Pharaoh Necho the king of Egypt, came to the River Euphrates to fight Carchemish in obedience to God's instructions, but King Josiah of Judah went to fight him.
However Necho sent messengers to Josiah telling him, "I have nothing to do with you since I have not come to fight you. I have come to fight other people for God has commanded me to hurry.
So stop opposing God Who is with me lest He destroy you.
However, King Josiah would not listen to the words of King Necho which had come from God.
Instead he disguised himself and went to the Valley of Megiddo to fight. There he was shot by archers and taken back to Jerusalem where he died." (2 Chronicles 35:20-24)
This passage from the Bible shows us that God can use unbelievers like Pharaoh Necho to achieve his purposes since God had sent him to fight Carchemish.
It also teaches that even if we have done many good things for God, we have to consult Him if someone tells us that our current project is opposing God's work.
We can see that Josiah had done many things for God for he had:
1. Made a covenant before the Lord to follow Him and keep His commandments (2 Kings 23:3)
2. King Josiah had commanded Hilkiah the high priest and other priests to remove from the temple all the things that had been made for Baal, Asherah and all the host of heaven and he burned them outside Jerusalem. (2 Kings 23:4)
3. King Josiah removed the idolatrous priests who had been ordained by previous kings of Judah to burn incense to Baal, to the sun, the moon, the constellations and all the host of heaven in the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem. (2 Kings 23:5)
4. King Josiah removed the wooden image from the house of the Lord and burned it at the Brook Kidron, ground it into ashes and threw them away. (2 Kings 23:6)
5. King Josiah tore down the ritual booths that were in the house of the Lord and that belonged to perverted persons where women wove hangings for the wooden image. (2 Kings 23:7)
6. King Josiah removed all the idolatrous priests from the cities of Judah and defiled the high places from from Geba to Beersheba where they burned incense. He also broke down the high places which were at the gates. (2 Kings 23:8)
7. King Josiah defiled Topheth which was in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom so that no father would make his son or daughter to pass through the fire to Molech. (2 Kings 23:10)
8. King Josiah removed the horses that previous kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun and he burned the chariots of the sun. (2 Kings 23:11)
9. King Josiah broke and pulverized the altars which were on the roof, the upper chamber of Ahaz which previous kings of Judah had made and the altars that Manasseh had made inside the courts of the house of the Lord. (2 Kings 23:12)
10. King Josiah defiled the high places which were to the east of Jerusalem and to the south of the Mount of Corruption which King Solomon had built for the false gods Ashtoreth, Chemosh and Milcom. He broke the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images. (2 Kings 23:13-14)
11. King Josiah broke down and burned the altar and high place which Jeroboam had made. (2 Kings 23:15)
12. King Josiah removed all the shrines that were in the high places in the cities of Samaria that previous kings of Israel had built to make God angry and executed their priests. (2 Kings 23:19-20)
13. King Josiah commanded the people to keep the Passover as it is written in the Book of the Covenant. (2 Kings 23:21)
14. King Josiah put away all persons who consulted mediums and spiritists, household gods and idols according to the words of the book that had been found in the house of the Lord. (2 Kings 23:24)
The Bible describes King Josiah as follows:
Before King Josiah there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart, soul and might according to the entire Law of Moses and after him, there was no king like him. (2 Kings 23:25)
However after doing all these good things for God, King Josiah died simply because he opposed the purposes of God by not listening to Pharaoh Necho.
Therefore even if you have been in active ministry for 40 years and an unbeliever that you have taken a stand against, tells you to stop opposing the work of God, take some to pray and seek the Lord to find out if they are really doing the work of God or of a god.
If the unbeliever is doing the work of God, stop opposing them and let them do what God has told them to do because by continuing to fight them, you will be fighting God and you know you can never win that battle.
Click on the link to read God Can Use Unbelievers part 1
Click on the link to read God Can Use Unbelievers part 2
