2 Chronicles 17:1

GOD FAVORS THE REIGN OF JEHOSHAPHAT

IV. JEHOSHAPHAT (873-849 B.C.)

JEHOSHAPHAT SUCCEEDS HIS FATHER, ASA

"And Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his stead, and strengthened himself against Israel. And he placed forces in all the fortified cities of Judah, and set garrisons in the land of Judah, and in the cities of Ephraim which Asa his father had taken. And Jehovah was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the first ways of David his father, and sought not unto the Baalim, but sought to the God of his father, and walked in his commandments, and not after the doings of Israel. Therefore Jehovah established the kingdom in his hand; and all Judah brought to Jehoshaphat tribute; and he had riches and honor in abundance. And his heart was lifted up in the ways of Jehovah: and furthermore he took away the high places and the Asherim out of Judah."

So far, so good. Jehoshaphat, like some others of the kings of Judah, began very well, receiving as their reward the blessing of the Lord and the prosperity of the people; but his alliance with Ahab (described in 2 Chronicles 18) would cast a dark shadow over what is written here.

"(He) walked not after the doings of Israel" (2 Chronicles 17:4). The contempt in which the author of Chronicles held the Northern Israel appears in a clause like this. The outstanding feature of Chronicles is the omission, wherever possible, of practically the entire history of their kings. This reminds us of the Book of Numbers, in which the whole history of the apostate Israel records only a few events for the whole period. Why? It was because of the fact that what any nation does, after they have rejected God, is of minor importance.

With the apostasy of the Northern Israel and their rejection of God's choice of the house of David, the history of the redemption of mankind dramatically shifted to what happened in Jerusalem.