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2 Chronicles 21:4-7 “The Ruin of Living in Two Worlds” April 22, 2020

Open your to 2 Chronicles 21:4. We’re going to look at that as we continue in our Wednesday studies tonight. So let’s pray together. (Pastor Jack prays.)

All right. 2 Chronicles 21:4. The book of Chronicles gives to us from the LORD the history, more often than not, of the kings of Judah. If you were with us last week, or if you were with us on Wednesday night as we were heading through Kings and beginning there, when died, the nation of Israel split into two. There was the northern kingdom of Israel, the southern kingdom of Judah. That’s what they’re called during this time of the split. The split happened in 931 B.C. The northern kingdom was formed by a bunch of rebels against God’s Word. He didn’t ask them to go. His name was in . The priesthood was there. The place of sacrifice was there. But they rebelled against all of that, and they went north. They set up places of worship that God didn’t allow. They lowered the standard for the priests. They absolutely defied the things of God. They lasted for 209 years. They were wiped out by the Assyrians in 722 B.C. They had nineteen kings; they had nine different dynasties – all of that happening in the north, called Israel during this time. So you have to be careful as you read. When you read “Israel,” it isn’t all of Israel during that time; it is the northern kingdom.

In the south, where , Solomon’s son, stayed, eventually they got some good kings. They had twenty in all but all one dynasty, one family, one descendancy. Eight good kings. They lasted until 606 B.C. when the Babylonians were sent by the LORD not to wipe them out but to take them into captivity for seventy years so they could learn not to worship idols. And so there is this southern kingdom of Judah, northern kingdom of Israel. We’ve mentioned to you a couple of times – when you read through the and Chronicles, be careful because sometimes the kings have the same names, and that can become very confusing. So you want to read very carefully, and we’ll point that out again to you tonight.

Which is why we put Wednesday nights first through the historical books on hold. We’re just starting 1 Kings, but we want to give you all of these handouts so you’ll have a chart of the names of the kings and their reigns, how they died, where they’re found in the so that you can learn with us all that God wants to teach us.

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Well, last week we looked at the history of a couple of things. We actually looked at three men in particular. We looked at King , who was a good king from the south. There are no good kings in the north. He was reigning at the time that , a very wicked king, was reigning in the north. And we looked at a prophet named Micaiah, who was sent by the LORD to give counsel not only to Ahab, the wicked king, but to the southern king, Jehoshaphat, who had come to visit him.

By the time we come here to 2 Chronicles 21, Jehoshaphat, the good king, has died. He died in 848 B.C. He had ruled for twenty-five years. He had followed his father Asa, who had reigned for forty-one years. In his father’s footsteps, he also had walked with the LORD, and now his son, Jehoram, is coming to the throne.

If you are with me, and I suspect that you are already now in 2 Chronicles, if I can have you just turn back a couple of verses to verse 3 of chapter 17, here’s what it says about Jehoshaphat, this king that has just died, about his life. It says, “Now the LORD was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the former ways of his father ; he did not seek the Baals, but sought the God of his father, and walked in His commandments and not according to the acts of Israel.” Those would be the northern kingdom. “Therefore the LORD established the kingdom in his hand; and all Judah gave presents to Jehoshaphat, and he had riches and honor in abundance. And his heart took delight in the ways of the LORD; moreover he removed the high places and wooden images from Judah. Also in the third year of his reign, he sent his leaders,” (and you have a whole list of them there, down through verse 9) “who taught in Judah, and had the Book of the Law of the LORD with them; they went throughout all the cities of Judah and taught the people. And the fear of the LORD fell on all the kingdoms of the lands that were around Judah, so that they did not make war against Jehoshaphat. Also some of the brought Jehoshaphat presents and silver as tribute; and the Arabians brought him flocks, seven thousand seven hundred rams and seven thousand seven hundred male goats. So Jehoshaphat became increasingly powerful, and he built fortresses and storage cities in Judah.” So the effects of the godly leadership of King Jehoshaphat, that we were interested in last week and that we will continue with today, cannot be overstated. I mean, look at these nine or ten verses, how the LORD spoke about the spiritual reforms that he brought to the land, just like his father Asa had begun. When he died, according to chapter 21 here (that we’re at), verses 1, 2 and 3, Jehoshaphat had seven boys. And the oldest one, Jehoram, would come to be king. He would reign for eight years. But he would turn out to be

2 one of the more wicked kings, maybe one of the most wicked kings that Judah would see during their time. And the obvious question becomes – how does a man who had such positive influence on his country, on the spiritual well-being of the people in general, raise a boy who, at 32 years old, absolutely goes over the spiritual edge, in eight short years cripples a nation spiritually and then dies, leaving an even worse son than himself to be the successor? And I think that the Bible gives us some answers about how our influence affects not only our family but our nation or the people around us, just really everyone who watches over us. How can we live in a way that would be encouraging to others, both in a general sense and personally in those that know us well?

So I want to take you just through a few minutes of thinking about Jehoshaphat, a man who seemed to long to live with one foot in two different places. And I think the key to what follows his life is just that – he was a good king with a very large blind spot. There were lots of things that he accomplished that were obviously amazing. The LORD says of him he was a good king. He walked in the ways of his father (or great-great-grandfather, David), if you will. He followed the way of his father Asa, and yet it kind of stopped with him. The biblical record of King Jehoshaphat covers five chapters. We looked at one of them (1 Kings 22) last week. You can read the rest of them here in chapters 17-20 of 2 Chronicles. And what we learn fairly quickly is that though he has a true heart before the LORD of change, and he believed in the things that God said, yet he found himself constantly having an affinity for a relationship with – he was just enamored by – the sins of the wicked and rebellious northern kingdom of Israel. And he went there often.

We read last week, if you were with us, that Jehoshaphat sought peace with King Ahab; peace with a people who hated God, wanted nothing to do with Him or His Word or His ways. They were idolaters. They were immoral. There was a very perverted sense of life in the north, a place, like I said, that went through nineteen kings and nine dynasties in 209 years and just absolutely was judged by the LORD and wiped out. They were never allowed to be returning as northern Israel.

But here’s Jehoshaphat. He seemed fascinated and intrigued. He seemed to be drawn to the lifestyle of people who had set the LORD aside, who lived their lives in the flesh. He liked looking on and keeping up with those in the world, and we find that to be especially true in the days of Ahab and his wife Jezebel. There

3 were deals made (various) and constant visits to them. There were pacts made with them. You might remember, if you were with us last week, that while he was there visiting the north, it was Ahab who said to Jehoshaphat, “Will you join me in battle?” and Jehoshaphat said, “Sure, man. I’ll help. Now, could we inquire of the LORD, see what He wants to do?” And they brought all these false prophets in, and Jehoshaphat, being a godly man, said, “Look, these aren’t prophets. Do you have anybody that actually talks for the LORD?” He said, “I have one guy, Micaiah. I hate him. He always tells me what I don’t want to hear and always speaks evil of me.” And he said, “Well, let’s bring him in here.” And, just to condense what we learned last week, Micaiah just said, “Look, God doesn’t want you to go. He hates what you’re doing, he hates where you’re going, and He’s going to use this as an opportunity to take you out, Ahab. You’re gonna die! You’re never comin’ back! The people are gonna learn who the LORD really is.” And you would think that a real word from a real prophet might have been enough to say to Jehoshaphat, a godly king, “I’m not goin’ to this battle!” But he doesn’t. He just says, “All right. Let’s go to battle.” He has God’s Word, but he ignores it. In the battle, Ahab is killed exactly like God had declared. Jehoshaphat barely escapes with his life. If you remember the story, Ahab actually talked him into riding out into the battle in the royal chariot (exposes the king) while Ahab, realizing they were after him, hid amongst his soldiers. God found him anyway, if you were with us last week. But let’s just make it clear. He had heard from the LORD and hadn’t listened, Jehoshaphat. Barely got away.

If you’re still with me there in 2 Chronicles, just flip ahead to chapter 19. The first three verses of chapter 19 record for us Jehoshaphat’s trip back south to Jerusalem. And on his way, he met a prophet, and this prophet spoke to him, and he said, in verse 2 of chapter 19, “ ‘Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the LORD? Therefore the wrath of the LORD is upon you. Nevertheless good things are found in you, in that you have removed the wooden images from the land, and have prepared your heart to seek God.’ ” So here comes a prophet, as he’s leaving this battle in which his buddy was killed; he almost lost his life. And the prophet says, “Why are you loving those who hate God? What are you doing up here? And God’s angry with you. His wrath is upon you. But God finds good things in your life.” Isn’t that interesting? This dichotomy. Last week, we read early on of Jehoshaphat that he hadn’t removed the idols. But now, later on, we read now he has begun to do that as well. He’s moving in the right direction. He’s making a lot of good choices, if you will. But here come some very targeted words for a very vacillating king, and he says to him, “You have alliances and friendship and closeness

4 with the world, and you shouldn’t be here. These are folks that hate the LORD. And yet, on the other hand, you’ve removed the high places, your heart is prepared to hear from God, you’re a soft-hearted guy. You’re just kind of caught in the middle, and it’s not going to help you very much.” In fact, I’ll tell you how close he was to Ahab. When Jehoshaphat had a son, he named him Jehoram, the same name that Ahab had named his son. And so when you read the accounts, be careful which one you’re reading about – the northern or the southern kingdom. Later on, in another alliance, this time with Jehoram, Ahab’s son who would follow him to the throne, Jehoshaphat shows up again to fight with the north. It is a time when the prophet Elisha is out and about. You can read about it in 2 Kings 3. Jehoram says to Elisha, “Are we going to win this battle? Should we be fighting? What does the LORD want?” And Elisha looks at this prophet, and he says, “Why don’t you go talk to your father’s prophets? Why are you talking to me?” And he said, “No, no. I want to hear from you.” And Elisha said, “As the LORD lives, and before whom I stand, if Jehoshaphat wasn’t with you, I wouldn’t even talk to you or look at you.” So, again, Jehoshaphat is that man who is close to the LORD but in the wrong place, in the wrong situation. And, again, he is pointed out as being the fellow that, alone, brings God’s response. So God favors Jehoshaphat because of his dedication spiritually. On the other hand, he still finds himself where he doesn’t belong.

And so, after the warning that you read here in these first three verses of , Jehoshaphat goes home, and he listens to the advice of the LORD. He begins to lead the people of Judah in the ways of the LORD. I’m just summarizing what you can read in the next couple of chapters. He leads them against the Moabites. He leads them in fasting and prayer for deliverance from an enemy that was far stronger than they. He leads them in this phenomenal experience of seeing God deliver them. In fact, if you begin in verse 14 of chapter 20, you will find this celebrated and amazing work of God amongst His people, led by this godly king, Jehoshaphat. Certainly you would say, as you read this, “Well, there you go. Now he must have his heart secured. Right? This must be it. He’s certainly, now, sure of the LORD.” That’s not it. In fact, if you get to verse 35 of chapter 20, you will read of Jehoshaphat joining a business venture, a business relationship with a fellow in the north. His name is Ahaziah. He is one of Ahab’s sons. And you’ll read, there in verse 37, of him that he did very wickedly. So, on the one hand, you have this great victory, the prophets come, gives him credibility and says, “I’ll share with you what’s going to happen because you’re here.” And yet, on the other hand, he turns right around, makes a business deal with the northern king. So inconsistent and so unwilling to turn. God so hated this

5 business venture (in chapter 20:37) that He sends another prophet named Eliezer to Jehoshaphat to say to him, “This business is going to go belly up. Buddy, you’re not going to have a chance with this.” And that’s exactly what happened. And Jehoshaphat even finds the LORD fighting against him in a place he shouldn’t have been at all.

So, as you read Jehoshaphat’s life, you come to the conclusion that it’s one of tremendous inconsistencies. On the one hand, he is a godly man who served the LORD, a good king who called the people back to the LORD, who led the people in their spiritual well-being. And yet privately he was a guy that loved to go north, named his boy after one of the kings in the north, went there to make deals, to fight battles, to form business relationships with them in the north though, at every point that he went, God said, “Don’t be here!” But there he found himself. He developed business relationships, political alliances, and God was angry, and eventually there would be judgment.

Now, he is a man that lives in two worlds and, as a result, it ruins not only the lives of his children but of his family, ultimately of his nation. It’s a fascination in his own heart that had great effect upon his son, especially his eldest son. Jehoshaphat, I suspect, believed he could live in both worlds and get away with it; not be touched by the northern kingdom and its influence. His boy had a much more difficult time, and the low moral climate and the life without God in the north and the sensual ways of the flesh – for his son – brought great ruin.

As a young man, Jehoram married (Jehoram being Jehoshaphat’s boy) one of Ahab’s children, one of his daughters. Now let’s go here in 2 Chronicles 21:4. Let’s just read these few verses of him. It says, “Now when Jehoram was established over the kingdom of his father, he strengthened himself and killed all his brothers with the sword, and also others of the princes of Israel. Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel,” (not of Judah but of the north) “just as the house of Ahab had done, for he had the daughter of Ahab as a wife; and he did evil in the sight of the LORD. Yet the LORD would not destroy the house of David, because of the covenant that He made with David, and since He had promised to give a lamp to him and to his sons forever.” So this follows on the heels of Asa’s (grandpa’s) forty-one years of godliness and Jehoshaphat’s (the fellow that we’re kind of focusing on) twenty-five years of publicly being a very godly leader that had great influence for good for the LORD upon the people. And here comes

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Jehoram, a fellow that is named just like Ahab had named one of his sons, and now we get another inkling because now he marries one of Ahab’s daughters. Her name is . (We know that from the chapters that follow.) Unlike his father Jehoshaphat, who seemed to be able to straddle the line, this young man was quickly taken in by the flirtatiousness with sin. It knocked him off balance. His stance with the LORD was far weaker than his father’s. His fall was more dramatic, if you will. Evil (or wickedness) quickly overtook him, and in a matter of just eight years – from thirty-two to forty – the enticements of the flesh, the allurement that came with the idolatry in the north, just filled his heart, and it isn’t long before he brings that to Judah, to the south. And all that his father had done to move the people closer to the LORD, in just a few years this young man took them away again, and the consequences were severe.

Certainly what you learn and what you allow in your life has a tremendous impact upon others. You can certainly make a case that there’re lots of folks that look like Jehoshaphat. They’re upstanding citizens, they’re in church every week, they love their Bible and know it well, they have a respect for God and His Word, they’re upstanding and influential, and people admire them. And yet, when all is said and done, if you really knew them well, they have a second life – one that finds them in the business world, in the political world, just in the world, and it has even greater effect upon their hearts than anything else. And so there’s that private and there’s that public; there’s that well-known and not-very-well-known. And we find Jehoshaphat to be one of those fellows. And so if you’re a chameleon that you can come into the church and, man, you just fit right in and then you walk out into the world, and no one can tell the difference, that’s a problem. And if you’re equally as comfortable in the world as you are fascinated by life in the world, don’t be surprised if your kids, your family, your friends, and everyone else that you have influence over does the same. If you teach your kids that the price of doing business is just being in league with unbelievers, then you might end up fighting with God as Jehoshaphat did in his little alliance for that boating business that he tried to establish, there in chapter 20:35-36. The LORD is not for those things. He won’t support them in any way. “Friendship with the world,” James (4:4) says, “is making yourself an enemy of God.” “Don’t love the world,” John would write (1 John 2:15), “or the things of the world because the love of the world is not the love of the Father.” It’s not what God wants.

But Jehoshaphat was a good man. I mean, read what God says of him. Much fruit, great accomplishments. And then. And there’s that influence that seems to just

7 fight against him. When Paul wrote to the Romans in chapter 1:32, he said, “Knowing the righteous judgment of God, there are those who practice these things that are worthy of death and not only do they practice them, but they approve those who practice them.” It’s kind of like that’s Jehoshaphat in a nutshell in one verse. He, on the one hand, stayed away from the things that you would see in the world and say, “Well, the LORD’s not for that.” But, on the other hand, he went to approve, constantly, and support those who were living contrary to the LORD. So our warning, I guess, is not to find any pleasure in or allurement in the world. Jehoshaphat, I believe he thought he could handle it. Maybe you think you can handle it, if that’s your life. But seriously, I doubt that you can. Everything that the Bible would say to us would say you can’t. “Don’t be deceived, God is not mocked; what a man sows, he will also reap” (Galatians 6:7). Paul wrote to the Romans, in chapter 6:21, “What fruit do you have in the things which you’re now ashamed? The end of these things is death. And you’ve been set free from sin. You can become a slave to God. You can have fruit to holiness, and then you can have eternal life.” But you’re going to have to come out. You’re going to have to walk away from that life in the flesh. Hosea the prophet wrote (chapter 8:7, 10:12), “When you sow to the wind, you’ll reap the whirlwind. The stalk has no bud; it won’t produce meal. If it does, the aliens swallow it up. Sow to yourself righteousness; reap in mercy; break up the fallow ground. Seek the LORD so He can rain righteousness upon you.” See, there has to be this choice. Jehoshaphat walked in both sides, and I’m not sure he’s the last guy to do that. And maybe you find yourself tonight being that kind of – you know, you’re proud of the fact you can fit in anywhere. But that’s really not something to be so proud of. “Come out from among them” (2 Corinthians 6:17). Stand apart. That’s what the Lord says. If they don’t recognize you for your faith in Christ, then what kind of witness are you?

Well, I want you to notice, here in our verses, the result of Jehoshaphat’s indiscretions on Jehoram, his son, who seemed to be overwhelmed by all of those things much more quickly. Number one – he kills all of his brothers and some other leaders in Israel. From verse 13, we gather that he killed his brothers because they disapproved of his choices and had more been influenced (the young ones) by their father’s faithfulness than the older son had by his father’s tolerance. And so there’s a mention in verse 13 that they were killed because they supported Jehoshaphat’s walk with God. And so that was the first……he wanted to kill the conscience of his brothers, of his own family. Second of all, we read in verse 6 that he walked in the counsel of the kings of Israel, of the house of Ahab, where

8 he spent a lot of time, where his dad loved to go, where he had been married into the family. You might remember (if you don’t, I can tell you) that Ahab brought the Baal worship into the northern kingdom. Before that, there were different idols. But he brought Baal worship and introduced it to Israel. It consisted of sexual perversion, temple prostitutes, even the sacrificing of children upon the altar. Horrible practice. Horrible religious perversion. Jehoram’s wife, Athaliah (you can read about her in the next chapter), was a real gem. When Jehoram died, and her son Ahaziah was killed, she actually went in and killed every possible successor to the throne of her own grandchildren and took the throne herself for six years. Were it not for the work of God, in hiding, one of the grandchildren, Joash, who would be the next king that God would move things forward in that lineage, the LORD had prepared and protected him, but this is the family that follows Jehoshaphat. Jehoram, Athaliah, and just the wickedness that you find in their history.

Now you can read, in chapter 22, about the plots of Athaliah to destroy the lineage to the throne. She really operated from the standpoint of, “If my son can’t have it, then no one can.” And thank the LORD that God sees all. He steps in, He has His way even as the men, in their wickedness, seek to pursue their own. And yet you look at the legacy of King Jehoshaphat, twenty-five years of faithfulness, and yet it is marred by and it is far less glorious than it might have been, because of his willingness to live in both places. And that effect is seen in the life of his son.

Notice in verse 7 here, of 2 Chronicles 21, that the LORD, in His goodness, in His awesome patience, did not destroy the southern kingdom as He might have because He had promised to David a descendancy. And He would see that through though there was nothing there to warrant it. It was all by the grace of God.

We read, in verse 5 here, that Jehoram would only rule for eight years. We learn, as you continue in the chapter, that the last two of those years would be suffering with tremendous, extreme illness. By the time that he is forty, he dies a horrible death, and you can read about it in detail here. I won’t read it for you now. But suffice it to say maybe it came from those years of hanging around the Baal temple. We don’t know. But whatever caused it, what he was exposed to, he dies. Quickly, eight years, the last two very sick.

We read, in verse 19 of this chapter, that when he died there was no grief amongst the people. There was no national despair at the loss of their king. There was no

9 state funeral or an offer to bury him in the sepulcher of the kings of Jerusalem. He was absolutely just kind of discounted by the people. They had no respect for him whatsoever. But notice his sinful life didn’t last long. A life in the flesh doesn’t really last long, ever. God is merciful. He will maybe stand by for years to watch and wait upon you, but eventually those years have to come to an end. And Jehoram lived those years to the full. Maybe he concluded, like some folks do, that, “Hey, look, nothin’s happened to me yet, so God must approve. Or, if He doesn’t approve, maybe He’s too weak to do anything about it. Or maybe He just doesn’t care.” Well none of those things are true, not biblically, not in the story before us. If you read chapter 21, you find that there were many warning signs along the road for Jehoram. If he had been paying any attention at all, verse 8 tells us that, from a government standpoint, he quickly lost the taxation from from which his father had been collecting taxes for a long time. He then, in verse 10, lost that same relationship with , both of whom were paying tribute for years to Judah. He then received, in verse 12, a letter written by the hand of Elijah. And Elijah wrote him a letter and warned him about the way that he was living and the harlotry that was found and the horrible ways in which he had treated his brothers from his father’s household, even saying to him, “You killed your own brothers, and they were much better than you.” And that the LORD was aware of his behavior and that he should realize that judgment was coming. The prophet Elijah, of all people, wrote him a letter and had it delivered to him; and still, it had no effect upon his heart.

Beginning in verse 16, same chapter, the Philistines come to attack. Then the Arabians join in. Then the Ethiopians join in. And the death of much of his own family is as a result. Life could not have been harder for this young man who would spend eight years at the helm. But there was no turning back for him. It didn’t seem like anything could stop the path that he took, like he was impervious to the directions of the LORD. It didn’t affect him, it didn’t move him, it didn’t seem to matter to him, whatever, in any case.

When you get to chapter 22, beginning in verse 3, you will meet his son, who is far worse than his father. He would only be allowed to rule for one year before he is killed in judgment by the hands of another. And then we will meet . And again, you’ll have to kind of be careful as you read. But Jehu would be the one that the LORD would use to clean up the house of Ahab in the north but also deal with this fellow, Jehoram, in the south.

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I guess we should never misinterpret the longsuffering of God as His approval or His lack of concern or of His weakness. Don’t ever use the argument to say – and I’ve heard it from people before – “Hey, the Lord’s still blessin’ me. I must be all right.” Really? You don’t know anything about God’s grace, then. God will wait upon you because He cares for you so much. But there’s a verse in Ecclesiastes 8 (and we’ll get to that on Sunday morning, here, a little while down the road) that says, “Because a sentence is not speedily exercised against an evil work, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil” (verse 11). Or, if you want, God will wait long enough to where you’ll have no excuse. He’ll be gracious to you. You’ll defy Him, and He’ll wait. And if you don’t repent, if you don’t listen, if you don’t respond to the work of God’s Spirit, when judgment comes, you’ll have no argument because God has been faithful to wait upon you. Paul said to the Romans, in chapter 2:4, “Do you despise God’s goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that it is the goodness of God that is supposed to be leading you to repentance?” And so God wants to give you time.

And He gave Jehoram time, certainly. There’s that verse in Numbers 32, where the LORD says to the nation Israel, “Your sin will find you out” (verse 23). And, indeed, that was the case here. At some point, you pay the price for your sins. And it has an effect and, in the end, disastrous consequences. But this was all precipitated, at least in part, by a king who was a good king, a godly man, great influence, who just liked to live in both worlds. God help us to see that we’re supposed to be in the world as a light. We’re not supposed to be in the world as willing participants. And the ministry of reaching out to the Lord is also not a sideline job. We’re supposed to get in there and share our faith. Our world continues to deliberately turn its back upon the Lord and His Word, and it’s going to be to you that they turn in anger, that they lash out. But yet we’re not supposed to be of the world; we’re supposed to be in the world to be a witness, but we’re not supposed to be of the world. And so we’ve said so often the world is a place to go for ministry. It’s an outreach place. It’s where we put on our best face and bring our best thought and our best word, praying for God’s Spirit to move mightily. And then, in the church, hey, this is a place for fellowship and marriage and business relationships and love and support and togetherness, which is what we miss so much now. But that’s not the way it’s supposed to be with the world. But for Jehoshaphat, from the throne he was a godly man; everything went right according to what God would want. And the LORD blessed the people as a result. But privately, and not so private really, he often went north, he sat with the king, his son married into the family. There’re allegiances and alliances and agreements

11 and business relationships and political rambling – all with the wrong guy, doing the wrong thing. Even so the prophet said to him, “Why are you loving those who hate God? Why are you investing yourself in them?”

So the days of Jehoshaphat, who left the place of blessing to hang around with the evils of sin – thinking he could handle it, were disappointing in the end. His son couldn’t handle it, neither could his son after him. And what had been, for sixty- plus years, godliness upon the throne, kind of degenerated to this so quickly. It reminds me a little bit of Lot. You know, Lot lived in Sodom. We know from the Bible that Lot was righteous. Peter tells us that. I don’t know if we would have come up with, “Hey, I’m sure Lot made it to heaven.” We probably wouldn’t come up with that from the , but a comment from Peter assures us otherwise, written by God’s Spirit (2 Peter 2:7). But Lot lived in Sodom and, as a result of living in Sodom, he lost most of his family to sin. He was enamored by it. He barely got out. Most in his family did not. And those that he could drag out with him were corrupted by the world for the rest of their lives. It wasn’t a good place for him to be.

So we get this heavy responsibility for living godly lives, pure lives, fleeing sin; making that decision publicly and privately, corporately and individually. And if not, even a godly life that has much to show for its devotion to the Lord can be a great disappointment in the children and grandchildren that will follow or in the infection that will follow as a result of your being in both places. You know, we’re either enamored by the world and enticed by them, or we’re completely taken up by Jesus and His Word and His ways. Paul said, “Come out from among them.” That’s what the Lord spoke through Paul, there in 2 Corinthians 6:17. “Be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch the unclean thing, and I will receive you.” So it’s necessary for us to be sure that we’re not so comfortable in the world in which we live that we realize that there is a world and then there’s the kingdom of God. We are sent from the one to the other, only to withdraw again and regroup together in God’s kingdom. But the world is not our home, it’s not our friend, it’s certainly not a place to live. The god of this world wants nothing but ruin for you. God, however, loves the world. He loves those that are in the world. He loves them enough to send the prophets, the elders, the believers, the saints, the called, the elect. He wants to send you to the world so that you might reach them while there’s still time. But be careful as you go, that you often come back and you stand strong with the saints. Because there’s no sense trying to live in both worlds. It won’t serve you well. It certainly won’t serve God’s purposes well. And it can have a

12 destructive effect. You may point to a lot of things that you’ve accomplished, only to find that the things that matter, you haven’t. So take to heart Jehoshaphat’s lesson and that which follows. And may the Lord give you a heart for living in one kingdom, not in both.

Submitted by Maureen Dickson May 8, 2020

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