|
|
|
|
How to Succeed in Life Do you want to know how to be successful in life, in your affairs of state, in your business dealings, and in your commercial ventures? Let us look in the Bible to see how Jehovah, our covenant God, can and will personally establish your success. The first record is that of Jehoshaphat, son of Asa, King of Judah. King Asa had stood upon God’s Word, seeking the one true God and putting no other gods before Him. Asa’s son, Jehoshaphat, continued in his father’s good works. For this reason their household and the whole nation of Judah were blessed. II Chronicles 17:1-13 (King James Version)
King Asa had refused to have anything to do with the rulers of Israel, Judah’s neighbor, because they were very wicked. Israel’s rulers were seekers after many false gods. Jeroboam of Israel had been a wicked king, setting up many high places (temples on hills) for the worship of pagan gods. Ahab, Jeroboam’s son, continued in his father’s idolatrous practices when he succeeded his father to the throne of Israel. Jeroboam had suffered the loss of his cities of refuge, captured by King Asa’s father, Abijah -- Jehoshaphat’s grandfather. King Abijah’s son, Asa, followed his father’s footsteps and kept the people of Judah from worshiping pagan gods. Jehoshaphat also continued in this path, "strengthening himself against Israel" because of their wickedness. Jehovah knew Jehoshaphat's heart was good, He therefore honored His covenant with Abraham, available to King Asa as a descendent of King David and King Solomon, making Asa and his nation, Judah, strong and blessed. God allowed Asa to conquer certain cities which bordered Judah and Israel, known as "cities of refuge," and to keep them for Judah. As King, Jehoshaphat continued to fortify the cities and, in addition, he placed armed forts throughout the Judean countryside. These forces were to keep the pagan peoples and the rulers of pagan Israel, and peoples of other pagan lands, out of Judah and away from the people of Judah.
As decedents of King David, Jehoshaphat and Asa were aware that God would honor Jehoshaphat’s stand on His commandments, specifically the first one ("I am the Lord thy God ..., Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." Exodus 20:1-3). Jehoshaphat was blessed by Jehovah, who was Abraham and David's covenant God. King Jehoshaphat was given "riches and honor in abundance." Why? Because Jehoshaphat continued to cleanse Judah from idolatry, cleaning out the "high places and groves" – the worship sites of the false gods -- which rulers before Abijah had permitted to be built. King Jehoshaphat did other God-ordained deeds, such as driving all the homosexuals out of Judah: "And the remnant of the sodomites, which remained in the days of his father Asa, he took out of the land." II Kings 22:46. In addition these good deeds, Jehoshaphat did one very important thing – he taught the people of Judah the rightly divided truth about Jehovah, the one true Covenant God, Elohim, the Creator of all the Heavens and the Earth, who was their God. Our God too!
What was the result of this stand by Judah’s kings upon God’s Word?
God opened up the windows of heaven and poured out upon Jehoshaphat and Judah blessings that there was literally not room enough in their houses to store all the blessings. So, Jehoshaphat had to build more houses, more castles – King’s houses, to store his super abundance. And, guess what? Even that was not enough. Jehoshaphat had to built whole cities to store the nation’s exceedingly great abundance! Now that’s Godly success! And why did it all happen? Because Asa and Jehoshaphat were true to God’s First and Greatest Commandment, which is:
Luke 10:27-28 - 27And he [a Jewish teacher of the law] answering said "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself." 28 And he [Jesus] said unto him, "Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live."
God promises us that we shall "live" but, not only that, that we shall wax "great exceedingly," living a life that is of exceedingly great abundance!
All this great and exceeding abundance is given to us by God and man, if and when we chose to stand upon God’s Word. And note that we are to live by every word that is given by God!
We are not free to pick and chose those words we will live by, and those commandments we will not honor. God cannot and will not go against His Word. Numbers 23:19 - "God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" God cannot, and will not, fully bless those who will only take a half-hearted stand upon some – but not all – of His Truth. Therefore, stand boldly upon all of God's Truth! Speak all of His Words to others! Obey God in all things! Now, let us look at another record about Jehoshaphat, in II Chronicles 18:
Whoa! Jehoshaphat "joined affinity" with King Ahab, the wicked ruler of Israel! That's like giving place to the devil! Why did Jehoshaphat do this? What’s going on here? Well, as time went on Jehoshaphat developed a pride in his success which gave him a false sense of security and a feeling of superiority. This change in Jehoshaphat’s life rerouted his future. Jehoshaphat began overestimating his own abilities and, instead of keeping his covenant alliance only with Jehovah and those whom God told him to ally with, Jehoshaphat aligned himself with Ahab. This alliance came in the form of an arranged marriage between Jehoshaphat’s oldest son, Jehoram, and Ahab’s daughter. Did this result in God forsaking Jehoshaphat? No. Jehoshaphat forsook God. For with the marriage Jehoshaphat was forced by custom and protocol to accept Ahab’s hospitality. Before the marriage, Ahab could never have gotten Jehoshaphat to travel to the capital city of Israel. But, once the marriage took place, the father-in-law, Jehoshaphat, could hardly continue to refuse the hospitality of Ahab and his invitations to come for a visit.
King Ahab wasted little time in getting Jehoshaphat to agree to join him in a joint venture – to retake the refuge city of Ramoth-gilead taken from Israel by the Syrians. Jehoshaphat agreed, but then he had second thoughts – what would Jehovah God say about this adventure? So Jehoshaphat asked Ahab to check this proposal out with God.
Jehoshaphat wanted to know, immediately, whether this plan agreed with God. Sounds mighty human, doesn’t it? We decide first what it is that we want to do, then we ask God for His stamp of approval on our plans. Well, Ahab had just the men to give Jehoshaphat what he wanted to hear:
Isn’t that convenient? Having 400 "yes men" at your beck and call! But, did they truly speak for God? Jehoshaphat wasn’t sure – and he still wanted to truly know if this plan of Ahab was OK with God, or not:
Jehoshaphat apparently knew "yes men" when he saw and heard them. He wasn’t convinced by even 400 of such men. He didn’t want to hear from people who would only tell him what he hoped to hear, what they thought he wanted to hear. Jehoshaphat still wanted the unvarnished truth – God’s truth. So he asked Ahab if there wasn’t yet another prophet available, to which Ahab said, "Well, yes, but I don’t like him at all, in fact, I hate him! He never tells me what I want to hear; it’s always what I don’t want to hear!" Well, imagine that! A wicked King hearing only bad things from God! You want to hear good things from God? Then do His will! But, this really isn’t surprising news for Jehoshaphat to have heard, is it? After all, Jehoshaphat already knew that Ahab was a wicked man. Do you recall who Michaiah was? He was one of the prophets that Jehoshaphat had sent out to teach God’s Word to Judah. Now here’s a prophet that Jehoshaphat knew he could trust! Jehoshaphat wouldn’t take Ahab’s "no, don’t talk to him" for an answer – he really wanted to hear God’s truth on the matter! So, what could Ahab do? He gave in to Jehoshaphat's wishes to hear from a man who truly spoke for God:
Now this officer knew what Ahab wanted to hear. So he warned Michaiah that for once in his life he should just tell King Ahab what he wanted to hear! If Michaiah knew what was good for him, that is. Can't you just see this? We've all seen it on TV, the flunky saying "just tell the boss what he wants to hear, OK? For once, just this once, be a good boy!" That's just about how it went, too:
But Michaiah wasn’t having any of that "yes man" stuff! He replied:
But, when the time came, on the surface it seems that Michaiah had a change of heart:
Michaiah said to Jehoshaphat "Sure, whatever, do what it is that you obviously want to do." But Jehoshaphat, bless his heart, wouldn’t have any of that. He saw that the "fix" was in, so he rebuked Michaiah, saying "How many times have I told you to say nothing to me but the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but God’s Truth?" Only then did Michaiah tell the truth about what God thought of Ahab’s plans – it was a looser and the 400 so-called prophets were all being influenced by a lying spirit! So, the score stood 400 to one. Four hundred "prophets" for war, and only one against. How would you like to be the one, contradicting the 400? So, what did King Ahab say? -- "See, I told you so!!":
One would think that Jehoshaphat would by now have figured it out – that this battle plan of Ahab's was a sure looser. But look closely at what Michaiah said – "I did see all Israel scattered upon the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd." Not Judah, Israel. Israel would lose its shepherd – it’s King. Not Judah. Well, maybe Jehoshaphat thought that this was one way to get rid of a really troublesome in-law! And that’s exactly what happened:
What’s all this disguise stuff about? Well, Ahab knew that in battle the enemy went for the King. When the enemy's King was killed, the battle was usually over. What was there left for the ordinary folks to fight over? So what Ahab was doing was setting Jehoshaphat up to get himself killed. Ahab really wasn’t a good in-law, was he? But, never fear, Jehovah God is watching out for those who diligently seek Him:
Ahab was right ... the King of Syria commanded his men to do just what Ahab thought they would do – seek to kill the one who went into the battle dressed like a King. And, when the Syrians saw King Jehoshaphat, they went after him to kill him, thinking he was Ahab. But when he got into trouble, King Jehoshaphat cried out to Jehovah God, whom his covenant was with, and Elohim (God the Creator) moved the Syrians to depart. Jehoshaphat was saved by God. But not King Ahab. His plans came to naught. Even disguised in battle, a Syrian sharp-shooter spotted him and killed him. Thus was Israel without its shepherd, as prophesied by Michaiah. Who was the true prophet? Easy ... the one whose prophesy came to pass:
So, what lessons do we learn from this so far? Several. First, fear not false prophets. Second, you can tell a true prophet by his or her fruits. False prophets bear no fruit; their speech does not come to pass. And, most importantly, if you want Jehovah to bless your efforts, first seek out His will, not your own. Don’t ask God to bless your plans, ask God to reveal His plans for you. God’s exceedingly abundant blessings naturally flow to you when you first diligently seek to do His will, with all your heart, strength, mind, and soul, and not your own. After the battle for Ramoth-gilead, Jehoshaphat tried to collect himself. He had never known defeat. As he went home to Judah, he thought on what had happened, and why, and what it all meant. Had he lost God’s blessings? He quickly found the answer to these questions:
In other words, not all was lost. God realized that Jehoshaphat had a good heart unto the Lord. Jehoshaphat proved that when he rebuked Michaiah, telling him to speak only the truth. A nd, as to why it all happened, well, it was because Jehoshaphat had sought to help the ungodly – the wicked Ahab. You’d think that this lesson would soak in good. And, for a while, it did. Jehoshaphat set about doing all sorts of good deeds, establishing honest courts with fair and honest judges, and Godly priests to rule over and teach the people God’s truths. See II Chronicles 19:4- 11. God had honored Jehoshaphat’s good heart and his good deeds. God continued to do so. See II Chronicles 20:30 - "So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet: for his God gave him rest round about." But, unfortunately for Jehoshaphat, all did not remain restful ... because Jehoshaphat had not yet learned his lesson in making bad alliances. Jehoshaphat later made another alliance, this time a commercial venture with Ahab’s son and successor, Ahaziah, King of Israel. This was the idea to build some sailing ships to engage in a very lucrative trade with the City of Tarshish, a very rich city in Ophir, an area renowned for its jewelry and gold mines. But, alas, it was not a good idea because King Ahaziah, like his father and grandfather before him, was also a wicked lover of false pagan gods:
Jehoshaphat anticipated the wealth and comfort to be derived from trade with the Tarshish. But, from God’s point of view, it was not fit because it required an alliance with the ungodly King Ahaziah, a worshiper of a false gods:
What happens when such an ungodly commercial alliance is formed is also recorded in I Kings 22:48-49:
The ungodly are always seeking an alliance with the godly. But we are not to be so unequally yoked. Apparently an earthquake or some "natural" disaster broke Jehoshaphat’s sailing ships being built at Eziongeber. After the first ships were destroyed, more ships were built to go at it again. Wicked Ahaziah tried to cajole Jehoshaphat into re-joining him in this commercial venture. But, at last, Jehoshaphat had learned his lesson, and "would not." At a price Jehoshaphat had finally learned that any alliance with the ungodly did not and will not work – be it in marriage, in military exploits, or in commercial ventures. This is still true today. Look at all the unholy alliances made in the world today. What's the fruit of these ungodly alliances? Well, sometimes you get to ride the tiger, but eventually the tiger turns to eat you! From man’s point of view, it appeared that Jehoshaphat’s prosperity and his defeats came from "bad luck" or natural causes. But from God’s point of view, success or the lack of it varied directly with Jehoshaphat’s obedience to God. When Jehoshaphat accommodated the ungodly, defeat ensued. When he aligned himself with God, prosperity abounded. Jehoshaphat never worshiped any other god, thus obeying the first commandment. We can learn much from his life. From his example we know how to be successful in life, in our "affairs of state," in our business dealings, and in our commercial ventures. What's the lesson? Success, or the lack of it, varies directly with our obedience to God. When we align ourselves with God, prosperity abounds. Jehoshaphat's story teaches us that we don’t get into an alliance with the ungodly. God’s exceedingly abundant blessings naturally flow to you when you first diligently seek to do His will, with all your heart, strength, mind, and soul, and not your own -- not the other way around. Stand fast upon all of God’s Holy Word. We are not free to pick and chose those Words we will live by, and those we will not. We obey all the commandments of God, not just those we agree with, or "like." Be true to God’s first and greatest commandment -- diligently and earnestly seek the one true God, putting no other gods before Him. Don’t decide what you want to do, then ask God for His stamp of approval ... seek His Will first. Strengthen yourself against the ungodly. Teach your family, your friends, and all people the rightly divided truth about Jehovah, the one true Covenant God; Elohim, the Creator of all the Heavens and the Earth -- our God. You want to hear good things from God? Then seek to do only His will! Stand boldly upon His Truth! Speak His Word to others! He will hold you responsible for what you know, you know. Finally and most importantly, obey God in all things! AMEN |