Remember, Jehoshaphat was a great king and a good man of
God. However, his errors were very
costly. Although he loved God, he failed
to separate himself from those who didn't share his sentiment (2nd
Chronicles 18:1 & 20:35). So, when
he set his eldest son (Jehoram) on his own throne, who do you think Jehoram
emulated? Well, he acted like Ahab and
Ahaziah. That is, he copied the ways of his
father's wicked friends (2nd Chronicles 21:6). But that wasn't the worst of it. He killed his own brothers and uncles (2nd
Chronicles 21:4), and married Ahab's daughter (2nd Chronicles
21:6). Remember, Ahab's wife was
Jezebel. I'm sure her daughter was
nothing like her mother though, right?
As
you would expect, without God's blessings, things began to unravel rather
quickly in Judah. Nations who had been
subservient to them suddenly revolted.
High places, groves, idolatry and sexual perversion once again became
common. After 6 short years, in
fulfillment of a written prophecy of Elijah, Jehoram came down with a
disturbing disease that eventually caused him to pass his own intestines. Within 2 years he was dead. And notice, when he died, nobody cared. 2nd Chronicles 21:20 says that he "departed without being
desired."
No comments:
Post a Comment