Reading: 2 Chronicles 18-20, Psalm 75

Do you remember the assortment of events at which you would receive candy as a child? Harvest parties, Halloween, Christmas, Easter, etc. There was always the candy I was really hoping to get (pretty much anything involving peanut butter), and the ones I really didn’t understand to be edible. One year at a church party I was given candy I don’t know the name of but that I’m suspicious was a banana flavored block of wax. Some candy you just know is good, and some you just know is bad. When I got a little bit older, the assortment fun size bag became popular. Fun size, of course, is even smaller versions of already tiny candy bars. Because that is fun. That’s not the point though, the point is that people started handing out assortments of tiny candy bars, greatly increasing the likelihood that you got something you wanted, but also that you got something like banana wax block. They were literally a mixed bag.

The ancient king Jehoshaphat was also a mixed bag. The Chronicler puts the story of Ahab, the worst king in the history of the people of Israel, into the story of Jehoshaphat, making him appear all the worse. Really, here is a guy who has all the advantages. He gains the throne from his father Asa, a relatively successful king. He defeats the enemies who invade him. He sets up a criminal court system throughout the country. He makes peace with his northern neighbor. And then, because humans have a problem, he goes off and marries his son to the daughter of the worst king in the history of the nation. Having done that, he winds up in political and military alliance with Ahab, a story that doesn’t go particularly well for either of them.

It is one of the truly odd scenes in the Bible, from all kinds of angles. Jehoshaphat comes to fight the Syrians with Ahab, but he wants to hear from the God of Israel first. Ahab brings in 400 prophets who all tell him yes. Jehoshaphat looks at them skeptically and asks if there is a prophet of the God of Israel to talk to. Then things get weird. Ahab knows Micaiah will not agree, but that he speak from God. When he shows up and tells Ahab yes, Ahab argues with him until he tells him no. What did Ahab need a prophet for? He already knew that God did not support this campaign.

Then there is an interlude where we see some prophets argue. Micaiah relates this bizarre scene that is like the opening chapter of Job- God is holding court in some kind of spiritual divine council. The spirits are suggesting ways for God to destroy the kingdom of Ahab. One says he will go lie through Ahab’s prophets, and God says sure, that will work. Then the other prophet punches Micaiah in the face.

So the two kings, Ahab and Jehoshaphat, are watching this, and they decide it is a good idea to go along with their battle against the Syrians! Like they weren’t paying attention to the wisdom from God. Like they just decide to reach out and take their own knowledge of good and bad and leave God’s advice on the ground to rot. Where have we heard this story before?

The last act of this fun drama is the Ahab is a total coward, and Jehoshaphat is a chump. Ahab dresses like a common soldier and tells Jehoshaphat to dress like a king. Because that will go well. But common soldiers can also die from an arrow, and that is what happens to Ahab. Jehoshaphat heads home and Ahab heads back to his capital, where he dies from his wounds.

This story is almost comic in it’s tragedy. Humans, including the heir of David who is supposed to be the righteous example to his people, out doing their own thing in the face of obvious instruction from God, with tragic results. Jehoshaphat’s choices are sometimes good. He destroys a bunch of idol worship, and in one big battle he prays to God for deliverance, as Solomon indicated in his prayer that he should do, and that works out well. But in the long term his decisions are disastrous for his people. His son and daughter in law are the worst kind of people, and will come close to wiping out the royal line of David. The kingdom of Ahab will end in a massive bloodbath that the author of Chronicles doesn’t go into because it mostly occurs in the northern kingdom, but we are reminded of what we know from the book of Kings.

The Chronicler tells the story of Jehoshaphat as a story of mixed choices and their consequences. A king who is only partially righteous will not do as the messianic King. It is not just Ahabs that the returned exiles must avoid, there can be no Jehoshaphats allowed to sit on the throne of Israel either. For the promises of God to be fulfilled the Messiah must be everything he is prophesied to be, and that will require a human without a problem.