Today in God’s Word

Today in God's Word—March 2023

East Tallassee Church of Christ

March 3, 2 Chronicles 21

He was thirty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. And he departed with no one's regret. They buried him in the city of David, but not in the tombs of the kings. - 2 Chronicles 21:20

Although Judah had some good kings, none of them were perfect in their obedience to God. (They may have been kings, but they were also human.) But if any king of Judah was perfectly evil, Jehoram comes close. He was about as bad as a king could be.

Jehoshaphat chose Jehoram from among his sons to succeed him because he was his firstborn son. In many families, the firstborn feels responsible for and protective of his younger siblings. But Jehoram had no brotherly love. As soon as he was securely established as king, he ruthlessly murdered all his brothers. Jehoram's fratricide was more than just an unnatural hatred. It was the first wave of mayhem in the house of Ahab's plan to destroy the house of David once and for all.

Jehoshaphat sat his son Jehoram up for ruin when he chose a daughter of Ahab and Jezebel to be his son's wife. What was Jehoshaphat thinking? By doing so, Jehoshaphat grafted a branch of pure evil from the house of Ahab and Israel into the family tree of David and his dynasty in Judah.

We should not be surprised when we read that Jehoram forsook the righteous ways of his father and grandfather before him to walk in the wicked ways of the Ahab and Israel. He did the same evil in the sight of the LORD that Ahab and Jezebel led Israel to do. Surely their daughter Athaliah was one of the main causes of Jehoram's apostasy from God to embrace the whoredom of idol worship.

Because of Jehoram’s evil deeds, God allowed Libnah and Edom to succeed in their rebellion against Judah. Jehoram failed in his attempt to bring Edom back into subjection. Judah's strong

domination began to unravel as God withdrew his blessing from Judah because of their unfaithfulness. Jehoram rebuilt the high places of pagan worship his father had destroyed. He led the people of Judah away from God into the vulgar wickedness of idolatry.

God sent a message to Jehoram through a letter from the prophet Elijah. God told him that he led the nation astray into the same idolatry that had taken over In Israel. He rebuked him for killing his brothers, who were better men than he was.

Because of his wickedness, God was going to bring a plague on Jehoram's people and on his own family. God was also going to give Jehoram a terrible disease in his bowels that would afflict him the last two years of his life. True to Elijah's letter and God's promise, Jehoram died an agonizing death after reigning only eight years.

Jehoram was a terrible person and a terrible king. When he died, there was no mourning and none of the usual displays of national grief. He was buried in the city of David, but was not honored with a tomb among the other kings of Judah. Nobody cried when Jehoram died.

Young people, please remember the story of Jehoram and don't marry someone who will weaken and destroy your faith. The evil influence of Ahab's daughter ruined a family and a nation's faith in a single generation. Don't make that mistake. Marry someone who will help you be faithful to God.

What else can we take with us from this sad chapter? Let's remember the importance of good leaders. Ungodly leaders are a curse and never a blessing to their people. Jehoram’s wickedness spread from the throne down though the nation. We should also remember that disobeying God brings consequences.

This chapter also reminds us that we lose far more than we gain when we choose to forsake God and his will for our lives. And finally, let's

resolve to live in such a way that people will miss us when we're gone. I want to be remembered more for the good things about my life, not the bad. The only way to die and be fondly remembered and missed is to live in a way that people have something good to remember and miss about us.

Copyright © 2023 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.