Unholy Alliance

Recently, as I was doing my Bible readings, I recognized how careful we must be about the people we are aligned with and even those who we are around. There are people who will distract us from our purpose and what God is doing in our lives. Jesus knew this.

When Jesus came into the official’s house, and saw the flute-players and the crowd in noisy disorder, He said, “Leave; for the girl has not died, but is asleep.” And they began laughing at Him. But when the crowd had been sent out, He entered and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. Matthew 9:23-25

Not everyone will understand us and our purpose in God, so sometimes we have to shut them out. This is not about being mean, but rather it is about keeping focused on God’s will for our lives. There are times we cannot do what He would have us do or hear His voice when the disorderly unbelieving crowd is around us. We need to let them go and let God have His way.

Also, we must be careful about who we are connected with. King Jehoshaphat forgot this after the Lord battled on Judah’s behalf. Jehoshaphat had been afraid because his enemies were coming against him, so he turned his attention to seeking the Lord. The Lord answered and defeated his enemy in a mighty way. However, later, Jehoshaphat formed an alliance with the Israelite king which was not pleasing to the Lord.

After this Jehoshaphat king of Judah allied himself with Ahaziah king of Israel. He acted wickedly in so doing. So he allied himself with him to make ships to go to Tarshish, and they made the ships in Ezion-geber. Then Eliezer the son of Dodavahu of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat saying, “Because you have allied yourself with Ahaziah, the Lord has destroyed your works.” So the ships were broken and could not go to Tarshish. 2 Chronicles 20:35-37

We rarely hear preaching about the destruction of the works of Jehoshaphat because of his unholy alliance. However, it is a great lesson to remember. We must be careful that our partnerships are ordained by the Lord or else they could lead us off His path and down a road to ruin. Unfortunately, Jehoram, Jehoshaphat’s son, did not learn from his father’s mistake and married the wrong woman which led him to do evil in the Lord’s sight.

Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab did (for Ahab’s daughter was his wife), and he did evil in the sight of the Lord…Then the Lord stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines and the Arabs who bordered the Ethiopians; and they came against Judah and invaded it, and carried away all the possessions found in the king’s house together with his sons and his wives, so that no son was left to him except Jehoahaz, the youngest of his sons. So after all this the Lord smote him in his bowels with an incurable sickness. Now it came about in the course of time, at the end of two years, that his bowels came out because of his sickness and he died in great pain. And his people made no fire for him like the fire for his fathers. He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years; and he departed with no one’s regret, and they buried him in the city of David, but not in the tombs of the kings. 2 Chronicles 21:5-6 and 16-20

The words “for Ahab’s daughter was his wife” are very important and key to his downfall. The writer seems to attribute Jehoram doing evil in the sight of the Lord because of his union with his wife. This led to his disgraceful death. When he died no one regretted it and He wasn’t even buried in the tombs of the kings. During Jehoram’s short eight-year reign as king, Elijah prophesied that because he had caused Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to play the harlot like the house of Ahab plus he killed his family, the Lord was going to bring a calamity on his own family and his possessions, and he would suffer a severe disease. It is never good to let our alliances lead us away from the Lord or we will pay the consequences.

Let me give a little background on Jehoram’s wife. Her name was Athaliah, and her parents were King Ahab and the infamous Queen Jezebel of Israel. In the book recording the life of the kings of Judah and Israel, Ahab was described as an extremely nefarious king whose wife encouraged him to do wrong.

Surely there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do evil in the sight of the LORD, because Jezebel his wife incited him. 1 Kings 21:25

Ahab did detestable acts before the Lord while his life partner, Jezebel, was always plotting a wicked scheme. She wanted to kill Elijah after he proved the Lord stronger than the god of the prophets of Baal, who was also her god. Another of her atrocious acts was to have an innocent man stoned to death so her greedy husband could take his land. The Lord who is holy and just rose up against Ahab and Jezebel and they both died in horrendous ways. It is never good to come against the Lord. Therefore, in order to be pleasing in His sight it is best never to have an unholy alliance.