Jehoshaphat—was a pretty decent king as the people of God’s leadership went in those days but he made an “unholy” alliance with King Ahab, a non-Jew. Jehoshaphat agrees to fight for Ahab (a nasty, wicked king) against his enemies in spite of the fact that a prophet of the Lord named Micaiah told the kings that Ahab would be killed in battle if they go to war. Ahab tried to outsmart the Lord of the Universe by disguising himself in battle so as not to be targeted. And yet a random arrow just “happened” to find the “crack” between two pieces of armor in Ahab’s mail and he didn’t return home just as the man of God had said.
(2 Chronicles 18)
"Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet King Jehoshaphat saying, "Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the LORD and so bring wrath on yourself from the LORD?" (2 Chronicles 19:2)
(Read this again, slowly…)
Instead of remaining faithful to the Lord Almighty, for some very understandable, practical reasons, Jehoshaphat joined hands with the godless King Ahab bringing the discipline of God upon himself AND God’s people…
I recently heard that 20% of the churches in America will not “make it back” from the Covid-19 “safety” edicts. Those that make it back are admitting that they do not believe they will recover completely or even close to where they were prior to the scamdemic.
Is it fair to equate Jehoshaphat’s alliance with Ahab to the alliances of the Lord’s churches demanding allegiance to the godless, governing authorities ahead of the spiritual welfare of the Lord’s children? There are differences to be sure but this seems remarkably close to Jehu’s rebuke of Jehoshaphat crying out, “"Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the LORD…?"
Early on Barbara and I were talking about this noting how easily “routines” and “habits” are changed in the presence of extended hiatuses in those routines. This is why many diets fade away for the person who puts them on hold because of Thanksgiving, or a birthday, or the sun came up, or fill in the blank.
Sadly it isn’t much different for many church-goers. And while it is easy to play the, “Well-then-it-shows-you-they-were-posers-anyway…” card, the Church is made up of varying levels of church-goers ranging from unsaved “faith explorers” or the spiritually infantile, to the seasoned saint. What I am witnessing are seasoned saints finding ways to stay connected avoiding unholy alliances with a wicked and deceitful government that is demonstrably hypocritical ignoring their own edicts, are inconsistent in their enforcement of those edicts, and are habitually undecided what mandates they will retract one day while imposing a new one contradicting prior edicts. What began as a couple week precaution has burgeoned into a protracted way of life with no end in sight. And why not? There is essentially NO resistance from any sector including those who are supposed to be “in the world, but not of the world.”
If the Lord brought judgement upon Jehoshaphat for helping the wicked by loving those who hate the Lord, perhaps there is more at work here than the simple cause and effect of human lethargy.
Satan knows what he’s about, and so does the Lord on High. It’s worth considering…
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