Lessons on Jehoshaphat (4)—God Considers Our Associations - All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2024

Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the Lord? Therefore the wrath of the Lord is upon you.
2 Chronicles 19:2

Lessons on Jehoshaphat (4)—God Considers Our Associations
Some years after Jehoshaphat allied himself with Ahab, he went down to visit him in Samaria. At this occasion Ahab asked him, "Will you go with me against Ramoth Gilead?" To this, he answered, . Is it really like that? Jehoshaphat had a real heart for the Lord, but unfortunately he engaged himself before asking the Lord about it. Even after hearing the prophet Micaiah prophesy the death of Ahab and the battle being lost, Jehoshaphat found himself in such a situation that he had no strength or discernment to abandon this commitment and go back home. It nearly cost him his life, but the Lord saved him and he went back home safely.

Once home, the Lord told him by Jehu the seer, "Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the Lord? Therefore the wrath of the Lord is upon you" (19:2). On another occasion we read that Jehoshaphat engaged in a joint business with Ahaziah, son of Ahab, who acted very wickedly. Eliezer prophesied against him, saying, "Because you have allied yourself with Ahaziah, the Lord has destroyed your works" (20:37). And his business project failed.

These two events from the life of Jehoshaphat show us that God takes our associations very seriously. If such things look trivial to us, it is not so with God. We carry the name of Jesus with us, and God will not have His name associated with that which is contrary to His character. There is a difference between doing good to all men and associating ourselves with them in their endeavor. This is what the Word of God calls being unequally yoked (2 Cor. 6:14-16). It seems Jehoshaphat never really got the lesson, to great personal cost and the displeasure of God. May we learn it so to glorify

the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Alexandre Leclerc