Homiletic Review 2 Chronicles 17:8 And with them he sent Levites, even Shemaiah, and Nethaniah, and Zebadiah, and Asahel, and Shemiramoth, and Jehonathan… I. Jehoshaphat secured the great companionship BY FOLLOWING TRUE EXAMPLE. "Because he walked in the first ways of David his father." Beautiful those first ways of David. Turn to the eighteenth Psalm, which David sang in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. These first ways of David were ways of love to God (ver. 1) of trust in God (ver. 2); of prayer to God (ver. 3); of strength in God (ver. 29) of thanks to God (vers. 49, 50). But the later ways of David — the ways concerning Bathsheba, etc., Jehoshaphat would not walk in. This matter of true example for the ways of life is a great thing. Such following will surely lead us into the great companionship of God. II. The Lord was with Jehoshaphat; he secured the great companionship BY STANDING OUT AGAINST THE EVIL SPIRIT OF HIS TIME. "And sought not unto the Baalim." The Baalim represented the popular religious tendency. III. And the Lord was with Jehoshaphat; he secured the great companionship BY RIGHT AFFECTION. "But sought to the God of his father." Do not imagine the set of the supreme affection a light matter And when our heart supremely sets towards God, God answers with companionship. IV. And the Lord was with Jehoshaphat; he secured the great companionship BY RIGHT PRACTICE. "And walked in His commandments, and not after the doings of Israel." Jehoshaphat did not mean about it, and dream about it, and think about it; he vigorously did it. Do not imagine that inward and sentimental intention which never finds expression in corresponding action amounts to anything. What vigorous volition and right practise sound in that "walked"! Man is three things — intellect, affection, will. Jehoshaphat turned these three toward God. Intellectually, he recognised Jehovah as God, not the Baalim; affectionately, he sought to God; volitionally, he practised for God. What wonder he was wrapped about with the great companionship? (Homiletic Review.) Parallel Verses KJV: And with them he sent Levites, even Shemaiah, and Nethaniah, and Zebadiah, and Asahel, and Shemiramoth, and Jehonathan, and Adonijah, and Tobijah, and Tobadonijah, Levites; and with them Elishama and Jehoram, priests. |
    |