GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
2 CHRONICLES 21:5-11
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5 Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. 6 He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, in the same way the house of Ahab had done, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife. And he did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD. 7 Yet the LORD was not willing to destroy the house of David, because of the covenant that he had made with David. He had promised to maintain a lamp to him and to his sons for all time. 8 In his days Edom rebelled against the rule of Judah and set up a king of their own. 9 So Jehoram crossed over with his commanders and all of the chariots. He rose up in the night and struck the Edomites who had surrounded him and his chariot commanders. 10 Edom has been rebelling against the rule of Judah to this day. At that time Libnah also rebelled against his rule, because he had forsaken the LORD, the God of his fathers. 11 Moreover, he himself made high places in the hill country of Judah and caused the people living in Jerusalem to prostitute themselves, and he caused Judah to go astray.
Jehoram’s reign overlapped with his father Jehoshaphat before he began to reign alone as king. The reason for this was that in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat (which we think was about 853 BC), Ahab and Jehoshaphat went to war together against Ramoth Gilead. While it isn’t stated directly in Scripture, it would make sense for the King of Judah to appoint his successor before going personally into battle. Because of what will happen later in the chapter, we might also add here that Jehu became King of Israel about a year and a half before Jehoram died in 841 BC. So Jehoram had more time on the throne than the eight years of our text, but had an additional five or six years in a co-regency with his father.
If Jehoshaphat turned a blind eye to his son’s unbelief, God in heaven did not. But because of the covenant and promise the Lord made with King David (2 Samuel 7:16), he did not destroy Jehoram right away. A warning came in the rebellion of Edom. Edom is the nation descended from Jacob’s (Israel’s) brother, Esau. It was located south of the Dead Sea on either side of the mountainous ridge that runs from the east side of the Sea southward along the east side of the Gulf of Aqaba (the right-hand arm of the Red Sea). When the Moabites rebelled, Jehoram marched out with chariots and officers to put down the rebellion. But the Moabites were in their own territory, and Jehoram found himself cut off from Judah and surrounded by the enemy. And although he was able to break through and make his escape one night, it was hardly a victory to boast about. In fact, with Edom in successful rebellion, one of the cities on the western side of Judah, known as Libnah, also rebelled. This was a remarkable event, since Libnah was a Levitical city, dedicated for use by priests and Levites from the earliest days of the occupation of Canaan (Joshua 21:13).
The rebellion of Libnah may have been evidence of the judgment of the priests and Levites on the king’s apostasy. The nearby city of Lachish (compare Joshua 10:31) was at this time a fortified city with a double gate on an ascending road and a double wall, with a prince’s palace in the center of the city. It is possible that Libnah was built along the same lines, since they were near the Philistine border. With a water supply inside the walls, it would make even siege warfare difficult. We are not told when this rebellion ended, but by the time of the Assyrian threat in the days of Hezekiah more than a century later (715-686), Libnah was back under the rule of Judah (Isaiah 37:8). King Josiah’s wife Hamutal was from Libnah (Jeremiah 52:1); she was the mother of kings Jehoahaz and Zedekiah (2 Kings 23:31; 24:18).
Verse 11 is a serious charge against this king. While his father and grandfather had not quite destroyed every pagan high place and were criticized for that, Jehoram actually rebuilt many of them. The Hebrew wording shows that the prophet wants to emphasize that Jehoram “himself” made high places in Judah. He did not only permit them, or even command them to be made, but he made them with his own hands.
Consider this young man. His father had indulged or misjudged his religious attitude. As soon as his father died, he murdered all of his brothers and began to turn the land of Judah into a copy of Israel, bringing the pagan worship of Jezebel and her Sidonian family down into the city where God’s only temple stood. If Jehoshaphat had tolerated his son’s pagan leanings as the religion of a quiet doubter, he completely misjudged his son. Jehoram was an active, aggressive pagan king who wanted everyone under his rule to turn from the God of Israel, reject the promises of the coming Christ, and bow to the demon Baal. Here as in other places in the Old Testament, the son of idolatry is compared by God to adultery, and the people are said to have “prostituted themselves” to other gods, just like a wife choosing to sleep with other men just to spite her faithful and loving husband, the husband who cared for her, provided for her, cherished her, and did everything for her benefit, good, and joy.
Sadly, there are such women in almost every city and town in the world even to this day, so no one has to tax their imagination too hard to understand the Lord’s words. And yes, there are sinful men, too, but I am explaining the text of the chapter before us.
We must work, sweat, strain and shed tears over the urgency of the seemingly simple matter of keeping the First Commandment. How hard it is to trust in God above all things, but this is his holy command to us. “Ask and examine your heart diligently, and you will find whether it clings to God alone or not. If you have a heart that can expect of him nothing but what is good, especially in want and distress, and that, moreover, renounces and forsakes everything that is not God, then you have the only true God.” On the other hand, if your heart clutches and grasps at anything else, even only from time to time, expecting better help from something, anything, other than God, then you have an idol in your heart.
Today there are churches secretly setting up high places and churches to worship other gods apart from Christ. There are college and seminary professors teaching men and women that there are ways to heaven apart from faith in Christ. They are taking axes to the cross of Christ and setting up shrines of Universalism in its place. Warn your family! Warn your friends and neighbors. It is not enough to trust that the nice little corner church is truly faithful to the Word of God. Test them. Put them on trial with the Catechism and the Gospels and Epistles. Do they preach salvation by faith in Christ alone? Do they preach only one way to heaven?
If it clings to anything else and doesn’t take refuge in him, then it is a high place to a false god. Mark them and avoid them (Romans 16:17). Do not share in their wicked work (2 John 1:11).
Forgive us, Lord, for having overslept. Trusting in you so reverently and so truly, we forget that unbelief can lurk just on the other side of the fence. Make us brave and vigilant. Give us the courage to sound the trumpet when Satan’s lies and legions approach.
For today, keep searching the Scriptures.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Archives at St Paul’s Lutheran Church https://splnewulm.org/daily-devotions/ and Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: www.wlchapel.org/connect-grow/ministries/adults/daily-devotions/gwfy-archive/2024
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – 2 Chronicles 21:5-11