THE RISING AND THE FALLING OF THE GODLY—A BELIEVER
7 BUT A MAN OF GOD CAME TO HIM, SAYING, “O KING, DO NOT LET THE ARMY OF ISRAEL [the northern kingdom] GO WITH YOU, FOR THE LORD IS NOT WITH ISRAEL—NOT WITH ANY OF THE CHILDREN OF EPHRAIM.
8 BUT IF YOU GO, be gone! Be strong in battle! Even so, God shall make you fall before the enemy; FOR GOD HAS POWER TO HELP AND TO OVERTHROW [for he has the power to help you or to trip you up]."
2 Chronicles 25:7,8 (NKJV)
God has the power to help or frustrate!
If you relate with a cursed person, someone under God's wrath, you would be part of the person's curse or predicament.
An example: those who were in the same boat with Jonah who was sent on an assignment by God but was running away and would not want to go; there was a turmoil on the Sea because of him. All the people who were in the same boat with him on the way to Tarshish lost all their belongings, because they did jettison everything in the boat or ship before they could get to know that he was the cause of the predicament (Jonah 1:2-5). A wrong or cursed person in the boat of your life could ruin or wreck all you have laboured to gather in life!
In another instance, a wrong person, though might not be a cursed person per se, but If God did not approve the staying or union of the person with you, can bring a setback to you in the journey of your life (Genesis 13:14-17).
If someone is under God's wrath and you join affinity with him or her, you would partake in the wrath of God on such a person's life.
King Amaziah of Judah wanted to hire the fighting men, soldiers, from the northern kingdom of Israel—the ten tribes that were separated from Judah after the misdeeds of Solomon and his death—to help him against the Edomites, the people of Seir (2 Chronicles 25:5,6,11).
If your trust is in any man rather than God, failure is inevitable.
If you neglected God, He will also neglect you (2 Timothy 2:11,11).
Amaziah neglected God and ran to man for help (2 Chronicles 25:6). If you as a believer ran to someone who did not have any relationship with God, what would you do?
Man cannot help you, It is only God Who can, though He would use humans but it would be according to His discretion.
Every trust in the arm of flesh would let you down. God would frustrate any supposed help that does not emanate from Him.
If Amaziah did not discharge the northern kingdom armies he hired according to the words of the man of God, he could have lost the battle and be defeated by his enemies (2 Chronicles 25:7-13).
God is calling your attention!
God wants you to look up to Him. Some people who you have gone to join affinity with would wreck or destroy your life.
When you left God and put your hope in a man, God would allow whoever the person(s) is to disappoint you or let you down. The reason being that God would not want to share His glory with any person (Isaiah 42:8).
Note:
• If you have a wrong person in the boat of your life, a defeat is inevitable (Jonah 1:2-5).
• If God is not on your side, you can but do nothing (John 15:5).
• If God is not acknowledged or His help is not received or embraced, frustration is certain.
• If God also chooses to frustrate a move, you cannot make it a success. Whatever God is putting an end to or killing, you cannot breathe life into it.
After you had been helped by God, do not turn your back against Him!
God did help Amaziah, he defeated the people of Seir, the Edomites, but Amaziah came back from that battle with the idols he took from the people of Seir. He sets them up as his own gods (2 Chronicles 25:14).
The idols that could not help the people Amaziah defeated, how would such idols be beneficial to him. If the idols could not help the people of Seir, the Edomites, how would it help Amaziah.
We could see how a human can be so demeaned or daft. You abandoned the God Who helped you to defeat the people who worship the idols, you then decided to embrace and take their gods or idols as your own gods. If the idols were that strong you, Amaziah, would not have been able to defeat those who were the owners of the idols to begin with—the Edomites (2 Chronicles 25:11,12).
A believer should not crave whatever the unbelievers have. There is nothing in the world that should entice a believer because they are deceitful—not real. They are being made attractive by the devil to deceive any believer who would allow himself or herself to be deceived (1 John 2:15-17).
If the mammon served by the world could not give them joy, peace and satisfaction, Why would a believer be desiring it then? Why would a believer leave or abandon God because of mammon? (2 Timothy 4:10)
Remember, the Scripture says: “NO ONE CAN SERVE TWO MASTERS; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. YOU CANNOT SERVE GOD AND MAMMON" (Matthew 6:24 NKJV).
Note the following:
• Do not allow your success to become a snare. Amaziah did allow his victory over the people of Seir, the Edomites, entered his head (2 Chronicles 25:14).
• Let God remain your focus even when you have become successful (Deuteronomy 32:15).
• Whatever belongs to the heathens, unbelievers, that could not help them; It would not help you either If you took possession of it or embrace it (Exodus 23:24).
• Do not copy the practices of the people of the world (Romans 12:2; James 4:4; 1 John 2:15).
• God is enough, there is nothing in the world, except deception, to copy or imbibe from the unbelievers (2 Corinthians 6:14-18).
Peace.