2 Chronicles chapter 17. Thank you for coming out. I realize it's not always easy to get back out. 2 Chronicles 17. We're going to read three chapters and don't let that scare you. mainly to let the scripture speak for itself. But for a while now we've been looking at some of the lesser known kings. We all are familiar with the story of David, with the story of Solomon. But we began at Solomon's son Rehoboam and we've been following some of the lesser known kings, their reign and their life in the kingdom of Judah. The last time we were together, we looked at the reign of Asa. The last time I was with you on Sunday night, we looked at the reign of Asa. And tonight we're going to begin, we will not complete, but we'll take two Sunday nights and look at the reign of Jehoshaphat. We'll begin at chapter 17, verse 1. Jehoshaphat, his son, reigned in his place and strengthened himself against Israel. He is going to get where he can hear. Jehoshaphat, his son, reigned in his place and strengthened himself against Israel. He placed forces in all the fortified cities of Judah and set garrisons in the land of Judah and in the cities of Ephraim that Asa, his father, had captured. The Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he walked in the earlier ways of his father David. He did not seek the Baals. He sought the God of his father and walked in his commandments and not according to the practices of Israel. Therefore, the Lord established the kingdom in his hand, and all Judah brought tribute to Jehoshaphat, and he had great riches and honor. His heart was courageous in the ways of the Lord, and furthermore, he took the high places and the Asherah out of Judah. In the third year of his reign, he sent his officials, Ben-Hel, Obadiah, Zechariah, Nethanel, and Micaiah, to teach in the cities of Judah. And with them the Levites, Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebediah, Asahel, Shemiramoth, Jehonathan, Adonijah, Tob-Adonijah, and with these Levites, the priests, Elishama, and Jehoram. And they taught in Judah, having the book of the law of the Lord with them, they went about through all the cities of Judah and taught among the people. And the fear of the Lord fell upon all the kingdoms of the lands that were around Judah, and they made no war against Jehoshaphat. Some of the Philistines brought Jehoshaphat presents and silver for tribute, and the Arabians also brought 7,700 rams and 7,700 goats. Jehoshaphat grew steadily greater, he built in Judah fortresses and store cities, and he had large supplies in the cities of Judah. He had soldiers, mighty men of valor in Jerusalem, this was the muster of them by father's houses, of Judah the commanders of thousands, Adonai the commander with 300,000 mighty men of valor, and next to him Jehanan the commander with 280,000 and next to him Amasiah the son of Zechariah a volunteer for the service of the Lord with 200,000 mighty men of valor of Benjamin, Eliadah the mighty man of valor with 200,000 men armed with bow and shield and next to him Jehoshabad with 180,000 armed for war. These were in the service of the king besides those whom the king had placed in the fortified cities throughout all Judah. Now Jehoshaphat had great riches and honor and he made a marriage alliance with Ahab. After some years he went down to Ahab in Samaria and Ahab killed an abundance of sheep and oxen for him and for the people who were with him and induced him to go up against Ramoth Gilead. Ahab, king of Israel, said to Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, will you go with me to Ramoth-Gilead? And he answered him, I am as you are, my people as your people, we will be with you in the war. And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, inquire first for the word of the Lord. Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, four hundred men, and said to them, Shall we go to battle against Raim of Gilead, or shall I refrain? And they said, Go up, for God will give it into the hand of the king. But Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here another prophet of the Lord, of whom we may inquire? And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, Micaiah the son of Imlah, but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but always evil. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so. Then the king of Israel summoned an officer and said, Bring quickly Micaiah the son of Imlah. Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, were sitting on their thrones, arrayed in their robes, and they were sitting at the threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets were prophesying before them. And Zedekiah the son of Jenea made for himself horns of iron and said, Thus says the Lord. With these you shall push the Syrians until they are destroyed. And all the prophets prophesied so, and said, Go up to Ramoth Gilead, and try up, the Lord will give it into the hand of the king. The messenger who went to summon Micaiah said to him, Behold, the words of the prophets with one accord are favorable to the king. Let your word..." It's funny, they go to get a prophet and they tell him what to prophesy, what to say. Let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak favorably. But Micaiah said, As the Lord lives what my God says, that will I speak. And when he had come to the king, the king said to him, Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall I refrain? And he answered, Go up and triumph. And you can almost sense the sarcasm in the way he must have said this. Go up and triumph. They will be given into your hand. But the king said to him, How many times shall I make you swear that you speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord? And he said, I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains as sheep that have no shepherd. And the Lord said, These have no master, but each return to his home in peace. And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, Did not I tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil? And Micaiah said, Therefore, hear the word of the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said, Who will entice Ahab, the king of Israel, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead? And one said one thing, and another said another. Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, saying, I will entice him. And the Lord said to him, By what means? And he said, I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, You are to entice him, and you shall succeed. Go out and do so. Now therefore, behold, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of these your prophets. The Lord has declared disaster concerning you. Then Zedekiah the son of Chania came near and struck Micaiah on the cheek and said, Which way did the spirit of the Lord go from me to speak to you? And Micaiah said, Behold, you shall see on that day when you go into an inner chamber to hide yourself. And the king of Israel said, Seize Micaiah, and take him back to Ammon, the governor of the city, and to Joash, the king's son, and say, Thus says the king, Put this fellow in prison, and feed him with meager rations of bread and water, until I return in peace. And Micaiah said, If you return in peace, the Lord is not spoken by me. And he said, Hear all you peoples. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, went up to Ramoth Gilead. And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself and go into battle, but you wear your robes. And the king of Israel disguised himself, and they went into battle. Now the king of Syria commanded the captains of his chariots, Fight with neither small nor great, but only with the king of Israel. As soon as the captains of the chariot saw Jehoshaphat, they said, It is the king of Israel. So they turned to fight against him, and Jehoshaphat cried out, and the Lord helped him, and God drew them away from him. For as soon as the captains of the chariot saw that it was not the king of Israel, they turned back from pursuing him. But a certain man drew his bow at random, and struck the king of Israel between the scale armor and the breastplate. Therefore he said to the driver of his chariot, Turn around, carry me out of the battle, for I am wounded. The battle continued that day, and the king of Israel was propped up in his chariot, facing the Syrians until evening. Then at sunset he died. Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, returned in safety to his house in Jerusalem. But Jehu, the son of Hanani, the seer, went out to meet him and said to King Jehoshaphat, Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the Lord? Because of this, wrath has gone out against you from the Lord. Nevertheless, some good is found in you, for you destroyed the Asherahs out of the land and have set your heart to seek God. Jehoshaphat lived at Jerusalem, and he went out again among the people from Beersheba to the hill country of Ephraim and brought them back to the Lord, the God of their fathers. He appointed judges in the land and all the fortified cities of Judah, city by city, and said to the judges, Consider what you do, for you judge not for man, but for the Lord. He is with you in giving judgment. Now then, let the fear of the Lord be upon you. Be careful what you do, for there is no injustice with the Lord our God, or partiality, or taking bribes. Moreover, in Jerusalem, Jehoshaphat appointed certain Levites and priests and heads of families of Israel to give judgment for the Lord and to decide disputed cases. They had their seat at Jerusalem, and he charged them, Thus you shall do in the fear of the Lord, in faithfulness and with your whole heart. Whenever a case comes to you from your brothers who live in their cities concerning bloodshed, law or commandments, statutes or rules, then you shall warn them that they may not incur guilt before the Lord, and wrath may not come upon you and your brothers. Thus you shall do, and you will not incur guilt. And behold, Amorai, the chief priest, is over you in all the matters of the Lord. And Zebediah, the son of Ishmael, the governor of the house of Judah, in all the king's matters, and the Levites, will serve you as officers. Deal courageously, and may the Lord be with the upright. Let's pray. Father, as we come again, we thank you, Lord, for the Word of God. We remind ourselves of the words of scripture tonight that says all scripture is given by inspiration of God. Every jot, every tittle, every verse, every line. We have before us the words of the living God. You have chosen to reveal yourself in a book. And you have given us the Holy Spirit to give us the ability to receive the instruction of this book. Lord, you have chosen to speak through servants. I realize I'm a weak servant. I'm an inadequate servant. But yet you have chosen in your purposes and in your grace to speak through one like me. So please, tonight, as we approach this text, open our hearts. Help us to think rightly about it. Give us the ability to hear, to discern, to think, And may you take the truths that are contained in these three chapters and make them come alive to our hearts so that they would minister to us in the context in which we live. There are great lessons to be learned here in this man's life. And I pray that, Lord, you, by your grace, would teach them to our hearts and help us to obey them. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. And Amen. Well, so far, every time on Sunday night that we've looked at one of these less familiar kings, we've been able to look at the life or the reign of this king all in one particular night. We're not going to be able to do that with the story of Jehoshaphat because there is a great event that transpires in the reign of Jehoshaphat that is taken up in chapter 20 and we simply could not cover all of the material that the Bible gives us about his reign. He was 35 years old when he began to reign and he reigned 25 years in Jerusalem. He began to reign in the fourth year of King Ahab, the king of Israel, the ruler of the northern kingdom, and we're going to see how that affected him and what it meant to him later on in the story of his life. So let's just begin by looking at chapter 17 and consider how that he began as the king of Israel. What we're told in chapter 17 is exactly what we would hope we would be told and that is that the Lord was with him. Wouldn't it be good if we could say of our rulers that we felt like the Lord was with them? Wouldn't it be good if we could say of the leaders of our city, or the leaders of our state, or the leaders of our community, or the leaders of our nation. If we could look at those individuals and we could say, you know, I really believe that the Lord is with him. And the Bible tells us in chapter 17, verse 3, that the Lord was with Jehoshaphat. And that's really how we're introduced to the reign and the story of King Jehoshaphat. We're told that the Lord was with him. But then we're told really basically why the Lord was with him and the evidences that the Lord was with him. First of all, we're told about his heart attitude toward God. Look at verse 3 of chapter 17. The Lord was with Jehoshaphat. Why? Because he walked in the earlier ways of his father David. Now we know that David was not a sinless man, but we do know that the Bible tells us David was a man after God's own heart. David sinned grievously, but when God confronted him with this sin, David humbled himself before God and David repented before God. And David is always the standard, really, that the kings are judged by. And you'll come across this statement, he followed the Lord like David his father, even though David was not his father. David was his ancestor several generations back. He was the standard by which the spiritual life and the leadership of the kings was judged. And that's because of David's heart attitude toward God. Even though he had many faults and many failures, and even though he stumbled and bumbled like we all do through life, David's heart was unique in its surrender and its commitment to God. So when we're told that the Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he walked in the earlier ways of his father David, it tells us something about his heart attitude toward God. I'm discovering this the older I get. And I believe this is so true with ministers. You know, you come across ministers that have all kinds of giftedness and all kinds of learning and all kinds of ability, and they do not seem to have the touch of God upon their lives. And then you'll come across someone that's just as simple as simple can be. They've not had a lot of opportunities. They may not have a lot of education. They may not have a lot of natural gifts. They may not be a great speaker. But when you get around them, you sense that God's hand is upon their lives. And I am convinced, the older I live, that the difference between the two individuals is the heart attitude toward God. The attitude of the heart, the bent of their heart toward God. And you've heard me saying, I believe this, I was thinking about it this week. We could stand to be a lot less clever if we were a lot more spiritual. We can stand to be a lot less clever in all of our abilities to understand or all of our eloquence to speak if our heart was just yielded up to God. So the Bible tells us the Lord was with him in the beginning and part of the reason is because of his heart attitude toward God. Another thing we're told about him is that he was courageous in the ways of the Lord. Verse 6, his heart was courageous in the ways of the Lord. And I think that's a reference to the fact that he went out on a limb and took a risk to lead the people in the demolition of the idols, because in verse 6 when it says, his heart was courageous in the ways of the Lord, it says, furthermore, he took the high places and the Asheram out of Judah. Now, I'm going to tell you, if you want to get people riled up, touch their God. Touch their God. The thing that they worship, the thing that they love, the thing that they venerate in their heart, and you touch that. And you've got to understand, there were people in the land of Judah, whose hearts were attached to these idols. They were blind, they were ignorant, they were bound in iniquity. And the king, Jehoshaphat, made it his business to declare war upon these false gods that the people had allowed to assimilate into their culture. And that took courage. That took courage. And I think that's why the Bible tells us that his heart was courageous in the ways of the Lord. I wish those things could be said of us, that the Lord is with us, that we have a heart attitude that is pleasing to God, and that our heart is courageous in the ways of the Lord. He opposed the idolatry that was so common in his day, And when you begin to read chapter 17, he led the nation in reform and revival. And notice the way that he did it. The way that he did it was by sending people out into the villages to teach the Word of God. That's what he does. He took the Levites and the priests and the leaders and he told them to go with the book of the law and to go out into the villages, to go out among the people and to teach them the Word of the living God. And he had confidence that through the teaching of the Word of God, change would come. Through the teaching of the Word of God, reform could take place. So this is the early days of the life or the reign of Jehoshaphat. He becomes king and the Bible tells us his heart is right in the eyes of God like the heart of David. The Lord was with him. He was courageous in the ways of the Lord. He began to make war upon the idolatry that had become so common. He began to lead the people in reform and revival and he at the very beginning has or seems to have the stamp of God's blessing and the stamp of God's touch upon his life and upon his leadership. Now, not only do we have in chapter 17 this picture of the great beginning of his reign, but we also have the picture of the great blessing that comes to him. Chapter 17 is not only a picture of his beginning to reign over the people in the right way, but it's also the picture of how that God brings blessing upon Him and the people, and that the blessing is a result of His heart attitude toward God. Does not the Bible say, draw nigh to God and He'll draw nigh to you? Doesn't the Bible still say that? Turn to the Lord and He'll turn to you. God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. And we could go on and on. Whenever people, whether it's a king on a throne, or whether it's a servant, or whether it's whatever the person may be in life, whenever that person turns their heart to God, whenever that person humbles himself before God, whenever that person, no matter what their station in life, seeks God and humbles themselves before God. You can expect God to bless them and to meet them when they humble themselves before His authority. And that's exactly what you see in chapter 17. We see the Bible telling us about the Lord being with him and his hard attitude toward God, but then we see the evidences of God's blessing upon him in chapter 17. First of all, we see it in the fact that he has military strength. The whole picture of chapter 17 is one of military security. Look at how the chapter begins in verses 1 and 2. Jehoshaphat, his son, reigned in his place and strengthened himself against Israel. He placed forces in all the fortified cities of Judah and set garrisons in the land of Judah and in the cities of Ephraim that Asa his father had captured." Look at verse 5, "...therefore the Lord established the kingdom in his hand." And then at the end of chapter 17 we have the description of this army of his that exceeds a million men. So first of all, God prospers him and blesses him by giving him military security. You've got to remember the story of Asa. The undoing of Asa was when the king of the northern kingdom came to build a military fortress. And instead of trusting God in his extremity, he tried to hire the Syrians to come and help him. And he did hire the Syrians to come and help him, but because he didn't trust God, His whole life began to come unraveled. But this man, he trusts God. He depends on God. His heart is yielded to God. And the Lord is with him. So the Lord blesses him with military strength. The Lord blesses him with peace. Look at verse 10. The fear of the Lord fell upon all the kingdoms of the lands that were around Judah, and they made no war with Jehoshaphat. Some of the Philistines brought tribute to Jehoshaphat. I'm going to tell you, when the Philistines are scared of you, things are going good for you, right? When the Philistines are saying, let's just go pay him and not fight him, that gives you some idea of how that God was blessing and how that God was prospering the reign of Jehoshaphat. It was a time of prosperity. Look at verse 5. The Lord established His kingdom in His hand, and all Judah brought tribute to Jehoshaphat, and he had great riches and honor. So in chapter 1, or chapter 17, the first chapter of the story of Jehoshaphat, you have this picture of his beginning, the reign, His 25-year reign by depending on God and submitting to God and seeking God and yielding to God. And then you have this picture of how that God blesses him because he turns his heart toward God. But then you come to chapter 18. And you come to chapter 18 and we find the first recorded stumbling, the first recorded failure of his reign. And sadly, this will not be the last time he does this, but this is what is brought to us as one of the great glaring weaknesses of Jehoshaphat. Isn't it something about us that we can be so right in so many ways and have such glaring weaknesses and sin in other ways? Have you ever been, as a Christian now, as a Christian, have you ever been shocked, number one, by the holy desires that lie within you because of the work of the Holy Spirit, and then also at times the unholy desires and attitudes that lie within the same person? Have you ever been shocked by that? Have you ever been shocked that after great victories and great successes spiritually and great blessings that you can stumble and fall in great ways? That's the truth of all of us. And this is the truth of King Jehoshaphat. Here's a man that when you read chapter 17 and you read chapter 20, Or you read chapter 19 and chapter 20, you go, man, he's the best thing that's happened to Judah since David. But you've got to read chapter 18, too, and the end of chapter 20, and you realize that he had a glaring weakness. Now, in chapter 18, we're told that he made a marriage alliance with Ahab. And you know, really, even in the 1800s in Europe, this would happen. 1700s and 1800s in Europe, kings and queens would marry their children off to other kings and queens' descendants and thereby make an alliance. And it was a way that kings could expand their power, expand their authority. Now here, you've got to understand, Asa, the father of Jehoshaphat, had been at war with the northern kingdom his whole reign. Jehoshaphat has built this great army. He has fortified cities. But he sees a way in his mind, I think, he sees a way that, well, this is a way we can have peace. And he marries his son off to the daughter of about one of the worst characters in the Old Testament. He marries his son off to Athaliah, who is the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, the king of the northern kingdom. Now, if you want to wonder, and I know you know, but if you want to wonder what they're like, let me read to you something that's said to us in the Scripture about King Ahab. This is what it says. In the 38th year of Asa, king of Judah, Ahab the son of Omri began to reign over Israel. And Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria 22 years. Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him. Now, you know who was before him? A list of murderers, insurrectionists, and Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made two golden calves, one for the north and one for the south, and said, these are your gods, it's too much trouble to go down to Jerusalem and worship. But this man done more evil than all of them. Have you ever come across A lady named Ruth? Have you ever come across a lady named Sarah? Rachel? But have you ever come across a lady named Jezebel? No, and you won't. And you know why you won't? Because Jezebel, his wife, was the daughter of S. Baal, Baal, B-A-A-L, Baal, the king of the Zidonians, And she turned Ahab inside out and got him not only to murder, but to worship false gods. Now, the bad thing about this is, it says, he made a marriage alliance with Ahab. It's not like they fell in love and he couldn't talk them out of it. Right? He made a marriage alliance with Ahab. Now, the Bible said that after some years, he goes down to Ahab. And you know, he almost, when you read the text here, it almost is like he's bewitched by Ahab. Because notice what it says, John Shaphat had great riches and honor, and he made a marriage alliance with Ahab. Now what's he got that Ahab would want? Well, a million man army at his disposal and riches. So he makes the marriage alliance. In verse 2, After some years he went down to Ahab in Samaria, and Ahab killed an abundance of sheep and oxen for him and for the people who were with him, and induced him. As I was studying for this, I came across a note that said that that word induced has within it the connotation of tricking someone or leading someone into apostasy. He induced him to go up against Ramoth Gilead. Ramoth Gilead was a city that the Syrians had not returned to the King of Israel, and he wanted it back. And he wants Jehoshaphat and his army to go with him to get it back. So Ahab verse 3, 3rd chapter 18 says to Jehoshaphat, will you go with me to Ramoth Gilead? Now you know, all of us are sitting here, you know what we're thinking, we'd be saying, there is no way I'm going to go fight anybody with you because I know God has to be against you. And Joshua says, I am as you are, my people as your people, we will be with you in the war. You can almost see Ahab manipulating him here. You can almost see Ahab using him. And you know, this is a glaring lack of discernment, isn't it? Just a glaring lack of discernment. Have you ever listened? Have you ever, as a Christian, acted even as a Christian when it finally came home to your heart that you displayed a glaring lack of discernment in a particular situation or circumstance. We've all seen other Christians that we loved and we prayed for and we cared for who displayed a glaring lack of discernment. A glaring lack of discernment. I heard this story one time about a preacher whose son was dating a girl and they wanted to go out and be alone in places and he would stop them from being alone. And someone said, don't you trust your son? And he said, you know, I don't even trust myself. Why would I trust my son? What he was saying is, I know how wicked our hearts are. And had he not viewed it that way, he would have shown a glaring lack of discernment, wouldn't he, in that area? And this is what Ahab or Jehoshaphat displays at this time. He joins himself and his army and his people to a wicked king. I'm going to tell you, there's a lot of things that I read that people did in the Bible, and I think that's just as foolish as I would have been, but now this one here is one that to me takes the cake. Because here's what he does. Ahab says to him, now I'm going to disguise myself so they won't know who I am. But you put on your royal robes and go out to battle dressed like a king. I mean, why don't you just say, why don't you put a big red target on and say, come and shoot at me? And you know, Jehoshaphat does that. Jehoshaphat dresses as a king going into battle while Ahab disguises himself. And we won't spend time on the story of Micaiah, but it's a great story, isn't it? the 401st prophet. Wouldn't you love to be the 401st prophet? 400 prophets saying, the Lord has said, go up to Ramoth Gilead, you'll be victorious, you'll come back, everything's okay. And here comes number 401. He says, oh yeah, go up to Ramoth Gilead. And he had to be somewhat sarcastic because when he says it, Ahab says, how many times have I got to tell you? Only tell me what the Lord has to say. And he says, you know, I saw a vision, and the people of Israel were like sheep without a shepherd. They had no master. He immediately knew what the prophet was saying. And like we were talking this morning, he didn't get promoted for prophesying. He got bread and water, put in jail and bread and water for being a prophet. You know, this nearly spelled disaster. for Jehoshaphat. He goes into the battle, and when the Syrian soldiers see him dressed in his array, they have already been told by the king of Syria, don't fight with great or small, fight only with the king of Syria. He wanted Ahab dead, and they think that he's Ahab because he's dressed like a king. They try to kill him, and the only thing that saves his life is he cries out to God, and God helps him. The only thing that saves his life And that day, that day, God displayed great mercy because when he cried out, even though he had been foolish, even though he had lacked discernment, in his desperation when he cried out to God, God responded to his cry in amazing mercy. And that day Ahab did not come home alive, but Jehoshaphat came home alive. Isn't that just like the Lord? Isn't it just like the Lord that when we've not listened to Him and we've not obeyed Him, and we've not exercised discernment, and we've acted foolishly, and we've joined ourselves with people we shouldn't have joined ourselves with, and we've found ourselves in situations we should have never been in, that when in our desperation, when we cry out to God, God in mercy responds to our cry. What amazing mercy. Now, he comes home. And when he comes home, chapter 19, I'm about done. Look what happens. Verse 1, Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, returned in safety to his house in Jerusalem. But Jehu, the son of Hanani, the seer, went out to meet him and said to King Jehoshaphat, Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the Lord? Boy, isn't that a question for us? Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the Lord? Because of this, wrath has gone out against you from the Lord. What a rebuke! A rebuke for his sin, a rebuke to his own heart, but also a rebuke to our hearts. We are not to help the wicked and we are not to love those who hate the Lord. And then the rest of chapter 19, guess what? It's made up of another period of reform and another period of revival. He comes and the Bible says in verse 4, he lived at Jerusalem and he went out again. The key word there, again. He went out again among the people from Beersheba to the hill country of Ephraim and brought them back to the Lord. the God of their fathers. So he's humbled in some measure, isn't he? Now, he doesn't learn his lesson because he's going to do it again later on in life, but he is humbled in some measure. See, these men are very human, aren't they? They're a lot like us. He seeks the Lord and God blesses him, and then he stumbles. He gets his eyes off of God. He lacks discernment. Joins himself to someone he should have never been joined to. Helps someone he should have never been helping. And it nearly spelled disaster for him. And yet, in his desperation when he cried out to God, God responded in mercy to his cry. And God spared his life. God rebuked him and God chastened him. As he does, because he loves us, right? But after God rebuked him and after God chastened him, for a period of time again, he seeks to lead the people in revival and he seeks to lead them in reforms. He seems to have learned his lesson. The only problem is, later on in life, go to the end of chapter 20, verse 35, After this, Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, joined with Ahaziah, king of Israel, who acted wickedly." You know who he is? He's Ahab's son. You thought he'd learn his lesson, wouldn't you? He joined him in building ships to go to Tarshish, and they built the ships at Ezion-Geber. Then Eleazar, the son of Doduvahu of Moreshia prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, Because you have joined with Ahaziah, the Lord will destroy what you have made. And the ships were wrecked and were not able to go to Tarshish. Sometimes we have to learn the same lesson over and over again, don't we? Same lesson, same stumble, same failure, same weakness. But chapter 20 takes up a great story of a great event of God's power in his life. And we'll look at that the next time we're together. Anybody got a word tonight?