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CHAPTER SEVEN
THE POWER, THE PRECISION AND THE PENETRATION
THE WILFULLY INSEPARABLE FROM MAN
AND THE DIVINE MANAGEMENT OF THIS VAGARY
Separate from evil, and avoid the evil.
You may have to endure its impacts,
but do not need to embrace its ways.
Part II Separation Theme
FORBIDDEN ALLIANCES
Jehoshaphat was an extraordinary person. Liberal, gracious, keen, zealous, yet he made such errors in judgment concerning things apparently obvious that it is a lesson to all, to be watchful, wary of sudden raptures and ideas, and to be circumspect. Is it possible, one might almost ask, that a man make the same purely free mistake so often, with such results, and then do it more ?
It is not as if it were something beyond his control, even if temporarily. First, he MARRIED a girl from the house of Ahab, monstrous murderer rebuked by Elijah, a daughter of an establishment disadorned by the culture of Jezebel from Tyre, passionate in her preference for Baal, idolatress supreme. With some 400 false prophets at her very table, yes, and that in Israel, even in the house of a King, she was as her name still is, epitome of degradation! It was in the Northern and apostate kingdom, with its golden calves for ready idolatry, to be sure, that this noted painter, of face not canvas, resided; yet it still bore the name of Israel. From THIS culture came the bride for righteous King Jehoshaphat. HOW! But it happened. Was it for political convenience, the dash of a free spirit, to cement relationships between the two sections of what had been Israel ? in pious hope, immersed in disobedience to the divine ? Whatever the motive, it had a motif, pollution.
So to him came the father-in-law as we have seen, and proposed a trifle of battle against a common enemy. Why not ? My people are as yours! says Jehoshaphat in a flush of convivial unity.
What trifling nonsense was that! One sees here how a little domestic folly can produce monstrous misalignment. There was a marriage: ah! but the results.
SPIRITUALLY, and after all this is a matter of the covenant with the Lord, the entirety of their lives, for them as for us who are Christians because of Jesus Christ and in Him, the long-awaited Messiah foretold in such detail by the Hebrew prophets. How then in such a covenantal situation could the King possibly allow a household so divided to be created. It was a combination as one, when yet each, husband and wife, moved for a different reason, in a different direction. Not only so, but one was under the exclusion notice from God, one leading to death penalty in that land, according to the law! (Deuteronomy 13:6). In having the false prophets she was already enticing to what was capital offence. Forget the physical, for the moment to concentrate on the spiritual: this was a disastrous spiritual alliance, a deadly one, one in the very heart of the endless seeming and teeming cultural problems of Israel*1, in that the North had seceded into idolatry.
Here was peril indeed, breeding ruin and trouble (cf. Ezekiel 16,20,22-23).
HENCE the King Jehoshaphat was readily led to battle alongside this prodigy of evil, this Ahab, and nearly lost his life through the cunning strategy of faithless Ahab, as noted previously (I Kings 22:30). In this case, noted in II Chronicles 19, the prophet Hanani asked the King of Judah a question, at his return. How come you are helping the forces of evil! How can you so ally yourself with those who hate the Lord ? THEREFORE the anger of God is on you. The issue of such co-operation with formally idolatrous Israel was no in any doubt! It was a monstrous imposition on the mercy of the Lord.
To be sure, there was much that was commendable in the reforming King Jehoshaphat, and this counted; for an error in a good student in a matter of discipline, not desolation. Yet he was rebuked and his whole action made to appear asinine, disloyal, dangerously close to deluded!
That is an incident. One can be all but blind at times, carried away - if not carefully praying continually - with some notion which later appears near to absurd. But this was only a beginning of this error. We find in II Chronicles 20:36 that this same righteous King made alliance with the son of Ahab, Ahaziah, in a shipping venture. The ships were destroyed, naturally enough; but it was the same family first mistake. In all things the Lord must be first, and He is the One to last to the last. If you MUST ally yourself with what is spiritually ruinous, idolatrous, then to extend the matter to close, co-operative relationships beyond the marital realm merely both shows up the folly in the first place, and extends it. This time the rebuke was the smashing of the ships.
Again, Jehoshaphat pursued this theme. Thus with the next generation from Ahab, in the same line of unspirituality, King Jehoram, he went off on a venture to repay Moab for its treatment of the NORTHERN kingdom, a co-operative military action (II Kingd 3). Naturally they came to grief. They lacked water, they were in trouble as they travel, and Elisha the prophet is called. IF IT WERE NOT for the presence of Jehoshaphat, said that prophet, I would not look at the other King! The prophet needed music, possibly to calm his soul, and then gave a magnificent solution: having first made it so very clear that there would be nothing like this forthcoming for the wicked King Joram. That was an implicit rebuke.
FOSTERING FAITH
It was not as if Jehoshaphat did nothing else, but commit such an error. For example, when the people of Moah, Ammon and others came to battle against him, a massive combination, the King made a masterful historical resumé of their evil in so doing, before the Lord. He used a relevant promise (II Chronicles19:5ff.) which the Lord had given, and this time had a prophet intervene without complication. It was not now to rebuke but to enable.
The Spirit of God came on Jahaziel, who in the name of the Lord declared this:
"Don't be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude,
for the battle is not yours but God's."
He told them to go to the site of the battle, indicating the place and declared:
"You will not need to fight in this battle.
"Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you,
O Judah and Jerusalem."Do not fear or be dismayed: tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord is with you."
So it was.
They went praising the Lord in one of the most zealous preparations for battle. Jehoshaphat had told them this:
"Believe in the LORD your God, and you will be established;
believe His prophets, and you will prosper."
The Hebrew language makes this carry an internal message: MAKE firm your trust in the Lord and you will be made firm.
The same applies today, as in Matthew 7:24ff.. Once you cease to equate spiritual strength and blessedness with carnal prosperity, and see spiritual health and vigour as the point with obedience and appointed service, then the result comes clearly, as Paul, in I Corinthians 4:6ff. with II Corinthians 4:1-15, shows dramatically. Athletes are not so interested in comfort as in races, farmers in ease as in crops, warriors in leisure as in victory. So is the Christian more interested in effectual service of Christ than of himself or herself! Is a mother more concerned with sore feet than the approaching danger of death to her child ? Yet for all that, the good hand of the Lord in one's godly actions is strong, reliable and sure.
Singing, praising God and moving forward, what then did they find ? It was this: divisions among the united forces had turned strength into waste, and they had in their internecine confusion abandoned the site, leaving their gear behind!
Equally notable in Jehoshaphat's record as King, was the emphasis he made on the teaching from the Book of the Law (II Chronicles 17:9), and the national organisation which he secured. He adjured the Judges to be just, equitable, sensitive (II Chronicles 19), and invigorated the priesthood with like concerns of loyalty and reliability.
From the day of the battle alongside Ahab, so vilely misjoined, along with Ahab against Syria, as things developed, trouble came, and augmenting errors of the same kind, as has been traced, could only enhance it. It even moved on to the next generation.
Thus Jehoshaphat's son Jehoram turned out an utter rotter who murdered his brothers and married a daughter of Ahab, as if to keep the folly in the ensuing family! That intransigent King received a letter of rebuke from Elijah (II Chronicles 22:12ff.), who indicated that for his crimes he would have an incurable disease of the intestines. Having no pity, his bowels of pity would become pitiable. Here was a multiple and obsessive killer, seeking power and protection as if humanity were but flies. So as always, what the Lord declared unconditionally, happened.
FURTHERING FOLLIES
Jehoram's son, in turn, Ahaziah, then came to the throne, following all this forbidden alliance with Israel to the North, as if it had not been enough that those people became formally apostate. No, continuingly they had to be toyed with and married into, like basking in the sun in a uranium mine for pleasure. With yet another alliance, this time with Jehoram of Israel, against Syria, Ahaziah pursued this synthetic spirituality, this malodorous course, this disloyalty to God, this admixture of evil liberties with evil established! This indeed was wrought on the part of a nation given the land to exhibit the wonder and glory, the provisions of the Lord (Isaiah 43:21): that a stop came.
God appointed an energetic young man, Jehu to deal with the situation, which he did, killing both of these kings in alliance, as they were recovering from battle duress, and so were not prepared for war. Ahaziah in particular was shot with an arrow while fleeing. Pursue evil and beware lest it pursue you. Be disloyal to what the Lord has appointed for you, betraying trust, and consider what you are doing. If you do not, there is One who does... His mercies are profound, but His eye beholds and He tries the children of men. What wander then ? It is enough that we are a fallen people at the outset, and need reclamation by the grace of the Lord! It is enough that we have valour, though yet imperfect. Adding weight to the challenge is like an athlete insisting on carrying a 10 kilogram weight in a race!
Thus the results of all these things cumulatively came. But this was not all!
This death of King Ahazariah of Judah in turn led to a wilful woman, his mother Athaliah, killing what remained to be killed, as far as she could, of possible princes for the throne, so taking over the kingdom herself - the mother of the slain King, now Queen. Later, one young son having escaped her slaughter, the priest Jehoiada appointed her execution and so Joash at last became King. However, though he put on an excellent and even seemingly zealous show for a time, on the death of the priest, Jehoiada who had delivered him, he went astray, for example sending off vast treasures even temple fare, to avoid the King of Syria. As he transgressed, so the Lord sent a son of Jehoiada, the latter now deceased, to warn him.
"Why do you transgress so that you cannot prosper!"
At the command of King Joash, this prophet was summarily stoned! Christ mentioned this folly (Matthew 23:35). Then Syria came and stripped treasures from the land, leaving Joash to be murdered by those who had had enough of his evil ways.
Thus Judah had a shattering time through these false alliances, false combinations, cultural syntheses, failures with idols or with those who had them, becoming shattered bit by bit, till a stronger King, much later began repairs. The results waited but escalated, rumbled unrefined, rose like a mushroom cloud, radiating horror.
As to Israel of the North, formally idolatrous, a new dynasty came with the appointment of Jehu, noted for killing both Ahazariah of Judah and Jehoram of Israel. Even he after a flush of purgative zeal as new King of Israel to the North, though even that was cruel in kind, went astray.
Kings like Hezekiah and Josiah did wonders in stopping the rot over time, but eventually even Judah went into exile in Babylon for 70 years (to return and move on till the Messiah arrived, to die by divine appointment, sacrificially at the appointed date - The Christian Prescription Ch. 2).
In these false alliances that had gone before, notice even the names of Kings in the two nations had become somewhat intertwined! Thus you have in Judah, the sequence: Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, Ahaziah, while in Israel, Ahab, Ahaziah, Jehoram, Jehu.
What do we learn ? It is this. You can have a fault, and be rebuked, if it should become a practice. You can proceed with it in different forms (here unspiritual synthesis), and find grave results. You can even start a decline and those following may add their own dynamic. Then the whole institution is ready to fall. What was not intended, may be misassessed by the sinful nature of men; but when it is progressive, or supplied in different formats, the same carelessness, then untold are the possible consequences down the line, whether the body be church or nation. It can hit individuals caught in it, as if 'culture' were any excuse for sin. It is, after all, only what a lot of people find it in their hearts to be doing, whether killing or thrilling or clowning or expanding in pride!
The time comes in the minor scale, as in the major, within our Age and as this comes like others, to its terminus. Mini-termini become as time passes, mere preludes to the end. In a nation, it may come as at Waterloo, or if repentance is clear, in deliverance as at Dunkirk. But the end comes for the smaller as for the entirety, till the time of opportunity passes, and the Age being gone, terminal events proceed, just as did creation in the first place. The last wicket falls, and the due and just prediction comes to light as in I Corinthians 15:57ff..
Then is the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to this earth, to manifest truth and judgment (cf. Isaiah 11, Psalm 72, Revelation 19). He comes to gather the wheat and tares, for their appointments, as to gather earth's destiny till it is complete, at which as He created it, so He dismisses it (Colossians 1:15ff., II Peter 3, Matthew 24:35, Isaiah 51:6). He comes for His own, to deliver them from the fateful turmoils before they conclude, and with them, so that the earth may know that the delicious gift of liberty has two edges. It enables love to be genuine, and it enables rebellion to be ultimate. God knows it all and has known before creation began.
Accordingly, the time for the end of the Age comes, and the opportunity to use the grace of God goes for those who ignore it, reject it or rely on idols who neither made nor could make this earth, nor anything but havoc, at which they are good, and which they demonstrate. It is not that they do it themselves; yet as symbols of sin, they call it forth from God who is over all, and sends His grace toward all, if by any means any might repent in time, before time is past for it.
It may seem easy to be spiritually sleazy, but there is no applause for it. Much of the decline has come from falling churches, for which a word is seen in Revelation 2 and 3. It was foretold as a trend in II Peter 3, I Timothy 4, II Timothy 3 and 4, II Thessalonians 2, as in Jeremiah 23 (notably 23:20), Revelation 13, 17-19. Encouraging to the Christian, very many of them now dying for their faith in the Lord as we have seen, is the simple fact that IF such a state of affairs had NOT come, then the return of Christ would be all the longer; for these things MUST come before He does!
FACING SPIRITUAL FACTS BOTH IN CHURCH AND STATE
In terms of Revelation, a church is like a candle-stick allowing the light to travel afar (though of course it does not generate it). If it fails to do this, over the generations, then the light-holder may be removed from it as something dysfunctional, and it becomes past, without a spiritual present, through not presenting the word of God faithfully. It is at least as horrible to have sanctimonious misconceptions of your own sanctity, as to disobey in more obvious manner; and it is no part of the Christian walk to be now perfect (I John 1:7ff.). It is however part of it to strive to be so, with valour and discretion, ready to learn, apt to grow (II Peter 3:18): and playing about with forbidden spiritual alliances now as in Israel in ancient times, merely tends to end in eventual flagrant follies, such as joining with idolatrous peoples or pseudo-churches, till all fall, and only some remain, as is now the position in this world. Seeing evil, the point is not to fall for it, but to awake!
The State cunningly uses these things to seek a large majority of those without secure morals or even truth, so that infidelity, lies, dishonour and profligacy come as alas now seems close to the position even in this once great land, and before long what is proposed nationally becomes as if a vision of a drunkard, who has entirely lost his bearings. A change of the Constitution could then petrify the pollution, and give it a new basis for bigger and darker movements, till all is lost.
It is better to stop smoking than to die of wilfully induced cancer. It is better to live the abundant life of the Lord, rather than BOTH foster folly in one's nation by being unfaithful in one's church, and to endure it quietly, as if nothing mattered but survival; which then has no occasion for concern for when the time comes, the fleet with perish with the slow, for with God there is either escape in faith through repentance to Christ, or else judgment, arresting the reckless and ending the cultural calamities that ruin new generations as if a glutton were eating ice-creams and could not stop!
Fear God and keep His commandments said Solomon. That clean fear, that relished admiration and concern to please God because of His purity and infinite wisdom and love, is a grand thing, and keeping His commandments enhances life, though as with other athletics, it requires self-discipline. Is that so terrible ? Is a high standard deplorable if it means a clean house and a quiet spirit and a strong resolve with the Mighty God one's friend ?
Is a rose preferable to a slug!
But it needs care; and the gardener being Jesus Christ the Just One, there is a way. It is He whose mercy placed Him in ruin on the Cross, to cancel and void ruin for His people who believe and trust in Him alone for their salvation, as sent of the Father (Acts 4:12), and whose deity led to the resurrection of that self-same body which died (Acts 2:22-28), abolishing death and bringing life and immortality to light (II Timothy 1:10). He is needed in your establishment, if you are to be established.
NOTE
The crisis resulting from Moses' absence in Mt Sinai, seeking the Lord for the people, was precipitated by priest Aaron's willingness to receive gold from the people in order to fashion an idol, one reminiscent of idolatrous Egypt, in the form of a calf. This is seen in Exodus 32, notably in 32:21, and it led to Moses' intercession for the people, in which he prevailed (Exodus 32:31ff.), becoming a type of Christ in this, that he offered himself for their sin; but the Lord would not have a sinner for sinners, and yet forgave; for the One to come, the Messiah would cover all who came for this by faith according to His word.
The calf was ground to powder, and the people purged of their licence and recklessness associated with the reversion.
Nor was this alone. The folly with Israel to the North became monstrous and formal with two golden calves, many years later at its separation. With this, by marital alliance, did King Jehoshaphat of southern Judah associate, and the enormity of this sort of imitation is shown in detail in Ezekiel 23! The point is then that it is amazing what errors a man can make; and vastly important to wait on the Lord constantly. Though salvation is sure for those who know the Lord and have received His covenantal mercy by faith, so too is discipline if it is needed! (Hebrews 12). It is not just that life is deliciously abundant in Him, it is deplorable to warrant what spoils what is soiled! for discipline can as King David found, limit! (cf. II Samuel 12:8-12).