Believe His Prophets
Come Follow Me 2026 — Week 29 — Jul 20–26 — 2 Chronicles 14–20; 26; 30
The Faithful Kings of Judah
The books of Chronicles present a different angle of vision on the same history covered in Kings. Where Kings traces the full arc of both northern and southern kingdoms with their failures, Chronicles focuses almost exclusively on Judah and the house of David, and within that focus it particularly highlights the reigns of the faithful kings — Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah — as models of what covenant kingship looks like when it works.
This is not naive idealization. Chronicles does not ignore the failures of these kings or the persistent apostasy of the nation around them. But its editorial emphasis is pedagogical: it is teaching a post-exilic community, reading these accounts after returning from Babylon, what faithful leadership looks like and what blessings it produces. The question Chronicles is answering is not merely “what happened?” but “what should we learn from what happened?”
The faithful kings of Judah share several common characteristics: they removed idolatrous practices that previous kings had tolerated; they trusted God specifically in military crises; they renewed the covenant and reinstated proper worship; and they listened to prophets and seers rather than to flattering counselors. Together, their stories constitute one of scripture’s most extended treatments of what it looks like to lead with genuine faith.
Asa: Starting Well and Finishing Badly
Asa began his reign with genuine covenant faithfulness. He removed the foreign altars, broke down the high places, smashed the sacred pillars and Asherah poles, and commanded Judah to seek the LORD and observe the law. When a million-man Ethiopian army came against him, he cried out to God in a prayer that has become a model of military faith: “LORD, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: help us, O LORD our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude.” God routed the Ethiopians before Judah.
But in the later years of his reign, when the northern kingdom of Israel threatened Judah, Asa made a treaty with Syria rather than trusting God. The prophet Hanani confronted him: “Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on the LORD thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand.” Then, devastatingly: “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.”
2 Chronicles 16:9
“For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars.”
Asa responded to this prophetic confrontation not with repentance but with rage: he threw Hanani in prison. In his final illness, he sought physicians rather than God. He finished the race worse than he started it. The lesson is not merely that Asa failed, but that the specific failure was the choice to trust political alliances over God at a moment of perceived necessity — and that this choice hardened him against prophetic correction rather than opening him to it.
Asa’s arc is a warning about the way seemingly small compromises can calcify into a hardened heart that can no longer hear what it most needs. The same prophet who would have brought restoration was thrown in prison. The same medical help that might have been one component of healing became a substitute for the God who heals. Partial faith, maintained long enough, can produce a more dangerous spiritual condition than open unfaith — because it has the form of righteousness without its substance.
Jehoshaphat: Believe in His Prophets
Jehoshaphat is one of the most sympathetic characters in Chronicles. He walked in the earlier ways of his father David, sought God, and turned away from the Baals. He sent Levites and priests throughout all Judah to teach the people from the book of the law — an early instance of systematic religious education at a national level. When the combined armies of Moab, Ammon, and Mount Seir came against Judah in a coalition that seemed impossible to withstand, Jehoshaphat called a national fast and prayed publicly in the temple.
His prayer is a masterpiece of covenant appeal: he reminded God of His promises to Abraham, of His giving of the land to Israel, of the temple they had built for His name. Then he presented the crisis honestly: “O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee.” No pretense. No military strategy. No alternative plan. Just an honest statement of helplessness and a statement of where their eyes were directed.
The Spirit of God came upon the Levite Jahaziel, who prophesied that they would not need to fight this battle. They were to go out to their positions and stand still and see the salvation of the LORD. “Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s.”
2 Chronicles 20:20
“Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.”
The next morning Jehoshaphat appointed those who would sing to the LORD and praise the beauty of holiness as they went before the army. They marched to battle singing. When they arrived, the enemy armies had destroyed each other. There was nothing left but spoil so abundant it took three days to gather. On the fourth day they assembled in the valley of Berachah — meaning “blessing” — and blessed the LORD.
The pattern of Jehoshaphat’s victory is worth examining carefully: recognition of helplessness, honest prayer, prophetic word received, corporate worship before any action, obedient advance, and then watching the battle be won without human fighting. This is not passivity — they went out in order, they stood in their positions, they marched toward the enemy. But the fighting itself was God’s. The human role was faithfulness, not effectiveness.
Battle Belongs to God
- 1 Samuel 17:47 — David before Goliath: “The battle is the LORD’s”
- D&C 105:14 — “I will fight your battles”
- Exodus 14:14 — “The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace”
Uzziah: The Pride That Follows Success
Uzziah’s story in 2 Chronicles 26 is one of scripture’s clearest illustrations of a specific spiritual danger: the pride that develops after significant success. Uzziah came to the throne at sixteen and reigned fifty-two years. He rebuilt and fortified Jerusalem. He restored military strength. He developed agriculture on a large scale. He defeated the Philistines, the Arabians, and the Ammonites. His fame spread far and wide. “As long as he sought the LORD, God made him to prosper.”
And then:
2 Chronicles 26:16
“But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction: for he transgressed against the LORD his God, and went into the temple of the LORD to burn incense upon the altar of incense.”
Uzziah entered the temple to burn incense — a priestly function reserved exclusively for the descendants of Aaron. This was not a casual mistake; it was a deliberate assertion of authority he did not possess. Eighty priests confronted him and ordered him out. Uzziah’s anger at being rebuked was immediate, and while he stood in rage before the altar, leprosy broke out on his forehead. He was thrust out of the temple. He was a leper to the day of his death, living in a house set apart, cut off from the temple he had attempted to usurp.
The phrase “when he was strong, his heart was lifted up” is one of the most important sentences in Chronicles. It identifies success itself as a spiritual danger. The same strength that came from seeking God became, over time, a source of pride that no longer required God. Uzziah’s strength was real — he had built it through legitimate effort and genuine divine blessing. But at some point the success became its own source of confidence, and the God who had produced the success was displaced by the man who had benefited from it.
This warning appears repeatedly in scripture precisely because it is so common. Prosperity and success are not reliable teachers of humility. They more often teach pride. The discipline of remaining humble before God through seasons of success is one of the most demanding aspects of the spiritual life — precisely because the very thing that seems to justify self-sufficiency is the gift of God.
Hezekiah’s Passover: Restoration Through Returning to Ordinances
Hezekiah’s reform in 2 Chronicles 29–30 is one of the most comprehensive religious restorations in the Old Testament. He reopened and cleansed the temple that had been closed during his father Ahaz’s apostasy. He reinstated the Levitical orders. And then he called all Israel and Judah — even sending letters to the northern tribes who had survived the Assyrian conquest — to come to Jerusalem for a Passover celebration.
The Passover had not been celebrated on this scale since the days of Solomon. It was the fundamental covenant ordinance connecting Israel to the Exodus — to the definitive act of divine redemption in Israel’s history. Hezekiah understood that restoration of covenant relationship required reinstitution of covenant ordinances, not merely a change of attitude. The people who came were so moved by the celebration that they extended it for another seven days voluntarily. “There was great joy in Jerusalem: for since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there was not the like in Jerusalem.”
The pattern here is consistent with every restoration of covenant relationship in scripture: it is not enough to have correct beliefs or good intentions. Restoration always involves returning to the specific covenant ordinances that connect the people to the God who redeemed them. The Passover was not merely a memorial; it was a re-enactment of redemption that renewed the people’s identity as the delivered people of God.
Restoration Through Ordinances
- D&C 128:18 — The restoration of ordinances is essential to the welding link of all generations
- 3 Nephi 18:6–7 — “This shall ye always do” — the sacrament as the New Testament Passover renewed
- Malachi 4:5–6 — Elijah’s return to turn hearts — the ordinance work that binds generations
The Lessons of the Faithful Kings
Taken together, the faithful kings of Judah in 2 Chronicles teach several consistent lessons. First, covenant faithfulness produces tangible blessing — the texts are explicit that the reigns of Asa, Jehoshaphat, and Hezekiah were characterized by peace, military success, and national prosperity when they sought God. This does not mean faithfulness always produces prosperity; the larger narrative of Judah’s history ends in exile. But within the specific context of covenant leadership, Chronicles consistently shows that seeking God produces good outcomes.
Second, the prophets are indispensable. Every significant moment of decision in these reigns involves a prophetic voice — Azariah to Asa, Jahaziel to Jehoshaphat, Isaiah to Hezekiah, Huldah to Josiah. The kings who listened to prophets prospered. The king (Asa) who imprisoned a prophet hardened and declined. The invitation of Chronicles is to “believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper” — not as naive credulity but as the practical wisdom of those who recognize that God speaks through His servants.
Third, success is more dangerous than failure in some respects. Uzziah’s fall came “when he was strong.” Asa’s spiritual deterioration came after his early victories. The discipline of humility before God through prosperity is harder to maintain than faith in adversity — which is perhaps why the scriptures spend so much time warning against it.