Week 21 2 Chronicles 21
Jehoram was Jehoshaphat’s oldest son and even though he was officially declared king he still assassinated his six brothers – who he figured were potential rivals.
The chronicler says a couple of pretty unqualified things about him:
First: Jehoram followed the example of the kings of Israel and was as wicked as King Ahab…Jehoram did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. So he was a proactive evil-doer.
Then secondly: Jehoram had abandoned the Lord…He had built pagan shrines in the hill country…and had led the people…to give themselves to pagan gods. So he initiated what looks like a state-sanctioned religious re-conversion program to turn Judah against the Lord.
Elijah criticized Jehoram:
a) you haven’t followed the good example of your father, Jehoshaphat, or of your grandfather King Asa
b) you’ve actively promoted idol worship and
c) you killed your brothers – men who were better than you.
Jehoram did no positive good and did take positive action to do evil (I double-checked the Kings account and it didn’t have anything good to say about him).
As I go along I’m thinking about my King Rankings. Nothing’s definitely locked-up yet but I’m dropping Jehoram way down the list. If a king is described as doing no good and also described as doing only evil then the gravitational drag of irreligion is really pulling him down. It’d be like walking on Jupiter.
Note: quotes from 2 Chronicles 21:4 6 10-11 12 13 (NLT)