Jehu Chastising Jehosophat
The
opening three verses of chapter 19 gives us a very honest perspective of how
God felt about Jehosophat. Why does
Jehosophat love those who hate God and associate with those who oppose God? Yet, Jehosophat hasn’t been all bad,
either. He has fought against the
worship of false gods by tearing down the holy sites dedicated to the worship
of Asherah.
I can’t
help but think that this is a pretty accurate description of just about any of
us who follow God. Sure, we do a few
things right. But we also have this
annoying habit of loving sin and hanging out with sinners – and not in a “trying
to bring them into relationship with God” sort of manner. I have got to believe that if God were to
send a prophet into my midst he would say these exact same words to me. “Why do you help the wicked and love those who
hate the Lord? Yet, some good is found
in you. You help destroy the false gods
that some have established in their lives.”
Yeah. I’d say that’s pretty accurate. For the record, that’s pretty humbling,
too. It is one thing to think about one’s
God praising you for success. But it is
another thing to realize that God knows my failings and my flaws, too. I’d love to be perfect for God, but I’m
not. I’m just like Jehosophat.
Personal Witness
One of
the more respectable things about Jehosophat was his personal witness. After we hear about Jehu’s critique of him,
we also hear that he goes among the people and encourages them to turn to the
Lord. He is personally involved in
bringing people back to the Lord. Yes,
he’s not perfect. Yes, he backed the
wrong horse in the war between Israel and Syria. But he is trying among his own people.
Remember
that he is king. He could have servants
out there doing this for him. He could
have delegated this task to others. He
could have sat in his throne room and assumed that he was too good for God’s
grunt work. But that is not the case with
Jehosophat. He is out in the trenches
helping to turn people back to the Lord.
Judges
However,
Jehosophat realizes that he cannot do it alone.
He alone cannot turn the whole of the people of Judah back to the
Lord. He alone cannot train all the
people who need to be trained. Thus,
Jehosophat appoints judges to go out into the people and train them as well.
In a
sense, I really see the New Testament concept of discipleship posted here in
this passage. When Christ came, He knew
that the plan wasn’t for Him to physically reach every person on the
earth. So He trained disciples to assist
Him. His disciples trained more
disciples to assist Jesus. That’s what
discipleship is all about: training people to do what we’ve been trained to do
and to pass it along. That’s exactly
what Jehosophat is doing here with the judges.
He’s training other people to help with a most daunting task.
If we
look at what Jehosophat says, we notice that he places a high sense of value
upon fairness. The judges are to judge
among the people fairly. They are not to
take bribes. They are not to show
partiality. They are not to act
unjustly. There is no injustice in God.
Furthermore,
Jehosophat establishes a kind of supreme court in Jerusalem for severe cases
that are to be referred to them by the judges in the rest of the land. Jehosophat knows that there are some troubles
that need a more skilled judge, a wiser judge, or a judge who is not personally
involved. There is always a need for a
special group of people to handle the cases that are too hard or too complex
for the regular people. There is always
a need for a master of a craft to tackle the tasks that the regular disciple
cannot handle. This is true with any
skill. It is true for being a judge over
people. For the record, it is true about
discipleship, too.
In the
end, we see Jehosophat trying to establish a routine in the land that will
allow the people to find success. He is
trying to establish a system in the land that will help keep people focused
upon God. As we said I the beginning,
Jehosophat is a human being: he is flawed, but he is trying.
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