II Chronicles
Chapter 9
Lessons from the Reign of King Jehoshaphat
King Jehoshaphat’s Major Mistake
II Chronicles 18
II Chronicles 18:1 “Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honour in abundance, and joined affinity with Ahab.”
This is a glaring mistake that the king makes! We are not told what his thinking is on it or how Israel changed from being an enemy to a friend, but it happened! I think that Jehoshaphat wanted to help Ahab and maybe restore the kingdom of David and Solomon. For us this is definitely not the way to make friends and win people to the LORD! It was a mistake from the start and ended up being a blot on a very good leader. This friendship was a major cause of the decline of the nation of Judah. God may have brought the two kingdoms back together if not for this friendship. It seems like a small thing but led to a major problems between the nations!
A leader needs to make good friends and avoid making bad friends. For help in finding the right friends, please see the section on “Friends for the Leader”.
King Jehoshaphat’s “Friendly” Mistake!
One of the mistakes Jehoshaphat made was in making a friend of King Ahab. Ahab was the worst king Israel ever had. It was through him that the kingdom eventually fell.
I Kings 16:33“And Ahab made a grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him.”
King Jehoshaphat’s friendship with Ahab got him saying things that were not true, got him in a battle he should not have been involved in, and almost got him killed. Fortunately, for him, God was watching over him and delivered him. It is a great comfort to know that if your motive is to serve God, even if you make horrible mistakes, God still will deliver you! The lesson to learn is to try not to make these bad leadership mistakes. Even though God delivered him, he still reaped for what he did. He paid for it personally. This friendship led to his son marrying Ahab and Jezebel’s daughter. This ended up being disastrous, not only for his son, Jehoram, but the whole nation as well! As a leader you can’t live in the past. Past mistakes must be learned from and not repeated! As a good leader, you must take the reaping to keep you humble and trusting God!
Please note that this mistake king Jehoshaphat made was when things were going well. It is important to notice that he had fame and fortune. That is two out of three of the main things men want. The other is love. The most dangerous time in a Christian’s life is when there are no problems! It is during the time of prosperity that men and women backslide. One of the great gifts of God is problems! People have more trouble handling success than they do failure. Please be wary when things are going great! Again, the purpose of this study of leadership is how to handle success so that it doesn’t turn into failure!
One of the problems of having friends that hate God, is that they will give you advice that may sound good but will lead to your downfall! Ahab convinced Jehoshaphat to go to war with him! Jehoshaphat was so deceived that he made the statement that they are alike! Instead of “cozying” up with God’s enemies, you should make friends of them by being the example not by imitating them! The purpose of having acquaintances that are lost is to win them to the Lord. It is not to follow their examples!
Below are listed the mistakes that king Jehoshaphat made during the time of abundance that almost caused his death in hope that you, as a leader, will not make these same stupid mistakes.
1. Made friends with the God-hating, God-ignoring, Balaam-worshipping king Ahab.
II Chronicles 18:1 “Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honour in abundance, and joined affinity with Ahab.”
2. Let his son marry Ahab and Jezebel’s daughter. As a parent it is important to help your children choose the right one to marry.
II Chronicles 21:6 “And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, like as did the house of Ahab: for he had the daughter of Ahab to wife: and he wrought that which was evil in the eyes of the LORD.”
3. He made a bad comparison and pronouncement.
II Chronicles 18:3 “And Ahab king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat king of Judah, Wilt thou go with me to Ramothgilead? And he answered him, I am as thou art, and my people as thy people; and we will be with thee in the war.”
Be very careful in not comparing your followers and organization to others. Always use the Bible as the comparison tool!
I Corinthians 10:12 “For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.”
This is a major mistake that people make. They compare themselves to other Christians or to the world and then imitate what the other person does. This does not lead to excellence and ingenuity. It leads to failure. I have seen it and continue to see it in businesses I have worked for and in the university where I work as they compare themselves to other schools. A real leader seeks to be better and can only accomplish this by seeking the best way to do something. A common bad excuse of teenagers is “Everybody else is doing it!”
Jehoshaphat compared himself with Ahab and compared his kingdom with Ahab’s kingdom. They were completely different.
He then opened his big mouth and volunteered to go to war with them! Bad comparisons lead to bad pronouncements, which in turn lead to failure for the leader!
4. He fought a battle he had no business being involved in. As a leader, you will have many battles to fight and foes to face. You don’t have the time and resources to fight all battles. Some must be left for others. See the mistake later in the history of king Josiah in II Chronicles 35:20-24!
II Chronicles 18:2 “Ahab…persuaded him to go up with him to Ramothgilead.”
5. He let Ahab tell him how to dress for battle.
II Chronicles 18:29 “And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself, and will go to the battle; but put thou on thy robes. So the king of Israel disguised himself; and they went to the battle.”
This may seem like a small thing. But the leader must dress right. Others are watching you and how you dress affects their actions. Don’t let others influence how you dress, but dress to please the Lord! Because he was dressed like a king, the enemy thought he was the king of Israel. Ahab, on the other hand, disguised himself. Sort of like a wolf in sheep’s clothing! (See Matthew 7:15!)
God knew the difference and helped Jehoshaphat and allowed Ahab to be killed instead!
6. Probably the biggest mistake that Jehoshaphat made was that he didn’t listen and take heed to the message that the man of God pronounced. He made the right decision to find out what the preacher thought, but he rejected it and was bound by his word to go to battle!
It is extremely important for a leader to be part of a good local church where the Bible is preached, and the preacher is a man of God! There may be many churches in your area but if you don’t find out which one God is using; you are subject to a lying spirit in the mouth of all the 400 prophets prophesying positively!
Please read the next chapter on Micaiah – The man of God.
