Lessons from Jehoshaphat
Key Passage: 2 Chronicles 17:1
Date: June 7, 2024
Turn your Bibles to Second Chronicles chapter number 17, if you would, please. Second Chronicles chapter number 17.
Last week we started a series that we’re going to do on Sunday mornings in June on Lessons from Kings. If you are following many Bible reading schedules, reading the Bible through a year, you’re reading or reading.
Just completed reading about kings of Israel and Judah. And we’re just picking out a couple of those and focusing on them. Last week, all right, we got a test. We got a test. If you get it right, you get a good job. You get a good job.
Anybody remember the king we studied about last Sunday morning? Just say it, just say it. Hey, it’s a good deal. You just heard somebody else say it, then you said it. We’ll take it either way, amen. But Asa, A-S-A, and then today we’re going to, for a while, focus on this king named Jehoshaphat. You say, well, what’s going on with Jehoshaphat? I don’t know, but he’s a fat guy. I know that. Jehoshaphat. Come on now.
You know, and lessons from Jehoshaphat, and we’re in Second Chronicles chapter number 17, and we’ll start verse number one. We’ll kind of follow the same format as last Sunday. We’ll just kind of give an overview of his life and then try to pull some things out. I believe the Lord wants us to focus on this morning.
And I was looking out, just over the congregation, trying to pray for us, for you and for God to work in our hearts just a moment ago. But this could really, it could change. It could be the, all the thing that brings you down or the thing that causes you to excel for the Lord. It’s such a key thing. And when we get to it, it’s not new. You’ll have heard it before. But I hope you don’t just say, well, I’ve heard that and kind of let it just zoom go over your head. It’s for all of us. And you ask the Holy Spirit to apply it to your life as you need it specifically for you, but it’s just key. And I pray that the Lord will get the truth across once we get to the truths about this man, Jehoshaphat.
We’re going to read verse number one. We’ll start there. Would you please stand if you’re able to as to read God’s Word together, just show it to respect.
Second Chronicle 17 in verse number one of God’s word. If you’re there, would you say amen? Amen. Good do. We’ve got about half of you there. If you’re there, would you say amen? Good, good, good. Here we go.
And Jehoshaphat, his son, reigned in his stead and strengthened himself against Israel. And he placed forces in all the fortified cities of Judah and set garrisons in the land of Judah and the cities of Ephraim, which is… which Asa his father had taken.
And the Lord was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the first ways of his father, David, and sought not unto Balaam, but sought to the Lord God of his father and walked in his commandments and not after the doings of Israel. Therefore the Lord established the kingdom in his hand, and all Judah brought to Jehoshaphat presence, and he had riches and honor in abundance.
Would you pray with me that God would work in our hearts this morning? Would you do that as I pray? Lord, we come. Lord, I’m burdened about this. I sure would love for a young person for you to work in their heart this morning. And they say, hey, I need to make some changes. And Lord, for us older people, we need it. I need it also. Father, grow us, change us. Lord, would you help us to be serving you years down the road and for the long haul, Lord, and use this morning to help him that. Father, would you please? Well, thank you for what you do. We’re asking for that in Jesus’ name. So we’re asking in faith, Father. It’s His name we pray. Amen.
Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated. As we just read, Jehoshaphat was… Asa, the man we studied last week, it’s his son. He was king in the southern kingdom. I mentioned last week, Israel was divided, Israel up north, Judah down south. And he was king of the southern part, Judah for 25 years, when he was 35, 60 he was king. He was one of the most prosperous kings.
I would dare say he was the most prosperous king of Judah besides Solomon. Very, very prosperous, very successful. Now, that verse number four we read gives a good, just brief description of Jehoshaphat, what he was like. If you read that in verse number four, but sought to the Lord God of his fathers. That’s pretty good. He sought the Lord.
Just became on the throne here in this reference, but he sought to the Lord God of His fathers and walked in His commandments and not after the doings of Israel. We mentioned last week Israel up north that typically backslid a lot quicker and a lot worse than Judah overall, not always, but typically they did. He didn’t follow that. He sought the Lord.
In fact, he sent out preachers and teachers all across his kingdom, teaching them about Jehovah about the God. And my Bible kind of gives titles over paragraphs. The title describing that, it says, revival in Judah. And he sent out these preachers and teachers. And God really just blessed when he did that. In fact, the Bible talks about, he put fear in the nations around them. They feared Judah and Jehoshaphat. God honored him when he was honoring God. And to the point, many of these nations, they would send him money, like tribute, taxation, or if you were, protection money. God blessed greatly. And God just really, his kingdom was very prosperous, and God put his hand on him. It’s a wonderful thing.
But would you turn over to chapter 18 and it’ll begin to give us the downfall? He had a weakness. We’ll begin to see his weakness. A very sad, very, very sad verse. Verse number one, would you read that very sad verse with me? Second Chronicles 18:1. Now, Jehoshaphat had riches and honor in abundance and joined affinity with Ahab.
Now what does that mean affinity? Is that buzz like year or what? You know what’s going on there? Joined affinity with Ahab. Now let’s just talk about Ahab for a minute here before we get to that. Remember Ahab’s up here. He’s the king of the north. Very wicked king. Ahab, his wife was Jezebel. Everybody has at one point had a car you named Jezebel because I broke down all the time. Are you with me there? Yeah. And Jezebel just known, Ahab both of them, known for the wickedness. And Jezebel really stirred up Ahab, even more so to go. Just very sinful. In fact, I think we may preach on Ahab next Sunday. You pray about that. But he was kind of the mark or the poster board of wicked kings of Israel, Ahab.
Now here’s this good guy, Jehoshaphat. He sought the Lord. He kept his commandments. He didn’t follow the doings of Israel. So what in the world is Jehoshaphat joining affinity with Ahab? You say, what’s affinity mean? It means kings would often do it in Bible times. They would intermarry their families, two kings. Sometimes this king would marry the daughter of this king, whatnot. There’s some way of marriage. We think everyone I read agrees with this. We’re not exactly sure, but we know this. We know that Jehoshaphat’s son Jehoram married Athaliah, which was Ahab and Jezebel’s daughter. We think it was at this point right here. We know those things. Everybody agrees this is when it happened. But affinity means the kings or families some way we’re intermarrying.
That way they thought they were kind of getting some security. You, you know, the kingdoms are a little bit united. They’re married. You don’t want to go attack over there because their daughter lives over there. That type of thought and all these different things. A lot to it. Now, what in the world is Jehoshaphat, a good godly man doing, having his oldest son marry into such a wicked family? I read about Athaliah if you studied out, and I think we’ll get to touch it, but I believe this morning, time’s going quick this morning. She’s a wicked lady. It’s just a wicked lady.
Let me just, I’m jumping ahead of myself, but I’ll tell you, so this is just mind-boggling, especially because I’m a grandpa now. I mean, you know, I’ve got to get that in there about every week, you know. Our grandson’s turning one this month. And as much as I love her grandson, my wife, wow. I mean, every once in a while I wonder, does she love that grandson more than me? You see her up here? Would you look over in Ephesians chapter number five? Not changing the message.
But here’s the thing that’s shocking. How many of you are married to her grandma? Oh, I better not ask that. You might get in trouble. You’ll understand what I’m saying. But here’s the shocking thing about Athaliah. She actually killed all her grandsons. Can you imagine? All that she found, someone hid one of them. I mean, you talk about… What in the world, Jehoshaphat, are you having your son marry a lady like that? That’s his downfall. A very sad thing.
And then a little bit later, just a touch later, we’ll find Ahab up here, the wicked king, the dad of Athaliah. And he’s persuading Jehoshaphat to join in a battle with him. It’s interesting, and Jehoshaphat, he goes up to talk to him about it. That’s the first mistake. You should have never went up there. Then he gets up there and he says, hey, Jehoshaphat, he tells Ahab, do you have any prophets? Let’s try to talk to the prophets and see what they think about it. By the way, we’re kind of building a foundation. So if you stick with me, everybody, everybody stick with me.
Oh, Brother Steve Page, would you tap that guy in front of you right there? I don’t know his name. I’m sorry, would you? Yeah, yes, would you please? Everybody help me out, look up. We’re trying to build a foundation, trying to keep you on board, if you would, please, as we’re getting the foundation before we get to the heart of the message here.
So he said, do you have any prophets? Then they have? He says, oh, yeah, I got prophets. He put his spiritual garment on. He said, oh, man, I’m so spiritual. I’ve got 400 prophets. I’m sure old Jehoshaphat was like, wow, well, that’s interesting. So he brought those prophets out. Man, they were very articulate. I think, honestly, they were very good speakers. They probably would have been very good motivational speakers. In fact, one of them even built some horns. Honestly, I think it was a great pulpit orator, and I mean that. And he said, hey, he said, well, if these horns, you’re going to drive out the enemies in Syria and you’re going to drive them out and, man, go to battle together. And all the 400 prophets say, oh, you can do it. Go, go, go, go.
But Jehoshaphat, he had enough old school in him that he knew that ain’t the real deal preacher right there. And he says, hey, oh, hey, Ahab, you got any other preachers? You don’t think of them old school preachers. And just say, thus saith the Lord. And Ahab said, yeah, there’s one of those guys. And that’s what he said, he said, but I hate him. That’s what the Bible says. He said, I hate him. He never says anything good. Now, you check it out. We don’t have time to check it out. That’s what he said. He’s always, yeah, but that’s somebody about something. That don’t remind you of anybody, all right? Not at all.
All right, I’ll go get him. And so the messengers went to Micaiah, to Micaiah. Now, all 400 prophets have said, you better go, go, go, you’re going to win, you’re going to win, you go in. And Micaiah, don’t let me down now, you know. And so Micaiah comes in. I would love, I want to see this replay. Anybody want to watch replays in heaven? When we get there, I’m going to watch some, and I want to replay this one here. But it’s interesting. It’s interesting. Oh, Micaiah, when he comes into the court where the kings are, I don’t know exactly how he said it, but he said it in a way, a certain way, that everybody knew he was kind of mocking. So he goes in there, he goes in, oh, yeah, I go, you win. And everybody knew the guy’s just putting on it. Oh, yeah, go ahead, go ahead, you got it. You got it.
And finally, Ahab, I’m working on everybody this morning. Help me up, buddy. Look up here. Look up there at me. There you go. There you go. But finally, oh, Ahab, he said, I told you, tell me the truth. Go ahead, Micaiah, tell me the truth. And Micaiah said, I’ll tell me the truth. I see Israel on the hills running like a bunch of chickens with a head cut off because the king’s dead. I’d like to see Ahab’s face when he said king’s dead.
Now here’s the thing. Oh, Ahab, he tried to act like he didn’t bother him. Oh, I’m tough. Doesn’t bother me. And he says, I thought that guy in prison. They threw the preacher Micaiah in prison. And Ahab’s like, ah, no way. He doesn’t know what in the world he’s talking about. He’s an old potent preacher. He don’t know what he was talking about. I had him put in jail.
Now here’s an interesting thing. They go to battle. And Ahab says, hey, Jehoshaphat, would you make sure your crown still on? Make sure you got your royal robe if you would hold on. He said, I think I’m just going to disguise myself and not look like a king in this war. You get that? He said, well, I don’t know what he is. But you know those folks who witnessed that work, they might act like they’re not listening, but it’s getting in. No, Ahab, when he wanted to go to war, I want to go to battle. He said, I don’t want to dress like the king. I heard what that preacher said over there. It just may be true.
And so he goes out in battle, and the king of Syria that the battle against, he said, hey, fellas, I don’t want you to go after anybody besides the king of Israel, once you get him. So the guy out in battle, old Jehoshaphat, he’s in his royal chariot. He’s got his crown up there, and he’s looking all pop and proper and all that and by the there’s the king, man, they take off after him. Jehoshaphat says, man, I’m in the wrong place at the wrong time. This ain’t a good situation here and actually cries out to the Lord for God to help him in this battle.
Would you look over in chapter number oh chapter number uh 18:31, 18:31, chapter number 18:31. Stick with me as we get this background, if you would please. 18:31. And look what he says. And it came to pass when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat that they said, it is the king of Israel. Therefore they turned about to fight. But Jehoshaphat cried out and the Lord helped him and God moved them to depart from him.
So he cries out in the middle of the battle. God says, all right, I’ll hear you. Jehoshaphat is saved. And then round through that, a man draws a bow, just an adventure. He draws a bow. He’s over here on the side of Syria. And he just draws a bow. And man, it’s flying through the air. And Gabriel, the angel. This is in the Bible, this part here. But God did direct that arrow, guided it over, and it went right to King Ahab.
I think about this. I want to talk about the wording of that very briefly here. We’re going to run out of time if I don’t get going. But the Bible says it went over there and it just happened to hit King Ahab. And think about it, out of all these military men, probably the best armored man, the one that had the best armor was the king. But the Bible says that arrow went in the joints of the harness. In other words, he had maybe just a couple of places on his body armor that an arrow could get him. Maybe it was between the breastplate and the mail. Maybe it was between the shirt and the pants type deal. And there’s different philosophies about it. But somewhere there’s a little kink that that arrow could get in there. And God sent that arrow. It just happened to go right to that spot.
Now here’s the thing. When God wants to take you out, if you will, ain’t nothing, ain’t nobody going to stop him from taking him. Amen. And Ahab, he stayed up through the battle, but that was about it. He was out.
Jehoshaphat made it home. When he got home, a preacher, prophet Jehu, not the one that kills the kings and becomes king later on in Israel. But Jehu, a prophet, he comes and preaches a little message at Jehoshaphat. And it really seemed like Jehoshaphat listened. And then right after that, Jehoshaphat goes through his kingdom, and he… The Bible says he brings them back to the Lord. It’s very interesting. He led a revival, if you will. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a president like that in our country? And he traveled all over his kingdom, said, we’ve got to get back to God.
A little while later on, they had another battle. They battle a great host, Moab, Ammon, and Mount Seir, a group of people. And they come against Judah and his kingdom. And Jehoshaphat says, there’s no way we can win on our own. So he has a prayer meeting, just a great, great prayer meeting. And right after the prayer meeting, another prophet comes along, Jehaziel, and he says, hey, God’s going to give you the victory. You’re going to win. And he says, then he makes this statement. He says, the battle is God’s. Another place that says, the battles of the Lord. But this one, he says, the battle is God’s. So you’re going to win this battle.
So the next day, Jehoshaphat gets up and he goes out to his troops, his army, his military. He says, hey, I want you to believe God and his prophets. And then he appoints some singers. Singers usually don’t go to battle, but Jehoshaphat said, I’m going to want some people out there to praise God. And they went out, they’re going out to the battlefield. He has got singers appointed. They’re singing, praising God. Happens more than once in the Bible. And…
By the time they get over there to where the enemies were in the battle, they had already started fighting with one another. The Bible used this word ambush. It looks like they were planning on ambushing Judah and Jehoshaphat. But one of these other nations, about three different nations coming together, one of these other nations came, it looks like, through the ambush, and so they ambushed them, they didn’t start to fight back. Before long they’re killing each other. And the Bible says by the time Judah and Jehoshaphat got there, all of them were dead.
In fact, the Bible says it took three days for them to take all the spoil. They had to go through their wallets, you understand that, get all their credit cards, charge them all they could, you know. And honestly, in Bible times they would sometimes put jewelry in their ears, and that was gold and silver. Kind of like we do, and that was their savings sometimes, and they wore jewelry and whatnot. And they had to get all, and it took three days to take all the spoil off their bodies and off the camp. That’s a great, great victory.
And then one last thing when we’ll get to the preaching. Y’all still with me here? A little storytelling, if you go from the Bible, but stay with me if you would. In the very end, the Bible mentions this about Jehoshaphat before he dies. It says, Jehoshaphat joined himself. Well, to Jehoram, King of Israel. Now who’s happened? Ahab’s dead, and his son is on the throne, another wicked man. And Jehoshaphat says, hey, let’s make some ships together. Let’s make a navy. And so they built some ships together, and God sends another preacher down. He said, look, fellas, since you’re joining up with the wicked again, all those ships are going to be broken. We don’t know how it happened. But about the next verse, it says all those ships, maybe it was a hurricane, a tornado, water spout, but something came, and all those ships were broken because he joined up with the wrong crowd again.
Have y’all figured out his weakness yet? Now, y’all are quiet this morning. Help me out. On this side here, if you think, just say it out loud, if you think you know his weakness, would you say it out loud, please? Boy, you are quiet. My goodness. I’m not trying to trick you. I think somebody said it. Over here, you think you saw his weakness over. Would you say it out loud, please? Yeah, he kept joining up with the wrong crowd.
Now, I’ll be honest with you, as I read his life, I’m always, every time I read it, I’m like, why? You’re such a good guy. You want to serve God. You’re seeking the Lord. You want to obey His commandments. You don’t want to walk in their ways. Why? He has a weakness for the wrong crowd. He just, he just could not stay away from the wrong crowd.
You ever see someone and they’re in the wrong crowd and you say, man, if they just get out of that relationship or get to that friendship, maybe they’ll get a better crowd and as soon as they get out of that wrong crowd, you’re like, there’s hope for them. Then they go in getting another bad crowd. You may say that out there? That was Jehoshaphat. He was so good in so many ways, but he, his weakness, he just could not stand up to the wrong crowd.
Now, still going to be for a little bit. Let’s just think about this. I’m not sure the reason why. We’re going to try to just give a couple reasons why it was, maybe what it was, why he just could not stand up. Maybe. Maybe Jehoshaphat, young people, would you listen very intently now? Maybe Jehoshaphat was intimidated by the wrong crowd. Up north, they had ten tribes down here or Jehoshaphat, whereas they’re just two tribes, almost always outnumbered against Israel. Ahab and Jezebel had a reputation. Everybody knew.
This is the interesting thought. Ladies, this will apply a little bit to you. Not that I’m going to be wise how I’ll tell this. Okay, we know from the Bible that Jezebel wore a lot of makeup. Now, I’m not saying that makeup’s a sin, all right? Somebody will reference the verse in the New Testament and it talks about makeup and whatnot. But it doesn’t say it’s a sin. It says the main thing ought to be the ornament of your spirit, making a quiet spirit. If it was saying makeup’s wrong, it also talks about clothes in that same verse, and then clothes would be wrong. And I know clothes is not wrong, right? So the Bible doesn’t say that makeup is a sin, but it does talk about later on when this prophet, this man, Jehu goes to kill Jezebel, that she painted her face. That’s the actual Bible wording. I don’t understand everything about it, but it kind of smacks it. Maybe she was just very stylish. She had the latest purse, the latest dress. You know, she wore those shoes that made her about 10 feet taller. And I’m not saying I’m against any of this stuff, but you ever just see a lady that’s very fashionable to the point she intimidates you? Any on me on this?
There’s a little bit of that, even with the ladies. And Ahab, I mean, at one point, they made Elijah, this great preacher, they made him afraid between Ahab and Jezebel both that he went and hid. Almost talked about I don’t want to die at that point. He was so scared and discouraged. Maybe they’re just so loud and proud that it intimidated Jehoshaphat. Someone, you know the world? They love to be loud and proud right in your face. Satan, he walks about seeking whom he may devour. And you know the Bible doesn’t call him just a lion, he is a lion, but the Bible calls him a roaring lion. There’s a reason the Bible says he’s a roaring lion because he’s just loud and proud and he likes to put fear and intimidation in God’s people. And if we’re not careful, we’ll kind of be swayed. We don’t want to have to fight against the loud and proud people. And so we’ll join up with them sometimes.
Can I just say something here? Can I say something here? Fear is always a bad decision maker. Don’t let fear be the sole thing that makes your decisions. You know the verse. God’s not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
Fear will make you do a whole lot of bad things. There’s been a whole lot of young people and men and ladies, but they smoked their first cigarette because they were in fear of being intimidated by their own crowd. And now 60 years, 50 years down the road, they can’t stop coughing. And my grandfather passed with that. Never met him. Passed before I was born. And they said even on his deathbed he would just didn’t have a cigarette, but he would just make the motions.
And many of people start drinking, whatnot. By the way, I don’t have to worry about my thirst for drink if I don’t take my first drink. But many a man or a lady, young men or a lady, they’ll take their first drink because they’re simply intimidated by their own crowd. They don’t want to be made fun of. They don’t want to be left out. They have a fear they’ll be abandoned, not accepted. And so many people will do things they never would do, but they’re intimidated. Y’all with me out there?
Can I say this? If you can’t, if you can’t unfriend someone on Facebook or all the other social networks, whatever they’re called, I don’t know all of them real good. But if you just have a fear you have to be their friend and you fear if I’m not, they’re going to intimidate me, that is not the kind of friend you want. They’re called bullies. And that wrong crowd will get together. The wrong crowds, they come in schools, they come in workplaces, they come in churches, they come in teen groups, everywhere you look. And their major tactic is to get their little—they usually very seldom stand alone—but they’ll get their little crowd over here and they try to intimidate everybody. And friend, don’t let that intimidation control you.
I’m not sure everything about Jehoshaphat, but he just could not say no. Maybe he was just the intimidation of it. Maybe he’s one of those guys. We’ve got to hurry along. Maybe he’s one of those guys that just had to have a friend. He just had to. Hey, can I just say something for all of us, adults too? You ought to be able to stand alone sometimes. On your own two feet, even if nobody in the crowd is with you, you just say, I’m just not going to go there even if I’m alone in this situation. By the way, God and just one person always makes a majority. Always. By the way, you’d be a whole lot better off not to have a friend to be alone than to have the wrong friend. I’m not sure, but Jehoshaphat, maybe he’s one of those guys. He just had to have his buddies with him. He couldn’t stand alone.
I’m not sure. Maybe he was intimidated. Maybe he was one of those guys that had to have a friend. Maybe he was deceived by the wrong crowd. You know, Ahab put it on pretty thick. Do you know me out there? I got 400 prophets, if you will. I mean, I’ve got a church. I’ve got religion. Maybe Jehoshaphat thought, well, maybe there’s some hope. Maybe I can change him. I wonder how many people married the wrong person because they thought they could change him. And 20, 30 years later, down the road, often when they have kids, then they realize, oh, man, I wish I had a better example for my kids as a husband or a mom. But they married him thinking, man, I can change you. Maybe that’s what Jehoshaphat thought. Maybe he’s just deceived. Oh, Ahab, he’s not that bad of a guy. I think I can get him.
You know, if there’s someone that is in a ditch or a pit, the way to get him out is not to jump down there with him. The best chance that wrong crowd has is if you go on and you serve God on your own. If you go down to their level, friend, they’ve lost a great hope that they might have had in you. But when you join up with them, by the way, if you hang around them long, you’re going to become like them. Stay out of there. Just keep serving God. Let your example, your testimony, speak to them.
You know, it goes both ways. Proverbs 13:20 says, He that walketh with wise men shall be wise. His same philosophy, the wrong crowd. You hang around the good crowd, you walk with a wise man, you’ll be wise. But a companion of fools shall be destroyed. The last part of that verse.
You know the men’s retreat we just had? I mean, we had some great preaching. Man, was there great preaching there Friday. There was great preaching. And a good time of, we had some great testimonies. It’s just good. But you know, one of the biggest things about the men’s retreat, a bunch of guys trying to live for the Lord was hanging around a bunch of guys trying to live for the Lord. Just rubbing shoulders with each other. And it’s so good, so needed, because you need the right crowd. But who you hang around is so very, very important.
Let’s try to get a last thing in here. And we’re going to run out of time. And I pray the Lord will leave me what to say, what not to say. Here’s the last thought very quickly here. Hanging out with our own crowd, Jehoshaphat, we’re using an example, hanging out with our own crowd, it not only hurts you, but it hurts the next generation. We talked briefly about it. But his son, his son, Jehoram, Jehoram was horrible. He ended up being king for four years. Some think the first two years of his dad was alive. They’re kind of cold kings. I don’t know about that. Some think that. We know all together just four years, and then he was killed. And when he was killed, they didn’t even want to bury him with the kings. He was such a wicked king.
I’ve already mentioned his wife, Athaliah. She was so wicked that when her husband died and then her son became king, he died. Then she became king, Mrs. King, you know, of Judah. And she killed all her grandkids she could find so she could stay on the throne. Now that’s what you call wicked.
Now, friend, I’m telling you, when we dabble with the world and we just can’t let go of the wrong crowd and the world in this, friend, you harm, so often you harm the next generation in such a great way. I’ve watched families over the years, good people, but they’ll backslide for a little while and get out of church, and so often year two or three down the road, they get back in church, and they get back in church, God works in their heart. They don’t go too far. They’ve got enough God in them. They don’t go too far. But they lost their children.
And then they try to get their kids, but they’ve already allowed the world in and it’s created an appetite in their kids for the world. You’re not going to reach the next generation by dabbling with the world. It’s happening all across America churches. Just dabble a little bit with the world. They bring the world in the house of God. And that generation typically has enough God and old-time religion in them. They don’t get hurt too bad. But you wait until that pass, when that generation passes off the scene of that next generation, they’ve got an appetite of it now. Man, that church goes about, boom, about as quick as they can downhill. Happens in families. You’re not going to reach the next generation with worldliness.
Jehoshaphat was a good king. He sought the Lord, but he just could not stay away from the wrong crowd and his children. In fact, I didn’t mention it. I forgot to mention him, but Jehoram, his son, when he became king, he killed all his brothers. In fact, the Bible tells us his brothers were better than him. The only reason why he became king, he was the oldest. But he killed off all his brothers. You’re talking about the next generation was destroyed. And friend, you’re not, listen, if you say, I want my kids to serve God. Friend, live a separated life. I don’t want the world in my home. I’m not going to the world. And I don’t want to create that appetite in my children.
You check it out. We don’t have time. There’s so many biblical examples of it. Think about Lot. Remember Abraham prayed for Lot. Would you spare it? You just find ten? I know I don’t have ten fingers. Imagine two are right there, all right? I’m just fine ten. Now you ever thinking about it? Someone mentioned it recently. Of course, I wasn’t going to say a thing, but he said there were at least, oh, there was ten. Lot had ten. Lot and his wife. Help me out. Lot and his wife, that’s two. Had two daughters there, remember daughters, poor, at least two. We don’t have at least two. Sodomites trying to come and get him, so that’s four. Y’all with me out there? Then it mentioned sons-in-law, so it’s got to be at least two, that’d be six. And you can’t have sons-in-law without other daughters, because those daughters were, they were virgins. So you got eight. Now with me here? You say, pastor, you’re going to run out of fingers. Don’t worry. I’m not going to take my socks and shoes off, okay? That’s a big amen. And then the angels said, hey, go get your sons. They wouldn’t listen to him, that’s plural. So at least two sons, that’s ten.
If Lot would have just reached his family, God would have spared Sodom. By the way, I think Abraham was praying for that ten for a reason. I think he knew that. But Lot had went over and dabbled and played in the world. And listen, his kids were horrible. Only two of them would leave Sodom. And he ends up committing incest with them later on. You’re not going to reach your family by going to the world. You’re not.
Flip side of the coin, we’re going to be done. About Noah over there. A New Testament calls him a preacher of righteousness. It was a wicked world when Noah was there. I mean, the thoughts were continually evil, violence. Genesis 6 talks about twice, violence, violence, just all over the place, a wicked place. Yet Noah was known as a preacher of righteousness. Can you imagine Noah talking to his three boys? Boys, I know everybody else is doing it, but you ain’t doing it. Well, Dad, you’re always preaching. For 120 years he’s preaching. Yet at the end of the day, Noah, three boys, daughters-in-law, just eight people. God used those eight people to save the world. They’re the ones that got in the ark. They’re the ones that saved humanity. It wasn’t saved by somebody saying, well, we need to butter up with the world. No, somebody was known, everybody knows. I go over there, there’s always preaching. He’s a preacher of righteousness. He’s the one that reached the next generation for sure.
Oh, Jehoshaphat, why in the world can’t you stand up to the wrong crowd? It brought him down, and all of that, it ruined in so many ways. The next generation was so sad.
Original File: Lessons from Jehoshaphat - Pastor Paul Chisgar Sunday AM 61321