GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
2 CHRONICLES 20:31-34
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Today’s text raises questions of chronology and the Bible’s method for recording the data of the ruling kings. Because not all readers and listeners will be interested in this somewhat complicated topic, I will reverse the order of the verses in the audio version, covering verse 32-34 first, and then verse 31, and you can decide for yourself whether this is of interest to you.
31 Jehoshaphat was king over Judah. He was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi.
Verse 31 seems only mildly interesting to many readers. For an historian, it can be a delight, a windfall of information that is missing for most historical events and for people. But when the Biblical scholar begins to examine the details that are so often given throughout the text, he must face the bewildering fact that, at face value, the chronology of the kings of Judah and Israel does not add up. There are several reasons for this, but they cannot be resolved if the scholar throws up his hands and claims (without any basis for the claim) that there must be errors in the text. Once a student of the Bible sets his foot on that path, there is no resolution possible, because after that moment everything becomes the pupil’s interpretation, not based on any facts, and the pupil ends up “giving advice to God” (as Professor Deutschlander would say).
Some of the issues are these:
A, Asa ruled 41 years (1 Kings 15:9-10). This was in the 20th year of Jeroboam.
B, Ahab became king in Asa’s 38th year and ruled 22 years (1 Kings 16:29).
C, Asa was followed by his son Jehoshaphat in Ahab’s 4th year (1 Kings 22:41).
So far, so good?
Asa:
Year 38 … Ahab year 1
Year 39 … Ahab year 2
Year 40 … Ahab year 3
Year 41 … Ahab year 4
Jehoshaphat 1 … Ahab year 5 (?)
This becomes even more complicated on the other end of Jehoshaphat’s reign:
D, Ahaziah (Ahab’s son) becomes king in Jehoshaphat’s 17th year and rules for 2 years (1 Kings 22:51).
However, Jehoshaphat’s 17th year would be Ahab’s 20th. Ahab ruled 22 years. Did Ahab outlive his son by ruling 22 years? Also, Ahaziah’s son Joram became king in Jehoshaphat’s 18th year (2 Kings 3:1). Did he begin to rule before his own grandfather had died?
E, Jehoshaphat ruled 25 years. Jehoram his son became king in the fifth year of Joram king of Israel, while Jehoshaphat was still on the throne (2 Kings 8:16-17). Did some kings reign alongside their fathers?
The most important matter to keep in mind is this: The Hebrew text is correct. Unless there are actual variant readings in existing manuscripts (which is almost never the case in the realm of chronology in the Scriptures) then the Hebrew text must stand. There are, however, other factors:
1, Jehoshaphat became king “in the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel” (1 Kings 22:41). This synchronizes the southern king’s reign with the existing dynasty in the north.
2, The northern kings (Israel) were apparently using an accession year when describing their reigns. “In Assyria, Babylon and Persia when a king first came to the throne, the year was usually called the king’s accession year, bt not till the first day of the first month of the new year did the king begin reckoning events in his own first year.”
3, Jehoshaphat’s father Asa suffered from a disease in his feet in the thirty-ninth year of his forty-one year reign (2 Chronicles 16:12-13).
4, It also appears that Jehoshaphat ruled alongside his father Asa while Asa was suffering from his disease.
5, It can be demonstrated that during the reigns of Asa and Jehoshaphat, Israel (the north) was using a calendar which began the year in the month of Nisan, whereas in the south, in Judah, they were using a secular year which was offset by sixth months, beginning in the month of Tishri.
6, In the case of Joram, the grandson of Ahab (of Israel in the north), “two dates are given for the accession… the second year of Jehoram of Judah (Jehoshaphat’s son, 2 Kings 3:1) and the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat (2 Kings 3:1). This undoubtedly points to a co-regency between Jehoshaphat and his successor Jehoram.”
7, A further issue appears: For several kings (five out of nine) who had a co-regency (with a father or a son), five of them (including Jehoshaphat) are given data in the Bible text where the length of his reign is the number of years from the beginning of the period of overlap to the end of the sole reign. However, the data given for the synchronization (that is, who was on the throne in the other kingdom when he began his rule) marks the end (not beginning) of the overlap as the beginning of his sole reign.
8, Therefore Jehoshaphat began his co-rule with his father in Asa’s 39th year, when Ahab of Israel was at the end of his second and beginning of his third year. Then when Asa died (in his own 41st year), Ahab in the north was at the end of his fourth year (which began in Nisan, or April) and Asa must have died after September, which began his 41st year. Then, Jehoshaphat began his sole reign at that time, and ruled together with his son Jehoram for six years until his death in about 847 BC.
The main conclusion we must arrive at is this: Even when the text of the holy Scriptures is confusing and difficult to reconcile, the text is not at fault. It should never be our first impulse to say, “There is something wrong with the text here.” Instead, we must always be willing to say, “I don’t understand something here, and that’s very probably a flaw in me, and not in God’s holy Word.” When students and scholars and ordinary pastors like me attempt to understand the word of God based on the word itself, we are on the right track.
“Where God has spoken, no man is permitted to think and to speak otherwise. ‘Peter cites the agreement of all the prophets. This is truly to cite the authority of the Church’” (Apology of the Augsburg Confession). For in the Law and the Prophets as well as in the Apostles and Evangelists we find Christ our Lord, the will of God for mankind, and the forgiveness of sins. Nothing may contradict the will of God; nothing may contradict or contravene the atonement for our sins. God’s mercy endures forever.
32 He walked in the way of Asa his father. He did not turn aside from it. He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD. 33 The high places, however, were not removed. The people had not yet set their hearts upon the God of their fathers. 34 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, from beginning to end, are written in the annals of Jehu the son of Hanani, which are recorded in the Book of the Kings of Israel.
King Asa, Jehoshaphat’s father, received a somewhat mixed review, but our prophet did say this about him: “Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God” (2 Chronicles 14:2). Now Jehoshaphat receives a similar epitaph. As a man, he followed after the Lord his God. His place in heaven is assured on account of his faith. As a king, his reign was tinged by the syncretistic faith of some of his people, who mixed Baal with God. For although he did tear down Asherah poles (2 Chronicles 17:5; 19:3) and he removed many of the high places, especially early in his reign (17:6), some of them escaped his reformation attempts, or else they were rebuilt by people, who “had not yet set their hearts upon the God of their fathers.”
Like a parent, a king leads partly by example. But like a king, a parent cannot force his children to believe in their God. He can pray for them. He can teach them. He can coach them and remind them and even plead with them, but no one can force another person into faith. The means of grace can be rejected. The gospel can be despised. The message of forgiveness can be doubted.
Like faithful kings and queens, parents keep praying for their dear children, and keep on loving them. For as Esther’s uncle said to her, “Who knows but that you have come to your position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14). The Lord our God did not make anyone else except us to be the parents of our children. It is our task, and sometimes our cross, to pray for them, agonize about them, but always to love them; to hold out the gospel, so that perhaps even one day long after we are dead, our words might carry the words of faith and of Christ into their hearts, and plant faith in their hearts. For while there is life there is hope.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Archives at St Paul’s Lutheran Church https://splnewulm.org/daily-devotions/ and Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: www.wlchapel.org/connect-grow/ministries/adults/daily-devotions/gwfy-archive/2024
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – 2 Chronicles 20:31-34 The authority of Scripture