>> Jen: Hey, faithful listeners. Welcome to the Bible Explained podcast. So I have an announcement, and I've been hesitant to announce this because quite honestly, it's, uh, it's more work for myself. But I've been having this issue laid on my heart where I really feel like I need to go back and redo My first 75 episodes. When I first started out, I didn't know how to, um, do anything with podcasting. I used to talk into my phone and record the audio file. I didn't know how
to edit it. I was editing it on my phone. There was a lot of issues, and at one point in time, I actually missed an entire portion of, um, the Sermon on the Mount. So there's one part of the Bible in Matthew that I haven't even covered because I totally skipped over it and didn't realize that I did. So there was a lot of issues with the first few episodes. And on top of that, I used to talk like this for all of my episodes,
and it was so uncomfortable. So, yeah, we're not, uh, we're not gonna talk like that anymore. But I hope you guys do enjoy them and listen to them when I do redo them. That being said, I'm not going to get rid of the old audio files. I decided, because they're still good content. Even though I was not technical and didn't know how to podcast yet, the content was still good. And I'm going to. What I decided is I'm going to put the old audio file behind, um,
the new audio file. So what's gonna happen is I'm going to redo the episode, and it'll be the new thing in front, the old thing at the back. And that's because I just want this podcast to be excellent. I want it to be done to the best of my ability. And right now I have the ability to go back and redo those first episodes with good quality equipment and good sound. And I know how to
edit episodes now. So this has been laid on my heart that I think I need to do, even though I always told you guys, nah, I'm not going to redo them, um, because, you know, I grew with the podcast. You guys grew right along with me. But no, I do think I need to redo those. Those first few episodes. I'll keep you guys updated as to when I actually do get them done. I am not going to schedule them out at any particular time. I'm only going to work on them
here and there. So it's going to take me a while to redo them, but I think it'll be worth it in the end. All, uh, right, let's go ahead and finish out First Kings, chapter 22:41 through 53. This is finishing the entire book of First Kings today. And then next week on Monday, we will be in the book of Second Kings. And I won't be switching seasons or anything like that. We'll just be going from First Kings to Second Kings. But for today, I'll be reading this entire portion from the
web. But of course, grab your cup of coffee or your cup of tea and your favorite version of the Bible. And let's go ahead and read this once again. 1 Kings 22:41 through the end of the chapter. Jehoshaphat, the son of Asa began to reign over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab, King of Israel. Jehoshaphat was 35 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 25 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Azuba, the daughter of Sheli. He walked in all the way of Asa, his father.
He didn't turn away from it doing that which was right in Yahweh's eyes. However, the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel. Now the rest of the Acts of Jehoshaphat and his might that he showed and how he fought, aren't they written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah, the remnant of the Sodomites that remained in the days of his father
Asa. He put a way out of the land. There was no king in Edom a deputy ruled. Jehoshaphat made ships of Tarshish go to Ophir for gold. But they didn't go for the ships wrecked at Ezion Geber. Then Ahaziah the son of Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, let my servants go with your servants in the ships. But Jehoshaphat would not. Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in his father David's city. Jehoram, his son, reigned in his
place. Ahaziah the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the 17th year of Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, and he reigned two years over Israel. He did that which was evil in Yahweh's sight and walked in the way of his father and in the way of his mother, and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, in which he made Israel to sin. He served BAAL and worshiped him and provoked Yahweh, the God of Israel, to anger in all the ways that his father had done.
So. So forgive me, because the other day I was calling him Jehoshaphat, and I was not seeing that there's an H in his name until today. And I'm like, oh, that's, uh, Jehoshaphat, not Jehosaphat. So forgive me for that. Unless I'm actually pronouncing it wrong with the H in there, and it's actually Jehoshaphat. Even with the H, I have no clue. I'm sorry, I don't know how to pronounce, uh, this guy's. But he was a good king. He, uh, was the son of King Asa. You'll
remember. King Asa was also a very good king. He was kind of a hothead, but he was a good king, and he loved God, and he mostly did everything good. And his heart was right with God all his days, is what it says. But that doesn't mean that Asa was without sin.
He definitely still sinned. And there is recorded times of him sinning and causing Israel to go astray, specifically when Asa, out of fear, actually took a whole bunch of treasures out of Yahweh's house and gave them to, I believe, the Syrian king to fight against the king of Israel, who happened to be Baasha at the time. So Asa definitely was not without fault, but he was an overall very good king.
And apparently he had trained his son very well, because Jehoshaphat, who was the son of King Asa, it says, followed in all of his father's ways. He began to reign over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab, the king of Israel. Jehoshaphat was 35 years old when he began to reign. He reigned 25 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Azuba, the daughter of Sheli. He walked in all the way of Asa, his father. He didn't turn away from it doing that which was right in Yahweh's eyes.
There's a verse in Proverbs that says, parents, train up your children in the way they should go, and they will not depart from it. That is clearly what Asa did. He trained Jehoshaphat in the way that he should go in order to be the best king of Israel. And Jehoshaphat did not depart from it. He remained faithful to Yahweh for his entire days. In fact, he was one of the best kings Israel had. Maybe like, in second place, other than King David,
Jehoshaphat might have been second. For all of the good that Jehoshaphat did, he was even better than Solomon, possibly even better than Asa himself, because Jehoshaphat was a successful king in pretty much every category. He was a strong king, he was a spiritual king, and he was very good with organization and with finances. And we're going to read a lot more about Jehoshaphat's life once we get into the book of 2 Chronicles. In fact, it goes
into, uh, Jehoshaphat quite a bit. But the main reason that Jehoshaphat was such a good king was because he was a follower of Yahweh, and he did not depart from those beliefs even from a very young age. In fact, Psalm 33, verse 12 says, Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD. So the nations that actually trust and believe in Yahweh are going to be blessed in so many different ways. And Jehoshaphat was that for Judah. He was a fantastic king for Judah.
So he was the king of Judah, while Ahab was the king of Israel. While Ahab was busy destroying Israel and doing all sorts of damage and causing droughts and, uh, killing God's prophets, Jehoshaphat was busy doing the opposite. He was helping God's people. We can read a little bit about his life in 2 Chronicles, chapter 17. And I'm only going to read a little bit because I don't want to give away all the spoilers of
jehoshaphat's life. But 2 Chronicles 17, 3 - 9 says, Yahweh was with Jehoshaphat because he walked in the first ways of his father David, and didn't seek the Baals, but sought the God of his Father and walked in his commandments, and not in the ways of Israel. Therefore, Yahweh established the kingdom in his hand. All of Judah brought tribute to Jehoshaphat, and he had riches and honor in abundance. His heart was lifted up in the ways of Yahweh. Furthermore, he took away the high places
and the Asherah poles out of Judah. Also, in the third year of his reign, he sent princes even Ben Hal, Obadiah, Zechariah, Nathanael, and Micaiah to teach in the cities of Judah. Even Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebadiah, Asael, Shamaramath, Shamaramoth, that is his actual name, Shamaramath, Jehonathan, Adonijah, Tobijah, Tobadinijah, the Levites, and with them Elishama and Jehoram, the priests they taught in Judah, having the Book of
Yahweh's Law with them. They went about throughout all the cities of Judah and taught among the people. So not only did Jehoshaphat bring good things to all of Judah, but he actually set these princes and priests in place that were supposed to go throughout all of Judah to preach God's law to the people, which is how God actually initially designed things. He designed it so that the priests would go into all the land and preach God's Old Testament laws to the people.
And finally, Jehoshaphat put that into place. It doesn't seem like that was ever really in place before, but now Jehoshaphat finally does it. And that was Jehoshaphat's way of trying to honor God's law and really do what God wanted him to do. It also says here that he removed the Asherah poles out of Judah and the high places. And what's interesting is a few chapters before this, it mentions that Asa did already remove the high places and the Asherah poles out
of Israel. But it seems like several popped back up while Asa was in his later years. We know that Asa, even though he had a heart for God, towards the end of his life, he was really struggling with a lot of fear. In the end, he got a disease in his feet that caused him so much pain and so much trouble. But yet, instead of asking God to remove this disease that he had, he kept spending his money on all of these doctors.
And Asa didn't have any faith in God that God would sustain him through this disease or take the disease away. So during this time when King Asa was beginning to kind of falter and have some fear, it seems that there was quite a few high places in Asherah poles that popped back up in Judah. So then when Jehoshaphat becomes the king, after Asa dies, he goes out and he removes all of these Asherah poles and the high places that were for worship of the Baals or for other idols
around Judah. But it's kind of interesting because in First Kings, the, uh, passage that we read today, First Kings 22, it mentions that Jehoshaphat didn't remove the high places. It says in verse 43, however, the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. So how do we remedy these two things? Because it seems that 1 Kings is in direct contradiction with 2 Chronicles, because 2 Chronicles says that Jehoshaphat removed all the high
places and the Asherah poles. So what could one Kings be talking about? Well, actually, we've discussed this before, because the same thing happened with Asa, with king Asa. When 1 Kings was talking about Asa's life, it mentioned that Asa did not remove the high places. But then when you go over to 2 Chronicles, it mentions that Asa did remove the high places. And the same thing goes for Jehoshaphat as well. First Kings mentions
Jehoshaphat did not remove the high places. But then we go to 2 Chronicles, it mentions that the high places were in fact, removed. Well, the fact of the matter is there's two types of high places. The first type is the type that we typically know of, which was the high places for worshiping baal and other false idols. Typically, people would make these high places on hilltops or on mountains so that the rest of the valley, the rest of the city could actually see where
to go. So that's a common tactic throughout history, was making the place of worship either on a hilltop or the tallest thing in the city so that everybody could see it. But the high place that Second Chronicles is talking about is the high places of worship for false idols. That's the first type of high place. And the second type of high place is the high places that were erected for the worship of Yahweh, which God still didn't want.
He was very clear the Old Testament laws that he did not want people going out in the fields and going out just to wherever to sacrifice offerings to Him or to, um, or to burn incense to Him. He wanted it all done in a central location that people could go to. And why would he want that? Well, because God is a God of order. He wants everything to be done decently
and in order. And so if people just start making a high place to Him wherever they want, that means that they could start worshiping Him however they want. And that, of course, could turn into some really bad things. So God designed a central location for the people to go to. But these high places to Yahweh apparently still existed. And Jehoshaphat did not tear those ones down,
because he probably thought, oh, those ones are for Yahweh. It doesn't really matter if people go to those high places to worship. But it mentions here in First Kings that that was not wise of Jehoshaphat to do. He should have torn down all of the high places, even the ones that were dedicated to Yahweh. Now you might be wondering, why do we have churches now? Why do we have so many churches? If God in the Old Testament told, uh, his people to go to a central
location, are we doing something wrong? By having so many churches nowadays? Well, we live under the New covenant. Now. The people of the Old Testament lived under the Old Covenant. The Old Covenant had specific rules put in place of how to worship Yahweh, how to do the sacrifices and the offerings, how to burn the incense, etc. Nowadays we have been given the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit tells us to go to all the nations and preach the gospel to every single creature and to build
disciples and to baptize people. So the Holy Spirit has been poured out on the earth. So because we don't live under the the Old Covenant, we don't have the same rules apply to us as nowadays. And that is why we have different churches now. Uh, do I agree with how some of these churches are run or how many different denominations we actually have? Not really, but that's a conversation for a
different day. But just know that when you're going to church and you're not going to like a central location, that's fine, because that is how the church was designed to be, was to be all over the world in multiple different locations, teaching people about the Gospel message. But going back to, uh, the high places, it says that Jehoshaphat did not remove the high places, and the people still sacrificed and burned incense there. Verse 44, Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel.
And that is recorded in 2 Chronicles, chapter 18, verse 1. Now, Jehoshaphat had great wealth and honor, and he allied himself with Ahab by marriage. And I read that out of the NIV version, because it specifically says that they were united by marriage. Because later on in 2 Chronicles, chapter 21, it talks about Jehoshaphat's son. And Jehoshaphat's son was the one who married Ahab's daughter. Ahab And Jezebel's daughter was married to Jehoshaphat's son. And this caused a whole
lot of problems. So Jehoshaphat allied himself with Ahab, the king of Israel by having his son marry Ahab's daughter. This causes so many issues for Judah in the long run. So unfortunately, even though King Asa really trained Jehoshaphat in the way that he should go as a child, Jehoshaphat did not do that with his own son. He encouraged his son to marry a woman with no morals that was taught no morals of
Yahweh. So Jehoshaphat did not do his job at training his son for the kingdom and training his son to be a Yahweh follower. But in verses 45 through 50 it mentions an interesting story here going back to 1 Kings 22. It says now the rest of the Acts of Jehoshaphat and his might that he showed and how he fought. Aren't they written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? The remnant of the sodomites that remained in the days of his father Asa he put out out of the land. So
he also outlawed sodomy. It looks like this could have been either ritual or religious sodomy, or it could have been homosexuality, we're not sure. But Jehoshaphat was really concerned, it looked like, with following God's laws. And there was a very specific rule in the Old Testament that talked about sodomy and how God hated the act of sodomy. So Jehoshaphat removed the sodomites also in the land. It also mentions here in verse 47 that there was no king in Edom.
Instead, a deputy ruled. That means that Israel was in control over Edom. They had no king. Instead, a deputy was put in place that ruled over Edom. So Edom was under the thumb of Israel. That's also mentioned in two Chronicles. And, uh, what ended up happening was Jehoshaphat's son that we're going to read about ruined everything, and Edom ended up rebelling against Judah. But for now, there
was no king in Edom. Jehoshaphat also made ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold, but they didn't go for the ships wrecked at Ezion Geber. Then Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, said to Jehoshaphat, let my servants go with your servants in the ships. But Jehoshaphat would not. Later on in two Chronicles,
we'll read more about that story of the ships. But basically what ended up happening was Jehoshaphat made an alliance with Ahab, King Ahab and also King Ahab's son Ahaziah, to make these ships that would sail out of Edom and go collect gold from neighboring countries. But God was angry that Jehoshaphat made this alliance with the wicked kings of Israel. And so God
caused those ships to get wrecked. And with that, Jehoshaphat learned his lesson, and he did not partner with the king of Israel again after that. It says here in verse 49 that Ahaziah tried to partner again with Jehoshaphat for, um, these ships, but Jehoshaphat would not do it. Then after that, Jehoshaphat died. It says he slept with his fathers. He was buried with his fathers in his father David's city. And Jehoram his son reigned in his place. And Jehoram was a terrible,
terrible king, as we will find out. But in verse 51 it mentions Ahaziah. Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the 17th year of Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, and he reigned two years over Israel, and Ahaziah would have been the king of Israel, it says. He did that which was evil in Yahweh's sight, and he walked in all the ways of his father Ahab, and in the ways of his mother Jezebel, and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nabat, in which he made Israel to
sin. He served baal and worshiped him, and provoked Yahweh, the God of Israel, to anger in all the ways that his father had done so. So Ahaziah was no better than Ahab or Jezebel. He learned the ways of his parents. And that is why it is so important for parents to teach their kids about the Bible and about Jesus, because that is the most important thing that you can give your kid. Proverbs chapter one says that the fear of Yahweh is the
beginning of knowledge. So if you want your kids to have knowledge and to grow up well rounded, teach them about God first. And there are so many other things in scripture, so many promises that God gives to his followers. If you want your kids to grow up to be successful adults, then giving them the knowledge of God is the best thing you can do for them. M so faithful listeners, that is the end of First Kings and tell me what you thought about it. I'd love to hear your opinions about
First Kings. You'll find my contact information listed in the description of the episode. And also, if you're curious about what this podcast is and the ministry behind this podcast, please go over to my website, www.p40ministries.com and check it out and you'll find my statement of faith. You'll find out more about the podcast, you'll find out a lot of great things. And there's a blog over there that my sister, my mom and I all run.
Not to mention the shop, which by the way, I'm getting new products in the shop and I am very much looking forward to that and I'll tell you guys when those are available. Anyway, faithful listeners, have a fantastic and wonderful rest of your day. I will see you guys tomorrow for an episode from second Corinthians. Happy listening and God bless.