Jehosephat allied with Ahab, the king of Israel, through marriage, and started repairing the fracture between the two nations. Ahab asked to Jehosephat to go to war with him against Ramoth Gilead, some random middle-eastern parcel of desert. Befoire Jehosephat would agree to such a war though, he asked about what the Lord thought. Ahab brought all his prophets out and they all said that whatever Ahab wanted to do would be awesome, but Jehosephat pressed him and asked if he had any prophets of the Lord. Ahab admitted that there was a prophet of the lord in Israel named Micah, but he complained that it was a drag to listen to Micah because all he did was say negative things all the time. Jehosephat insisted that they hear what Micah had to say though so Ahab dutifully summoned him.
Micah heard that all the cool prophets were telling Ahab that he would crush Ramoth Gilead and be awesome forever, so he tried to tell the two kings the same thing they had been hearing so far. Micah was a bad liar though and Ahab ordered him to tell them what the Lord had actually revealed to him.
Micah told the kings that things would not go well at all in battle, so Ahab had him put in prison and ordered that he have nothing but bread and water until his own safe return from the front. So really there's no way for Micah to win here. The warning must have had some effect though because Ahab wore a disguise to the battle so no one would know who he was.
When they actually went out to fight Ramoth Gilead, the enemy had orders to ignore all of the Judean and Israelite soldiers and to concentrate only on the king. Since Jehosephat was dressed as a king and Ahab was disguised as a random charioteer, this did not bode well for Jehosephat. Enemy soldiers began pursueing him immediately. He prayed to God though and the Lord protected him. The enemy soldiers realized that he was not the king of Israel and stopped following him. Meanwhile, Ahab was struck by a random spear and died by nightfall.
Jehosephat wasn't completely off the hook though. He had gone to war on the side of Ahab even though he knew that a prophet of the lord had spoken out against it. As soon as he got back home, his own prophets of the Lord gave him an earfull. But, he did tear down all the Ashera poles so he bought himself a little bit of leeway I guess.
Some people from the east came in later and tried to invade Judah, but Jehosephat went before the Lord and prayed about it. He asked God if He would allow someone to come in and take the land that God had given to the Isaraelites back in the day, especially since the only reason they were neighbors with these people from the East anyway was because God had forbidden Aaron and the original Israelite armies from wiping these guys out. Now God is surprisingly susceptible to cogent arguments in the Old Testiment so He agrees that it's not fair for foreigners to come in and swipe the land He gave to them, so if the Judean army goes out and stands their ground in an act of faith, they won't even have to fight. They do, so they don't. Judah wins without firing a shot when the other army tears itself apart in the night. Judah even gets the plunder.
Jehosephat rules for 35 years which it a huge amount of time compared to most other kings. The impression I get from him is very devout, but a little naive. Aside from that misguided alliance with Ahab, he also tries to reconcile with Israel a second time by allying with Ahzakiah, another king of Israel, to build some ships for trading. God still doesn't like Israel though so all his ships sink.
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