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2 Chronicles 20:35 "After this Jehoshaphat king of Judah joined with Ahaziah king of Israel who did wickedly." (Jehoshaphat again! God's trying to tell me something!) 

 

Here we see Jehoshaphat (who was, again, considered a pretty good king of Judah) joining with Ahaziah, the wicked son of the wicked King Ahab, with whom Jehoshaphat had previously allied. Later, the prophet Eliezer will tell Jehoshaphat "Because you have joined with Ahaziah, the Lord will destroy what you have made." (2 Chronicles 20:37), and all of the ships that Jehoshaphat and Ahaziah had built together were destroyed.

 

As I am pondering why I am getting repeated readings on Jehoshaphat, I'm thinking perhaps it is to warn me about making "alliances" with those I know to be acting wickedly. "Wicked" is a loaded word in our culture, but really all it means is not obeying God's law, not striving to do His will. There are plenty of people who are acting this way, and I think God is warning me not to be "allied" with them. As I said yesterday, knowing that someone is an "enemy" because they are behaving badly and hurting themselves or others, does not excuse me from loving and praying for them. But we can be very confused about what love means. We often let ourselves believe it means it is alright, or even required, to stay in relationship with people who are unabashedly doing wicked things, while making allowances for their wicked behavior by telling ourselves we are not to judge.

 

We are not to judge people, Jesus made that abundantly clear. But we do have to exercise discretion in our relationships and alliances lest we become so tolerant of wickedness that we fail to see it for what it is. We can know we are still being loving of others if we continue to pray for people who are acting badly, and sincerely hope to meet them again in Heaven, where both their and our sins will have been washed away in the blood of the Lamb. Until then, though, if people are denying truth or acting in immoral or mean-spirited ways, we do not have to continue to be in "alliance" or relationship with them. In fact we should not, since it is harmful for our souls to be exposed to their wickedness and possibly even come to think of it as good.

 

I am thinking of personal relationships as I write this, but this applies to our leaders as well. The Fourth Commandment bids us to honor and obey those in rightful authority over us, and so we must, just as Jesus obeyed Pilate. But we should not form undo attachments to our leaders, especially if they are acting wickedly. Rather, we trust that God is intervening in their lives and in world events as He sees fit while we obey our leaders' lawful authority. But we know that only God is God, and we should not form alliances with anyone not following His law.