Dead in the Water - Pastor Stacey Shiflett
- Pastor Shiflett
- Jun 22
- 16 min read
Dead in the Water
2 Chronicles 20
· 35 And after this did Jehoshaphat king of Judah join himself with Ahaziah king of Israel, who did very wickedly:
· 36 And he joined himself with him to make ships to go to Tarshish: and they made the ships in Eziongeber.
· 37 Then Eliezer the son of Dodavah of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, Because thou hast joined thyself with Ahaziah, the LORD hath broken thy works. And the ships were broken, that they were not able to go to Tarshish.
Intro: Three weeks ago, I was invited to preach at a Pastor’s Fellowship in Vancouver, Washington. I worked on this message for days in preparation for that meeting. When I got up there, God completely changed my heart and I ended up preaching a couple of new messages. I have not had the opportunity to preach this message since I got back. We had Western Sunday and Father’s Day and I just never had liberty to preach it. But God has given me the green light to preach it today.
There is a heartbreaking digression in the life of Jehoshaphat.
In the reign of Jehoshaphat, I see a lot of similarities in today’s Christianity.
This message is about the dangers of compromising alliances.
The wrong friends and the wrong relationships will destroy you.
After a life of amazing accomplishments and a long list of good aspects, he crashed at the end in an epic fashion.
This man’s amazing reign literally ended in shipwreck.
His legacy, as powerful as it was and as powerful as it could have been, ended with a harbor full of broken ships.
Instead of a strong end to an amazing reign as king, he ended his days DEAD IN THE WATER.
The phrase "dead in the water" is an idiom that means something has stopped progressing or completely failed, with no chance of recovery or success - at least not without major intervention.
It originally comes from nautical language. A boat that's "dead in the water" has lost power or wind and is just sitting there, unable to move. Over time, the phrase came to be used figuratively in a variety of contexts. In short, it describes something that's stalled, lifeless, or going nowhere.
The message this morning is the introduction.
Tonight, there will be an application that might change someone’s life.
We are going to do a deep dive into the application of these broken ships.
You are going to be amazed at the relevance to what we are witnessing in today’s churches.
I will preach a summary of the life of Jehosophat this morning.
Turn back to chapter 17, and notice…
A. The Abundance that was Rewarded – 17:1-6; 10-18:1; 20:25
The Bible tells us in 17:3 that the Lord was with Jehoshaphat.
· 3 And the LORD was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the first ways of his father David, and sought not unto Baalim;
· 4 But sought to the LORD God of his father, and walked in his commandments, and not after the doings of Israel.
There is nothing greater to be said of a king than that God was with him, and that he sought after God.
As a result of his desire to seek God and walk in his commandments, God blessed him.
God established his kingdom and poured out blessings.
· 5 Therefore the LORD stablished the kingdom in his hand; and all Judah brought to Jehoshaphat presents; and he had riches and honour in abundance.
We see it again further down in the chapter.
· 10 And 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.
· 11 Also some of the Philistines brought Jehoshaphat presents, and tribute silver; and the Arabians brought him flocks, seven thousand and seven hundred rams, and seven thousand and seven hundred he goats.
· 12 And Jehoshaphat waxed great exceedingly; and he built in Judah castles, and cities of store.
· 18:1 Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honour in abundance,
2 Chronicles 20
· 24 And when Judah came toward the watch tower in the wilderness, they looked unto the multitude, and, behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none escaped.
· 25 And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away the spoil of them, they found among them in abundance both riches with the dead bodies, and precious jewels, which they stripped off for themselves, more than they could carry away: and they were three days in gathering of the spoil, it was so much.
Over and over again, the Bible tells us that God blessed Jehoshaphat with abundance.
Let me kick this message off this morning with this fact: it pays to serve God!
The devil and the world have nothing to offer in comparison to what God has to offer.
B. The Admonition that was Reinforced – 17:7-9
Jehoshaphat was so dedicated to the Word of God that he sent princes and Levites all over the land to teach.
The Bible says they taught “the book of the law of the Lord.” – vs. 9
He knew the importance of Bible education.
He knew the power of a people grounded and settled in the Word of God.
NOTE: Show me someone that is seeking after the Lord, and I’ll show you someone digging in His Word.
You cannot accept God as the Lord of your life, while rejecting His Word as your Authority!
C. The Army that was Recruited – 17:10-19
Men of war: men of valor: 300K + 280K + 200K + 200K + 180K = a 1,160,000-million-man army
Plus he built castles and strongholds and cities of store and fenced cities throughout all Judah.
A man that seeks God and spends time in the Word will understand warfare and adversity.
He understood the importance of strong defenses and preparedness.
People are falling right and left because they were not prepared.
They didn’t take the enemy seriously enough.
They got blindsided and caught with their boots off.
Where are the mighty men of valor today?
Where are the men of war today?
Where are the men that will fight to protect their homes, their churches, their young people?
Jehoshaphat raised an army of mighty men of war.
D. The Affinity that was Risky – 18:1
JOINED AFFINITY: chathan khaw-than’ means marriage
NOTE verse 31 – he almost died because of this affinity.
Because of his disobedience to the word of God, Ahab did not return in peace.
SEE 18:26, 27
Yet God allowed Jehosophat to return to his house in peace. 19:1.
Notice God’s mercy and longsuffering to him for this mistake.
God even sent a man of God in 19:2 to rebuke and remind him.
· 2 And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the LORD.
· 3 Nevertheless there are good things found in thee, in that thou hast taken away the groves out of the land, and hast prepared thine heart to seek God.
E. The Advisement that was Reverential – 19:5-11
· 5 And he set judges in the land throughout all the fenced cities of Judah, city by city,
· 6 And said to the judges, Take heed what ye do: for ye judge not for man, but for the LORD, who is with you in the judgment.
· 7 Wherefore now let the fear of the LORD be upon you; take heed and do it: for there is no iniquity with the LORD our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts.
· 8 Moreover in Jerusalem did Jehoshaphat set of the Levites, and of the priests, and of the chief of the fathers of Israel, for the judgment of the LORD, and for controversies, when they returned to Jerusalem.
· 9 And he charged them, saying, Thus shall ye do in the fear of the LORD, faithfully, and with a perfect heart.
· 10 And what cause soever shall come to you of your brethren that dwell in their cities, between blood and blood, between law and commandment, statutes and judgments, ye shall even warn them that they trespass not against the LORD, and so wrath come upon you, and upon your brethren: this do, and ye shall not trespass.
· 11 And, behold, Amariah the chief priest is over you in all matters of the LORD; and Zebadiah the son of Ishmael, the ruler of the house of Judah, for all the king’s matters: also the Levites shall be officers before you. Deal courageously, and the LORD shall be with the good.
F. The Ambushments that were Reassuring – 20:1-24
A great multitude of Ammonites and Moabites came against Jehoshaphat.
In spite of their fear, they proclaimed a fast in verse 3 and 4 and asked God for help.
Notice the humility in verse 12 of a man with a million man army.
God told them in verse 15 that the battle was the Lord’s.
He told them in verse 17 that they would not need to fight in this battle.
They started worshipping and God defeated their enemies.
They started singing and praising God in verse 22.
Notice what happened.
· 22 And when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten.
· 23 For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them: and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to destroy another.
· 24 And when Judah came toward the watch tower in the wilderness, they looked unto the multitude, and, behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none escaped.
The miracle of this story was GOD DID IT!
They didn’t do anything!
But then, we see…
G. The Apathy that was Revolting – 20:33
This was the beginning of the end.
They were not ALL IN!
They were not THOROUGHLY CONVINCED!
There was room for God AND the high places.
· They had prepared the million man army.
· They had prepared the fenced cities and cities of store.
· They had prepared the castles.
· They had prepared the strong holds.
· They had prepared the judges.
· They had prepared the Bible studies with the Levites.
BUT – They had not prepared their hearts unto the God of their fathers!
This is what I’m seeing today.
· We’ve got everything in the world going for us!
· We’ve got the abundance of God’s blessings.
· We’ve got more than we’ve ever had.
· We’ve got the church services; the revivals; the missions conferences.
· We’ve got the staff; the buildings; the Christian schools and Bible colleges.
· We’ve got people on standby to come running to our defence.
· We’ve got everything – but we have allowed apathy to rob us of our heart for God.
That is what happens RIGHT BEFORE DISASTER STRIKES!
H. The Alliance that was Ruinous – vs. 35-37
He made the same mistake he made with Ahab.
We see the same lapse in judgment that we saw back in chapter 18 verse 1.
After almost losing his life with his alliance with Ahab, he did it again.
He JOINED HIMSELF with the king of Israel WHO DID VERY WICKEDLY.
But this time, God didn’t let him get away with it.
· JOIN: to unite, join, bind together, be joined, be coupled, be in league, heap up, have fellowship with, be compact, be a charmer
This alliance proved to be his downfall.
After that loving but straightforward message from the man of God in 19:2, he did it again.
As a result, God sent a man of God to tell him, “God hath broken thy works.”
Conclusion: Imagine experiencing the blessings of God your whole life.
Imagine experiencing the mercy and undeserved protection of God your whole life.
Imagine God fighting your battles and allowing you to reap the benefits of great victories.
Only to end up at the end of your life DEAD IN THE WATER because of your compromise.
Dead in the Water - Part 2
2 Chronicles 20
35 And after this did Jehoshaphat king of Judah join himself with Ahaziah king of Israel, who did very wickedly:
36 And he joined himself with him to make ships to go to Tarshish: and they made the ships in Eziongeber.
· 37 Then Eliezer the son of Dodavah of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, Because thou hast joined thyself with Ahaziah, the LORD hath broken thy works. And the ships were broken, that they were not able to go to Tarshish.
Intro: The experts told President Trump that in order to destroy the nuclear facilities in Iran, he would need to drop 2 of those 30,000lb Bunker Busters; one right after the other. The first one goes down about 200 feet, and the next one does the damage. Trump had them drop 6 on it. NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE IMPACT OF OVERKILL!!
Tonight, I’m going to with God’s help drop about 6 Bunker Busters on these compromising alliances.
I’m not going to use human reasoning or logic; I’m sticking with Bible. I’m sick of seeing the ships of God’s people sitting DEAD IN THE WATER!
Recap this morning’s message:
Jehoshaphat had:
· The Blessings – 17:5,6
· The Book – 17:9
· The Buildings – 17:12
· The Business – 17:13
· The Battlers – 17:13-19
· The Boldness – 19:4-11
· The Bliss – 20:29, 30
But then came the…
· The Backsliding – 20:33 (pagan shrines for worship)
· The Bond – 20:35-36
· The Breaking – 20:37
I spent a lot of time studying the significance of Tarshish.
I looked for some deep truth hidden in that city.
I looked into the place Eziongaber.
The giant’s backbone (so called from the head of a mountain which runs out into the sea), an ancient city and harbor at the north-east end of the Elanitic branch of the Red Sea, the Gulf of Akabah, near Elath or Eloth
Nu 33:35 De 2:8
Here Solomon built ships, "Tarshish ships," like those trading from Tyre to Tarshish and the west, which traded with Ophir 1 Kings 9:26 2 Chronicles 8:17 and here also Jehoshaphat’s fleet was shipwrecked 1 Kings 22:48 2Ch 20:36
I was looking for some profound truth to unveil hidden in these verses.
It turns out, there is no hidden message.
· There’s nothing wrong with building ships.
· There was nothing wrong with sailing them to Tarshish.
· There was no deep hidden meaning in any of these verses.
1 Kings 22:48 says that he was planning to go to Ophir for gold.
That was not wrong. Solomon did it and God blessed him.
· The Plans was not the problem.
· The Project was not the problem.
· The Purpose was not the problem.
· The Places were not the problem.
· The problem was his PEERS.
We do not have to guess why God broke his ships.
The man of God told us that in verse 37.
· “…Because thou hast joined thyself with Ahaziah, the LORD hath broken thy works...”
The action that God took was to break his WORKS.
The ships being broken is a statement.
In breaking his ships, God declared that he had literally “broken thy works.”
When God broke their ships, they were DEAD IN THE WATER.
Because of his compromising alliances, he was DEAD IN THE WATER.
God is breaking the works of man today.
Lifetime of effort is going up in smoke because of the compromising alliances.
As a result of the ships being broken, a lot of things have been broken.
BROKEN: to break through or down or over, burst, breach
· The Respect for the Word of God has been Broken
· The Reputation of the House of God has been Broken
· The Reliability of the Men of God has been Broken
· The Resolve of the People of God has been Broken
· The Response to the Voice of God has been Broken
· The Readiness for the Call of God has been Broken
· The Revenge for the Enemies of God has been Broken.
I. There was an Underlying Insecurity
What made him think he needed another king to help him build ships?
He had plenty of gold and silver.
He had plenty of workers.
He had everything he needed.
God had just helped him defeat two armies.
Why would he yoke up with a bunch of heathens to help him build his ships???
Why would you want to be a part of anything or anybody that God calls “wicked?”
Why would a thriving, vibrant, New Testament Church turn to the emerging church crowd?
Why would a pastor that has the touch of God feel the need to join hands with the world in ANY area?
Why would a Christian that has experienced God’s blessings, mercy, protection join himself to the wicked?
There must be something within that person that feels they can’t do it God’s way any longer.
Due to the backsliding, there is no longer a complete reliance upon God. (SEE 20:12)
People take their eyes off God, and they start looking at the world’s ships.
They decide to go in business together.
II. There was an Unprecedented Infatuation
QUICK HISTORY LESSON: The separation of the two kingdoms; Judah and Israel.
1 Kings 11:9–13 – God tells Solomon the kingdom will be torn from his son because of idolatry.
1 Kings 11:26–40 – Jeroboam is told by the prophet Ahijah that he will rule over ten tribes.
1 Kings 12:1–24 – After Solomon’s death, his son Rehoboam becomes king. The people ask for lighter burdens, but he refuses, leading the ten northern tribes to rebel and form their own kingdom under Jeroboam.
· 1 Kings 12:19 “So Israel rebelled against the house of David unto this day.”
Northern Kingdom: Called Israel, made up of 10 tribes, ruled by Jeroboam (capital eventually became Samaria).
Southern Kingdom: Called Judah, made up of Judah and Benjamin, ruled by Rehoboam (capital was Jerusalem).
· 2 Chronicles 11:1–4 – God stops Rehoboam from fighting to reunite the kingdom.
The separation was due to idolatry.
NOTE: The very people he started out strengthening himself against, he is now joining.
17:1 And Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his stead, and strengthened himself against Israel.
It was Jehoshaphat’s zeal for God to eliminate the high places and groves in 17:6 that earned him great honor and riches.
· 6 And his heart was lifted up in the ways of the LORD: moreover he took away the high places and groves out of Judah.
What was the deal? Why all of sudden you can’t stay away from these wicked kings in Israel?
Many of the Levites moved to Judah because they couldn’t do their job in Israel. (11:14)
· 13 And the priests and the Levites that were in all Israel resorted to him out of all their coasts.
· 14 For the Levites left their suburbs and their possession, and came to Judah and Jerusalem: for Jeroboam and his sons had cast them off from executing the priest’s office unto the LORD:
Why would you want to hook up with a group of people that wouldn’t let Levites do their job??
Answer: Once you start stop taking away the high places, nothing is off the table.
Once you start tolerating the high places, you start tolerating the men that build them.
Once you stop preparing your heart unto God, your heart is turned away FROM God.
The day you stop pulling the high places down is the day they start pulling you down!
· Those high places represented false worship and man-made religion.
· Those high places represented ungodly efforts to duplicate, replicate and counterfeit what is real.
· Those high places represented sinful man’s customized church to satisfy their carnal desires.
· Those high places represented the inventions of wicked men to circumvent true Worship.
Once you start tolerating that, anything is possible.
If you’ll turn a blind eye to the wrong kind of worship, you won’t have a problem with wrong people.
If you get comfortable with idolatry, you will get comfortable with anything.
If you can put up with religious imposters, you won’t care what people you join up with.
III. There was an Unsuccessful Investment
I’ve never built a ship, but I have built some big houses.
But imagine walking out to the harbor the next morning.
Your ships that had been so carefully and meticulously constructed are broken.
They might have been in drydock; they might have already been launched and were ready to go.
I’m not sure. But one thing is obvious; they aren’t going to go anywhere now.
· All that lumber. Gone.
· All that work. Gone.
· All that time, energy and effort to build. Gone.
· All that vision and desire. Gone.
· All that planning and tree cutting. For nothing.
· All those dreams for gold from Ophir. Up in smoke.
The entire enterprise. DEAD IN THE WATER.
I look at so many churches today, and it breaks my heart to see the destruction of the years of investment.
· Men and women prayed and fasted and started churches.
· They knocked on doors and baptized and discipled new converts.
· They had VBS and Sunday School and Junior Church and ran busses.
· They took their teens to Teen Camp and guarded them with chaperones and boundaries.
· They took on missionaries and sent out evangelists.
· They built church buildings and schools and Bible colleges.
· They sang and worshipped and gave and sacrificed and preached and taught and loved people.
But somewhere along the way, they started being OK with the high places.
And now God has BROKEN THEIR WORKS.
All that blood, sweat and tears has resulted in a harbor full of BROKEN SHIPS.
IV. There was an Unfulfilling Inheritance
Because of Jehoshaphat’s compromising alliances, he left nothing for his children.
His children did not inherit a powerful navy that they could use to take the battle to the enemy.
They didn’t have a platform from which to launch the warfare.
His children did not inherit a fleet of merchant ships.
They couldn’t import and export.
They couldn’t be a source of provision for others.
They inherited a harbor full of BROKEN SHIPS.
A reminder of what happens with you join up with wicked people.
A long-lasting monument to what COULD HAVE BEEN.
I believe with all my heart – you can’t rebuild what God breaks.
It’s over. Done. Finished.
In the next chapter, Jehosophat dies in verse 1.
His son, Jehoram reigned in his stead.
Guess what he did? He killed every one of his brothers; the sons of Jehosophat. (21:2-4)
His entire family – DEAD IN THE WATER.
Notice what Jehoram did.
· 5 Jehoram was thirty and two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem.
· 6 And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, like as did the house of Ahab: for he had the daughter of Ahab to wife: and he wrought that which was evil in the eyes of the LORD.
Then, because Daddy allowed the high places to stay, notice what his son did.
· 11 Moreover he made high places in the mountains of Judah, and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit fornication, and compelled Judah thereto.
Notice the unbelievable demise of Jehoram.
READ 21:12-20 – great plague on his entire family; lost his entire family in a raid.
After this, God smote him with an incurable disease. His bowels fell out.
God LITERALLY turned his son INSIDE OUT!!
I wonder if that tolerance for the high places was a big deal now?
I wonder if the compromising alliances was something to get worked up about now??
I wonder if Daddy had had some guts if his son would have lost his?
