2 Chronicles 19:2
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.
King Jehosaphat was a good man and a great King, but all great men have their weaknesses; usually, our strengths become our weaknesses. Those things that come so easily to our nature tend to go beyond the bounds of usefulness and into the area of error. For Peter, his strong point was his boldness, yet that was also his weakness, he didn't mind speaking up and speaking out, yet he also didn't know when to shut up. Barnabas was a lover of the weaker brethren and was willing to take men under his arm when no one else would, that was also the very same thing that severed his relationship with Paul. For Jehosaphat, he had a genuine desire to reform Judah and restore its glory. One of his first acts as King was to send teaching priests throughout Judah so that the Law of the Lord might be known, then later he established Judges to handle civil matters according to the Law of the Lord. It seems that he had a desire to unite Israel and while this was a noble desire it clouded his judgment when it came to the northern Kingdom and its wicked Kings. So his strength became his weakness and he made alliances with Ahab and after Ahab's death, with Ahaziah, Ahab's son.
There is a question in our verse that we want to answer today, "Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD?" This is a question that the church as a whole needs to know the answer to. In today's climate most would answer that question without a second thought, "Yes, of course, we should," but it is apparent from our text God was not pleased with his help of King Ahab, "Therefore wrath is upon thee from before the LORD." God was displeased with the help of the ungodly and the type of love extended to those who hated the LORD. Many Churches who major in helping others and loving sinners, if they are not careful will become accomplices in their sin and help their pathway to destruction. So this is a time when discernment is needed, we are to love our enemy, and we are to compel sinners to come in, but the second our love for their soul devolves into a carnal type of "love" that allows them to live how they please and find acceptance whilst still unreformed, then our "love" is no longer Love. God loves this world, he loves sinners, He is "not willing that any should perish," but the latter end of that verse shows the stipulation of his partnership, "But that all should come to repentance." God's being joined to us has a limit, he will not save those who will not repent and believe in Christ.
Helping the ungodly in their ungodliness is not only displeasing to God but devastating to us. Jehosaphat was a good man but he kept bad company, and his children were influenced by the bad company he kept. His son, Jehoram, had grown up around these terrible influences and when he got ready to take a wife he married the daughter of Ahab. After all, Dad always united with their family, so why shouldn't I? As you could expect Jezebel's Daughter turned out to be a spitting image of her mother. Jehoram was not like Jehosaphat at all but walked in the way of Ahab and Jezebel. After his death his son Ahaziah took the throne and did as wickedly as his father did, and His mother, the daughter of Ahab, counseled him in it. Ahaziah died and his mother killed all his children so that she could reign in his stead. Yet, by God's providence, one of Ahaziah's sons was saved alive and kept in hiding and several years later ascended to the throne.
I doubt Jehosaphat ever looked this far down the line, when he saw his children playing with the children of Ahab all he could see were children at play, when he went to help Ahab all he could think of was, "What if he reforms and turns back and all Israel is one nation again." Would to God he could have seen those children 30 years down the road married, worshipping the god of Jezebel instead of the God of Israel, or perhaps he looked 2 generations down the line when that little girl would murder his grandchildren to take the throne for herself and live out the legacy of her mother in the southern Kingdom as Jezebel did in the northern Kingdom. The kingdoms were united but in wickedness not in holiness, for several years both kingdoms became worshippers of Baal instead of God. So when we see what looks innocent at the moment perhaps we should ask ourselves the question Jehu asked Jehosaphat, "Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD?"
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