5 Relationships That Could Make or Break You (Part 3): Business Partnerships and Alliances

Business Partnerships and Alliances: Lessons from Lot and Jehoshaphat

In continuation of our meditation on the relationship series, we will be considering business partnership or alliance.

Then Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, to the South. Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold… Lot also, who went with Abram, had flocks and herds and tents. Now the land was not able to support them, that they might dwell together, for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together. – Genesis 13:1-2, 5-6 

Sometime later King Jehoshaphat of Judah made an alliance with King Ahaziah of Israel, who was very wicked. Together they built a fleet of trading ships at the port of Ezion-geber. Then Eliezer son of Dodavahu from Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat. He said, “Because you have allied yourself with King Ahaziah, the Lord will destroy your work.” So the ships met with disaster and never put out to sea. – 2 Chronicles 20:35-37 (NLT)

The two passages above are self-explanatory in their lesson. Thus, the third category of relationship we will meditate on today, in line with its ability to make or break, push up or pull down, is business partnership or strategic alliances.

God is very interested in the details of our lives. He wants us to marry a good spouse, maintain quality friendships and build successful businesses. But He is also particular about what we do in all of these and with whom we do them because, inasmuch as He is eager to bless us and prosper the works of our hands, we can restrain Him by the choices we make that contravene His counsel and expectations as spelt out in the Holy Bible.

In the first scripture, Lot was very fortunate to have pitched his tent with Abraham, a man favoured by God. In no time, he changed from being a helpless dependant into a prosperous man as the blessings of Abraham rubbed off on him in no small measure. He became a man of means with his own vast flocks of animals, one of the measures of wealth at that time. This he attained just by being with Abraham.

On the other hand, Jehoshaphat who was one of the star kings in the Bible got it wrong in his choice of business partnership and strategic alliance. He went into a partnership with Ahaziah, a man despised by God, and the venture proved ruinous with a great loss of money and other valuables because God Himself scuttled it.

Now, Jehoshaphat was a righteous king with a good testimony before God, but his right standing could not make up for the wrongness of his partner/ally, who was an unrepentant sinner and a time bomb waiting for the opportune time to explode – as God had intended to punish him for his misdeeds.

These two examples should help us see why it is very important to seek the face of God before we commit ourselves and our resources to a venture with anyone so that we can have a fruitful show for it and not end up fetching water with a hole-ridden basket.

You will succeed in Jesus’s Name!

Also read:

• 5 Relationships That Could Make or Break You (2)- Friendship
• Next on the List: Putting God First in a Busy World
• Understanding God: The God Who Gives a New Identity
• The Influence of Jesus Christ on Science (2)
• You Are A Being Of Light
• I Had A Smooth Pregnancy

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