Jehoshaphat, the 4th king of Judah, was a powerful and godly king. He followed the ways of his great-grandfather King David and sought God, so the Lord blessed him and established his kingdom. The nation of Judah grew strong and prospered under his reign, but the biggest legacy he left behind was the spiritual revival that came to the nation. Sadly, Jehoshaphat let his guard down by hanging out with the godless King Ahab. His social ties were too strong and too close to enable him to differentiate between friend and foe, and his judgment became clouded.<\/p>\n
There is an old fable that illustrates this danger. A scorpion, being a poor swimmer, asked a turtle to carry him on his back across a river. \u201cAre you crazy?\u201d exclaimed the turtle. \u201cYou\u2019ll sting me while I\u2019m swimming and I\u2019ll drown.\u201d \u201cMy dear turtle,\u201d laughed the scorpion, \u201cif I were to sting you, you would drown, and I would go down with you. Now, where is the logic in that?\u201d \u201cYou\u2019re right,\u201d cried the turtle. \u201cHop on!\u201d The scorpion climbed aboard and halfway across the river gave the turtle a mighty sting. As they both sank to the bottom, the turtle said resignedly, \u201cDo you mind if I ask you something? You said there was no logic in your stinging me. Why did you do it?\u201d \u201cIt has nothing to do with logic,\u201d the drowning scorpion replied sadly, \u201cIt\u2019s just what is in my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
“LORD, help us to pick our friends wisely and trust You above all others.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n =============================================================<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2 Chronicles 17 KJV<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1<\/sup>\u00a0And Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his stead, and strengthened himself against Israel.\u00a02<\/sup>\u00a0And he placed forces in all the fenced cities of Judah, and set garrisons in the land of Judah, and in the cities of Ephraim, which Asa his father had taken.\u00a03<\/sup>\u00a0And the\u00a0LORD\u00a0was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the first ways of his father David, and sought not unto Baalim;\u00a0\u00a04<\/sup>\u00a0But sought to the\u00a0LORD\u00a0<\/em>God of his father, and walked in his commandments, and not after the doings of Israel.\u00a05<\/sup>\u00a0Therefore the\u00a0LORD\u00a0stablished the kingdom in his hand; and all Judah brought to Jehoshaphat presents; and he had riches and honour in abundance.\u00a0\u00a06<\/sup>\u00a0And his heart was lifted up in the ways of the\u00a0LORD: moreover he took away the high places and groves out of Judah.\u00a0 7<\/sup>\u00a0Also in the third year of his reign he sent to his princes,\u00a0even\u00a0<\/em>to Ben-hail, and to Obadiah, and to Zechariah, and to Nethaneel, and to Michaiah, to teach in the cities of Judah.\u00a08<\/sup>\u00a0And with them\u00a0he sent\u00a0<\/em>Levites,\u00a0even\u00a0<\/em>Shemaiah, and Nethaniah, and Zebadiah, and Asahel, and Shemiramoth, and Jehonathan, and Adonijah, and Tobijah, and Tob-adonijah, Levites; and with them Elishama and Jehoram, priests.\u00a09<\/sup>\u00a0And they taught in Judah, and\u00a0had\u00a0<\/em>the book of the law of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0with them, and went about throughout all the cities of Judah, and taught the people. 10<\/sup>\u00a0And the fear of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0fell upon all the kingdoms of the lands that\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>round about Judah, so that they made no war against Jehoshaphat.\u00a0\u00a011<\/sup>\u00a0Also\u00a0some\u00a0<\/em>of the Philistines brought Jehoshaphat presents, and tribute silver; and the Arabians brought him flocks, seven thousand and seven hundred rams, and seven thousand and seven hundred he goats. 12<\/sup>\u00a0And Jehoshaphat waxed great exceedingly; and he built in Judah castles, and cities of store.\u00a0\u00a013<\/sup>\u00a0And he had much business in the cities of Judah: and the men of war, mighty men of valour,\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>in Jerusalem.\u00a014<\/sup>\u00a0And these\u00a0are<\/em>the numbers of them according to the house of their fathers: Of Judah, the captains of thousands; Adnah the chief, and with him mighty men of valour three hundred thousand.\u00a015<\/sup>\u00a0And next to him\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>Jehohanan the captain, and with him two hundred and fourscore thousand.\u00a0\u00a016<\/sup>And next him\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>Amasiah the son of Zichri, who willingly offered himself unto the\u00a0LORD; and with him two hundred thousand mighty men of valour.\u00a017<\/sup>\u00a0And of Benjamin; Eliada a mighty man of valour, and with him armed men with bow and shield two hundred thousand.\u00a018<\/sup>\u00a0And next him\u00a0was<\/em>Jehozabad, and with him an hundred and fourscore thousand ready prepared for the war.\u00a019<\/sup>\u00a0These waited on the king, beside\u00a0those\u00a0<\/em>whom the king put in the fenced cities throughout all Judah.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jehoshaphat, the 4th king of Judah, was a powerful and godly king. He followed the ways of his great-grandfather King David and sought God, so the Lord blessed him and established his kingdom. The nation of Judah grew strong and prospered under his reign, but the biggest legacy he left behind was the spiritual revival […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7193"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7193"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16367,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7193\/revisions\/16367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}