HE DEPARTED WITHOUT BEING DESIRED
Pastor James J. Barker
Text: II CHRONICLES 21
INTRODUCTION:
- In the Bible
are recorded many births and many deaths.
- Many men died
surrounded by loving family and friends.
There was much weeping and mourning.
- First Samuel 25:1 says, "And Samuel died; and all the Israelites were gathered together, and
lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah."
- And I Samuel 28:3 says, "Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented
him..."
- "And all
Israel had lamented him..."
- What a great
contrast we see here in our text, which records the death of King Jehoram. None lamented him. Nobody cared
for him while he lived, and nobody missed him when he
died.
"Thirty and
two years old was he when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight
years, and departed without being desired" (II Chron. 21:20).
In modern
vernacular, some would say, "Good riddance to bad rubbish!" The people of Judah were glad to get rid
of him. His was a life
utterly wasted.
King Jehoram
was the oldest son of King Jehoshaphat (II Chron.
21:1-3).
King Jehoshaphat was a good and godly king, but he made
some mistakes. His biggest mistake
was cultivating a close friendship with Ahab, the wicked king of
Israel.
Jehu the seer rebuked king Jehoshaphat because of this
unscriptural alliance with King Ahab. Jehu said to him, "Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that
hate the LORD? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the LORD" (II Chron.
19:2).
However, Jehu did acknowledge that Jehoshaphat was a man
of God, and so he added, "Nevertheless there are good things found in thee, in
that thou hast taken away the groves out of the land, and hast prepared thine
heart to seek God" (19:3).
One of the tragic results of Jehoshaphat's alliance with
Ahab was the marriage of his oldest son with Athaliah, the daughter of King Ahab
(21:6, 13).
Second Chronicles 21 is a sad chapter. And the saddest verse is verse 20. "Thirty and two years old was he
when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years, and departed
without being desired. Howbeit they buried him in the city of David, but not
in the sepulchres of the kings."
King Jehoram was denied the privilege of being buried in
the sepulchres of the kings.
There was no crying and lamenting and mourning at his
funeral service. There were no
family members to weep at his bedside when he died (21:18, 19). That's because they were all dead (21:4,
14).
All except Jehoahaz, the youngest of his sons
(21:17b). He was spared in order to
preserve the kingly line (cf. 21:7).
Jehoahaz is also known as Ahaziah (22:1).
Through the house of David, and through the lineage of
Jehoahaz (Ahaziah) would come the promised Messiah.
Regarding the death of King Jehoram, there was "no
burning for him" (21:19). This
refers to the custom of burning various kinds of sweet spices around the corpse
(cf. 16:14).
This morning we will consider four reasons why King
Jehoram died without being desired.
I. HIS GREED LED HIM TO MURDER HIS OWN BROTHERS
(21:1-5).
II. HIS FOOLISHNESS LED HIM TO CHOOSE THE WRONG WIFE
(21:6).
III. HIS REBELLIOUSNESS LED HIM TO A LIFE OF FAILURE
(21:10).
IV. HIS IMPENITENCE LED TO THE JUDGMENT OF GOD
(21:12-20).
I.
HIS GREED LED HIM TO MURDER HIS OWN BROTHERS
(21:1-5).
- Cain, the first
murderer, killed his brother Abel. But Jehoram killed all six of his own
brothers (21:4; cf. 21:2), "and
divers also of the princes of Israel."
- He was already
king. In fact, he reigned as
coregent with his father during his father's final years. Second Kings 3:1 says
he reigned twelve years. Second Chronicles 21:20 says he reigned
eight years. That is because he
reigned four years with his father.
- But though he
was already king, and though his father had given great gifts of silver, and
gold, and precious things, Jehoram still wasn't
satisfied.
- Proverbs 27:20 says, " Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man
are never satisfied."
- Jehoram was not
satisfied. Perhaps he was fearful
that one of his brothers would attempt to make a claim for the
throne.
- The Biblical
Illustrator says, "It is impossible for us to be satisfied in any condition
where we have not a consciousness of right, a sense of Divine favor, a hope of a
bright future, and the pulsation of holy loves."
- Jehoram had
none of that. He was a cruel, vicious, cold-blooded murderer and so was his wicked wife Athaliah (cf. II
Chron. 22:10).
- Jehoram and
Athaliah probably wanted Jehoram's brothers out of the way so they could not
oppose Jehoram's policies of Baal worship (21:6, 11-14).
II.
HIS FOOLISHNESS LED HIM TO CHOOSE THE WRONG WIFE
(21:6).
- It is often the
case that children tend to copy the weaknesses of their fathers, and not their
strengths. King Jehoshaphat's
friendship with wicked King Ahab resulted in his oldest son marrying Athaliah,
the ungodly daughter of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel.
- The Bible
teaches that Queen Jezebel was an evil influence over her husband King Ahab.
First Kings 21:25 says, "But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell
himself to work wickedness in the sight of the LORD, whom Jezebel his wife
stirred up."
- Now with her
daughter married to the king of Judah, Jezebel was able to control both kingdoms
-- Israel and Judah.
- Jezebel's evil
influence is seen in II Chronicles 21:11-13. Jezebel and Ahab led Israel into Baal
worship. Now Baal worship was being promoted in Judah through their wicked son-in-law, King
Jehoram.
- Proverbs 19:14 says, "A prudent wife is from
the LORD."
- Many of us can say "Amen!" to that.
- But
unfortunately a wicked wife is not from the LORD. Proverbs 5:5 says, "Her feet go
down to death; her steps take hold on hell."
- Athaliah was
wicked just like her notorious mother Jezebel.
III.
HIS REBELLIOUSNESS LED HIM TO A LIFE OF FAILURE
(21:10).
- Proverbs 13:15 says, "The way of transgressors is
hard."
- Second Chronicles 21:10 states that the reason God allowed King Jehoram to lose control
of Edom and Libnah was "because he had forsaken the LORD God of his fathers."
- We saw last
week in our study of Ezra and his trip to Jerusalem that Ezra told the king of
Persia, "The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him; but his
power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him" (Ezra 8:22).
- This happened
to the northern kingdom of Israel. And it eventually happened to Judah.
- Moses warned
the children of Israel this would happen if they forsook God (cf. Deut. 29:18-29).
- We can only
wonder how much time America has left.
America is under the judgment of God for many
reasons:
- America has
forsaken God. Religious
apostasy has ruined most of the churches and Christian colleges.
- America
supports the murder of innocent babies. Nearly 50 million babies have been murdered here in the USA since the Roe
vs. Wade decision, which legalized abortion.
- America is under the judgment of God because America has accepted the sin of
homosexuality. I read in the paper the other day that Sonny and Cher had a daughter who became a
lesbian. Then she had a sex-change operation and married her girlfriend. That is an abomination.
- Mayor Bloomberg is urging Republican state senators to get on "the
right side of history" by approving Governor Cuomo's so-called "gay marriage"
bill.
- If Mr. Bloomberg understood the Bible, he would know
that it is he who is on the wrong side of history. If the mayor would take time to read the
Bible he could see how God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for the very things he
and Gov. Cuomo are aggressively promoting.
- America is becoming increasingly wicked and ungodly. A
Lower East Side art gallery has dirty pictures entitled "Porno Paintings,"
visible to anyone walking by on Orchard Street. Parents are upset because their
children can see the smut as they pass by on their way to and from school. But the sleazy owner of the
gallery defended his pictures by saying, they are no longer smut. "Porn is the
norm," he said.
- I hate to say it but America is getting so bad that
perhaps "porn is the norm" today.
Certainly rock music (which is musical porn) has become the norm. Even in many backslidden
churches!
- Porn seems to be the norm on many television shows and
Hollywood movies.
- Jeremiah 5:7-9 says, "How shall I pardon thee for this?
thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had
fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by
troops in the harlots' houses. They
were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour's
wife. Shall I not visit for these
things? saith the LORD: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as
this?"
- Almost every morning when we pick up the newspaper, it's
a new sex scandal involving some high profile politician -- President Clinton,
Al Gore, John Edwards, Gov. Spitzer, Gov. Paterson, Gov. McGreevey, Arnold
Schwarzenegger, Mayor
Giuliani, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and on and on it
goes.
- They were as
fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour's wife" (Jer.
5:8).
- Second Peter 2:14 describes them as "having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from
sin."
- America is also under the imminent judgment of God for
its betrayal of Israel. The recent
announcement that Israel "must act boldly to advance a lasting peace," ignores
the fact that Muslims have stated time and time again that they will not cease
fighting till Israel is annihilated.
- Benjamin Netanyahu said, "If Muslims lay down their arms, there will be peace with
Israel. If Israelis lay down their arms there will be no more
Israel."
- And Israel is now being pressured to give up the West
Bank, the Gaza strip, and East Jerusalem, and go back to the 1967 borders
(before the Six-Day War which took place in June 1967) is just the latest in a
series of steps designed to bolster the Muslim terrorists and weaken Israel's
security.
- Genesis 12:3 says, "And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him
that curseth thee." If we betray
Israel, God will surely become a second-rate
nation.
- Which brings us to our final
point.
IV.
HIS IMPENITENCE LED TO THE JUDGMENT OF GOD
(21:12-20).
- The prophet
Elijah ministered during the early years of King Jehoram's reign. In II Kings 2:11, we see Elijah
translated by a whirlwind into heaven in a chariot of fire.
- This letter
Elijah wrote to King Jehoram may have been one of the last things he did before
he took his trip to heaven (II Chron. 21:12-15).
- Elijah is often
referred to as a "non-writing prophets."
This simply means that unlike Isaiah and Jeremiah and some of the other
prophets, Elijah did not write any books of the Bible.
- But he could
write as we see here in II Chronicles 21:12. It is quite a strong letter to write to
a king, but apparently it did not lead King Jehoram to repentance.
- Elijah
condemned King Jehoram for his idolatry and for murdering his six brothers, who
were better men than himself (21:13).
- It is quite
likely that King Jehoram received this letter after Elijah had already been
transported into heaven.
Perhaps Elijah wrote it and then gave it to Elisha, with instructions to
give it to King Jehoram.
- In any event,
the letter was like a message from heaven for the wicked
king.
- I have heard of
wayward children receiving letters from their mothers and fathers, after their
parents had died and gone to heaven. The messages are often received as if they were sent from heaven, and
sometimes this results in genuine repentance.
- But King
Jehoram did not repent. He was a
hard sinner, determined to continue in the path of sin and
shame.
- Elijah referred to three great kings in his letter:
David, Jehoshaphat, and Asa
(21:12). These men were not perfect. They had their flaws and
they made mistakes. But they had a heart for God.
- Rather than following in the godly footsteps of David,
Jehoshaphat, and Asa, Jehoram chose to follow the example of wicked King Ahab (21:13).
- The Bible says you reap what you sow, and thus King
Jehoram was judged by God for his wicked ways (21:14-20).
- The Jameison,
Faussett, and Brown Commentary
says,
"His country was ravaged, his capital taken, his palace
plundered, his wives carried off, and all his children slain except the
youngest. He himself was seized with an incurable dysentery, which, after
subjecting him to the most painful suffering for the unusual period of two
years, carried him off, a monument of the divine judgment. To complete his
degradation, his death was unlamented, his burial unhonored by his
subjects."
- King Jehoram suffered for two years with this painful
bowel disease, until he finally died and went to hell, where the suffering is
far more severe.
CONCLUSION:
- Referring to
Jehoram's horrible death, Adam Clarke said, "This must have been occasioned by a
violent inflammation: by the same death perished Antiochus Epiphanes, and Herod
Agrippa... He was hated while he lived, and neglected when he died; visibly
cursed of God, and necessarily execrated by the people whom he had lived only to
corrupt and oppress."
- There is a sad poem. I do not know who wrote it, but
apparently it could have been written by a sinner like King
Jehoram.
- I lived for myself, for myself
alone,
For myself and none
beside,
Just as if Jesus had never
lived
And as if He had never
died.
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