2 Chronicles 20:24-34--The LORD Delivers Judah

2 Chronicles 20:24-34
English Standard Version

The LORD Delivers Judah
24 When Judah came to the watchtower of the wilderness, they looked toward the horde, and behold, there were dead bodies lying on the ground; none had escaped. 25 When Jehoshaphat and his people came to take their spoil, they found among them, in great numbers, goods, clothing, and precious things, which they took for themselves until they could carry no more. They were three days in taking the spoil, it was so much. 26 On the fourth day they assembled in the Valley of Beracah, for there they blessed the LORD. Therefore the name of that place has been called the Valley of Beracah to this day. 27 Then they returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, and Jehoshaphat at their head, returning to Jerusalem with joy, for the LORD had made them rejoice over their enemies. 28 They came to Jerusalem with harps and lyres and trumpets, to the house of the LORD. 29 And the fear of God came on all the kingdoms of the countries when they heard that the LORD had fought against the enemies of Israel. 30 So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet, for his God gave him rest all around.

31 Thus Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah. He was thirty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi. 32 He walked in the way of Asa his father and did not turn aside from it, doing what was right in the sight of the LORD. 33 The high places, however, were not taken away; the people had not yet set their hearts upon the God of their fathers.

34 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, from first to last, are written in the chronicles of Jehu the son of Hanani, which are recorded in the Book of the Kings of Israel.

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Last time we saw how the LORD prophesied to Jehoshaphat and all of Judah that He was going to deliver them.  He told them a certain place to go to and a certain time to be there so that they could see the deliverance that He Himself would provide to them.  We said how the LORD used two other nations (the descendants of Lot) to attack the descendants of Esau and then the descendants of Lot turned on each other until they were all destroyed.

When Jehoshaphat and the people of Judah heard the news, they started praising the LORD straight away and were likely still praising him at the appointed time and place when His deliverance was made known to them.  They took the spoils of a war that they did not fight in, and they took these valuable things back to Jerusalem, but there was even more that they could not carry with them.  So, it took three days for them to carry all the spoils back to Jerusalem.  On the fourth day, the nation gathered together to bless the LORD and thank Him for the salvation He had provided to them.  When they returned to Jerusalem, they continued their worship in the house of the LORD (the Temple), and all the other nations around them who had considered attacking them were now afraid because they had seen what the LORD did to these three powerful nations and how the people of Judah didn't have to do anything to defend themselves--the LORD fought for them and defended them.  In this way, Judah had peace on every side during the rest of Jehoshaphat's reign.

Jehoshaphat started to reign when he was 35 years old, and he died at age sixty.  He was another "good" (but clearly not perfect) king who walked in the ways of King Asa and King David.  The only charge brought against him was not that of the alliance with Ahab, but that he did not destroy the high places (he allowed the people to worship as they wanted in these places that were known to be places, even if the people were instructed to only worship the LORD and to only worship Him at the Temple in the way that the Law designated.

The author of this text points us to the writings of Jehu the son of Hanani and the records of the Book of the Kings of Israel if we want additional information about Jehoshaphat and the things that he did during his reign.  This makes the Bible different from other texts that claim to be Scripture as it makes claims that are falsifiable.  If we could find a complete copy of the writings of Jehu for instance, and they never mentioned "Jehoshaphat, king of Judah" or the events recorded there were vastly different in the official record of the Book of the Kings of Israel, then we'd have some serious issues not just with this text, but with all of Scripture that claims to be inspired in such a way that it is both inspirited and inerrant (meaning that where it makes descriptive statements, it describes things exactly as they happened, and that where it makes prescriptive statements, they were recorded exactly as the LORD intended).  If we couldn't trust the descriptive portions to be correct, how could we trust the prescriptive portions to be correct where we may only have the text telling us that this is what the LORD said?  Yet, the Scriptures allow themselves to be examined and scrutinized in this way that shows that they expect questions, but also expect people to do their research and walk away knowing that the Bible is both trustworthy and authoritative.