So shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproacheth me: for I trust in thy word Psalm 119;142

It's a perplexing mystery, and in fact a discouraging suggestion: we read that good King Jehoshaphat APPARENTLY understood and believed the New Covenant truth of the gospel and still he fell into tragic sin. Further, his wonderful revival and reformation unraveled when he died, and under his son Jehoram the kingdom of Judah returned to the Baal worship of King Ahab of the northern kingdom of Israel (2 Chron 21:1-6). How could wonderful King Jehoshaphat's good works fail so in the end?

Here's the problem: in 2 Chron 17:6 we read that "his heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord," which is commonly understood to mean that he was euphoric in his heart-devotion to the gospel. This suggests that his "obedience" to God was not the egocentric compliance with God's rules and regulations that is Old Covenant legalism, but genuine heart-love-devotion. The discouraging thing is that APPARENTLY all this genuine heart-love for the gospel is powerless to hold the good king from later sin, and powerless to save the national revival and reformation from collapsing. We wonder about ourselves!

Something interesting comes to light when we look at the Hebrew word for his heart being "lifted up." It's GABAH; its inherent meaning is "haughty," "arrogant," puffed-up rather than "lifted up" in a good sense. For example, in Ezek 28:2, 5, 17 that precise word is used three times to describe Lucifer's "heart lifted up"-the genesis of sin. In Prov 17:19 it means arrogance. In Obadiah 4 it is haughtiness. In Isa 3:16 it's wicked women strutting in sinful pride. In Ezek 31:14 it's "exalting self." Both the NEB and the GNB render 2 Chron 17:6 as Jehoshaphat being proud of his righteous devotion to the Lord.

Sincere King Jehoshaphat was indeed a good man, but he didn't know he was a Laodicean leader proud of his righteousness. Like Hezekiah, unknown sin was buried in his heart.

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