Unholy Alliances (2 Chron. 18-21)

The desire to be accepted or reconcile can sometimes ruin seemingly good sense. One of those times in my life that I have probably mentioned before because it was formative was my twelfth birthday party, when I invited a huge cross-section of friends to spend a Friday night and all day Saturday with me celebrating and playing together. Needless to say, I was young and lacked a great deal of any sense at all in wanted everyone to like me and just enjoy being together.

I was a bridge that was not to be crossed living somewhere in the realm of the distant outside of being truly close to anyone in my class at that time. I played softball (poorly) with the athletic group and participated in band (eagerly) with the others and pulled in a few people on the periphery who didn’t have affiliations with either all while subsidizing my life with imaginative literature. 

Maybe one would say I liked everyone and just wanted them to all get along—wishful thinking at best, destructive at worst. After a less than ideal weekend full of strife and warring factions and stress beyond belief for all, but most especially for my mother who was hosting and refereeing, it became evident that I was not to be a bridge that would join any of them together. Their diversity and desire took them in opposing directions, and I was firmly left feeling on the outside of all parties after trying to unite the un-uniteable. They were clear about their ambivalent feelings. They didn’t hate each other, but they didn’t want to spend time together, and I was certainly not enough to unite them.

As I read in 2 Chronicles18-21 about Jehoshaphat’s strange alliance with Ahab, I see his folly in trying to bring together what should not be brought together, whatever his intentions were. Maybe in his success at establishing his kingdom with God’s blessing on it combines with his reforms and goes straight to his head. Maybe he feels powerful and pumped up and thinks he can pull Israel back in, or maybe he thinks his offering of a child in marriage will be a useful bridge between the once-united nation of two kingdoms. Whatever his motivation or desire (which God wisely does not tell us), putting himself into an alliance with such an unholy man lacks much in the areas of wisdom and discernment.

Ahab has already proved himself unholy, wicked even, yet Jehoshaphat not only unites his heir in marriage to Ahab and Jezebel’s daughter, Athaliah, but also travels to Samaria to visit and feast, rubbing elbows intimately with the idolatrous set. While there, Ahab asks Jehoshaphat to fight with him against his enemy. 

If the reader can set aside the fact that Jehoshaphat is where he should not be and with one he should not be with, then Jehoshaphat’s urging of Ahab to seek the word of the Lord before entering battle seems promising (2 Chron. 18:4). The parade of false prophets speaking what Ahab wants to hear should have been the trigger for Jehoshaphat to flee, but he does not. Although he recognizes the falseness of Ahab’s “prophets” and desires the services of a “prophet of the Lord” to speak truth, which he gets through Micaiah, he still acts as Ahab desires and goes into to battle with him—a battle that almost leads to his death. 

Both kings seemly avoid dealing with the truth of Micaiah’s prophecy, which seems odd especially for Jehoshaphat. Who knows, maybe the conversation goes something like this: 

Ahab: “Hey, buddy, why don’t you wear royal, kingly robes, and I will hide among my soldiers in disguise for this battle? You don’t have a dog in this fight, so they won’t be after you. You will be safe, and I can outwit the enemy and this crazy prophet who only tells me bad things. Won’t that be awesome? Come on! Help me by going with me! Be my ally and help me defeat this enemy!” (Subtext for Ahab: “I know better than the Lord and will escape using this wily plan. Then Jehoshaphat will die in my place, and I will be victorious and maybe take over the entire kingdom and have an enemy out of my way, too.”)

Jehoshaphat: “I’m in!” (Subtext: “I’m already here, and the true prophet didn’t say anything about me dying—just Ahab—so I’m in! What do I have to lose? It’s been a boring week anyway.”)

Jehoshaphat’s unholy alliance almost gets him killed. In battle, he appeared to be King Ahab, the one whom the captains of the chariots had been ordered to target. Only when Jehoshaphat cries out to the Lord does God divert them away from him (18:31). Instead of Jehoshaphat’s death, Ahab receives the not-so-random arrow of his enemy, which leads to his death that very day. 

My take-aways on this are two-fold as I consider the idea that the alliances I think to make with this world will never be beneficial in my life:

1. Be wary, regardless of how closely I think I am walking with the Lord, lest the world around me tempt and deceive, leading me to destruction. Fortunately for Jehoshaphat, God answers his cries for help and delivers him. In addition, he sends a seer to him to rebuke him for his poor decision to “help the ungodly and love those who hate the LORD” which in turn brings wrath from the Lord on him. In Jehoshaphat’s favor, he had removed the idols from his land and had set his heart to seek God. This close call is a seeming reminder for Jehoshaphat to return to his mission to ruling in his own land and restoring the hearts of the people to the Lord, the God of their fathers. He appoints judges in the land and urges them to fear the Lord “faithfully and wholeheartedly,” being careful in making just decisions (19:5-9). He recognizes that the battle does not belong to him but to the Lord and urges his people to believe and trust in Him during the hard times, even seemingly hopeless times. God gives him quietness and rest for his kingdom, inciting a fear of Him on all the countries around them when they saw once again that He fights for His own people (20:29-30).
2. Learn the lessons the Lord is teaching me the first time, being careful not to have to repeat the lesson, incurring His judgment and further chaos. After all of this, after his previous experience with Ahab and subsequent rebuke, Jehoshaphat unwisely and wickedly chooses to make another alliance with Israel, which results in judgment: “Because you have allied yourself with Ahaziah, the LORD has broken down what you have built” (20:35-37). Jehoshaphat forgets the lesson he has learned previously. He looks away from God toward another alliance, and God disciplines him. His past sin of allying his kingdom with Israel through Ahab’s daughter comes back to bite. His oldest and heir, Jehoram, the one married to Ahab’s daughter, Athaliah, puts all of Jehoshaphat’s other sons to death after establishing his rule. When Jehoram dies a few years later (after the Lord puts a horrible intestinal disease on him), Athaliah “destroyed the royal family of the house of Judah” (22:10) leaving only one small infant who had been hidden from her wrathful destruction and eventually grows to an age to be made king, bringing her evil rule to an end.

I am reminded again as I read that all of my choices matter in the everyday walk of this life. I am not above falling into temptation as I walk along the cliff’s edge of the idolatry of this world. I must decide: I can either cling tightly to God and His Word and walk in His way or I can make my own way and walk in it at the risk of my life and my soul. 

My ambition should be to pursue God alone, my eyes firmly fixed on Him, looking to Him for strength and salvation, to meet my every need. God help me to do so!