2 Chronicles 19:1 - Meaning and Application

Here we see, first, the great kindness God showed to Jehoshaphat.

God brought him back safely from his dangerous trip with Ahab, a journey that might have cost him dearly (2 Chronicles 19:1). He returned to his house in peace. This reminds us that he came home better than he expected. He had been in real danger, yet God kept him safe. Whenever we return home safely, we should thank God for guarding our going out and our coming in. If we have been kept through unusual danger, we should be especially thankful.

He also came home better than he deserved. He had stepped away from his duty and joined in an expedition he could hardly justify before God or his own conscience. Yet God still brought him back in peace. God does not immediately take away his care from us every time we fail him.

He also fared better than Ahab, king of Israel, who came home dead. Jehoshaphat had said to Ahab, “I am as you are,” yet God made a difference between them. He knows the path of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. Special mercies should move us deeply. Two kings went out together, but one was brought home in blood and the other in peace.

God also sent Jehoshaphat a rebuke for his friendship with Ahab. It is a mercy when God makes us see our faults and tells us in time where we have gone wrong, so we may repent before it is too late. The prophet who brought this rebuke was Jehu, the son of Hanani. His father had also been a bold prophet in an earlier reign, and Jehu was no less willing to speak plainly to a king.

Jehu told Jehoshaphat clearly that he had done wrong in joining with Ahab. Should a godly man help the ungodly, give them friendship, and lend them support? Should he love those who hate the Lord? Wicked people are marked as those who hate God, and idolaters are counted that way too. So those who love God should not delight in them or become close companions with them. David said that he hated those who hated God, and God’s people should be of the same mind as God.

Jehu also told him that God was angry with him for this act. “Wrath is upon you from the Lord,” he said, meaning Jehoshaphat needed to repent and make peace with God, or things would become worse for him. Jehoshaphat did repent, and God’s anger turned away. Yet the trouble described in the next chapter was still a warning to him for getting mixed up in a quarrel that did not belong to him. If he was so ready for war, he would find he had enough of it. The great harm that later came to his descendants through the house of Ahab was also a fair result of this alliance.

Still, Jehu noticed what was good in Jehoshaphat, and that is a proper part of a rebuke. He said, “There are good things in you.” So even though God was displeased with him, he was not rejected altogether. His work of removing idols, and his settled heart to seek God, were good things. God accepted that and wanted him to keep going in that path.

Second, we see how Jehoshaphat answered God for this mercy.

He took the rebuke well and was not angry with the prophet, unlike his father Asa, who had once reacted badly to plain speech. The wise man receives correction and becomes wiser. Jehoshaphat clearly took warning.

He stayed in Jerusalem and minded his own business there. He would not put himself in danger by making any more such visits to Ahab. A wise person who is corrected will learn and act more carefully.

To make up, so to speak, for that visit to Ahab, Jehoshaphat then made a useful and godly visit through his own kingdom. He went among the people in person, from Beersheba in the south to Mount Ephraim in the north, and brought them back to the Lord, the God of their fathers. That is, he did all he could to turn them back to God.

By what the prophet said, he could see that his earlier efforts at reform had pleased God. So he renewed them and finished what was still left undone. It is good when praise pushes us to do our duty more faithfully, and when being commended for good work makes us even more active in it.

He may also have seen that his recent friendship with the idolatrous house of Ahab, and with the kingdom of Israel, had harmed his own people. Many may have been encouraged to turn to idolatry when they saw even their reforming king so close to idol worshipers. That would have made Jehoshaphat feel doubly bound to do all he could to bring them back.

If we truly repent of sin, we will do all we can to repair the damage we have caused to religion and to other people’s souls. We should especially try to recover those who have fallen into sin, or been hardened in it, because of our example.