The Arch-enemy has a long history of trying to use family loyalties to undermine loyalty to God.
Imagine the scene. The guests are invited to a lovely garden party at the palace. The land is at peace with its usually bellicose neighbors. Prosperity has brought a sense of optimism for the future to the citizenry. The idols have been destroyed, the groves cut down, the people instructed in the Word. Thousands of valiant men, trained in combat, guard the fortresses, and the treasury overflows with resources. What could go wrong? Then suddenly the host appears—Jehoshaphat the king who, we read, walked with the Lord, sought the Lord, and delighted in the ways of the Lord. What is it that he’s carrying? It looks like a ticking time bomb! Read it for yourself: “Jehoshaphat had riches and honor in abundance; and by marriage he allied himself with Ahab” (2 Chron 18:1). The Ahab who, with his wife Jezebel, introduced Baal worship into Israel? Who hounded and hunted the prophets of God? Who placed a bounty on the head of Elijah? Yes, that Ahab! And through this alliance, good king Jehoshaphat set a trap for himself and his children. How often a man of public integrity compromises when it comes to family issues, and so undermined the foundations of his whole life. “After some years” (v 2) he decided to visit his son’s father-in-law in Samaria. Do you know the double meaning of the word impressed? Ahab attempted to impress Jehoshaphat with a banquet of “sheep and oxen in abundance for him and the people who were with him.” But then, to impress also means to force into military service, and Ahab “persuaded him to go up with him to Ramoth Gilead” (v 2). Jeroboam is about to learn the hard lesson that it’s never a good idea to “be unequally yoked together with unbelievers” (2 Cor 6:14).