2 Chronicles 16 – 20
Verse 16:1 caught my eye for couple reasons:
In the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Asa, Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah and built Ramah, that he might permit no one to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah.
First thing that we notice is there is a conflict between “brothers” of the Jewish faith. How can this be if God had been with all the tribes then why do the fight. I know Judah was separated to maintain the promised line of David and that “split” came under a conflict between rivals who believed they should be king. I just wonder why this happened. Also, not like we have ever seen this in the UK with Protestants and Catholics recently.
Second, notice how later this “conflict” causes other problems with Asa’s relationship with God. We see in verse 16:7 God is angry at Asa for not having faith and creating an alliance with Syria. I think of this today and wonder if the alliances Israel have formed is causing problems? Are there any alliances in the Middle East right now with Israel?
Finally, I focused on the building of “Ramah” and wondered what that meant. Initially I believed it to be a wall, but a quick search of Google finds it to be a city. It appears to be a strategic location to protect the other tribes from Judah.
Verse 17:3 introduces on of my favorite kings:
The LORD was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the earlier ways of his father David. He did not seek the Baals,
Jehoshaphat did good in the eyes of the Lord, but that is not why I like him. My foolish like is from the phrase “jumpin’ Jehoshaphat”! I did a quick study on that phrase and apparently it did not “arrive” until 1866 in a novel by Thomas Mayne Reid. I just assumed there was some “Biblical” support for the phrase, but it seems to be more a euphemism for Jesus and Jehovah. The Biblical support could come from Jesus jumping at an egregious sin or the spirit of King Jehoshaphat being one of the “mighty ones” who has come to judge. Unfortunately that is one of those phases that people assume to be Biblical, but is not.
Verse 19:7 is part of Jehoshaphat’s reforms to the “court” system:
Now then, let the fear of the LORD be upon you. Be careful what you do, for there is no injustice with the LORD our God, or partiality or taking bribes.”
This is an order to the judges to ensure they judge fairly. We wish this was the case today, but sadly with my two cases it was not. The first was against UCB in a case where they tried to move their “position” before mine. I represented myself and had precedence that showed it was not allowed. They produced something that said what they did was allowed but not for a change in “position”, I lost and the three lawyers they had against me won. In this case “partiality” was taken to the one with more money. The seconds was an appeal that was ignored because of a technicality they would not allow, and was again given to the lawyers and not overlooked for logical reasons. Both cases have jaded me on the “system” today and how we have drifted from Jehoshaphat’s charge.
Now what really caught my eye was the capitalization of Lord and God. Notice “LORD” is all caps where “God” is just the first letter capitalized. I wondered why that was. This is not just in the ESV but also the NIV and KJV so there is more to it than just an interpretation. This appears to be a translation of God’s name, YHWH or as some translations have it “ADONAI” (CJB) or “Jehovah” (ASV). Either way I think we should be less casual reading that and assume it has a greater meaning.