Context No. 3332 of 4322 · 1 Kings

1 Kings 22:37-44: in context

37So the king died, and was brought to Samaria; and they buried the king in Samaria. 38They washed the chariot by the pool of Samaria; and the dogs licked up his blood where the prostitutes washed themselves, according to the LORD’s word which he spoke. 39Now the rest of the acts of Ahab, and all that he did, and the ivory house which he built, and all the cities that he built, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? 40So Ahab slept with his fathers; and Ahaziah his son reigned in his place. 41Jehoshaphat the son of Asa began to reign over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel. 42Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi. 43He walked in all the way of Asa his father. He didn’t turn away from it, doing that which was right in the LORD’s eyes. However, the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. 44Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel.

Ahab dies as the prophet had foretold, and the grim detail confirms it: they wash his chariot at the pool of Samaria, and the dogs lick up his blood, according to the word of the LORD. Then the account turns to Jehoshaphat of Judah, a genuinely good king who walked in the way of his father Asa and did what was right in the LORD's eyes.

What God had spoken came to pass exactly, however secure the king had seemed in life. God's word about the wicked is not idle. And yet, even of good Jehoshaphat, a qualifier is added: the high places were not taken away, and the people still sacrificed and burned incense there. Even a faithful king left something undone, a compromise tolerated, a reform left incomplete. The contrast is instructive. Ahab's evil met the precise judgment God had spoken, while Jehoshaphat's goodness, real as it was, stopped short of thoroughness. God's word against the wicked comes true, and even the righteous have unfinished obedience still to complete.

Is there a "high place" I have left standing, some tolerated compromise, even as I seek to follow God, and will I finish the obedience I have begun?

Sources

1 Kings 22:38: "The dogs licked up his blood... according to the LORD's word which he spoke."
1 Kings 22:43: "He... didn't turn away from it, doing that which was right in the LORD's eyes. However, the high places were not taken away."
2 Chronicles 20:33: "However the high places were not taken away; neither as yet had the people set their hearts on the God of their fathers."