February 17, 2023

Passage Read: 2 Chronicles 18-21
Meditation Verse: 19:2

Thought

The wrath of God was against Jehoshaphat because he helped the wicked and loved those who hated the Lord, specifically Ahab and Israel. God was angry with Jehoshaphat because he loved the wicked who hated God, yet the Lord Himself says we are to love our enemies and do good to those who hate Him. Which is it? There is clearly a kind of love for the wicked that God hates and a different kind of love that He Himself displays. He makes his rain fall and sun shine on the evil and the good, but He does not approve of their wicked ways but calls them to repent. He does not partner with them to help them succeed, especially in their wicked deeds, instead He sends prophets and messengers to rebuke them, and sends trouble on them to bring them to repentance.

Application

The love we're supposed to have for all people is to seek their spiritual good, that they might be restored in fellowship with the Lord. We're not supposed to leave them in their sins; that's hatred because it cares nothing for their eternal destiny! Jehoshaphat was supposed to have the kind of love that called Ahab to repent, because without Ahab's repentance, there could be no working together, no partnership. The kind of love that says nothing about a sinner's wickedness is no love at all, because it leaves him under the wrath of God and pending destruction. So there is a wrong love for sinners that is not love at all, and there is a right love for sinners that is genuine love. I need to practice the latter if I don't want to provoke the Lord to wrath against even me.