2 Chronicles 19

2 Chronicles ‘A MIRROR FOR MAGISTRATES’2 Chronicles 19:1 - 2 Chronicles 19:11 . Jehoshaphat is distinguished by two measures for his people’s good: one, his sending out travelling preachers through the land { 2 Chronicles 17:7 - 2 Chronicles 17:9 }; another, this provision of local judges and a central court in Jerusalem. The former was begun as early as the third year of his reign, but was probably interrupted, like other good things, by his ill-omened alliance with Ahab. The prophet Jehu’s plain speaking seems to have brought the king back to his better self, and its fruit was his going ‘among the people,’ from south to north, as a missionary, ‘to bring them back to Jehovah.’ The religious reformation was accompanied by his setting judges throughout the land. Our modern way of distinguishing between religious and civil concerns is foreign to Eastern thought, and was especially out of the question in a theocracy. Jehovah was the King of Judah; therefore the things that are Caesar’s and the things that are God’s coalesced, and these two objects of Jehoshaphat’s journeyings were pursued simultaneously. We have travelled far from his simple institutions, and our course has not been all progress. His supreme concern was to deal out even-handed justice between man and man; is not ours rather to give ample doses of law? To him the judicial function was a copy of God’ s, and its exercise a true act of worship, done in His fear, and modelled after His pattern.

The first impression made in one of our courts is scarcely that judge and counsel are engaged in worship. There had been local judges before Jehoshaphat-elders in the villages, the ‘heads of the fathers’ houses’ in the tribes. We do not know whether the great secession had flung the simple old machinery somewhat out of gear, or whether Jehoshaphat’s action was simply to systematise and make universal the existing arrangements. But what concerns us most is to note that all the charge which he gives to these peasant magistrates bears on the religious aspect of their duties. They are to think themselves as acting for Jehovah and with Jehovah. If they recognise the former, they may be confident of the latter. They are to ‘let the fear of Jehovah be upon you,’ for that awe resting on a spirit will, like a burden or water-jar on a woman’s shoulder, make the carriage upright and the steps firm. They are not only to act for and with Jehovah, but to do like Him, avoiding injustice, favouritism, and corruption, the plague-spots of Eastern law-courts. In such a state of society, the cases to be adjudicated were mostly such as mother-wit, honesty and the fear of God could solve; other times call for other qualifications. But still, let us learn from this charge that even in our necessarily complicated legal systems and political life, there is room and sore need for the application of the same principles.

2 Chronicles 19:4 . He went out again through the people — He went out before by his officers, ( 2 Chronicles 17:7 ,) now he went in his own person. From Beer-sheba to mount Ephraim — That is, through his whole kingdom, whereof these were the two bounds. And brought them back unto the God of their fathers — Such of them as had revolted from God to idols, he reclaimed by his counsel and example, and by the instructions of the Levites and priests whom he carried with him. Many, probably, had revolted to idolatry, when they saw their king so intimate with idolaters. Therefore he thought himself doubly obliged to do all he could to reduce them. If we truly repent of sin, we shall do our utmost to repair the damage we have done to religion, or the souls of others.

2 Chronicles 19:5-6 . He set judges in the land, city by city — In every city, for itself and the country adjacent, that justice might be administered with the most ease and convenience to the people, and they might not all be forced to go up to Jerusalem. And said to the judges, Take heed, &c. — Mind your business; take heed of making any mistakes; be afraid of misunderstanding any point of law, or the matter of fact. Judges, of all men, have need to be cautious, because so much depends on their understanding a matter right. For ye judge not for man, but for the Lord — You represent God’s person, to whom judgment belongeth; you have your commission from God, and not from man only; and your administration of justice is not only for man’s good, but also for God’s honour and service. Who is with you in judgment — Both to observe your carriage, and to defend you against all those enemies whom the impartial exercise of justice may provoke.