Week 21 2 Chronicles 17-21
A couple of passages (mostly positive) summarize Jehoshaphat:
the Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he followed the example of his father
Jehoshaphat did not worship the images of Baal
He sought his father’s God and obeyed his commands
Jehoshaphat was a good king, following the ways of his father, Asa
He did what was pleasing in the Lord’s sight
But on the flipside Jehoshaphat failed to remove all the pagan shrines, and the people never fully committed themselves to following God.
He also cozied-up to King Ahab to the point where the prophet Jehu chastised him (although Jehu also admitted there is some good in you…and you have committed yourself to seeking the Lord). But later when Jehoshaphat formed another alliance with Israel the prophet Eliezer told him that because you have allied yourself with King Ahaziah, the Lord will destroy your work.
It looks like Jehoshaphat did have genuine faith and he acted on that faith by obeying the Lord in a majority of cases. Plus he didn’t actively promote evil actions. So the fact that he a) followed the Lord and b) did good things without c) doing evil boosts Jehoshaphat into the upper rank of good kings.
But he did make those couple of questionable and criticize-able choices.
Jehoshaphat is comparable to his father Asa in that way – it looks like two pretty good kings who each made a couple of missteps.
Note: quotes from 2 Chronicles 17:3-4 20:32-33 19:3 20:37 (NLT)