"Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honour in abundance, and joined affinity with Ahab"
(2 Chron. 18:1). "And Jehoshaphat the king of Judah returned to his house in peace to Jerusalem. 2 And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the LORD. 3 Nevertheless there are good things found in thee, in that thou hast taken away the groves out of the land, and hast prepared thine heart to seek God" (2 Chron. 19:2-3).
Jehoshaphat was another one of the great Kings of Judah. But when His kingdom was experiencing safety and he increased in riches, he made an alliance with wicked King Ahab. There's something about prosperity that makes us vulnerable to making bad decisions. F. B. Meyer wrote, "Riches and abundance are dangerous things. They usually weaken our character, and incline us to worldly alliances; and it was to their subtle and pernicious influences that Jehoshaphat fell a victim. Ah! what a fall it was to hear him saying, “I am as thou art, and my people as thy people.” Well might Jehu take up the rĂ´le which his father had filled before Asa, and protest. But let us seriously question whether, though there are good things found in us, we may not be falling into the same mistake, and sin. Are there not ways in which we say to men of the world, with whom we mix, “I am as thou art”? There is a great tendency in the present day to boast in the closeness with which we can approach the world without injury. We join in the social life, read the same books, go to the same amusements, talk of the same themes; and it is almost impossible in a drawing-room to tell the difference between the Jehoshaphats and the Ahabs. So also, in our methods of doing good. The real difficulty lies away back in our want of engagedness with Christ. It is of little use to find fault with the outward, as long as the heart is wayward. Love to the Lord Jesus is our only safeguard. The love of Christ must constrain us. Personal attachment to Christ will wean us away from this close identification with the world. But if we persist in identifying ourselves with the world, which God has doomed, we must not be surprised to find that wrath is on us from the Lord: and He will chasten us for love’s sake."
If we are not careful we can fall so much in love with the blessings in our lives that we forget the Blesser. Jehoshaphat's ultimate safety came from God, but rather than continuing to trust in Him for his security he turned to King Ahab. When we are not relying on our relationship with God for our security we will try to find it in other things and in other people. But only God can truly meet that need. Whatever we substitute for God to give us security, it will in the end result in more insecurity. Women our especially vulnerable to feelings of insecurity and when God is not meeting that need it can lead some into unhealthy relationships with other men. Don't ever give your hearts to anyone when you or that other person has not first given your hearts to the Lord.
“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.” Psalms 1:1-3
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