I Am He Who Will Sustain You

So, Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah. He was thirty-five years old when he became king of Judah, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-five years. He walked in the ways of his father Asa and did not stray from them; he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. The high places, however, were not removed, and the people still had not set their hearts on the God of their fathers. (2 Chronicles 20:31a, 32-33, NIV 1984).

My Musings – Jehosaphat epitaph, if you will. Mostly good, but not all good. There are a couple important side notes worth mentioning that are easily missed.

After the battle that Jehosaphat and Israel “won” without fighting, “all the men of Judah and Jerusalem returned joyfully to Jerusalem, for the Lord had given them cause to rejoice over their enemies. They entered Jerusalem and went to the temple of the Lord with harps and lutes and trumpets.” (2 Chronicles 20:27-28, NIV 1984). We humans are a fickle bunch. When we need the Lord’s help, we get real earnest in pleading our case. If the requested help comes (it doesn’t always, but God always has a good and just reason), we express our gratitude. Likely not literally with “harps, lutes and trumpets,” but perhaps figuratively. But all too often the gratitude and devotion does not last nearly long enough. And we fall back to life as “normal,” like the Israelites, who “still had not set their hearts on the God of their fathers.”

Jehosaphat may not have strayed from doing “what was right in the eyes of the Lord,” but for whatever reason he “made an alliance with Ahaziah king of Israel, who was guilty of wickedness.” This is never a good idea. “For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?” (2 Corinthians 6:14-16, NIV 1984). One would think that after witnessing God’s great deliverance he would not think that he needed any alliances. Perhaps that is why it was said of him “in his early years he walked in the ways his father David had followed.” (2 Chronicles 17:3, NIV 1984).

My Advice – Set you heart on and be fully devoted to the God of your fathers, not just in the early years but even unto your old age. Maybe I am taking this out of context, but “you whom I [God] have upheld since you were conceived and have carried since your birth. Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.” (Isaiah 46:3-4, NIV 1984).