A WORD IN SEASON TO THE WEARY
December 15🕯️🕯️🕯️
“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers”. (2 Cor. 6:14)
We read in 2 Kings 8:18 that Jehoshaphat’s son Jehoram had married Ahab’s daughter. This could not have happened all at once. Ahab was a very subtle man and knew that if he suddenly proposed this match, Jehoshaphat would immediately turn down the proposal. Was not Jehoshaphat a God-fearing man? So, in a clever way, he first made friendly alliance with Jehoshaphat as one king with another. After establishing his friendship, he slowly brought in the marriage proposal. Perhaps Ahab might have even suggested to Jehoshaphat that because he was a God-fearing man, he would be able to convert the girl after she became his daughter-in-law. Somehow Jehoshaphat was persuaded to agree; and his son married Ahab’s daughter. What a tragic downfall followed this marriage! After all the love and zeal Jehoshaphat had shown for God and His Word, now this marriage brought about his downfall. Then Ahab persuaded Jehoshaphat to go with him to battle against Ramoth-Gilead. Notice how cunningly the enemy worked. Ahab did not say abruptly: “Come to my palace in Samaria”. Or “Come with me to battle in Ramoth-gilead”. He planned it all very cunningly in order to bring strong yet subtle pressure upon Jehoshaphat. By this time Jehoshaphat was so tightly caught in Ahab’s net that he did not even pay attention to the warning given by the prophet Micaiah (2 Chronicles 18: 8-22).
In Deut. 7:3 and Joshua 23:12, God had given solemn warning against marriages with the heathen. Ahab had married a heathen woman, Jezebel, who was noted for her idolatrous practices. Now his family was no better that a heathen family. In spite of this Jehoshaphat had taken Ahab’s daughter, Athaliah, to be his son Jehoram’s wife. Thus Jehoshaphat had fallen into Ahab’s trap. Now, like a slave, he accompanied Ahab to the battle, in spite of the prophet Micaiah’s repeated and emphatic warnings. He was a good king, and a zealous one. But, sad to say, he had fallen low under the influence of Ahab. Through the marriage alliance and through feasts and friendships, the devil had made him weak. Whenever we do anything wrong, even if we do it sincerely or unknowingly, we become weak spiritually.
