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2 Chronicles 21 - Jehoram's Tragic Life and Death · The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal

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  Speaker 1: Life Audio how to their faithful listeners, and welcome to
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  Speaker 1: the Bible Explained Podcasts on this lovely Wednesday morning. Today,
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  Speaker 1: we're in second Chronicles twenty one. We're gonna be talking
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  Speaker 1: about the whole chapter and discussing the life and death
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  Speaker 1: of josh Fat's son. This is a tragic, tragic story,
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  Speaker 1: so we'll get into it in just a second. Well,
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  Speaker 1: faithful listeners. It is currently nine degrees outside. Earlier today
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  Speaker 1: it got down to about four degrees. It was terrible,
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  Speaker 1: absolutely terrible. I had to go out for a little
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  Speaker 1: while before I recorded this episode to do some errands,
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  Speaker 1: and it was just way too cold. I had so
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  Speaker 1: many layers on, and yet I was freezing the entire time.
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  Speaker 1: Now I have my heated blanket with me, and the
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  Speaker 1: fireplace is going strong in the other room, and I
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  Speaker 1: am ready to read the Bible with all of you guys.
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  Speaker 1: But contact me and tell me how the weather is
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  Speaker 1: where you guys live. I love hearing about all of that,
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  Speaker 1: so you can find my contact information listed in the
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  Speaker 1: description of this episode. Now, before we get into today's topic,
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  Speaker 1: do me a favor by listening to a quick word
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  Speaker 1: from a sponsor. Okay, like I said at the beginning
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  Speaker 1: of the intro, We're gonna be talking about this guy
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  Speaker 1: named Jehorah, who is the son of Jehashafat. We're gonna
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  Speaker 1: be talking about his entire life. Actually, there's not a
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  Speaker 1: lot on him because of how terrible he really was.
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  Speaker 1: So let's read Second Chronicles twenty one the entire chapter.
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  Speaker 1: As always, I'll be reading from the web. Grab your
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  Speaker 1: delicious hot beverage, because if you live up north, you're
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  Speaker 1: gonna need it a little bit cold. Today. Let's read
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  Speaker 1: Second Chronicles twenty one the entire thing. I'll be reading
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  Speaker 1: from the web. Jehashafat slept with his fathers and was
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  Speaker 1: buried with his fathers in David City, and Jehorah, his son,
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  Speaker 1: reigned in his place. He had brothers, the sons of Jehoshafat, Azariah, Jehiel, Zachariah, Azaria, Michael,
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  Speaker 1: and Shafadia. All these are the sons of Jahah Ashafat,
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  Speaker 1: king of Israel. Their father gave them great gifts of silver,
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  Speaker 1: of gold, and of precious things, with fortified cities in Judah.
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  Speaker 1: But he gave the kingdom to Jehorah because he was
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  Speaker 1: the first born. Now, when Jehoah had risen up over
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  Speaker 1: the kingdom of his father and had strengthened himself. He
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  Speaker 1: killed all his brothers with the sword, and also some
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  Speaker 1: of the princes of Israel. Jehoah was thirty two years
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  Speaker 1: old when he began to reign, and he reigned eight
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  Speaker 1: years in Jerusalem. He walked in the way of the
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  Speaker 1: kings of Israel, as did Ahab's house, for he had
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  Speaker 1: Ahab's daughter as his wife. He did that which was
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  Speaker 1: evil in Yahweh's sight. However, Yahweh would not destroy David's
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  Speaker 1: house because of the covenant that he had made with David,
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  Speaker 1: and as he promised to give a lamp to him
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  Speaker 1: and his children always in his days. Edom revolted from
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  Speaker 1: under the hand of Judah and made a king over themselves.
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  Speaker 1: Then Jehoorah went there with his captains and all his
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  Speaker 1: chariots with him. He rose up by night and struck
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  Speaker 1: the Edomites who surrounded him, along with the captains of
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  Speaker 1: the chariots. So Edom has been in revolt from under
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  Speaker 1: the hand of Judah to this day. Then Libnah revolted
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  Speaker 1: at the same time from under his hand, because he
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  Speaker 1: had forsaken Yahweh, the god of his fathers. Moreover, he
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  Speaker 1: made high places in the mountains of Judah and made
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  Speaker 1: the inhabitants of Jerusalem play the prostitute, and led Judah astray.
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  Speaker 1: A letter came to him from Elijah the Prophet, saying, Yahweh,
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  Speaker 1: the God of David, your father, says, because you have
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  Speaker 1: not walked in the ways of Jehashafat, your father, nor
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  Speaker 1: in the ways of Asa king of Judah, but have
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  Speaker 1: walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and
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  Speaker 1: have made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to play
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  Speaker 1: the prostitute like Ahab's house did, and also have slain
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  Speaker 1: your brothers of your father's house, who were better than yourself. Behold,
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  Speaker 1: Yahweh will strike your people with a great plague, including
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  Speaker 1: your children, your wives, and all your possessions. And you
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  Speaker 1: will have a great sickness, with a disease of your bowels,
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  Speaker 1: until your bowels fall out by reason of the sickness.
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  Speaker 1: Day by day, Yahweh stirred up against Jehoram. The spirit
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  Speaker 1: of the Philistines and of the Arabians who are beside
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  Speaker 1: the Ethiopians came up against Judah, broke into it and
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  Speaker 1: carried away all the possessions that were found in the
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  Speaker 1: king's house, including his sons and his wives, so that
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  Speaker 1: there was no son left to him except Jehoah Has,
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  Speaker 1: the youngest of his sons. After all this, Yahweh struck
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  Speaker 1: him in his bowels with an incurable disease in process
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  Speaker 1: of time. At the end of two years, his bowels
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  Speaker 1: fell out by reason of his sickness, and he died
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  Speaker 1: of severe diseases. His people made no burning for him,
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  Speaker 1: like the burning of his father's. He was thirty two
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  Speaker 1: years old when he began to reign, and he reigned
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  Speaker 1: in Jerusalem eight years. He departed with no one's regret.
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  Speaker 1: They buried him in David's city, but not in the
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  Speaker 1: tombs of the kings. On Monday, we talked about the
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  Speaker 1: end of jehoshah Hat's reign and how he was a
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  Speaker 1: pretty good king. You know, he loved Yahweh. He set
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  Speaker 1: his heart to seek after Yahweh. He was not a
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  Speaker 1: perfect man by any means. He compromised a few times
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  Speaker 1: in his life, but generally he was a pretty good king,
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  Speaker 1: and God blessed his reign because he was a Yahweh follower.
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  Speaker 1: Our passage for today second Chronicles twenty one, it says
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  Speaker 1: in verse one that Jehashafat slept with his fathers and
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  Speaker 1: was buried with his fathers in David's city, and Jehorah,
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  Speaker 1: his son, reigned in his place. Now, Jehorah was mentioned
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  Speaker 1: very very briefly before this, where it talked about jehosh
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  Speaker 1: Fat and King Ahab being in an agreement with each other,
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  Speaker 1: and with that agreement came the marriage of their two children.
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  Speaker 1: So Ahab's daughter actually married Jehoshaphat's son, and that ended
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  Speaker 1: up being a really, really terrible thing for Jehoshaphat to do,
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  Speaker 1: because Ahab's family was absolutely corrupt and evil and wicked
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  Speaker 1: and cruel and pretty much the scum of the earth.
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  Speaker 1: Quite honestly, they were terrible, terrible people for many reasons.
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  Speaker 1: Just they would kill people left and right, didn't care
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  Speaker 1: about human life, only cared about themselves. They were idolators.
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  Speaker 1: And you know, Ahab and his wife Jezebel were big
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  Speaker 1: bail worshippers, so obviously their children would be two. Now, Jehoshapha,
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  Speaker 1: who is a Yahweh follower, shouldn't have married his son
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  Speaker 1: into such a corrupt family. And we see now why
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  Speaker 1: that is It says in verse two that Jehorah had brothers,
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  Speaker 1: the sons of Jehashafat, and their names were Azariah, jaheel Zechariah, Azaria, Michael,
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  Speaker 1: and Shafadia. All these were the sons of Jehashafat, king
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  Speaker 1: of Israel. Now, I think it's really funny here that
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  Speaker 1: scripture mentions that Jehashafat was the king of Israel, because
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  Speaker 1: Israel and Judah were split off by this point, and
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  Speaker 1: Jehoshaphat was considered to be the king of Judah, not
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  Speaker 1: of Israel. Israel was its own separate entity. Israel had
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  Speaker 1: gone through a civil war and split off. But yet
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  Speaker 1: Scripture here says that Jehashafat was the king of Israel.
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  Speaker 1: And there could be a few reasons for this. The
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  Speaker 1: first reason being that because Jehoshafat was such a good
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  Speaker 1: king in the eyes of God, he deemed Jehashafat worthy
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  Speaker 1: of being the king of both Judah and Israel. That's
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  Speaker 1: the first explanation. The second explanation is that the Judites
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  Speaker 1: were technically Israelites, like they were all just Israelites, and
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  Speaker 1: so that's why you know, the author words it this way.
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  Speaker 1: The third explanation is that so many Israelites had moved
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  Speaker 1: from Israel into Judah that Judah essentially became Israel. We
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  Speaker 1: know that during the reign of King Ahab in Israel,
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  Speaker 1: things were really, really, really bad in Israel because of
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  Speaker 1: the famine and the drought and the persecution that was
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  Speaker 1: taking place with Jezebel, not to mention just the cruelty
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  Speaker 1: that was happening. There was a story where King Ahab,
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  Speaker 1: at the prodding of his wife Jezebel, just like murdered
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  Speaker 1: a man and all of his children for just a
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  Speaker 1: few acres of land. That is the type of king
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  Speaker 1: and queen that Ahab and Jezebel were. So things were
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  Speaker 1: just bad in Israel in general, so probably a lot
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  Speaker 1: of people wanted to leave, not to mention that Jezebel
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  Speaker 1: was trying to eradicate Yahwism the people who worshiped Yahweh,
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  Speaker 1: So probably all of them, the ones that could leave,
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  Speaker 1: actually did leave and went down south to Judah, where
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  Speaker 1: it was safer to actually worship Yahweh and where the
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  Speaker 1: temple was also. But getting back to my main point,
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  Speaker 1: it could be that scripture mentions Jehashaphat as being the
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  Speaker 1: king of Israel because of the amount of Israelites that
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  Speaker 1: actually left Israel and went into Judah. But it says
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  Speaker 1: that Jehashafat had seven sons, it does not mention any
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  Speaker 1: of Johashafat's wives. By the way, we could probably assume
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  Speaker 1: that Jehashafat had more than one wife, because that was
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  Speaker 1: very normal for a king to do. But it's also
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  Speaker 1: not out of the realm of possibility for Johashafat to
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  Speaker 1: have had one wife who bore him seven sons. I
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  Speaker 1: actually know women personally who have had that many children,
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  Speaker 1: and back in these days, a woman would have started
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  Speaker 1: having children at a much younger age and would have
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  Speaker 1: produced a lot more children than women do nowadays. So
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  Speaker 1: it is a possibility that Johashafat had only one wife.
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  Speaker 1: Out of all of the kings, we see maybe one
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  Speaker 1: or two actually following the biblical command of having one wife.
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  Speaker 1: So I don't know. I don't know if Johashfat was
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  Speaker 1: one of the few kings that actually had one wife
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  Speaker 1: as the Bible says to do, or if he had
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  Speaker 1: multiple wives and these boys all came from multiple women.
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  Speaker 1: Do not know. But getting back to the main story,
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  Speaker 1: it says that their father in verse three gave them
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  Speaker 1: great gifts of silver, of gold, and of precious things
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  Speaker 1: with fortified cities in Judah, but he gave the kingdom
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  Speaker 1: to Jehoram because he was the first born. Now, this
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  Speaker 1: was something that Raya Boam, Jehashfat's grandfather had initially done,
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  Speaker 1: and the reason for spreading the sons out among the
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  Speaker 1: kingdom was to both establish the sons as leaders in
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  Speaker 1: their individual communities and also keep them away from Jerusalem
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  Speaker 1: where there might be a power struggle for the crown. Honestly,
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  Speaker 1: it was a really good idea, and Jehosha Fat, who
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  Speaker 1: was a good king and had good ideas, followed that
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  Speaker 1: principle of spreading his sons out across Judah so that
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  Speaker 1: there was no power struggle for the crown. So he
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  Speaker 1: sent the sons out except for Jehorah, because Jehorah, says,
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  Speaker 1: was the first born. Now, unfortunately, the one thing we
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  Speaker 1: see with johash Fat, one of his flaws was that
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  Speaker 1: he didn't have very good discernment toward people's characters, which
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  Speaker 1: is why he kept partnering with really bad kings. He
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  Speaker 1: didn't see how evil his son was. He didn't have
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  Speaker 1: good discernment with that, and he just followed the rules
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  Speaker 1: of allowing his firstborn son to become the next king,
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  Speaker 1: even though he probably should have given the crown to
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  Speaker 1: one of his other sons. It does mention that the
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  Speaker 1: brothers had much better character than Jehorah did. So out
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  Speaker 1: of all of the sons that Jehoshaphat had, Jehorah was
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  Speaker 1: the worst of the bunch. And yet that was who
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  Speaker 1: Jehashafat gave the crown to. Unfortunately, and now Jehoshaphat's dead
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  Speaker 1: and Jehorah's character is coming out. It says in verse four, Now,
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  Speaker 1: when Jehoah had risen up over the kingdom of his
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  Speaker 1: father and had strengthened himself, he killed all his brothers
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  Speaker 1: with the sword, and also some of the princes of Israel.
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  Speaker 1: Now this is really sad because this was needless death,
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  Speaker 1: because Jehoorah's brothers were better than him. They were not
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  Speaker 1: vying for the throne that we know of, and they
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  Speaker 1: were established in their own hometowns, being leaders in those hometowns.
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  Speaker 1: And not only that, it says that Jehoorah also killed
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  Speaker 1: some of the princes of Israel. So some of the
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  Speaker 1: leaders of the tribes as well, just anyone he perceived
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  Speaker 1: as a threat. This was really awful and wicked behavior. Now,
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  Speaker 1: a lot of commentaries that you read on this passage
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  Speaker 1: might claim Jehorah's wife, Ahazia, persuaded Jehorah to go out
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  Speaker 1: and kill all of these brothers of his but there's
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  Speaker 1: nothing in scripture that specifically says that, though it does
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  Speaker 1: say that Jehoorah was certainly influenced by his wife's family.
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  Speaker 1: So we don't know what Ajazia's role was in all
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  Speaker 1: of this, but I definitely if she didn't give him
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  Speaker 1: the idea, she was probably totally on board with it
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  Speaker 1: and just did not care because she was a wicked person.
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  Speaker 1: And going back to verse four, he kills all of
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  Speaker 1: his brothers and all of these princes of Israel, terrible
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  Speaker 1: thing to do. Verse five says Jehorah was thirty two
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  Speaker 1: years old when he began to reign, and he reigned
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  Speaker 1: eight years in Jerusalem. He walked in the way of
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  Speaker 1: the kings of Israel, as did Ahab's house, for he
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  Speaker 1: had Ahab's daughter as his wife. He did that, which
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  Speaker 1: was evil in Yawei's sight. So there you go. Jehorah
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  Speaker 1: was certainly influenced by his wife's family. However, verse seven,
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  Speaker 1: Yahweh would not destroy David's house because of the covenant
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  Speaker 1: that he had made with David, and as he promised
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  Speaker 1: to give a lamp to him and to his children always.
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  Speaker 1: So even though Jehoorah was a terrible, terrible king, probably
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  Speaker 1: the worst king that Judah has seen so far, God
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  Speaker 1: would not destroy David's house because he promised David so
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  Speaker 1: many years prior to this that he would have one
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  Speaker 1: of his sons on the throne forever. And God upheld
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  Speaker 1: that promise, as we all know, because Jesus is of
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  Speaker 1: the line of David, and Jesus is the king of kings,
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  Speaker 1: and he's going to reign forever. So God would not
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  Speaker 1: destroy David's house. As evil as Johoorah was, God cannot
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  Speaker 1: break his promises. It says in verse eight that in
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  Speaker 1: his days, Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah
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  Speaker 1: and made a king over themselves. Then Jehorah went there
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  Speaker 1: with his captains and all his chariots with him, rose
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  Speaker 1: up by night and struck the Edomites who surrounded him,
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  Speaker 1: along with the captains of the chariots. So Edom has
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  Speaker 1: been in revolt from under the hand of Judah to
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  Speaker 1: this day. Then Libnah revolted at the same time from
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  Speaker 1: under his hand because he had forsaken Yahweh, the God
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  Speaker 1: of his father's. So immediately there's a bunch of problems
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  Speaker 1: happening internationally. And we see that this is often the
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  Speaker 1: first sign of a very bad king is when foreign
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  Speaker 1: nations start to revolt. That's the first sign that this
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  Speaker 1: king is a bad king, because God does not bless
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  Speaker 1: evil kings. When a good king is in place, there
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  Speaker 1: is peace for that nation, But when an evil king
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  Speaker 1: is in place, there is no peace in that nation.
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  Speaker 1: So Edom immediately revolts, even though under a Jehashaphat they
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  Speaker 1: had been subject to Israel. Now what that means is
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  Speaker 1: they paid a tax to Israel every single year. And
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  Speaker 1: also Libnah revolted at the same time time as Edom.
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  Speaker 1: So now Jehoram has no control of these nations any longer,
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  Speaker 1: and they remained in revolt the entire time. And it
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  Speaker 1: says this happened because Jehorah had forsaken Yahweh, the God
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  Speaker 1: of his fathers. On top of all this, verse eleven,
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  Speaker 1: he made high places in the mountains of Judah and
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  Speaker 1: made the inhabitants of Jerusalem play the prostitute and led
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  Speaker 1: Judah astray. Everything that Jehorah and Asa had done years
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  Speaker 1: before him has just been undone in a matter of
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  Speaker 1: eight years, that is how long Jehorah reigned. And in
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  Speaker 1: those eight years, everything that his fathers had done to
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  Speaker 1: destroy the cults out of Jerusalem is back. That is
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  Speaker 1: how fast things can change when people turn away from Yahweh.
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  Speaker 1: This kind of stuff happens. That is how fast the
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  Speaker 1: hearts of people change. And Jehorah made high places once again.
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  Speaker 1: Remember how Asa and jehash Fat kept destroying the high
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  Speaker 1: places but didn't get them all. Well, they're all back now,
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  Speaker 1: they're all back in the mountains of Judah. So on
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  Speaker 1: all the mountains in Judah, he placed a high place
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  Speaker 1: that would be a place where people could go and
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  Speaker 1: worship whatever deity they wanted to worship. There were some
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  Speaker 1: high places dedicated to Yahweh, as we've discussed before, but
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  Speaker 1: God didn't even like those places because it was just idolatry.
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  Speaker 1: It was not how worship was supposed to be done,
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  Speaker 1: and it was pagan in nature. Also, because that's how
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  Speaker 1: the pagans would worship. They would go to you know,
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  Speaker 1: mountain tops and green trees and natural kind of settings,
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  Speaker 1: and they'd start worshiping however they wanted to worship, so
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  Speaker 1: God hated the high places completely. It says that Jerusalem
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  Speaker 1: played the prostitute with these high places, and that means
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  Speaker 1: two different things. So the sex cults were back, okay.
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  Speaker 1: As we've talked about before, pretty much all the foreign
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  Speaker 1: idols included some sort of like nudity or exposing yourself
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  Speaker 1: in some way or sex like. They were just like
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  Speaker 1: weird sex cults. Aheb and Jezebel and presumably their daughter
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  Speaker 1: who was Jehoram's wife, were all bail worshippers. Bail worship
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  Speaker 1: specifically included the worship of human excrement. And in order
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  Speaker 1: to worship this excrement, there is like a toilet shaped
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  Speaker 1: idol bowl that people would go to in public and
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  Speaker 1: they would lift up their skirt and they would take
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  Speaker 1: down their underpants. They'd expose themselves publicly and they would
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  Speaker 1: defecate in the toilet bowl. Then they would worship the
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  Speaker 1: poop and the poop would be spread on all the crops.
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  Speaker 1: And we know now scientifically that spreading human excrement like
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  Speaker 1: just raw human excrement on crops is really really bad
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  Speaker 1: for your health. You can process the human excrement and
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  Speaker 1: make it into something a little bit different, but spreading
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  Speaker 1: raw poop on your crops and then eating whatever comes
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  Speaker 1: up from that, that's really really bad for you. You
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  Speaker 1: should not do that. But that's what the ancient Israelites
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  Speaker 1: were doing through this bail worship. Now to mention the
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  Speaker 1: other sex cults that were taking place and the Malik worship,
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  Speaker 1: where you know, these little babies were getting killed through
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  Speaker 1: human sacrifice in the most disgusting ways possible. Jehoahm brought
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  Speaker 1: all of this idolatry into Jerusalem, and they played the
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  Speaker 1: prostitute and led Judah astray. When the rest of Jerusalem
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  Speaker 1: sees what the kings are doing and what Jerusalem, the
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: hub of Judah, is doing, they start doing the exact
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: same thing they led Judah astray. So in verse twelve,
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: here's an interesting verse. A letter came to Jehorah from
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: Elijah the prophet saying, Yahweh, the God of David, your
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: father says, because you have not walked in the ways
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: of jehash Fat your father, nor in the ways of
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: Asa came of Judah, but have walked in the way
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: of the kings of Israel, and have made Judah and
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: the inhabitants of Jerusalem to play the prostitute like Ahab's
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: house did, and also have slain your brothers from your
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: father's house, who were better than yourself. Behold, Yahweh will
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: strike your people with a great plague, including your children,
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: your wives, and all your possessions. And you will have
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: a great sickness, with a disease of your bowels, until
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: your bowels fall out by reason of the sickness day
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: by day. Now here's what's interesting about those verses. They
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: were written by Elijah the prophet. However, most people assume
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: that Elijah had already gotten swept up into Heaven by
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: this point, because remember, Elijah was one of the few
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: people in scripture to have not died. There's only two
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: that we know of Elijah and also Enoch. They never died.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: God just like swept them up into heaven. Essentially, the
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: last thing we see Elijah doing was in Second King's
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: Chapter one one, where he was prophesying to Ahazia, Ahab's son.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: That's the last thing we see Elijah do, and then
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: the very next chapter he gets, you know, taken up
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: into heaven, and Ahazia, Ahab's son was alive very briefly
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: during the reign of Jehashafat, so if Elijah was carried
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: to heaven directly after that, that means he would have
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: been gone by the time Jehoram even became the king,
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: several years after that took place. So some people wonder
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: was this actually a letter from Elijah the prophet, And
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: there's a few explanations that people give for this. They say, no,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: it was not a letter from Elijah the prophet. It
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: was a letter from Elisha the prophet, who was writing
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: the letter in Elijah's name, because that prophecy had been
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: given to Elisha by Elijah many years prior to this,
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: and now Elishah has written it down and signed it
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: in Elijah's name because it was originally Elijah's prophecy. That's
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: the first explanation. The second is that this was a
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: different Elijah the prophet, not the famous one that we know.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: The third explanation is that Elijah was still on earth
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: at this time, because we don't have a date of
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: Elijah being swept up into heaven. The last thing we
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: see him doing was prophesying to Hazia, probably around ten
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: years before Jehorah even became the king. But that doesn't
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: mean that Elijah wasn't alive for all that time. He
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: could have been laying low, he could have been training Elisha,
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: he could have been writing letters. For all we know.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: We don't know what Elijah was doing during that time,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: so it's possible he was still alive for another ten
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: fifteen twenty years after the last story we read about
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: him prophesying in Second King's chapter one. And maybe he
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: did actually write this letter right before he was swept
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: up into heaven. That's another explanation. And the last explanation
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: I saw is that Elijah was indeed swept up into heaven.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: But he's a prophet and God told him the future,
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: so he knew what was going to happen because of
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: God's words to him. So he wrote this letter ahead
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: of time, and he told Elisha or one of the
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: other prophets that he worked with to make sure that
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: this letter gets to Jehorah by a specific date or
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: something like that. So there's many possibilities. I kind of
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: leaned toward either Elijah was still alive at this time.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: Or that he had already been carried up into heaven
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: but had previously written this letter. And if that's the case,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: like if Elijah had already been whirlwinded up into heaven,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: imagine the doom Jehorah would have felt receiving this letter.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: That Elijah knew that this was going to happen a decade,
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: possibly before Jehoorah even became the king, So that's really
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: crazy to think about if that's actually the case. However,
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: Johoorah was not convinced because he never changed his ways.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: It says in verse sixteen that he always stirred up
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: against Jehoah, the spirit of the Philistines and of the
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: Arabians who are beside the Ethiopians, and they came up
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: against Judah broke into it and carried away all the
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: possessions that were found in the king's house, including his
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: sons and his wives, so that there was no son
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: left to him except Jehoah has the youngest of his sons.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: So this is kind of a fitting end for him,
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: as Jehorah killed all of his father's sons. Now all
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: of Jehorah's sons have been killed except for one little son,
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: and that's because God was going to maintain David's line,
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: even though Jehoorah was a terrible king. One son was left,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: and it was the youngest of all the sons. Not
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: to mention, all of Jehorah's wives were carried off into
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: these foreign nations as well, which is a pretty sad thing. Now.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: I don't know about the other prophecy that is mentioned
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: in Elijah's letter that says that there'd be a plague
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: on all of the people. That could have happened. Actually,
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: when the Philistines and the Arabians went into Judah, maybe
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: they spread something around and that killed a lot of
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: the people of Judah. We don't know what happened there,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: But it could also be that God was talking about
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: a plague of enemies coming in and destroying all of
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: these things that Judah had. But verse eighteen to conclude
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: Jehorah's life, it says, after all this, Yahwesh struck him
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: in his bowels with an incurable disease. In process of time,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: at the end of two years, his bowels fell out
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: by reason of his sickness, and he died of severe diseases.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: So this is real bad. That is a bad disease,
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: And I looked online to see what kind of disease
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: Jehorah might have had, and there's some argument actually about it.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: Some people think that he had colon or rectal cancer.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: Other people think that it was a rectal prolapse. Whatever
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: it was, it was really bad, especially where doctors back
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: in these days had no clue what to do in
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: a situation like this. This was bad, but Jehorah never
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: turned toward God even though all of this was happening.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: Even though he received that letter from Elijah, who was
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: possibly already in heaven, Jehoram never changed his ways. It
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: says that he died after two years, presumably in severe pain.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: His people made no burning for him, like the burning
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: of his father's that's talking about the big bonfire that
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: the kings would get after they died. This was in
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: honor of their lives. He did not receive that. It
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: says he was thirty two years old when he began
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem for eight years.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: He departed with no one's regret. They buried him in
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: David's city, but not in the tombs of the kings,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: so no one cared when this king died. That is
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: how hated he was, so many problems happened to Judah
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: during this man's reign. Firstly Edom revolted, then Libnah revolted.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: Then all of these high places start going up. Then
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: the Philistines and the Arabians invade Judah and are fully successful.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: The people hated Jehoram by the end of his life,
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: and when he died, there was no sympathy for him.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: There was no burning for him, No one cared. It
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: doesn't even say that his wife Athalia cared, which, by
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: the way, for some reason, when the Philistines invaded Judah,
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: they did leave Athalia behind, who seemed to be the
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: main wife of Jehoram, and then they also left Jehoram's
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: youngest son as well, So for some reason, Athalia was
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: left behind after the invasion of the Philistines. But it
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: says that he was buried in David's city in Jerusalem,
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: but not in the tombs of the kings, probably because
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: of this disease, also because the people hated him, but
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: they didn't want him with his severe diseases, to defile
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: the tombs of the other beloved kings, which is why
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: they did not bury him in any of the Tombs
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: of David. So that is the sad and tragic life
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: and existence of Jehoram, the son of jehosh Fat. So
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: I appreciate all of you guys listening to the end.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: And before I end today's episode, here is a quick
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: word from a sponsor or two. Even though the life
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: of Jehorah is done, the craziness is not over. In fact,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: things get much much crazier in Judah's history in the
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: next chapter and the following chapters. Specifically regarding Jehorah's wife,
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: she kind of goes insane, as we're going to see
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: in the next couple chapters. So I hope you guys
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: have been enjoying the chronicles and the lives of these kings.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: It's just really fun to talk about to see Judas
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: history and how God truly loves his people and is
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: so merciful. Time and time again, faithful listeners. I will
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: see all of you tomorrow for an episode from two Timothy.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: I hope see you guys then six am or whenever
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: you choose to wake up and listen. Happy listening, and
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: God us. I just want to take a second to
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: thank the team at Life Audio for their partnership with
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: me on the Bible Explain podcast. In fact, if you
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: go to lifeaudio dot com you'll find dozens of other
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: faith centered podcasts in their network. They've got shows about prayer,
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: Bible study, parenting, and more.