WORDS

Be careful in relation to your friends

Be away from evil and do people good to make God`s scale weigh in your favor

12/05/2017

By: Bishop Jorge Pinheiro

Article by: Victor Correa

The kingdom of Israel was just one, until a moment that there was a split between the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah. They were both all one; they were both Hebrews; they spoke the same language, and they were related. Because of the hardness of kings` heart that came in advance, the kingdom was divided in the middle. 2 Chronicles 17: 1 tells us that Jehoshaphat was the king of Judah and set fortress, troops, and guardians to protect Judah`s land

The father of Jehoshaphat and himself didn`t searched for the priest of Baal. The king of Israel, Ahab loved Baal and had his Baalim . The king of Israel was idolater, but the king of Judah walked on the lord`s way because of Jehoshaphat, who searched for his father`s God and followed His commandments. Jehoshaphat had wealth and abundant glory for serving God and pleasing the Lord, in such a way that he was given many presents

God works on the life of those who serve Him and give presents of several kinds, which shows prosperity. Jehoshaphat forbid to worship wooden idols, there was no idolatry in the kingdom of Judah. On the other hand, the kingdom of Israel sinned against God very much. Judah thrived more and more because the king was faithful to God. You are Jehoshaphat of your family, but you may also be Ahab of your family. Jehoshaphat was faithful and his heart dared to seek God, but he and all of his people were blessed. On the other hand, Ahab was a sinner, so he and his people were cursed because of that. Because of one person, you may be blessed or cursed. Through you, God may bless all of your family. Don`t be shy for seeking God, pray, fast, seek at dawn. At that time, it was common when a king wanted to have an alliance with another king. They used to marry their children to one another, this way they could become related. Ahab didn`t serve God and his wife was Jezebel, one of the worst women in the history of the Bible. She was a sorceress, murder, and a disturbance in Israel who used to instigate her husband to worship Baal and get away from God. Jehoshaphat got related to him. We can`t choose parents, relatives, but wife and husband we can and we do so. We may complain about not being happy at our father or mother, but we can`t complain about wives and husbands because the choice was ours. We can choose getting married or not. Ahab wasn`t a good person, but as they became related, had feasts, he proposed Jehoshaphat to go together to Ramote-Gileade to fight. Ahab knew that he wasn`t able to fight against his enemies alone. Take a look at how this history will end because we can also choose our friends. We are not obliged to have evil friends, that`s our choice. Friends can also corrupt other people. You have to be careful at your friends. If you get along with fool ones, you will do the same as what they do; if you get along with evil ones, you will become evil too; but if you get along with wise ones, you will become wise as well; if you get along with good ones, it will be good to you. You are not obliged to go to every parties and places where your friends go, much less do what they do when you are aware that it`s evil. Take a look at how one unbeliever is, Ahab`s talk: “Jehoshaphat, you go together with me to the war, we will win, I will be disguised, but you wear your clothes of a king”. He said that because he wanted the Syrians from that city, who wanted to kill him, to see Jehoshaphat as a king and decided to catch him instead of Ahab. He was a real fake friend. The problem of having bad friends is that, you never realize that until the moment you are trapped. Jehoshaphat got his people, who were on God`s way, and mixed them with idolaters of Israel. You may not choose your coworkers, classmates, but you choose who will become your friend. It`s better to have few people around you, but with good will, good behavior than having many fool ones. Friends must be selected carefully and it doesn`t matter if they are just a few. The king of Syria ordered his best captains not to fight, but to chase the king of Israel, to kill him. So, they went to the war, but Ahab was among ordinary men, soldiers, disguised while his “friend” Jehoshaphat was dressed with clothes of a king. The Syrian captains came and targeted Jehoshaphat, like Ahab imagined. Jehoshaphat shouted and God helped turning his enemies away. Despite our failures, God is trustworthy. Jehoshaphat was a good man who served God and was cheated by Ahab. When Jehoshaphat realized that he needed help, he shouted and God was the one who helped him, not the “friend” Ahab. The captains realized that Jehoshaphat wasn`t the king of Israel, so they quit chasing him. Jehoshaphat would die because of bad fellows. God helps those who serve Him shout for help. God hears the righteous and delivers them from all trouble. If it weren`t God`s hands, Jehoshaphat would have died on that day. Meanwhile, a soldier released an arrow by chance and it hit Ahab through a small space of his armor. He held himself on the car for hours, but he died. That archer didn`t know where Ahab was, but God knew. What Ahab did was curse; he took his fellow to the war, which was worthless, and he put his fellow`s life in risk. As soon as Jehoshaphat came back, the God`s man searched for him to ask him why he had helped the perverse one. We can`t help perverse people because they just plan evil conditions. We can`t love those who disturb the Lord. The rage of God fell onto Jehoshaphat for helping the perverse one. If you don`t want the rage of God on you, never help them anymore. You can pray for them in order to make them saved, but never help them. What saved Jehoshaphat was that God found good things in him. We are faulty, like Jehoshaphat was faulty even being God`s man. As Jehoshaphat was God`s man, it pleased God and counted in his favor. There`s a scale before us where there are our good and bad work. The plate that weighs our bad work can`t be heavier than the other plate that weighs our good work. We have to do people good all the time to make God find good work in us when He looks at us. Jesus will protect us and will act in our favor if we behave that way. We have to be careful for not becoming an evildoer, thus, not having weighs against us. The Bible says that, in the excerpt of apostle James, we are saved not only by faith, but also by our work because through work we may show our faith. Our attitudes count when we justify before the Lord.