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III.

THE FORBEARANCE OF GOD IN THE CASE OF THE RIGHTEOUS-CHARACTER OF JEHOSHAPHAT.

1 KINGS xxii.; 2 CHRON. xviii. xix.

"SHOULDEST thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord" (2 Chron. xix. 2)—such is the reproof administered by Jehu the seer to Jehoshaphat, on his return from the unsuccessful warfare in which he had been engaged with the king of Israel against the Syrians. In the history of that event we have an interesting exhibition of character, especially of the characters of the two leaders of the Jewish hostAhab king of Israel, and Jehoshaphat king of Judah. In Ahab we have an instance of a wicked man partially reclaimed, frequently arrested, but yet finally hardened in his iniquity. In Jehoshaphat, again, we have a still more affecting example. We see how a man— upright before God, and sincere in serving him-may be betrayed into weak compliances, and how dangerous and melancholy the consequences of these compliances may be.

The general uprightness of Jehoshaphat, his sincerity in serving God, is expressly acknowledged and commended by the prophet in the very act of condemning his sin (ver. 3): "Nevertheless there are good things found in thee, in that thou hast taken away the groves out of the land, and hast prepared thine heart to seek the Lord." And this high and honourable commendation corresponds with what we elsewhere read concerning his character and conduct. The seventeenth chapter of Second Chronicles gives an account of his piety and zeal at the beginning of his reign, and before the event to which the prophet refers; and the nineteenth and twentieth chapters prove the continuance of these excellent dispositions, even after that most sad and untoward occurrence. We read of his labours in removing idolatry out of the land, and restoring the worship of the true God (xvii. 3)—of his attention to the religious instruction of the people (xvii. 7)-of his concern for the administration of justice (xix. 5)-and of his care for the defence of his people against their enemies, by the best of all resources an appeal to God (xx.); on all which accounts he was especially favoured by God with prosperity at home and honour from abroad;-the attachment of his people, the submission of his hostile neighbours, the tribute of many nations, and the blessing of Jehovah, the God of David, whom he feared.

Such a prince, we might naturally imagine, opposed to all corruption in the worship of God, would be especially studious to keep himself and his people separate from the heathenism and idolatry of the adjoining kingdom of Israel. He could have no sympathy

with the spirit which animated that kingdom under the auspices of the idolatrous Jezebel-no toleration for the abuses which prevailed under the open establishment of the very worst form of paganism. His aim must surely be to avoid as far as possible all communion with a nation which could only ensnare and corrupt his own people.

Yet, strange to tell, the besetting sin of this good man was a tendency to connect himself with idolaters. The single fault charged against this godly prince is his frequent alliance with his ungodly neighbours. This is the very offence for which he is reproved by the prophet. And this offence he more than once committed in the course of his reign-courting, or at least accepting, the friendly advances of the kingdom of Israel; and that in three several ways.

Thus, in the first place, Jehoshaphat consented to a treaty of marriage, probably at the beginning of his reign (2 Chron. xviii. 1). He "joined affinity with Ahab" by marrying his son to Ahab's daughter (2 Kings viii. 18). This was the first overture towards an alliance. It is a policy common among princes-though, alas! too often ineffectual-for uniting their royal families and their respective nations. It is the very policy of which in our own history we have several examples, in the intermarriages of the heirs of the two crowns in this island; of which, by the blessing of God, the issue has been that solid union which, in his mercy, may he long preserve! The powerful monarchs of the south, after vainly endeavouring to subdue their poorer northern neighbour,-whose proud and singular boast it is, that, poor as she is, she has never yet yielded to a foreign yoke,-were content to

win by courtship what they could not conquer by arms, and to welcome on a footing of affinity the people who would not be held as subjects. In accordance with this policy, then, the king of Judah sought to conciliate the friendship of the king of Israel, by mingling the blood of their royal races; not, however, with the same happy consequence, but, as it turned out, with most disastrous results.

Then, secondly, Jehoshaphat twice joined in a league of war with the kings of Israel—first, in the expedition against Syria which we have partly already considered, and again shortly after in an attack upon the Moabites (2 Kings iii. 7). This last confederacy being formed against a common enemy, who had given both of them provocation, was not so unjustifiable, nor was it so unfortunate as the other: it received the sanction of Elisha's counsel and of the Lord's signal interposition. But the warlike alliance into which, of his own accord, he entered, issued in nought but evil.

And lastly, in the third place, Jehoshaphat consented, though reluctantly, in the close of his reign, to a commercial alliance of his people with the ten tribes. It appears (1 Kings xxii. 48), that once before, when asked by the king of Israel to concur in a joint expedition of their two navies to Ophir for gold, Jehoshaphat promptly and peremptorily refused, having then had fresh and recent experience of the danger of his connection with Ahab. But yet afterwards (2 Chron. xx. 35, 37) he agreed to a similar proposal;-on which occasion he was again rebuked by the prophet of the Lord, and again visited with the judgment of God. "The ships were broken," and the expedition ruined; "they were not able to go to Tarshish.”

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sin.

Such, then, was Jehoshaphat, and such his besetting

Now, this infirmity in so excellent a person-especially as manifested in that confederacy with the king of Israel, of which we have already been tracing the dismal consummation-is well worthy of our study, both to ascertain its cause and to trace its effects; first, to find out the probable reason or motive of Jehoshaphat's conduct in this matter, and then to expose its folly, its sinfulness, its danger, and its evil issue.

As to the sin itself with which Jehoshaphat is charged, and the probable reasons or motives of its commission,—we cannot suppose that, in forming an alliance with the ungodly, Jehoshaphat was actuated by any fondness for the crime, or by any complacency in the criminals. We must seek an explanation of his conduct rather in mistaken views of policy than in any considerable indifference to the honour of God, or any leaning to the defections of apostasy and idolatry. For this end, let us consider the relative situation of the two kingdoms of Judah and Israel, and the feelings which their respective kings, with their subjects, mutually cherished towards one another.

The first effect of Jeroboam's revolt with the ten tribes from the house of David, was a bitter and irreconcilable hostility between the two rival kingdoms of the ten, and of the two tribes. All friendly intercourse was interrupted, mutual jealousy and suspicion prevailed, and the minds of men on both sides were exasperated and inflamed by a succession of reciprocal injuries and insults. The division was marked by all the warmth of religious controversy, and the impla

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