Monday, November 27, 2006

2 CHRONICLES 17-20 - JEHOSHAPHAT

Heart Issues
What an awesome king! Its incredible to see him seek the Lord throughout his days. He starts off by taking the kingdom even further than his dad and removed the Asherah poles and the high places. Although his story ends with saying that his flaw was that he did no remove the high places. This must be another story of starting off strong but becoming relaxed later on and allowing the very thing you were so adamant against. He was so impressive when they were about to be attacked by the huge armies of the Moabites, Ammonites, and Meunites. It says that he was alarmed so he sought the face of the Lord and issued a fast. I would have been alarmed and began to prepare my soldiers for war, I would like to have said that right away I would have sought the Lord but way too often I try to take control and begin to show God what I can do. I am inspired by Jehoshaphat by his humility before the Lord and knowing from where the blessings for his kingdom had come. One thing I really struggled with in these chapters is that a spirit in the Lord’s presence went forth to entice Ahab by putting a lying spirit in the mouths of the prophets. What does this mean and how can this be? Even in battle Jehoshaphat cried out to the Lord and God spared him. Ahab on the other hand tried to sneak around as a nobody and got himself killed. Ahab was a good antitype to Jehoshaphat, he did not seek the Lord at all.

Notes
-Jehoshaphat showed great wisdom in knowing that the prophets were not speaking truth. He wanted to hear from a true prophet because he could sort through the lies.
-The book of the Law shows back up here and the peoples begin to fear the Lord yet again and the kingdom flourished.
-Micaiah is an awesome prophet who truly knew the Lord and could even see into heaven as the Lord was seated with his spirits. This could have been a vision but nonetheless it was pretty incredible.
-As Jehoshaphat appoints judges he lets them know that they are not just judging for him but for the Lord. He always held people to a higher standard and knew his role in serving the Lord not just setting himself up with power.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home