Imagine driving down the road and seeing a sign ahead that reads, “Wrong Way! Danger Ahead!” But the sign is old and tattered, and because of its condition, you decide to ignore it and drive on. Before long, you find yourself in a dangerous situation because you ignored the sign’s message.
You may learn all too late that the condition of the sign doesn’t change the truth of the message.
This reminds me of an interesting story in 2 Chronicles 35:20–24. Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, was marching north toward Carchemish to fight. Josiah apparently assumed he needed to intervene and went out against him. Necho essentially told him, “This fight isn’t with you.”
But then he says something remarkable:
What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah? I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war: for God commanded me to make haste: forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroy thee not (2 Chronicles 35:21 KJV).
And then comes the key verse:
Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo (2 Chronicles 35:22 KJV).
That phrase is incredible: “the words of Necho from the mouth of God.”
So this wasn’t merely Necho claiming, “God told me.” The inspired writer of Chronicles confirms that God really was speaking through Necho.
And Josiah died because he wouldn’t listen.
What makes that especially powerful is who Josiah was. This wasn’t Ahab. This wasn’t Manasseh in his wicked years. Josiah was one of Judah’s greatest reforming kings. Just one chapter earlier Scripture says:
And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might (2 Kings 23:25 KJV).
We don’t know exactly what Josiah was thinking when he disregarded Necho’s warning. He may have looked at everything he was doing for God and thought that surely he was in the right. After all, Josiah was a man of God carrying out God’s will in his kingdom, while Necho was a pagan king. Egypt itself is often used as a picture of the world. It would have been easy to look at the messenger and dismiss the message.
Whatever Josiah’s reasoning was, one thing is certain: a godly man refused a word from God because it came through an unexpected source, and he made a terrible decision that cost him his life.
We must remember that being right with God doesn’t mean we’re right about everything. We must also remember that God may send correction from a source we don’t expect.
In fact, Scripture has several fascinating examples of this principle. Balaam was corrected by his donkey. God certainly didn’t choose the source Balaam would have expected. Abraham was rebuked by Abimelech over Sarah in Genesis 20. Abraham was God’s man, yet the pagan king had legitimate grounds to ask, in effect, “Why did you do this to me?” Maybe one of the best examples is Jethro and Moses. God used Jethro to give Moses some much-needed advice.
If God can use a donkey to correct a prophet, a pagan king to correct Abraham, Jethro to advise Moses, and Pharaoh to warn Josiah, I had better be careful about deciding who God is allowed to use to correct me.
We must not reject truth because of the source. If someone gives us correction or advice, rather than immediately looking at who said it, let us consider whether what they said is true and whether God may be trying to speak to us through an unexpected source.
Proverbs 12:15 (KJV)
The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise.
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