Grains of Sand

socialutions.co.uk (Google Images) It wasn’t just a New Testament phenomena. Paul, writing to the Corinthians church, said: “ Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an  unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.’ ‘Therefore come out from them and be separate, Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you ’” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17). Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, got the same message from the Lord, recorded for us in 2 Chronicles 18, after his alliance with Ahab, king of Israel. The king of Judah narrowly escaped with his life after that experience—Ahab wasn’t so fortunate. After his return to Jerusalem...

Other Food: Daily Devos (Google Images) He wouldn't win any prizes for being the best of Judah's kings, but one incident in Amaziah's story, contains a lesson many people choose to ignore. Friction between neighbours in the Middle East is nothing new. Amaziah felt that he needed to bolster the number of soldiers he could call on if he was attacked, so he hired a hundred thousand fighting men from Israel (2 Chronicles 25:6). And got his knuckles rapped for doing it. God's prophet arrived on the scene and said: " O king, these troops from Israel must not march with you, for the Lord is not with Israel—not with any of the people of Ephraim. Even if you go and fight courageously in battle, God will overthrow you before the enemy, for the Lord has power to help or to overthrow " (25:7, 8, NIV). The New Testament would call this an "unequal yoke," an instruction given to us in 2 Corinthians 6:14-17 that begins like this: " Do not be yoked ...