the Lord your God, you shall find Him, if you seek Him will all your heart and with all your soul".
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