And Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his stead, and strengthened himself against Israel.
Jehoshaphat takes the throne after his father Asa. The first thing recorded of him is not a building project or a conquest. It is a defensive move against the northern kingdom of Israel. That one choice shaped his best years. It also sets up the sad turn of a man who later dropped the very guard he began with.
Israel here means the northern kingdom, which had given itself to idol worship. The main danger it posed was not military.
He strengthened his kingdom against Israel, an enemy more dangerous by their example than by their strength. When something claims to be connected with God and to acknowledge Him, there is only one safe path. You must judge it with spiritual judgment, and such judgment comes only from a true sense of God's honour. Make no terms with what merely claims to be connected with Him. Treat it as an enemy. Jehoshaphat did this at first. Because he did not walk in the ways of Israel, Jehovah established the kingdom in his hand.
So the guard was against influence, not invasion. Firmness like this is what brings quiet.
The real way to be at peace with the adversary is to organize effective resistance against him. From that moment on, Satan leaves us in peace, but we must never treat him as anything other than an adversary. Jehoshaphat's later history teaches us that he did not always keep this attitude, and it did him great harm. Being at peace with the king of Israel while still defending yourself against him is very different from seeking an alliance with him. Jehoshaphat later sought that alliance, to his own shame.
What he fortified himself against at the start is where he later fell.
Jehoshaphat's first act was to "strengthen himself against Israel." This is worth noticing. Israel and Israel's king were always a snare to the heart of Jehoshaphat. But at the start of his course, in his early freshness, he was able to fortify his kingdom against the power of Israel. We often see the same thing in the history of Christians. The evils that later in life become their greatest snares are the ones they watched against most carefully at first.
Watchfulness should grow as we learn more about ourselves.
It is a happy thing when our watchfulness grows as we learn more about what our hearts lean towards and what they are capable of. Sadly, this is not always how it goes. Instead, how often do we find Christians of some years indulging in things their consciences would once have shrunk from... Think of a conscience that now lets pass without a word the very things it once shrank from. There is much reason to fear that it is no longer under the action of the truth of God. It is under the hardening influence of the deceitfulness of sin.
The verse says only that he reigned in his father's place. One writer reads the whole chapter to see how he got there.
2 Chronicles 17 brings Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, before us. In this chapter we find God, in His grace, establishing His servant in the kingdom, and the people of God acknowledging him as king.
His fortifying was done before any attack came. Commentators read this as a pattern for believers.
But as Asa had done, Jehoshaphat prepared for war by placing troops in all the fortified cities of Judah and the cities of Ephraim that Asa had conquered. Again, this is a reminder to us that, while we have time we should prepare for the conflict that must be met sometime, by storing up the Word of God in our hearts.
The determined stand of the opening verses did not last, and the record names the cause.
He began his reign with a determined opposition to the idolatrous northern kingdom. This was in the fourth year of Ahab. A few years later all this opposition stops, and we read, "Jehoshaphat also made peace with the king of Israel" (1 Kings 22:44). This peace clearly came about through the marriage of Jehoshaphat's son Jehoram to Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and of the notorious Jezebel. It was a sad thing for Jehoshaphat and his descendants that he ever agreed to this unholy alliance.
Another writer points to prosperity as what loosened his grip.
Jehoshaphat walked in the first ways of his father and of David, and Jehovah was with him, so he became very great. When he had riches and honour in abundance, he tied himself by marriage to Ahab's family... How often, when outward circumstances prosper, the heart shows worldliness and forgetfulness of God! What a blessing it often is to be kept poor and low.
- Placed. God, in grace, set Jehoshaphat in the kingdom, and the people of God acknowledged him as king.
- Guarded. His first act was defensive. He strengthened himself against Israel — an enemy more dangerous by its example than by its strength.
- Quiet. Firm resistance is what buys peace. Keep treating the adversary as an adversary, and he leaves us alone.
- Slipped. The guard he set up first is where he later failed. Riches and honour softened it into alliance with Ahab, and the cost reached his own family.
And he placed forces in all the fortified cities of Judah, and set garrisons in the land of Judah, and in the cities of Ephraim that Asa his father had taken.
Jehoshaphat begins his reign with a military move, not a religious reform. He posts troops and garrisons, including in towns his father Asa had taken from the north. Why was a good king's first recorded act a defence against fellow Israelites? And why did the very thing he guarded against later ruin him?
The word behind "garrison" carries a double sense.
A place made strong for a short war, or made strong for the long term to protect the country. The same word also names the soldiers who guarded such places.
So the verse describes settled policy, not a passing alarm. Jehoshaphat also held on to ground he had not won himself — the cities of Ephraim came to him from Asa — and he added to them.
Jehoshaphat not only keeps the conquests of his father Asa. He also goes on to extend the interests of his kingdom by his own hard work. All is well ordered.
Israel here means the northern kingdom. Commentators see the danger as moral, not military. The threat lay in what it claimed to be.
He strengthened his kingdom against Israel, an enemy more dangerous by its example than by its strength. Something may claim to be connected with God and to acknowledge Him. Then there is no safety except in judging it with a spiritual judgment. Only a true sense of God's honour can form such a judgment. It makes no terms with what merely claims to be connected with Him, and treats it as an enemy.
Peace with an adversary is one thing. Joining hands with him is another.
The true way to be at peace with the adversary is to organize an effective resistance against him. From that moment on, Satan leaves us in peace. But we must never treat him as anything other than an adversary. Jehoshaphat's later history teaches us that he did not always keep this attitude, and it did him great harm. To be at peace with the king of Israel while still defending yourself against him is quite different from seeking an alliance with him, as Jehoshaphat later did, to his own shame.
No war had started yet. Commentators read the timing as a lesson for quiet seasons.
This is a reminder to us that while we have time, we should prepare for the conflict that must be faced at some point. We do that by storing up the Word of God in our hearts.
The strength here did not last. Within a few years the policy reversed.
The first thing recorded of Jehoshaphat is that he "strengthened himself against Israel." … He began his reign with firm opposition to the idol-worshipping northern kingdom. … A few years later all this opposition stops, and we read, "Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel" (1 Kings 22:44). This peace clearly came about through the marriage of Jehoshaphat's son Jehoram to Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and of the notorious Jezebel.
The attack, when it came, went around everything this verse describes. Ahab never marched on Judah's walls.
We have already seen Jehoshaphat fortifying his kingdom. But the enemy comes at him in a way he does not seem to have prepared for. He does not attack his kingdom; he attacks his heart. He comes not as the lion, but as the serpent. … Jehoshaphat's kingdom stands guarded against Ahab's attacks, but his heart lies open to Ahab's enticements.
- Garrison. A place made strong for war, and the men who hold it. Jehoshaphat's first act was settled policy, not a panic measure.
- Guard. The northern kingdom was dangerous by its example more than by its armies. Make no terms with what only pretends to be connected with God.
- Grow. He kept the towns Asa had taken and added more. Ground you inherit still costs personal effort to hold.
- Get ready. He posted the troops while peace still held. Store up the Word of God before the conflict arrives.
- Guard the heart. The walls held; the heart did not. What Jehoshaphat shut out of his kingdom he later welcomed into his family.