The High Cost of Bad In-Laws
Introduction: The Covenantal Hangover
We live in an age of pragmatism. The modern evangelical church is frequently tempted to measure its success by worldly metrics, by its influence, its budget, its political access, and its cultural respectability. And to get those things, the temptation is always to make a deal, to form an alliance, to build a bridge to a worldview that is fundamentally hostile to our own. We are told that we must be savvy, that we must be strategic, that we must be willing to compromise on the little things in order to gain a hearing for the big things. We think we can yoke ourselves to the world's ox and still plow a straight furrow for the kingdom of God.
This is a fool's errand, and the historical books of the Old Testament are a graveyard of kings who tried it. The story of the kings is not a disconnected series of moral fables. It is a long, slow, and often bloody demonstration of covenantal cause and effect. Choices have consequences, and those consequences do not die with the man who made them. They are passed down like a genetic disease to his children and his children's children. What one generation tolerates, the next will embrace. What one generation flirts with in the name of political expediency, the next will marry.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the disastrous alliance between the house of David in Judah and the house of Omri in Israel. A godly king, Jehoshaphat, in a moment of profound foolishness, decided to secure a political treaty by marrying his son Jehoram to Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. He thought he was being a statesman. He was actually opening the door and inviting a demon into his house. In the passage before us today, we are not seeing the beginning of this story. We are seeing the hangover. We are witnessing the third generation consequences of that single, catastrophic compromise. The poison has worked its way through the bloodstream of the royal family, and now it has reached the throne itself.
The Text
In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel, Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah became king. Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Athaliah the granddaughter of Omri king of Israel. He also walked in the way of the house of Ahab and did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, like the house of Ahab had done, because he was a son-in-law of the house of Ahab. Then he went with Joram the son of Ahab to war with Hazael king of Aram at Ramoth-gilead, and the Arameans struck Joram. So King Joram returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Arameans had caused by striking him at Ramah when he fought against Hazael king of Aram. Then Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to see Joram the son of Ahab in Jezreel because he was sick.
(2 Kings 8:25-29 LSB)
The Rotten Root (vv. 25-26)
We begin with the simple facts of the succession, which are anything but simple.
"In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel, Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah became king. Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Athaliah the granddaughter of Omri king of Israel." (2 Kings 8:25-26 LSB)
The historian is meticulous here. He wants us to connect the dots. Ahaziah of Judah takes the throne, and the first thing we are told is how his reign relates to Joram of Israel. The two kingdoms are intertwined. But the truly damning information is in the genealogy. Ahaziah's mother was Athaliah. And who was she? The "granddaughter of Omri." This is theological shorthand for "rotten to the core."
The house of Omri, and his son Ahab, was the epicenter of Baal worship in Israel. They were the sworn enemies of Yahweh. They were the ones who hunted Elijah, murdered Naboth for his vineyard, and led the northern kingdom into full-blown apostasy. And Athaliah was their daughter, a chip off the old block. She was a missionary of Baalism, planted strategically in the heart of the Davidic monarchy. Jehoshaphat thought he was getting a daughter-in-law; he got a cancer.
Notice the brevity of the reign, just one year. This is a sign of divine displeasure. When a king's reign is cut short like this, it is a statement. God is not blessing this administration. This is not a reign; it is a footnote. It is a brief, ugly spasm of idolatry before God brings the hammer down.
The Inevitable Fruit (v. 27)
Verse 27 gives us the spiritual diagnosis, and it is exactly what we should expect.
"He also walked in the way of the house of Ahab and did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, like the house of Ahab had done, because he was a son-in-law of the house of Ahab." (2 Kings 8:27 LSB)
You plant an apple seed, you do not get a pumpkin. You raise a boy in a house dominated by the worldview of Ahab and Jezebel, and you get a king who walks in the way of Ahab. The text is emphatic. He did evil "like the house of Ahab." The copy was just like the original. The spiritual DNA was a perfect match.
And the Bible gives us the reason in the plainest possible terms: "because he was a son-in-law of the house of Ahab." The family tie was the spiritual tie. The marriage alliance was the covenantal snare. This is the principle of 2 Corinthians 6:14 written in the blood and smoke of history: "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers." Jehoshaphat yoked his son to an unbeliever, and now his grandson is pulling the plow for Baal.
This is a direct assault on our modern individualism. We like to think that we are the captains of our own souls, that our relationships are our own private business. The Bible says otherwise. Your closest alliances will define your walk. You cannot walk with the wicked and maintain a righteous path. You will either convert them, or they will corrupt you. And history shows which way the current usually flows. Ahaziah's identity was not ultimately found in being a son of David, but rather in being a son-in-law of Ahab. He chose his family, and in so doing, he chose his god.
The Foolish Fellowship and The Sovereign Stage (vv. 28-29)
The family alliance naturally becomes a military alliance. The worldview solidarity leads to shared political and military goals.
"Then he went with Joram the son of Ahab to war with Hazael king of Aram at Ramoth-gilead, and the Arameans struck Joram. So King Joram returned to be healed in Jezreel... Then Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to see Joram the son of Ahab in Jezreel because he was sick." (2Kings 8:28-29 LSB)
So the two kings, uncle and nephew, go off to war together. They are fighting shoulder to shoulder. Notice where they go to fight, Ramoth-gilead. This place should have sent a chill down their spines. This is the very city where Joram's father, Ahab, was killed in battle after ignoring the prophet Micaiah's warning. They are returning to the scene of the crime, repeating the follies of their fathers. This is what spiritual blindness does. It erases historical memory.
And here we see the quiet, meticulous sovereignty of God beginning to move the pieces on the chessboard. The Arameans strike Joram. It is not a fatal blow, but it is a strategic one. It takes him off the battlefield and sends him to Jezreel to recover. Jezreel was the winter capital, the seat of Ahab's power, the location of Naboth's stolen vineyard. It is a city ripe for judgment.
Then, in an act of familial courtesy, Ahaziah goes down to Jezreel to visit his wounded uncle. From a human perspective, this is all perfectly normal. A battle, an injury, a hospital visit. But from a divine perspective, God is gathering His enemies. He is luring them to the designated place of execution. The prophet Hosea would later say, "I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel" (Hosea 1:5). God is setting the stage. He has wounded one king and arranged a sick call for the other. Both heads of the serpent are about to be in the same basket, just in time for the arrival of Jehu, God's appointed instrument of wrath.
This is a profound comfort and a terrifying warning. It is a comfort because it shows that even when wicked men are colluding and pursuing their evil agendas, God is sovereignly orchestrating their movements to bring about His own righteous purposes. Their unholy alliance is simply the means by which God gathers them for judgment. It is a warning because it shows that the path of compromise leads directly to the kill box. The road of fellowship with the wicked may seem strategic and clever, but its final destination is always Jezreel.
Conclusion: Check Your Alliances
The story of Ahaziah is short and tragic. He was a young man who inherited a poisoned chalice. The disastrous compromise of his grandfather became the defining feature of his own life and reign. He was so entangled with the house of Ahab that when God decided to destroy that house, he was swept away with them.
The warning for us is stark. We must be ruthless in examining our own alliances. Where have we yoked ourselves to the world in the name of pragmatism? Where have we married our children, our churches, or our institutions to ungodly worldviews in the hope of gaining some perceived advantage? We think we can manage the relationship, that we can control the influence. But the story of Ahaziah shows that the ungodly worldview always seeks to dominate. The leaven of Ahab will always work its way through the entire lump.
Our task is not to seek alliances with the houses of this world. Our task is to be a distinct and separate people, a holy nation. Our loyalty is to one house, the house of God. Our king is one king, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the true Son of David, who was not corrupted by his associations with sinners, because He came not to form an alliance with them, but to conquer them by His grace.
The only safe alliance is to be a "son-in-law" of the house of God, to be joined to Christ. He does not call us into a partnership of equals. He calls us into submission. He calls us to leave the family of Ahab, the family of Adam, and be adopted into His. And when we are tempted by the apparent strength and wisdom of the world, we must remember the one-year reign of Ahaziah, and we must remember that the road to Jezreel is paved with good intentions and foolish compromises.