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100
Royalty and Ruin
temporal gain? In the end, will it pay to disregard the will of God?
All such apparent gain will prove at last to be a complete loss.
Ahaziah was followed as king by Jehoram, his brother, who
reigned for twelve years. Throughout these years Jezebel was still
living and continued to exercise her evil influence over the nation.
Jehoram “did evil in the sight of the Lord, but not like his father and
mother; for he put away the sacred pillar of Baal that his father had
made. Nevertheless he persisted in the sins of Jeroboam the son of
Nebat, who had made Israel sin; he did not depart from them.”
2
Kings 3:2, 3
.
During Jehoram’s reign over Israel Jehoshapat died, and his son,
also named Jehoram, ascended the throne of Judah. By his marriage
with the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, Jehoram of Judah was closely
connected with the king of Israel and followed after Baal “just as the
house of Ahab had done.” “Moreover he ... caused the inhabitants
of Jerusalem to commit harlotry, and led Judah astray.”
2 Chronicles
21:6, 11
.
God did not permit the king of Judah to continue his terrible
apostasy without rebuke. The prophet Elijah could not remain silent
while Judah was following the same course that had brought the
northern kingdom nearly to ruin. The prophet sent Jehoram of Judah
a written communication, in which the wicked king read the awful
words:
“Thus says the Lord God of your father David: Because you
have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father, ... but have
walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and have made Judah and
the inhabitants of Jerusalem to play the harlot, ... and also have killed
your brothers, those of your father’s household, who were better
than yourself, behold, the Lord will strike your people with a serious
affliction—your children, your wives, and all your possessions; and
you will become very sick.”
In fulfillment of this prophecy “the Lord stirred up against Je-
horam the spirit of the Philistines and the Arabians. ... And they ...
carried away all the possessions that were found in the king’s house,
and also his sons and his wives, so that there was not a son left to
him except Jehoahaz [
Ahaziah, Azariah
], the youngest of his sons.
“After all this the Lord struck him in his intestines with an incur-
able disease. Then it happened in the course of time, after the end