I KINGS 22

The following application points from this chapter are courtesy of a friend and co-teacher:

Be careful whom you encourage your children to marry. It will have an impact on you as well as your child.

Be careful whom you associate with or you may soon find yourself fighting their battles. Don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers.

Do not allow yourself to be put in obligatory situations that weaken your resolve to make clear decisions. Going to war with someone is a high price in exchange for a party.

Beware of someone who does not consider the will of the Lord more important than his own ambition or makes up his mind before consulting with the Lord.

When a leader is seeking the truth, a crowd of quick answering “yes-men” is the last thing that a leader should want to consult.

The godly will (or at least should) seek out God's counsel, especially on matters of far-reaching consequences.

Godly counsel diligently sought out is of little value if not heeded.

Only the most arrogant or godless would refuse to hear a warning of impending doom.

We are the most vulnerable to defeat and deception when we thing that we are kings of our own destinies, surrounding by those who would stroke our prideful flesh.

God's will does not come from the one who is most eloquent, demonstrative, loud or boastful. God can be heard by those who are intently seeking His will and listening for His voice and no others.

Private, personal confrontation, particularly when we are unprepared and much is at stake in our response, is very revealing of our resolve to remain true to our convictions.

God never leaves Himself without a witness, even in the worst of times.

Arrogant men cannot stand to be contradicted, even if it means hearing what they need to hear.

Even evil men, in the midst of being deceived, expect the truth from godly people.

Arrogant men have to be right, enjoy insulting others and love to say, “I told you so.”

Big talk can reveal a small walk. Big talkers make themselves scarce when their predictions don't materialize.

When believers get carried away by the opinions of the crowd, they go along with the crowd to their destruction.

Believers who ignore the truth suffer like unbelievers who resist the truth, except by the grace of God.

God can protect someone from the hand of men, but the craftiness of men cannot hide someone from the Hand of God.

In this life it does not matter what your know or what you've done nearly as much as Who you know.

Men of God learn, sometimes the hard way, that alliances with the ungodly, whether these alliances be military or commercial or family (through marriage) are not pleasing in God's sight and have a set of adverse consequences of their own.

We should be “as wise as serpents (in the knowledge of what would happen in those events) and innocent as doves (in not having to experience them).”