The Lord your God will bring you into the land that you are going to occupy, and he will drive many nations out of it. As you advance, he will drive out seven nations larger and more powerful than you: the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.When the Lord your God places these people in your power and you defeat them, you must put them all to death. Do not make an alliance with them or show them any mercy. Do not marry any of them, and do not let your children marry any of them, because then they would lead your children away from the Lord to worship other gods. If that happens, the Lord will be angry with you and destroy you at once. 5So then, tear down their altars, break their sacred stone pillars in pieces, cut down their symbols of the goddess Asherah, and burn their idols. Do this because you belong to the Lord your God. From all the peoples on earth he chose you to be his own special people.. Deuteronomy 7:1-6
Jehoshaphat was a good king, he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord but a series of what seemed like innocent mistakes would see him usher in the worst decline of Judah’s history. This story starts in Israel where a girl called Athaliah was born to Jezebel and Ahab, she grew up in a home where sin was the order of the day. Her mother epitomized wickedness, she introduced baal worship and executed anyone who posed a threat to her or her gods.
..Obadiah was a devout believer in the Lord. While Jezebel was killing off the Lord’s prophets, Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them in two caves, fifty in each, and had supplied them with food and water. 1 kings 18:3 – 4
Even Elijah the greatest prophet of the old testament was not spared from her wrath, if ever there is a character in the bible who personified disrespect and a lack of fear of the God of Jacob it was Jezebel. This influence must have rubbed off on Athaliah greatly, as the proverb goes “a fruit does not fall far from the tree”. When Athaliah is born the trajectory of Judah and Israel are as different as can be in fact Jehosphat’s father king Asa (a good and righteous king) is constantly at war with the kings of Israel.. but for some unknown reason Jehoshaphat his son when he became King made peace with Israel. In order to strengthen the peace pact with Ahab, Jehoshaphat organized for inter marriage.
Now Jehoshaphat had great riches and honor, and he made a marriage alliance with Ahab. 2 Chronicles 18:1
Jehoshaphat believed he was doing a good thing, in fact he would later join the house of Israel in battle against the Assyrians and proclaim “ I am as you are, my people as your people” this is because they were know related by blood, unfortunately in the battle with the Assyrians he almost lost his life because the Assyrians were looking for Ahab and mistakenly pursued Jehoshaphat’s chariot because Ahab had disguised himself as a common soldier in that battle.
The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I will enter the battle in disguise, but you wear your royal robes.” So the king of Israel disguised himself and went into battle.Now the king of Aram had ordered his chariot commanders, “Do not fight with anyone, small or great, except the king of Israel.” When the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they thought, “This is the king of Israel.” So they turned to attack him, but Jehoshaphat cried out, and the Lord helped him. God drew them away from him,for when the chariot commanders saw that he was not the king of Israel, they stopped pursuing him. 2 Chronicles 18:30 -32
I believe Ahab was setting him up for destruction, a prophet would later confront Jehoshaphat and proclaim a curse on him for forming an alliance with the wickedest family in the bible
“Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the Lord? Because of this, wrath has gone out against you from the Lord. 2 Chronicles 19:2
Jehoshaphat did not learn from his mistakes but continued with this alliance. Athaliah was given into marriage to Jehoram his son, the bible records that when Jehoshaphat died and Jeroham was made king, instead of following in the footsteps of his father he followed in the ways of the house of Ahab his in-laws. He started off by eliminating all his brothers and family just like Jezebel would do to her competition
When Jehoram had ascended the throne of his father and was established, he killed all his brothers with the sword, and also some of the princes of Israel. Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. 2 Chronicles 21:4-6
From Saul to Jehoram they had been 7 kings in Judah but none had committed such an act of evil, Jehoram was mentored by his in-laws on how to commit evil and even after God had cursed him to death, his son Ahaziah was also mentored by Athaliah and continued to orchestrate the greatest decline in Judah’s history to that point.
Ahaziah was twenty-twoyears old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem one year. His mother’s name was Athaliah, a granddaughter of Omri. He too followed the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother encouraged him to act wickedly. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as the house of Ahab had done, for after his father’s death they became his advisers, to his undoing. He also followed their counsel when he went with Joramson of Ahab king of Israel to wage war against Hazael king of Aram at Ramoth Gilead. The Arameans wounded Joram; 2 Chronicles 22:2-5
This alliance would end badly, when God was executing Judgment in the house of Ahab he also executed and destroyed the remnant of the house of Jehoshaphat.
Then Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to Jezreel to see Joram son of Ahab because he had been wounded.Through Ahaziah’s visit to Joram, God brought about Ahaziah’s downfall. When Ahaziah arrived, he went out with Joram to meet Jehu son of Nimshi, whom the Lord had anointed to destroy the house of Ahab. While Jehu was executing judgment on the house of Ahab, he found the officials of Judah and the sons of Ahaziah’s relatives, who had been attending Ahaziah, and he killed them. He then went in search of Ahaziah, and his men captured him while he was hiding in Samaria. He was brought to Jehu and put to death. They buried him, for they said, “He was a son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the Lord with all his heart.” So there was no one in the house of Ahaziah powerful enough to retain the kingdom. 2 Chronicles 22:7-9
An innocent marriage alliance brought so much pain.. Jehoshaphat’s desire to appease an evil king nearly cost him his life, his failure to repent cost him his children and grand children’s lives. Eventually God gave up Israel and Judah to destruction and noted that the alliance between Israel and Judah was the root cause
Judah also did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the customs that Israel had introduced. 2 Kings 17:19
Blessings or Curses 