Bible Commentaries
2 Chronicles 18

Verses 1-34

These chapters contain the story of a strange lapse in the history of Jehoshaphat, and also of his repentance and restoration. Ahab was king in Israel, perhaps the most evil that ever sat on the throne. With him Jehoshaphat made affinity. The story of this strange and false union is very interesting. The king of Judah attempted to insist, in the midst of the corruption of the court of Ahab, on the necessity for consulting Jehovah on the proposed campaign to Ramothgilead. It was strange company for a man of God to be in, and he barely escaped with his life, and would not have escaped but for the intervention of Jehovah. One nameless man "drew his bow at a venture," as the margin reads, "in his simplicity." It was not even a venture in the sense of an attempt, or a gambling against odds, in the hope of killing the king of Israel. It was done "in his simplicity," that is, artlessly, without any intention other than that of "carrying on" in the ordinary sense of that word. Probably this man already had shot many arrows, and he went on in his simplicity, little knowing that this particular arrow was to be guided through all the confusion straight to its mark by the unerring knowledge and power of God. Yet so it was.

Thus it is seen how the refuge of lies is never hidden from the eyes of God. Men may secrete themselves so that other men may never find them; but when the hour of their judgment has come, God takes hold on some ordinary event and makes it the highway on which He comes to carry out His purpose. "It just happened," says the man of the world. "God did it," says the man of faith.