Being Unequally Yoked

 

2 Kings 8:16-24

 

September 12, 2021

 

 

Jehoram Reigns in Judah

In the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab, king of Israel, when Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, began to reign.   He 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, as the house of Ahab had done, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.   Yet the Lord was not willing to destroy Judah, for the sake of David his servant, since he promised to give a lamp to him and to his sons forever.

In his days Edom revolted from the rule of Judah and set up a king of their own.   Then Joram passed over to Zair with all his chariots and rose by night, and he and his chariot commanders struck the Edomites who had surrounded him, but his army fled home.   So, Edom revolted from the rule of Judah to this day. Then Libnah revolted at the same time.   Now the rest of the acts of Joram, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?   So Joram slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David, and Ahaziah his son reigned in his place.

If the only message one comes away with from this is a wise person will not become unequally yoked.  2 Corinthians 6:14, is not a suggestion, but a command to those who follow Jesus Christ.  “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?”

 

It was no secret what Ahab had done in Israel, and it was only logical that the daughter of Ahab would influence this young man in the ways of her dad.  And like Ahab Jehoram brought into Judah the evil that his wife brought from her dad.  It was why Edom revolted against the rule of Judah and set up a king of their own.  

 

Often the church has been guilty of being unequally yoked with the world system and it also has brought about revolts, competitiveness, and not unity.  It is time to put off the ways of this world and put on the ways of our Lord, to serve others.

 

From the Back Porch,

 Bob Rice