We need courage to do what’s right—to judge rightly, to face critics, and to leave results with God.
Jehoshaphat’s dangerous misstep in the battle at Ramoth Gilead received a rebuke when he returned to Jerusalem. Intercepted before he could reach the palace, “Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him” (2 Chron 19:2). Here’s a question for you, O King: “Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the Lord?” No, let’s take David’s position: “Do I not hate them, O Lord, who hate You?” (Ps 139:21). His enemies should be my enemies—as long as we remember we’re not fighting against flesh and blood. But on a brighter note, the Lord recognized the “good things” found in Jehoshaphat (2 Chron 19:3), and the rest of the chapter catalogs these. First, after Ahab’s death, and now restored, he went on a missionary tour “among the people from Beersheba to the mountains of Ephraim, and brought them back to the Lord God of their fathers” (v 4). Well done, Jehoshaphat! “Thus would I go on missions of mercy, Following Christ from day unto day, Cheering the faint and raising the fallen, Pointing the lost to Jesus, the Way” (William A. Ogden). “Then he set judges in the land…and said…‘Take heed to what you are doing, for you do not judge for man but for the Lord, who is with you in the judgment” (vv 5-6). First, he takes the path of restoration from failures in the past, then the path of righteousness for living in the present, and also the path of resolution for likely problems in the future: “for controversies, Jehoshaphat appointed some of the Levites and priests, and some of the chief fathers of Israel…saying, ‘Thus you shall act in the fear of the Lord, faithfully and with a loyal heart’” (vv 8-9). His bottom line? “Behave courageously, and the Lord will be with the good” (v 11). That’s sterling advice for us, too, isn’t it!