2 Chronicles 21
The account of Jehoram's reign contained in 2 Kings 8:16-24 corresponds in substance to that which is said to us in 2 Chron. 21:5-10, but except for these few verses all we are told about Jehoram here is new. We have spoken in Meditations on 2 Kings about the chronological difficulties raised with regard to this reign; these difficulties disappear before the fact that Jehoram was made regent during the lifetime of his father Jehoshaphat just as the latter, allying himself with Ahab, was seeking to reconquer Ramoth-Gilead, occupied by the king of Syria. This explains the expression in 2 Kings 8:16: "And in the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab, king of Israel, Jehoshaphat being then king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, began to reign." It was during his regency that Jehoram exterminated his six brothers whom Jehoshaphat had established in the fortified cities of Judah (2 Chron. 21:3). The date is confirmed by what is said in 2 Chron. 21:4: "Jehoram established himself" (or rose up) over the kingdom of his father and strengthened himself'; it is confirmed again by the fact that the writing of Elijah, who had not yet been taken up to heaven, mentions the murder of Jehoram's brothers (2 Chron. 21:13). These details confirm the perfect accuracy of the biblical account.
We have said above that the reigns of Jehoram and of Ahaziah, his son, offer not a single feature which does not call for final judgment on Judah. Nevertheless the Lord remains faithful to His promises and does not destroy "the house of David, because of the covenant that He had made with David, and as He had promised to give to him always a lamp, and to his sons" (2 Chron. 21:7). The revolt of Libnah, a priestly city (2 Chron. 21:10), seems to indicate that at least the priesthood in Judah protested against the king's abominations. The reason for this revolt is given us: Jehoram "had forsaken Jehovah the God of his fathers." The royal house was spared only in view of the future heir who was to descend from it.
However, we do not have to wait long for the consequences of Jehoram's revolting conduct. Edom, until then tributary to Judah and which had no king but rather a governor (1 Kings 22:47), revolts, "and they set a king over themselves" (2 Chron. 21:8). Jehoram fights them successfully, but his victory is fruitless, for "unto this day" Edom has remained free from Judah's yoke.
"Moreover, he made high places on the mountains of Judah"; this was far worse than failing to destroy the existing high places, as several of his predecessors had done: Jehoram creates and establishes them, something no king of Judah had ever done before him. Much more, he promoted fornication at Jerusalem and "compelled Judah thereto" (2 Chron. 21:11). What a scene! This was voluntarily forsaking God for idolatry; in a word, this was apostasy and completely forgetting God's holiness, to which Jehoram preferred corruption and defilement.
Up until now we have seen the role of the prophets of Judah in rebuking, exhorting, encouraging, and filling hearts with fear at the imminent judgments of Jehovah. Now these precious helpers are not there. Only "a writing... from Elijah," prophet of Israel and prophet of judgment, reaches king Jehoram. Elijah had watched the first acts of this reign of violence and had written against the king. This writing, preserved after the prophet's rapture, gets to Jehoram. "Thus saith Jehovah, the God of David thy father: Because thou hast not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat thy father, nor in the ways of Asa king of Judah, but hast walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and hast made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit fornication, like the fornications of the house of Ahab, and also hast slain thy brethren, thy father's house who were better than thyself: behold, Jehovah will smite with a great stroke thy people, and thy children, and thy wives, and all thy substance, and thyself with sore sicknesses, with a disease of thy bowels, until thy bowels fall out by reason of the sickness day by day" (2 Chron. 21:12-15).
The three facts enumerated by Elijah to justify God's judgment are: abandoning Jehovah, corruption, and violence — all that characterizes man's sin on account of which God had once destroyed the world by the flood. But God is patient toward His people: He speaks only of personal judgment on the king. Jehoram is stricken in his bowels which fall out by reason of this terrible sickness, and he dies "in cruel sufferings." Thus Elijah's prophecy is accomplished to the letter. Jehoram had chosen "the way of the kings of Israel"; he is condemned by a prophet of Israel, the only public witness who remained in the midst of the idolatry of the ten tribes and their king.
Defections continue. Not only Edom, but also the Philistines and the Arabians rise up against Judah; these nations overrun her territory as well as Jerusalem, plundering the king's treasure, carrying away his sons and his wives, and massacring the former, just as he himself had massacred his brothers. All that is left of his family is a single offshoot, Jehoahaz, otherwise known as Ahaziah, for the Lord wanted to preserve a lamp for David and his sons. Jehoram died "without being regretted"; no aromatic spices are burned for him as had been done for Asa. Although he is buried in the city of David, the honor of sharing the sepulchers of the kings is refused him at his burial.
What will become of the lamp which God is yet preserving for David?