2 Ch. 19: Judgin' Jehoshaphat!

2 Chronicles 19:7 "Now let the fear of the LORD be upon you. Judge carefully, for with the LORD our God there is no injustice or partiality or bribery."

Jehoshaphat was generally a decent guy. In fact, one of Israel's decentist. The things he did right were generally the opposite of what other kings did right. What I mean by that is that Jehoshaphat followed the LORD, and made his decisions based on what the LORD told him to do. Other kings focused solely on military things or dealmaking. That's what they got good at. Jehoshaphat was skilled at following the LORD, and facilitating the faith of others.

There was that time he got mixed up with Ahab, and went to fight with him at Ramoth Gilead despite Micaiah's warning not to. That was held against him. It was his support for Ahab that caused Jehu to admonish him when it came to placing judges in Israel.

So Jehoshaphat took very seriously the practice of putting in the right kind of people throughout the land, and gave them very stern orders. One order was to judge for the LORD, not for man. He says the LORD would be with them, which is encouraging, but also gives the idea that they represent what the LORD would say, were he there in flesh. Which is just a laughable idea, that a holy God would take on man's impudent flesh. They also had to warn the people not to sin against the LORD, and in their decisions, to keep that in mind.

So the LORD had these strict guidelines, and I'm sure that's what Jehoshaphat was most concerned with...that the judges would follow the laws of God. Not for the good of Jehoshaphat's legacy, but for the good of the nation in general.