Bible Commentaries
2 Chronicles 17

Verses 3-5

2 Chronicles 17:3-5

I. It is an unspeakable blessing to have been born in the line of a Christian parentage. Much more than godly instruction and example is involved in the blessing. By a mysterious law of God's government, tendencies in character spring from the line of natural descent. It is a great thing to have had that fountain of our moral being purified and vitalised by the grace of God.

II. The religion of our fathers, because it is such, has a strong presumptive claim upon our faith. The presumption may be balanced by opposing evidence, but till it is thus neutralised it exists in the case of every man.

III. It is one of the Divine laws of the increase of the Church that the children of Christian parents should themselves be Christians. There is a law of Christian nurture by which, through the grace of God, every Christian family becomes a nursery of the Church of God.

IV. The imitation of a godly ancestry is peculiarly pleasing to God. God is pleased with honour paid to His own laws. When He has given to a young man the inestimable blessing of a Christian parentage, He looks to see the blessing recognised.

V. It is an act of signal and relentless guilt to break the line of a pious heritage by a godless life. A tripled and quadrupled cordon of spiritual influences must be charged and broken through. Such forces are never overcome but by the aid of opposing forces from the powers of darkness.

A. Phelps, The Old Testament a Living Book, p. 89.

Reference: 2 Chronicles 17:5 . Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., p. 264.

Verses 7-9

2 Chronicles 17:7-9

I. Organisation. This scheme was originated and directed by one man. Ornamental committees will ruin any cause. Oneness of heart is deeper and stronger than an alphabetical list of names. There is a great deal of disunion under apparent concentration. Union of heart will carry us through all dangers; union of names will but multiply our perils.

II. The commission organised by Jehoshaphat was aggressive. The princes, the Levites, and the priests "went about through all the cities of Judah." It was an itinerant ministry. The Gospel is nothing if not aggressive. It must challenge attention; it must lift up its voice amid all competitors. It does not wait for battle; it begins it.

III. The commission which Jehoshaphat sent into the cities of Judah was educational. Those who were sent took with them the book of the Law of the Lord, and taught the people. What was the consequence? "The fear of the Lord fell upon all the kingdoms of the lands that were round about Judah, so that they made no war against Jehoshaphat." Religious teachers are better than armies. To magnify God is to take care of the nation.

Parker, City Temple, 1873, p. 357.

Reference: 2 Chronicles 18:6 , 2 Chronicles 18:7 . T. R. Evans, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxx., p. 198.