2 Chronicles 18:31-32 (NIV) 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.

King Jehoshaphat was one of the few good kings that Judah had, but even he did some foolish things. His first mistake was making an alliance with the wicked King Ahab. One day he went to visit Ahab and Ahab talked him into joining him to fight the Arameans to recapture Ramoth Gilead, which he considered as belonging to him. But before they set out, Jehoshaphat made a great suggestion that they inquire of the Lord first. King Ahab brought out four hundred of his false prophets and to no one’s surprise, they all prophesied that the Lord would give the Arameans into Ahab’s hand. “Attack and be victorious,” they said. But King Jehoshaphat, being a godly man, discerned that these were not true prophets at all and asked if there was any prophet of the Lord around. Ahab knew of the only one but didn’t want to consult him because he hated him for “never prophesying anything good about him” (2 Chronicles 18:7). He relented, however, and had the Prophet Micaiah brought to them. Micaiah prophesied that it would be a disastrous event and that King Ahab would die in the battle. Ahab, being a man who had no fear of God, refused to believe what the prophet spoke on behalf of the Lord and not only ignored him, but had him thrown in jail.

After this, Ahab and his army along with King Jehoshaphat set out for Ramoth Gilead. To make matters worse, Ahab came up with a devious plan of going into the battle in disguise but having King Jehoshaphat go in his royal robes. It makes you wonder what in the world Jehoshaphat was thinking because everyone knows that the enemy always looks to cut off the head of the army so that the troops will lose heart and scatter. It was immediate disaster just as the prophet had said as Israel’s army was overwhelmed. As expected, the Arameans were focused on killing the king and when they saw Jehoshaphat, they thought he was King Ahab. They were about to kill him, but God intervened and his life was spared. Ahab was killed by an arrow that someone randomly shot and that found a small gap in his armor. He died just as the Prophet Micaiah had prophesied.

Jehoshaphat made a lot of mistakes with the first one being aligning himself with a very evil king. Secondly, even though he heard the prophet of God prophesy that this would end in disaster, he decided to go along with Ahab’s plan anyway. Thirdly, he followed the instructions of a devious and wicked king, wearing his royal robes in battle and almost getting himself killed. Jehoshaphat did what many of us do when we seek the counsel of the Lord through prayer or through a man or woman of God who the Lord uses to speak into people’s lives. After receiving the counsel, we either ignore it or do the exact opposite. We then have to pay the consequences, which could be quite disastrous. Many of us are still here on this earth because the Lord rescued us despite ourselves. He has saved us from ourselves many times just as He had to do with King Jehoshaphat. Let’s get it and immediately obey the Lord’s directions and commands so that instead of being on the brink of disaster, we will flow in the blessing of God’s divine wisdom and protection as we listen to His voice.

Pastor Joey Vazquez