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Why Can't We Agree To Disagree?
There are many lessons to be learned from the life of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah. His reign is recorded in 2 Chronicles 17-20. At the time of his reign, God’s people were divided into two kingdoms. The larger, northern kingdom of Israel had ceased to follow the law of Moses. Although they were still religious, God rejected their idolatrous worship because it was patterned after the “sins of Jeroboam,” which he had introduced at the beginning of the division between the two kingdoms (cf. 1 Kings 12; 2 Chronicles 11.13-17). The smaller, southern kingdom of Judah failed to learn from Israel’s idolatry and eventually “walked in the statutes of Israel which they made” (2 Kings 17.19). The ultimate end of both kingdoms was captivity (2 Kings 17.7-23).
During the coexistence of these two kingdoms, they remained separated chiefly because of these differences in their worship. However, during Jehoshaphat’s reign, an alliance was formed between Israel and Judah. Jehoshaphat’s son, Jehoram, had been given in marriage to Athaliah, daughter of Ahab and Jezebel (2 Chronicles 21.6). Hanani the seer rebuked this alliance (2 Chronicles 19.2).
It was during this time of alliance that the wicked king Ahab of Israel sought to reclaim Ramoth-gilead from Syria and solicited help from Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat sought counsel from a prophet of God before doing so. Ahab had already received the go-ahead from 400 of his prophets, but Jehoshaphat wanted to hear a prophet of God. Ahab mentioned that there was one such prophet: Micaiah. The messenger who was sent to bring Micaiah to the kings spoke these words to him: “Behold, the words of the prophets declare good to the king with one mouth: let thy word therefore, I pray thee, be like one of theirs, and speak thou good” (2 Chronicles 18.12).
Micaiah replied, “As the Lord lives, what my God says, that I will speak” (2 Chronicles 18.13).
Ahab had dealt with Micaiah before. He told Jehoshaphat, “I hate him; for he never prophesieth good concerning me, but always evil” (2 Chronicles 18.7). Sure enough, Micaiah prophesied doom for Ahab and Israel.
There are many valuable lessons to learn from this. One such lesson is that agreeing to disagree will never work. Truth and error can never be in harmony. They are opposed by their very nature. The failure with the mindset of agreeing to disagree as it relates to the positions of truth and error is that error is not required to change. For Micaiah, this meant that he would have to acknowledge these errors. Such is clearly condemned by God (cf. Galatians 1.8-9; 2 John 1.9-11). Jesus stated that every divided house falls, even if it is Satan’s (cf. Luke 11.17-18).
Micaiah couldn’t speak favorably of Ahab because Ahab had forsaken Jehovah (cf. 1 Kings 16.30-33; 18.18). Agreeing to disagree would have brought condemnation up0on Micaiah as well as Ahab. The same would have been true fro Caleb, Joshua, and the other ten spies (cf. Numbers 13-17), and for Elijah and the 850 prophets of Baal (cf. 1 Kings 18). It was a divided house.
As Jehu would say to Jehoshaphat, “Shouldest thou help the wicked, and love them that hate Jehovah?” (2 Chronicles 19.2). When those proclaiming messages of truth and those proclaiming messages of error agree to coexist, both the proclaimers and their converts will “fall into a pit” (cf. Luke 6.39). Works of darkness must be reported, not fellowshipped (Ephesians 5.11).
The same fate will come to anyone who lives with a spirit of compromise. “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6.24). As the prophet Azariah had stated, “Jehovah is with you, while ye are with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of your; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you” (2 Chronicles 15.2).
God does not send man conflicting messages. There is truth, and there is error (1 John 4.6). There is the true gospel, and there is “another gospel” (Galatians 1.6-9). There is sound doctrine, and there are fables (2 Timothy 4.4). They stand in opposition to each other. Fellowship between them is impossible (2 Corinthians 6.14 — “What communion has light with darkness?”).
The Lord made it clear through the pen of Paul the apostle his people’s relationship to him and their responsibility to those who walk contrary to his will: “For we are a temple of the living God; even as God said, ‘I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come ye out from among them, and be ye separate,’ saith the Lord, ‘and touch no unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be to you a Father, and ye shall be to me sons and daughters,’ saith the Lord Almighty” (2 Corinthians 6.16-18).
