Daily Devotion: Avoid Being Unequally Yoked by Charles Spurgeon

Bible Reading: 1 Kings 22:44-51 KJV

Key Verse:  "Jehoshaphat made ships of Tharshish to go to Ophir for gold: but they went not; for the ships were broken at Eziongeber."
- 1 Kings 22:48 KJV

Solomon's ships had returned in safety—but Jehoshaphat's vessels never reached the land of gold. Providence prospers one, and frustrates the desires of another, in the same business and at the same spot—yet the Great Ruler is as good and wise at one time as another. May we have grace today, in the remembrance of this text, to bless the Lord for ships broken at Ezion-geber, as well as for vessels freighted with temporal blessings. Let us not envy the more successful, nor murmur at our losses as though we were singularly and specially tried. Like Jehoshaphat, we may be precious in the Lord's sight, although our schemes end in disappointment.

The secret cause of Jehoshaphat's loss is well worthy of notice, for it is the root of very much of the suffering of the Lord's people; it was his alliance with a sinful family, his fellowship with sinners. In 2 Chron. 20:37, we are told that the Lord sent a prophet to declare, "Because you have joined yourself with Ahaziah, the Lord has broken your works." This was a fatherly chastisement, which appears to have been blessed to him; for in the verse which follows our text—we find him refusing to allow his servants to sail in the same vessels with those of the wicked king.

Would to God that Jehoshaphat's experience might be a warning to the rest of the Lord's people—to avoid being unequally yoked together with unbelievers! A life of misery is usually the lot of those who are united in marriage, or in any other way of their own choosing—with the men of the world. O for such love to Jesus that, like Him, we may be holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners; for if it is not so with us, we may expect to hear it often said, "The Lord has broken your works."

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