"God literally sets Jehoshaphat up and makes him a prosperous king in Judah. In fact, so much so that verse 6 in II Chronicles 17 says, [6] And his heart was lifted up in the ways of the LORD: moreover he took away the high places and groves out of Judah.
"He goes out and gets rid of all the Baal worship in Judah. Verse 9: [9] And they taught in Judah, and had the book of the law of the LORD with them, and went about throughout all the cities of Judah, and taught the people.
"There's a great revival that takes place. He reestablishes the Levites. They take God's Word and go out and teach the Word of God to the nation Israel again," explains Richard Jordan.
Verse 10: [10] And the fear of the LORD fell upon all the kingdoms of the lands that were round about Judah, so that they made no war against Jehoshaphat.
"That's the point. God had blessed Israel so much because Jehoshaphat was a godly king who reestablished God's Word in the land and the blessings of God filled the land of Judah to the place where no nation around there wanted to mess with them because every time they did they just got whipped.
"If every time you mess with someone they just clean your plow, what do you do? You start leaving them alone. So no nation wanted to make war against Jehoshaphat.
*****
"Now, notice the comparison in II Chronicles 20:1: [1] It came to pass after this also, that the children of Moab, and the children of Ammon, and with them other beside the Ammonites, came against Jehoshaphat to battle.
"Now people want to fight him. Something's changed and what changed is chapter 18:1: [1] Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honour in abundance, and joined affinity with Ahab.
"King Ahab was up in the north and he and Jezebel made Baal worship the official state religion of the northern kingdom. Here's Jehoshaphat down south, a Bible-believing, Bible-preaching king in Judah--what's he doing joining affinity with Ahab?!
"That's a bad move. The result of that, if you read through chapter 18, is that some bad things happened because bad things always happen when you forsake God's truth. That ecumenical movement and joining hands with false doctrine always produces bad results.
"The result was Judah lost its glory. The nations of the earth around them didn't fear them anymore. There's a national lesson in that.
"What God does with Israel is demonstrate how when you have God as a God of a nation, here's how it works. In any nation, righteousness (right doing) exalts a nation and sin is a reproach to any people. Just because you have a powerful situation in your nation that comes about because of righteousness, you can lose it. It's true of any nation, not just Israel.
"So here come the Moabites and the Ammonites and all the other little 'ites' that want to join with them. And you remember what he said in chapter 18?
"I mean, they see an opportunity to go up and steal the riches. Verse 20:3: [3] And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.
[4] And Judah gathered themselves together, to ask help of the LORD: even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the LORD.[5] And Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the LORD, before the new court,
[6] And said, O LORD God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?
[7] Art not thou our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever?
"In essence, what Jehoshaphat does is he says, 'Lord, you're God, we're your people, you gave us this land and we can't beat these dudes out there; you got to do it and you have to win the battle.'
Verses 11-12: [11] Behold, I say, how they reward us, to come to cast us out of thy possession, which thou hast given us to inherit.
[12] O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee."See how he knows who owns the land? Jehoshaphat says, 'Lord, we've screwed up, we belong to you, this is your land. These Gentiles want to come and destroy us; they want to cast us out and take the land from us. Lord, if you don't win the battle we're sunk.'
"The nations want to do just exactly what you read about in Joel. It's what Psalm 83 says: [3] They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones.
[4] They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.[5] For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:
"So a prophet comes to them in verse 14 and says to them in verse 15: [15] And he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the LORD unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's.
Verse 17: [17] Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the LORD with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; to morrow go out against them: for the LORD will be with you.
"God says, 'Okay, guys, that's all you needed was to trust me. I'm coming.'
Verse 20: [20] And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.
[21] And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the LORD, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the LORD; for his mercy endureth for ever.[22] And when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten.
[23] For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them: and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to destroy another.
[24] And when Judah came toward the watch tower in the wilderness, they looked unto the multitude, and, behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none escaped.
[25] And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away the spoil of them, they found among them in abundance both riches with the dead bodies, and precious jewels, which they stripped off for themselves, more than they could carry away: and they were three days in gathering of the spoil, it was so much.
Genesis 36: [2] Esau took his wives of the daughters of Canaan; Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Aholibamah the daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite;
"He's going to go out and take Gentile wives to aggravate his daddy. Notice the names of them; you see one of them is Aholibamah.
Ezekiel 20: [29] Then I said unto them, What is the high place whereunto ye go? And the name thereof is called Bamah unto this day.
[30] Wherefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Are ye polluted after the manner of your fathers? and commit ye whoredom after their abominations?
[31] For when ye offer your gifts, when ye make your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with all your idols, even unto this day: and shall I be inquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will not be inquired of by you.
"These names attached to Samaria and Jerusalem tell you there's deep-seated problems in the identity of these girls from the very beginning. They brought this stuff with them out of Egypt.
Ezekiel 23: [4] And the names of them were Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bare sons and daughters. Thus were their names; Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah.
[5] And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours,[6] Which were clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses.
[7] Thus she committed her whoredoms with them, with all them that were the chosen men of Assyria, and with all on whom she doted: with all their idols she defiled herself.
[8] Neither left she her whoredoms brought from Egypt: for in her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and poured their whoredom upon her.
[9] Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted.
[10] These discovered her nakedness: they took her sons and her daughters, and slew her with the sword: and she became famous among women; for they had executed judgment upon her.
"When it says elder, that's not saying Aholah's the older kingdom. It's talking about how she's the one who precedes the other girl into apostasy. The northern kingdom goes into apostasy and captivity first as an example to the younger sister who eventually follows her path.
"Notice what He says about them: 'They were mine.' They belonged to Jehovah but they depart from Him. When she was still His she goes after other gods. From verse 5 down to 10 it focuses on Samaria. In verse 9 it says she doted on her lovers.
"When you dote on something you pay all kind of attention to it and you can't get enough of it. So she's going to give her attention, not to Jehovah, but to these other gods. And she's going to be infatuated with them.
"The point is she's not forced, deceived, cajoled; no one's going to hold a gun to her and say, 'You've got to go after all these other gods.' She's going to willingly choose to depart from Jehovah and follow these other gods.
"It's fascinating how it works out. Verse 6: [6] Which were clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses.
"She's drawn by their wealth, by their glamor, by their strong self-confidence and ability. By their attire.
"It's the same thing that happens with her sister in verse 12: [12] She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbours, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men.
[13] Then I saw that she was defiled, that they took both one way,[14] And that she increased her whoredoms: for when she saw men pourtrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with vermilion,
[15] Girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity:
[16] And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea.
"Vermilion is a red dye. These people are decked out; they're glamorous. They got all this fancy attire. They look at it and say, 'Man, we're going to go for that.' They're seduced, willingly, into this.
Verse 7: [7] Thus she committed her whoredoms with them, with all them that were the chosen men of Assyria, and with all on whom she doted: with all their idols she defiled herself.
"Instead of having Jehovah to protect them, they went to the gods of Assyria for protection. But it wasn't just the political-economic; it's the idols. They go after the little 'gs'. God had given up all the nations of the earth to the little 'g' gods: 'If they want to go after the satanic program, have at it.'
Verse 8: [8] Neither left she her whoredoms brought from Egypt: for in her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and poured their whoredom upon her.
"Samaria became famous because the Assyrians just went in and wiped them out. Instead of having fame for worshipping the Lord, they had fame because He said, 'You want them, watch what happens when they run you.' He turned them over to them and they wiped them out.
*****
Verse 11: [11] And when her sister Aholibah saw this, she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms.
"Hagel once said, 'The only thing men learn from history is that men never learn from history.' Instead of getting a lesson from what happens when you forsake the Lord and go after other gods, they became MORE corrupt.
"What Jerusalem does is exactly what Samaria did. They go the same way. But then he says in verse 14 that 'she increased her whoredoms.' She's got to outdo her sister.
Verse 14: [14] And that she increased her whoredoms: for when she saw men pourtrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with vermilion,
"If I tell it to you this way to give you an idea what it is--right now there's a big discussion about drag queen shows. Have you ever seen it portrayed the acts they do? Have you seen how they're dressed? That's what's being described here.
"Now, the Hebrew text is much more blunt than your English Bible. Your Bible translators were much more gentlemanly than Ezekiel was when he originally talked to the Jews. He's using some real down and earthy, pornographic kind of terminology in these discussions.
"Again, vermilion is a bright red dye and they got all these garish colors.
Verse 16: [16] And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea.
"Again, when you dote upon somebody you're giving attention to them: 'I want to know more about that!'
[17] And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from them.[18] So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated from her sister.
[19] Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.
"It was from the Babylonians that Israel learned the pollution, the false doctrines, the worshipping of other gods. It was through the contact with the gods of the nations that Israel's mind was corrupted. She didn't learn this stuff from Jehovah; she learned this stuff from the false teaching of the false gods and it brought corruption into them."
(new article tomorrow)
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