2Ch 19: Outline: "[1] Jehoshaphat is reproved by Jehu: vv 1-3.
[2] Jehoshaphat's home policy: vv 4-11.
"Thus he instructs the people in the Law and administration of
justice. The prophet Jehu went out to meet the king as he returned from the war.
Though physically unscarred, the King must have been uneasy in mind. Jehu, the
son of the prophet who rebuked his father, was the last man he wished to meet.
But the prophets of Israel never hesitated to meet the highest men of the realm
as One higher than them. They were not afraid of kings; they represented the
greater Monarch and from Him pronounced words of indictment for acts of folly"
(GEM).
2Ch 19:2
SHOULD YOU HELP THE WICKED AND LOVE THOSE WHO HATE THE
LORD? BECAUSE OF THIS, THE WRATH OF THE LORD IS UPON YOU: "There is a
difference between doing good to unbelievers and cultivating friendship with
them; and the saint is careful to observe this difference, lest he come under
the rebuke that greeted the ears of Jehoshaphat, on his return from friendly
co-operation with Ahab: 'Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that
hate the Lord? Therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord.' We can have
our conversation [way of life] towards the world in all courtesy and
benevolence, without going on to their ground, and joining affinity in schemes
of pleasure, profit or friendship" (SC).
We might think that the requirement that one does not show
'respect of persons' is a NT teaching only: James 2:1,9; 1Pe 1:17. But we know
that it is a characteristic of God (Rom 2:11; Eph 6:9; Col 3:25; 2Sa 14:14),
which we must manifest because that is how Yahweh behaves: Lev 19:15; Deu 1:17;
16:19.
2Ch 19:10
Cp the reproof of the "gods" of Israel in Psa 82 (Tes
46:336).
OTHERWISE HIS WRATH WILL COME ON YOU: He already knew
that the wrath of God was coming upon himself (v 2).