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Hello my ‘Walking with Jesus” friends,
As we enter this weekend, the last few days of the American election volatility and confusion have been amazing, haven’t they? At the same time, as I watched hurricane Eta come ashore in Central America this week, and then turn north, the 28th named tropical storm of 2020, I was struck with this thought… both the political storm and the hurricane storm are amazingly similar. Both are very powerful storms and can be terribly destructive, neither are easily predictable, and both leave quite a legacy behind them.
If you’ve been on this “Walking with Jesus” journey with me for a while, you know we always look to God’s Word the Bible, seeking lessons we can learn that fit with what’s going on in our world today, and our daily lives. So I invite you to join me in 2 Chronicles 21 today. Yesterday we experienced a remarkable miracle of God’s deliverance with king Jehoshaphat and the people of Jerusalem who were under attack and greatly outnumbered by a vast army…but they trusted in God and they sought His help and He delivered them! That event is a legacy highlight of Jehoshaphat’s 25 year reign as king. At about age 60 king Jehoshaphat died and was buried among the tombs of the kings with great fanfare, and his throne was passed to his son Jehoram.
We have no details of that leadership transition process, but we can assume that at age 32 Jehoram had spent a great deal of time in the palace, watching and listening to his father king Jehoshaphat and his officials, deal with the issues related to leading the country, for more than two decades! May I ask… by the time you reached age 32, what really important life lessons had you learned from your parents and others who helped prepare you for adult life? Which adults do you now view as having been most influential in your character development? How have you thanked them?
Regardless of who is finally inaugurated as the next American President in January, both Mr.’s Trump and Biden are of the age that they are likely nearing the end of their public, political lives. Both have sons whom they have profoundly influenced. But should the president die in office, in America, the Vice President will immediately become president, not the president’s son. For king Jehoshaphat, everyone anticipated his eldest son Jehoram would succeed him to the throne, and he did.
Sadly, in short order new king Jehoram showed he was dramatically different from his father and would not follow the remarkably successful path of his father’s leadership. Listen: “When Jehoram established himself firmly over his father’s kingdom, he put all his brothers to the sword along with some of the officials of Israel. Jehoram was 32 years old, and he reigned in Jerusalem 8 years. He followed in the wicked ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for he married a daughter of Ahab. He did evil in the eyes of the LORD.” (2 Chron. 21:4-6)
Can you imagine the shockwaves which rippled out across the land as news of new king Jehoram’s behavior reached the ears of people who had held his father in such high esteem, and had such great hopes for him? And what about the leaders of other nations around Jerusalem, what conclusions do you suppose they drew as they heard this news and what immediate changes did they adopt in their posture toward Israel? We get a glimpse of this in the next few verses as both Edom and Libnah revolted against Jehoram’s harsh leadership.
From a spiritual leadership perspective, listen to this reputation Jehoram established for himself: “Jehoram had forsaken the LORD, the God of his ancestors. He had built high places on the hills of Judah and caused the people of Jerusalem to prostitute themselves with foreign gods, as he led Judah astray.” (2 Chron. 21:11) May I invite you my friends to take a moment and look at the leadership around you, wherever you live in the world. National and regional leadership, business and political leadership, even church leadership. What phrases would you use to summarize the type of leadership you’ve seen and the impact those leaders have had on the society and quality of life where you live? What leadership legacies are they building?
Over and over in our study we’ve seen that God is always watching, and very often He responds to leadership which rejects God and leads the people away from God. Remember the old prophet Elijah whom God sent to wicked king Ahab and the showdown on Mount Carmel found in 1 Kings 18? Well Elijah was still alive, now even older and still very concerned for God’s people both in the southern kingdom Judah and the northern kingdom Israel. God stirred deeply in Elijah to write a very strong warning letter to king Jehoram. You’ll find it beginning in vs. 12. Look closely and you’ll see God is very specific about His accusations against Jehoram’s actions and attitudes, and clear about what He, Almighty God, is going to do in response… “So now the LORD is about to strike your people, your sons, your wives and everything that is yours, with a heavy blow….” (2 Chron. 21:14)
There is no evidence king Jehoram gave this powerful warning much consideration at all! So first “The LORD aroused against Jehoram the hostility of the Philistines and the Arabs…” What? We’ve seen several examples of God coming to the rescue of His people when they were being attacked by foreign enemies, but does God also raise up enemies and bring them against His people when His people are in rebellion against Him and disregarding His warnings? Oh yes my friends, please take careful note! God will not be mocked, either by one of His people living in open rebellion against Him or by a family, or a group of His people like a church or a Christian organization, and especially God will not stand by idle indefinitely when leaders are mocking Him. God brought enemies against rebellious king Jehoram and the people of Jerusalem.
In addition, God removed His hand of protection over His people, and some of these enemies “…invaded and carried off all the goods found in the king’s palace, together with his sons and wives.” Oh my friends, it’s a frightening thing when God removes His protection and we become vulnerable to that from which God has been protecting us! Has it ever happened where you live in the world?
And if all that wasn’t enough “…the LORD afflicted Jehoram with an incurable disease of the bowels. In the course of time…his bowels came out and he died in great pain.” Oh my that sounds excruciatingly painful! Yet I still see no evidence in Jehoram that he was repentant of his sinful leadership, no remorse, no regret, no efforts to restore his throne to leadership that was God honoring and helpful to the people. As a result, look at how the people responded to the end of Jehoram’s life: “The people made no funeral fire in his honor, as they had for his predecessors. He passed away to no one’s regret, and he was buried…but not in the tombs of the kings.” (2 Chron. 21:16-20)
That little phrase haunts me: “He passed away to no one’s regret…”! What a legacy! And to think this Jehoram was the son of the remarkable king Jehoshaphat and grandson of the amazing king Asa. Ponder this a moment: Asa and his son Jehoshaphat had led the people of Judah for a combined 66 years and God’s hand of great blessing, bounty and protection had been upon the people for most all that time. But in 8 short years, Jehoram undid most all of the good of his father and grandfather, led the people far from God, and died a horrible death in such shame, that the people were quick to bury his body and hope for new leadership to restore their nation to their great history.
In closing, may I invite you to spend a few moments looking at your family heritage and the heritage of your nation, your community and your church. How does the present moment look when viewed through the lenses of the past several decades? What is God helping you see and as you pray about the future, what might God want to accomplish through you, that will bring much needed change, for God’s glory? What can you anticipate your legacy will be? I urge you to take your journal and slowly read 2 Chronicles 21 and then write, as the Holy Spirit leads you!
Click to read today’s chapter: 2 Chronicles 21. (At the top you can choose a different translation.)
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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