Sorry. That would probably be helpful, huh?

2000 Limited. All 5 lights came on solid for a few minutes while driving as if it was in 4wd, but the was no bind that I could tell. It went off on it's own the first time in the same trip. A couple weeks later all 5 lights came on solid again and stayed that way for a few trips probably half hour of driving total then went out once I put it into 4Lo, then 4hi locked, then 4hi unlocked, then 2hi.

Like phattyduck stated the j shift multimode shifter doesn't control the 2wd/4wd/center diff lock. It just moves the lever to different sensors which sends a signal to the 4wd ecu to engage the front axle and move the transfer case actuator. However, your j-shift multimode shifter does manually move the high/low shift forks in the transfer case.

So if the switch somehow shorted out it could conceivably cause the car to go from 2WD to 4WD. Ever hear of that happening?

In theory it could if the switch shorted closed.