2 Chronicles 21:12 - Meaning and Application

Here we have a warning from God sent to Jehoram by a writing from Elijah the prophet. This shows that Jehoram had already come to the throne and shown what he was like before Elijah was taken up. We do find Elisha serving Jehoshaphat, and he is called the one who poured water on Elijah’s hands after Elijah’s departure (2 Kings 3:11). But that may have been true while Elijah was still alive, and the record is placed out of order, since Jehoshaphat’s death and Jehoram’s rise to the throne are recorded before Elijah’s departure (1 Kings 22:50).

We may understand that Elijah’s time of leaving was near, so he could not go to Jehoram himself. But after hearing of Jehoram’s great wickedness in murdering his brothers, he left this letter, likely with Elisha, to be sent at the first opportunity. It may have been meant either to turn Jehoram back or to stand as a witness against him, showing that he had been clearly warned of what his sins would lead to. The message came in the name of the Lord, the God of David his father (2 Chronicles 21:12). That reminder of David was an honor to Jehoram, but it also made his failure worse.

Jehoram’s sins are plainly charged against him. He had left the good ways of God, in which he had been raised, and which his good father and grandfather had set before him by their example. Those men lived and died in peace and honor (2 Chronicles 21:12). He had also copied the ways of Ahab’s house, that godless and shameful family. He forced idolatry on his kingdom, and he murdered his brothers because they were better men than he was (2 Chronicles 21:13). These are the main charges laid against him.

Judgment is then declared against him for these crimes. His sin would surely ruin his kingdom and his family. The Lord would strike his people, his children, his wives, and all his possessions with a heavy blow, including war and captivity (2 Chronicles 21:14). Bad rulers often bring God’s judgments on everyone around them. His people would suffer because they had joined in his idolatry, and his wives because they had drawn him toward it.

His health and life would also be struck. He would suffer a severe, painful, and long-lasting disease, and at last it would kill him (2 Chronicles 21:15). He was warned in advance so that his own guilt would be clear, since the watchman had delivered the warning. Then, when these exact things happened, it would be obvious that they did not happen by chance, but as punishment for his sin. If he had learned from Ahab not only how to do evil, but also how to humble himself when Elijah warned him, as in 1 Kings 21:27, he might have gained at least a delay in judgment. But there is no sign that he paid attention. He threw the warning aside as if it were worthless. Elijah seemed to him like a mocker. Yet those who will not believe will have to feel the truth for themselves.

The threatened judgments then came on him because he ignored the warning. It is no wonder that hardened sinners are not moved to repentance by threats of future punishment in the world to come, when even sure trouble in this life, the loss of their wealth and the ruin of their health, does not stop them from sin.

Jehoram was stripped of all his comforts. God stirred up the spirits of his neighbors against him. They had loved and feared Jehoshaphat, but they hated and despised Jehoram, thinking it shameful for a nation to change its gods. They found some excuse to quarrel with him, invaded his land, and, as it seems, did not fight against small towns or ordinary people, but went straight for the king’s house. They carried off everything of value they found there. The account mentions only that they took away his sons and wives (2 Chronicles 21:17), but in another place we learn that they killed all his sons except one (2 Chronicles 22:1). Blood for blood. He had killed all his brothers to strengthen his own position, and now all his sons were killed except one, so his house was weakened. If he had not belonged to the house of David, that one son would not have escaped. When Jeroboam’s house, Baasha’s house, and Ahab’s house were destroyed, none were left. But David’s house would not be wiped out completely, even though it often became badly corrupted, because a blessing remained in it, the blessing of the Messiah.

He was also tormented with painful diseases that lasted a long time, like the warnings given in the law against those who would not fear the Lord their God (Deuteronomy 28:58-59). His sickness was very severe. It was centered in his bowels, causing constant pain, and it was joined by other serious ailments. The suffering also went on for a long time. He was ill for two years and could not get better, because the disease could not be cured, even though he was still in his prime and not yet forty years old. Asa, whose heart was right with God though he made some mistakes, was diseased only in his feet. But Jehoram, whose heart was wicked, was struck in his inward parts. The man who had shown no mercy to his brothers was plagued in his bowels until they came out. Even good people, and those who are very dear to God, may suffer this kind of illness. Yet for them such pain is a fatherly correction, and with God’s comfort the soul can still rest peacefully even when the body is in distress.

These painful diseases came on him just after his house had been plundered and his wives and children taken away. His grief over that loss may have caused his sickness, or at least made it worse. The illness also kept him from doing anything to recover them or avenge the wrong done to him. No doubt it added greatly to his sorrow that, while he was sick, he was separated from his wives and children and had lost all the wealth of his house. To be sick and poor, sick and alone, and especially to be sick while living in sin, under God’s curse, without grace to bear the suffering and without comfort to balance it, is a deeply miserable condition.

He was buried in shame. He ruled only eight years, and then he died without being wanted (2 Chronicles 21:20). No one valued him while he lived, and no one mourned him when he died. Instead, people were glad that Jerusalem had not suffered a greater loss. To show how little affection or respect they had for him, they would not bury him in the tombs of the kings, because they thought he was not worthy to be counted among those who had ruled so badly. The fact that his body was left out of the tombs of his fathers may also have been ordered by God as a sign of the lasting separation between the souls of the wicked after death and the spirits of the righteous.

This was an added disgrace to Jehoram, king of Judah, because they did not make a burning for him like they had for his fathers (2 Chronicles 21:19). His memory was not sweet or honored among the people, so they did not give him the usual perfumes or spices. Yet his body, after such a long and foul disease, would likely have needed something to cover the smell.

Most of the people, though they were often drawn to idolatry, did not truly care for their idolatrous kings. Sin and open disrespect for God make people despised even by those with little real religion. At the same time, natural conscience often leads people to honor those who are truly godly. Those who despise God will be held in low regard, as Jehoram was.