From caf3c197f8fae9f3ccf92d0bf399bed7fc5bf968 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Lyle Mantooth Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2025 08:16:20 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] 2 Chronicles 21:8-20 --- content/bible_journal/2chronicles/21:8-20.md | 36 ++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 36 insertions(+) create mode 100644 content/bible_journal/2chronicles/21:8-20.md diff --git a/content/bible_journal/2chronicles/21:8-20.md b/content/bible_journal/2chronicles/21:8-20.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..785cb4f --- /dev/null +++ b/content/bible_journal/2chronicles/21:8-20.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ ++++ +title = "2 Chronicles 21:8–20" +date = "2025-03-12" ++++ + +### [Read the passage.](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/2Chronicles21.8-20) + +Because of the evil deeds of King Jehoram, God brings about judgement on the land of Judah. +His father Jehoshaphat had relied on the Lord when Edom attacked alongside Ammon and Moab. +After the whole coalition army was destroyed, it appears that Judah made Edom a vassal state. +During Jehoram's reign, Edom rebels and revolts, setting up their own king. +Jehoram attempts to put a stop to it with his army, but is not successful. +Verse 10 gives the reason explicitly that it is because he had forsaken the Lord. + +In large part, this forsaking took the form of idol worship, which he promoted among the people by setting up high places. +His father and grandfather had worked to remove these religious sites so that the Lord would be worshiped in the way He had prescribed, and not any other god. +Jehoram undid that work and led Judah astray into the idolatry that Israel had been committing for generations. + +Most of the time when the Lord pronounces judgement on someone, He sends a prophet to confront the people in person, but this time Elijah sends a letter. +Elijah's ministry was in the northern kingdom of Israel, mostly during Ahab's reign. +The timing is hard to judge, but it may be possible that this letter was delivered after Elijah was taken up in to heaven. +The judgement Elijah's letter pronounces is very severe. +It calls out Jehoram for leading Judah into idolatry and also for the murder of his brothers "who were better" than himself. (_v. 13_) +Because of these evil acts, a great plague will come on the people, including his own house and family, and furthermore his own body will be stricken with a terrible disease. + +And so it came to pass: the plague on the people came in the form of the Philistines and Arabians raiding and pillaging the country. +They encroached even into Jerusalem to the king's house, taking captive his wives and all of his children except for the youngest. +"After this" (_v. 18_), Jehoram is stricken with a disease in his bowels, suffering in agony for two years before he dies. +And no one is sad to see him go. +He is not given the same honorable burial that his forefathers were given. +He isn't even buried in the tombs of the kings of Judah. +The people of Judah are just relieved to have that chapter of their history behind them. + +* * * + +Even when our own ways seem so right to us, grant us the grace to follow You instead.