p. 120 | BAD PARTNERSHIPS by S. Gifford Nelson

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 26, 1892

BAD PARTNERSHIPS.

By S. Gifford Nelson

THERE are incidents and events in the Old Testament and the New that we pass over all too hastily. Like some smaller works of art in a picture gallery, on which genius has bestowed its rarest touches, these scraps of history, replete with instruction, are seldom examined carefully. Here is one—2 Chron. 20: 35-37. Read these three verses, and then read the whole chapter. This episode forms part of the biography of the Judean monarch, Jehoshaphat. He was one of the noblest and best of the kings who ruled over the southern kingdom. His administration was characterized by an enlightened piety. He gave attention to the education of his people, and established a commission to expound to them the Mosaic laws. Many, indeed, are the noble things recorded of him. But upon the fair record there is one dark blot. He allied himself with wicked men, and suffered himself to be influenced by them.

First, he “joined affinity with Ahab,” the base profligate who tyrannized over the northern kingdom. He permitted his son to marry Ahab’s daughter, and entered into a military league with him, which was ended by the battle of Ramoth-Gilead, in which Ahab lost his life. Again, when Ahab’s successor, the wicked Ahaziah, ascended the throne, he formed a commercial partnership with him. Both kings caught the gold fever. A marvelous lead had been discovered in Ophir. Some daring adventurer had probably returned with a fragment of veined rock or a handful of shining dust.

Cupidity was excited, and the eager monarchs resolved on a joint speculation. That was the reason they built ships in partnership and fitted them out at Ezion-gaber. It was a purely commercial venture, we admit, in which men familiar with the modern “combine” would find nothing surprising. But let us see. A servant of God and a servant of Satan join hands. “It’s all business.” Perfectly true; but mark how the “business” turns out. The ships are built; with sails spread to catch the prospering breeze, they drop down the Gulf of Akabah and are lost to sight. But there is a sudden shifting of the wind, or the pilot, ignorant of navigation, makes a fatal blunder. The rest is easily imagined. The vessels are driven, head on, upon the rocks, the bows are “stove in,” and the expedition perishes. The words of the fearless Eliezer, in which he dauntlessly warned Jehoshaphat, are fulfilled: “Because thou hast joined thyself with Ahaziah, the Lord hath broken [or wrecked] thy works.”

And so to this day the drowning cries of the crews that went down with these gold ships warn our commercial Jehoshaphats against partnerships with the wicked. God will not hold guiltless the Christian who associates his means and influence with dishonest persons or questionable enterprises. ‘Bout ship and shorten sail, brethren. There is a cyclone whirling up the Gulf of Akabah. Be not deceived, ye who have launched your craft from a financial Ezion-gaber bound to some speculative Ophir. You cannot do wrong and prosper, and you who know what money can legitimately earn, and who seek in “ballooning,” “kite flying,” and “guilt-edged enterprises,” more than it can earn, do wrong and know it. ‘Bout ship.—Rev. S. Gifford Nelson.