In 2 Chronicles 19:2 the Lord, speaking through Jehu the son of Hanani, admonishes King Jehoshaphat of Judah for his alliance with the exceedingly wicked King Ahab of Israel. Jehoshaphat had joined Ahab in going off to war. During the battle, Ahab was killed, and Jehoshaphat was nearly killed. He was only saved from death due to the intervention of the Lord who delivered the king from those who sought to kill him. However, prior to riding off to war with Ahab, Jehoshaphat had entered into an alliance with Ahab by having his son marry Ahab's daughter, Athaliah. This alliance would eventually lead to the elimination of the religious reforms Jehoshaphat had made in Judah by his daughter in law, for when Athaliah became queen she reintroduced the worship of idols and false gods to Judah which Jehoshaphat had eliminated. Eventually, Judah's continued worship of these idols and false gods would lead to the nation's defeat at the hands of Babylon, the destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of many of the people of Judah in Babylon.
The Lord's admonishment spoken through Jehu the son of Hanani reads: "Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the Lord, and so bring wrath on yourself from the Lord?"
During Jehoshaphat's time as king he instituted religious reforms which the Bible says in speaking of the people of Judah, ". . . brought them back to the Lord, the God of their fathers."(2 Chr 19:4b). God showed Jehoshaphat mercy because his mostly faithful service to Him showed that Jehoshaphat truly loved the Lord. However, his decision to make Ahab his companion in both the alliance they formed and in battle was ultimately a disastrous one. Speaking of this instance in a devotion, the Puritan pastor David Clarkson explains what we as Christians can learn from this part of King Jehoshaphat's life. He writes:
"What danger was there in Jehoshaphat's familiarity with Ahab? This, those that knew Jehoshaphat to be a good king, walking in the commandments of the Lord, and seeing him choose Ahab for his friend, might conclude that Ahab's ways are not so abominable, otherwise Jehoshaphat cold not be so intimate with him. And thus the bad opinion of Ahab being something taken off, they might be more inclined to comply with him in his ways and worship, and thus Jehoshaphat's familiarity with Ahab would be a snare to others. We judge of a man by his companions, and men are apt to think we approve of those whom we choose for our friends. And so by our company, you may approve of wickedness, and thereby partake of it, though you never act it out."
We don't really know what people thought of Jehoshaphat's companionship with Ahab, but we do know that once Jehoshaphat died the people of Judah accepted the idol worship which his daughter-in-law replaced the worship of the Lord with. Perhaps Jehoshaphat's companionship with Ahab in both war, and in joining their families together made some doubt the sincerity of Jehoshaphat's reforms. Regardless of the answer to that question, what we do know is that Jehoshaphat's closeness with Ahab bore no good consequences.
Those of us who are Christians should be wary of what intimate relationships we foster and maintain. Certainly, we do not want to cut ourselves off from the rest of the world. Certainly, we want to have relationships with those who are lost in sin in the hope that God will use us to bring them to faith in him through the gospel. There are too many parts of scripture which instruct us to share our faith wit the lost to think either of those things are true.
However, as it is dangerous to hold onto a drowning person because they can pull us down to the depths with them, we need to be careful in our intimate relationships with those who are lost in sin because if it is not God's will for us to have an intimate relationship with them so that we may share the Gospel with them, we may be courting disaster in our lives, or possibly the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Pastor Wayne
