The Unraveling of a Rotten King
Introduction: The Logic of the Covenant
The book of Chronicles is not simply a dry recitation of historical facts. It is a theological history, written to a people who had returned from exile, reminding them of a fundamental truth: obedience to God brings blessing, and disobedience brings curses. This is the logic of the covenant. It is the operating system of the world God has made. When a king or a nation honors Yahweh, the borders expand, the treasury is full, the enemies are subdued, and the land has peace. But when a king or a nation forsakes Yahweh, everything begins to unravel. The center cannot hold. The kingdom begins to fray at the edges, and then the rot works its way to the very heart.
In our passage today, we have the account of Jehoram, the son of the good king Jehoshaphat. And his life is a case study in accelerated apostasy. He is a man who took a godly inheritance and set it on fire. His story is a stark and bloody illustration of what happens when a leader actively rejects the God of his fathers. We see that his personal wickedness does not remain personal. A king's sin is a public contagion. His idolatry and violence have immediate, tangible consequences in the real world of politics, war, and disease. This is not a quaint bronze-age story. It is a permanent warning. When men, especially leaders, forsake God, their world falls apart. And God is the one pushing it over.
The Text
In his days Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah and made a king over themselves. Then Jehoram crossed over with his commanders and all his chariots with him. And he arose by night and struck down the Edomites who were surrounding him and the commanders of the chariots. So Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah to this day. Then Libnah revolted at the same time from under his hand, because he had forsaken Yahweh, the God of his fathers. Moreover, he made high places in the mountains of Judah, and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to play the harlot and drove Judah astray.
Then a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet saying, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of your father David, ‘Because you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father and the ways of Asa king of Judah, but have walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and have caused Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to play the harlot as the house of Ahab played the harlot, and you have also killed your brothers, your own family, who were better than you, behold, Yahweh is going to smite your people, your sons, your wives, and all your possessions with a great calamity; and you will suffer severe sickness, a disease of your bowels, until your bowels come out because of the sickness, day by day.’ ”
Then Yahweh stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines and the Arabs who bordered the Ethiopians; and they went up against Judah and invaded it, and carried away all the possessions found in the king’s house together with his sons and his wives, so that no son was left to him except Jehoahaz, the youngest of his sons.
So after all this Yahweh smote him in his bowels with an incurable sickness. Now it happened in the course of time, at the end of two years, that his bowels came out because of his sickness and he died with this greatly painful disease. And his people made no fire for him like the fire for his fathers. He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years; and he departed with no one’s regret, and they buried him in the city of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.
(2 Chronicles 21:8-20 LSB)
The Political Rot (vv. 8-11)
The first thing to go when a nation forsakes God is its integrity, its wholeness. The judgment begins at the borders.
"In his days Edom revolted... So Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah to this day. Then Libnah revolted at the same time from under his hand, because he had forsaken Yahweh, the God of his fathers." (2 Chronicles 21:8, 10)
Edom had been a vassal state since the time of David. Their submission was a sign of God's covenant blessing on David's throne. Now, under Jehoram, that blessing is being withdrawn. The kingdom is shrinking. Jehoram puts up a fight, but it's ultimately futile. The text is explicit about the reason for this political decay: "because he had forsaken Yahweh, the God of his fathers." This is not a geopolitical analysis from a think tank. This is divine commentary. Foreign policy failures are, at root, theological failures.
But the rot is not just external. Libnah also revolts. Libnah was a Levitical city, a city of priests, within Judah itself. This is an internal rebellion. The spiritual core of the nation is rejecting this wicked king. When the priests revolt, you know the corruption at the top is rank.
And what was this forsaking? Verse 11 tells us plainly.
"Moreover, he made high places in the mountains of Judah, and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to play the harlot and drove Judah astray." (2 Chronicles 21:11)
Jehoram is an active agent of spiritual pollution. He married Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, and imported their Baal-worshiping state religion into Judah. He is not just tolerating idolatry; he is building shrines for it. He is compelling his people to commit spiritual adultery against Yahweh. The phrase "play the harlot" is not metaphorical fluff; it is the Bible's standard description for idolatry. It is a violation of the marriage covenant between God and His people. Jehoram is not a shepherd; he is a pimp, driving the flock into prostitution.
The Prophetic Rebuke (vv. 12-15)
God does not let such rebellion go unanswered. He sends a word of judgment, and it comes from a surprising source.
"Then a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet saying, 'Thus says Yahweh, the God of your father David...'" (2 Chronicles 21:12)
Elijah's ministry was almost exclusively to the northern kingdom of Israel, the epicenter of Ahab's apostasy. This letter is a divine bombshell. It shows that God's standards are the same for all His people, north or south. God holds Jehoram accountable not to some generic moral code, but to the specific legacy of his godly forefathers: David, Asa, and Jehoshaphat. He had a heritage of faithfulness to draw on, and he deliberately rejected it.
The charges are laid out with brutal clarity in verse 13. First, he walked in the way of the wicked kings of Israel. Second, he led Judah into spiritual harlotry, just like the house of Ahab. Third, "you have also killed your brothers, your own family, who were better than you." Before any of this political unraveling, Jehoram had secured his throne by slaughtering all his brothers. This was a man of profound wickedness, paranoia, and violence. He was a fratricidal tyrant.
Because of this, the sentence is pronounced. It is twofold. First, a "great calamity" will strike his people, his family, and his possessions (v. 14). The sin of the king brings judgment upon the kingdom. This is the principle of federal headship. Leaders do not sin in a vacuum. Second, a personal, gruesome judgment will strike Jehoram himself (v. 15). He will suffer a severe, chronic, and ultimately fatal disease of the bowels. The punishment is tailored to the man. The one who brought spiritual rot into the nation will be consumed by physical rot from within. It is a stomach-turning, but poetically just, sentence.
The Divine Execution (vv. 16-20)
God is not a distant observer. He is the active agent of this judgment.
"Then Yahweh stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines and the Arabs..." (2 Chronicles 21:16)
Notice the language. God is sovereign over the hearts of pagan kings and armies. He moves them like pieces on a chessboard. He "stirs them up" and uses them as His rod of correction. The invasion is a complete disaster for Jehoram. They carry away all his wealth, all his wives, and all his sons, except for the youngest, Jehoahaz. The man who killed his brothers to eliminate rivals now has his own sons eliminated by invaders. God's justice is often marked by this kind of breathtaking irony.
After the political and familial devastation, the personal judgment arrives.
"So after all this Yahweh smote him in his bowels with an incurable sickness... his bowels came out because of his sickness and he died with this greatly painful disease." (2 Chronicles 21:18-19)
The prophecy is fulfilled in excruciating detail. For two years, the king suffers this humiliating and agonizing affliction. His end is miserable. And his legacy is contempt. The people, whom he had driven into idolatry, now show their disdain for him. "And his people made no fire for him like the fire for his fathers." This ceremonial burning of spices was a great honor for a deceased king. Jehoram receives no such honor. He is despised in his death as he was in his life.
The final summary is one of the most brutal epitaphs in all of Scripture.
"He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years; and he departed with no one’s regret, and they buried him in the city of David, but not in the tombs of the kings." (2 Chronicles 21:20)
Think of it. He "departed with no one's regret." Nobody mourned him. Nobody missed him. His life was a blight on the nation, and his death was a relief. As a final indignity, he is denied burial in the royal tombs. He is cast out, separated even in death from the line of faithful kings he so utterly rejected.
Conclusion: The King Who Died Regretted
The life of Jehoram is a terrifying picture of the wages of sin. When you forsake God, your world disintegrates. Your borders shrink, your family is destroyed, your body decays, and your legacy is shame. He is the king who died, and nobody cared.
But this grim story, like all Old Testament stories, points us to another King. It forces us to contrast Jehoram with Jesus Christ. Jehoram murdered his brothers to secure his throne; Christ laid down His life for His brothers to secure their place on His throne. Jehoram drove his people into spiritual adultery; Christ purifies for Himself a bride, the church, making her holy and without blemish. Jehoram was struck with an incurable disease because of his own sin; Christ, who knew no sin, was struck by God and took the incurable disease of our sin upon Himself.
Jehoram departed with no one's regret. But when Christ departed, His disciples were filled with sorrow, and His death is now the central event of human history, the source of all our hope. Jehoram was buried in shame, outside the tombs of the kings. But our King was not left in the tomb. He was raised from the dead and exalted to the highest place, the King of all kings, and He now reigns forever.
Even in this dark chapter, there is a flicker of grace. God preserves one son, Jehoahaz, to keep the line of David alive. God's covenant promise is more stubborn than man's most determined rebellion. The story of Jehoram is a warning to us all. But the preservation of that single royal son is a promise. It is a promise that a better King was coming, a King who would not forsake His God, and whose kingdom will therefore never, ever unravel.