Wrong marriage alliance can ruin one
Now Jehoshaphat had great riches and honor, and he made a marriage alliance with Ahab.
2 Ch 18:1
In the old Testament we see many incidents where people who were walking in the straight path of the Lord all of a sudden tumble down because of marriage alliances. One of them is Jehoshaphat.
Bible testifies him with many good testimonies but he deviated from the path of the Lord because of the marriage allaiance.
During the time of Rehoboam the Kingdom of Israel was split into two.
The Kingdom of Judah with Jerusalem as the capital
The Kingdom of Israel with Samaria as the capital.
Jeroboam the rebel was the first ruler of Israel Kingdom .
Among the two, God was with Judah because they retained the real worship of God. Israel made two calves and placed them in Bethel and were worshipping them.
David -> Solomon -> Rehoboam -> Abija -> Asa ->Jehoshaphat.
The Lord kept His people exclusively in His worship and He always insisted on one thing. .
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me. I am the Lord your God. You should not make any idols or other Gods to go before you.
EX 20:2-3
The marriage alliance with Ahab, the Lord’s enemy, was the trap set for king Jehoshaphat by satan.
Even today, the people of God without wisdom go after money power, riches, wealth, fame in marriage alliance and loses eternal life.
One of my friends who studied in the same College with me was from a God fearing family and had many siblings. . Her father sought an alliance for her from a very rich family. Later he was blessed by the Lord to attain a very high position in the nation. But they failed to bring up their children in the fear of God and her daughter got married to an idol worshipper. Even they insisted to have the marriage in a temple before an idol, saying, “We have only one son. His descendants should worship our God”.
She was ashamed to invite her siblings for the wedding of her daughter. She showed me the photo wedding photo where the bride groom stands half naked without upper dress as per their religious custom.
God called Abraham His friend, because He knew that Abraham will bring up His descendants in the fear of God.
Gen 18:18,19 seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.”
Sr. Angelica AOJ