2 Chronicles 21:4–20 (NIV)✞: Jehoram King of Judah
Passage
For the last few passages we’ve been reading about Jehoshaphat, and I’ve been saying—probably ad nauseum—that the author(s) of Chronicles have been going out of their way to avoid giving the impression he was either a good king or a bad king. It was way more complicated than that.
We now encounter Jehoram, and the author(s) leave absolutely no doubt in our minds: he’s a bad king.
At the end of the last passage I pointed out that the author(s) had made a point of telling us the names of Jehoram’s brothers—which isn’t usually part of the summaries at the end of a king’s life—and it was indeed foreshadowing: the moment he has “firmly established” his kingship Jehoram puts his brothers all to death – along with some officials, so he’s not only eliminating rivals to the throne, he’s also firmly breaking ties with his father’s reign.
The author(s) also mention a name that’s become synonymous with evil at this point in Israel/Judah’s history: Ahab.
[Jehoram] followed the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for he married a daughter of Ahab. He did evil in the eyes of the LORD.
We’re next told that a couple of the nations that had been paying tribute to Judah rebel against Jehoram:
8 In the time of Jehoram, Edom rebelled against Judah and set up its own king. 9 So Jehoram went there with his officers and all his chariots. The Edomites surrounded him and his chariot commanders, but he rose up and broke through by night. 10 To this day Edom has been in rebellion against Judah.
Libnah revolted at the same time, because Jehoram had forsaken the LORD, the God of his ancestors. 11 He had also built high places on the hills of Judah and had caused the people of Jerusalem to prostitute themselves and had led Judah astray.
When I say that the author(s) of Chronicles are making it quite clear that Jehoram is a bad king, God Himself also made it quite clear, through His prophet Elijah:
12 Jehoram received a letter from Elijah the prophet, which said:
“This is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: ‘You have not followed the ways of your father Jehoshaphat or of Asa king of Judah. 13 But you have followed the ways of the kings of Israel, and you have led Judah and the people of Jerusalem to prostitute themselves, just as the house of Ahab did. You have also murdered your own brothers, members of your own family, men who were better than you. 14 So now the LORD is about to strike your people, your sons, your wives and everything that is yours, with a heavy blow. 15 You yourself will be very ill with a lingering disease of the bowels, until the disease causes your bowels to come out.’”
Just in case we’d been wondering if Jehoram’s brothers would have made better kings than him, God’s message makes it clear: they would have.
As we should expect, both of God’s promises to Jehoram come to pass:
- The Philistines and Arabs in the region attack Judah, carrying off as plunder not only the riches from Jehoram’s palace, but even his wives and his sons! All except his youngest son, Ahaziah, are taken as captives.
- He does, indeed, contract a disease of the bowels. After a couple of years they come out of his body and he dies “in great pain” (v. 19✞).
The author(s) are quite honest about how the people feel about Jehoram’s end:
19 [he dies of his bowel disease and then…] His people made no funeral fire in his honor, as they had for his predecessors.
20 Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years. He passed away, to no one’s regret, and was buried in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.
2 Chronicles 21:19–20 (NIV)✞, elided and emphasis added
Thoughts
Once again we are confronted with a passage in which God simply refuses to act the way we’d expect/hope He’d act. We’re explicitly told that Jehoram’s brothers were better men than him, so why did God orchestrate history in such a way that Jehoram became king instead of one of them? Especially in light of verse 7✞:
Nevertheless, because of the covenant the LORD had made with David, the LORD was not willing to destroy the house of David. He had promised to maintain a lamp for him and his descendants forever.
If God is able/willing to ensure that the line of David continues—in this case, by ensuring that one of Jehoram’s sons remains to take over leadership of the nation after Jehoram—then why would He allow Jehoram to be king in the first place? (Or, for that matter, why would He allow Ahaziah to be king after him, because we’ll find out in the next chapter that he’s a bad king too!)
If God is in control of history, and if Judah is His special nation, under His special watch and care, then why is He allowing bad kings to rule and do such terrible things?
As usual, I’m not going to pretend to have an answer for this. (It comes up a lot in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, so if I have any readers they’re used to me delving into this question without having any answers for it…)
At this point in the book the author(s) have stopped talking about a complicated kingship (Jehoshaphat is both good and bad) and started talking about a simple one (Jehoram is just bad), but on another level the complications remain: God is clearly involved in this story, orchestrating events (for example, having Jehoram’s family hauled away as “plunder” by another nation or giving Jehoram his disease), but also letting other events unfold (for example, not stopping Jehoram from killing his brothers).
In fact, if we take seriously the fact that God is in control of history, we have to also understand that it was God’s choice for Jehoram to be king, so the question is even more stark: why?
I think part of the answer is fundamental to the entire Old Testament: by the time we get to the end of it, it should be clear that humans are simply not able to obey God on our own. When left to our own devices, we’re evil.
- God leads the Israelites out of Egypt and the whole story of their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land (including the forty year interlude) seems to be filled with them grumbling and complaining. The only thing that keeps some semblance of order is strong leadership, first from Moses and then from Joshua.
- Then Joshua dies and the book of Judges delves wholeheartedly into how bad God’s people are – the people who are supposed to be different from the nations around them but don’t seem to be any different at all.
- We see David become king and things seem like they’re going right, but it doesn’t last long before things descend into chaos once more: the nation of Israel is split into two—Israel and Judah—and Israel never does well again, while Judah has an on-again off-again relationship with God.
That last part is the part of Judah’s history we’re in now.
After we get out of the historical books of the Old Testament (and after the books of poetry) we’ll get to the prophets, where we’ll see God practically pleading with His people to return. The God of Creation, the One who is mighty and powerful beyond even our ability to understand, likening himself to a cuckolded husband while His people shamelessly chase after “relations” with other gods.
So we shouldn’t come out of the Old Testament thinking we can please Him if we just try hard enough – and yet we did exactly that! Or at least, many of the Jewish people of Jesus’ day did. By the time Jesus arrives there are groups like the Pharisees who have decided that we can please God by following the Law, if we just try hard enough. Jesus then points out that we have remained as sinful as we always were, it’s just a different type of sin: rather than worshipping the gods of the nations around us, we’ve worshipped our own righteousness (which are now called “works”). We don’t need God! But now that we’re doing so well He has to reward us, because that’s the deal!
And I say “we,” even though the Pharisees and other religious leaders of Jesus’ day lived thousands of years ago, because we still fall into the same trap. Christians in 21st Century North America still get “holier than thou,” assuming we’re right with God because we don’t commit the “bad” sins. (Or… well… sometimes we do, but He understands. We’re doing good enough. In… you know, in general.)
So am I saying that God made Jehoram king to prove to us how bad humans are? No. I always resist the temptation to oversimplify the Old Testament; there is always a tension in the Bible between God being in control and us being responsible for our own sins, and Jehoram was responsible for his. But… in a complicated world—too complicated for humans to understand (as is pointed out clearly in the book of Job, for example)—I’m not saying it couldn’t be part of the reason.
But I’ll say once again that the Old Testament never shies away from the fact that God is in control, and, at the same time, we are responsible for our own actions. Just because we can’t wrap our heads around it, doesn’t mean the Bible is going to ignore it.
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