Sorry folks, an unintentional early SEND on the first note that you got from me… Please read on.
II Chronicles 21:1-22:9
Dear RTB’ers,
After reading the last two days all the goodness that was Jehoshaphat (with his ups and downs), we find that his son, Jehoram was as bad as Jehoshaphat was good. Within today’s first few verses we see that Jehoram marries Ahab’s daughter (Ahab was king of Israel) and then kills off all his brothers. Horrible!! The Lord passes judgment – I can’t imagine an illness for two years that ends with his bowels came out because of the disease, and he died in great agony. (v. 21:19b) God will do as He chooses.
Then we get a bit of confusion in the text as verse 21:17 refers to Jehoram’s son as Jehoahaz, while verse 22:1 refers to him as Ahaziah. Then the chapter continues with him as Ahaziah. Sadly, “like father, like son” describes Ahaziah, in that He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother was his counselor to act wickedly. (v. 22:3) We’ll read more about his mother tomorrow. For today, Azariah makes the same mistake as Jehoshaphat, his grandfather, joining Israel in battle against Syria – and losing his life as a result.
So today, alliances with evil – not good. And this is Judah, the Southern Kingdom that we are reading about! Still, a good lesson for us, not to rely on our heritage or our environment for our “success”, but to personally seek God, Himself all the more. Jesus speaking: I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (John 14:6)
Blessings!
Fred