GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
2 CHRONICLES 22:1-6a
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22:1 Then the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah his youngest son king in his place, for the band of men that came with the Arabians to the camp had killed all the older sons. So Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah became king. 2 Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Athaliah, the granddaughter of Omri. 3 He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, because his mother was his counselor in doing wicked things. 4 He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, just as the house of Ahab had done. For after the death of his father they were his counselors, which was to his undoing. 5 He even followed their counsel and went with Jehoram the son of Ahab king of Israel to make war against Hazael king of Aram at Ramoth Gilead. There the Arameans wounded Joram, 6 and he returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds that he had received at Ramoth, when he was fighting against Hazael king of Aram.
We begin with a problem in the Hebrew text. The Hebrew Codex upon which our modern copies are based has, along with all other copies, that Ahaziah was “forty-two years old when he began to reign.” The Latin translations have “forty-two” also (quadraginta duo annorum). But that would make him older than his father, who died the same year at forty. 2 Kings 8:26 and one Greek manuscript have “twenty-two years,” and almost all the other Greek copies have “twenty years old” (εἴκοσι ἐτῶν). Because of his father’s age and the reading of 2 Kings 8:26, “twenty-two” seems most likely. The only other man who was twenty-two when he became king was wicked Amon of Judah (2 Kings 21:19; 2 Chronicles 33:21). But there is another possibility for the confusion:
The “band of men” who killed Ahaziah’s brothers was either a Philistine raiding party who came along with the Arabians or a third group we’re not told about. It was probably some Philistines. The only other king to be killed by Philistines was Saul at the Battle of Mount Gilboa. Saul was not forty-two when he died, but he had apparently ruled as king for forty-two years (1 Samuel 13:1). While there are difficulties with that number, we have confirmation in the New Testament that his rule was approximately forty-two years since Paul says that “Saul son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, ruled forty years” (Acts 13:21).
Therefore, did our prophet mean to compare the wickedness and death of Ahaziah with the wickedness and death of Saul, who sought out a witch and who tried time after time to kill King David? This might play into the discrepancy of the age of the king in the text.
Ahaziah was influenced by many bad counselors, the chief of which was his mother, the wicked and cruel Athaliah. She and the others coaxed the young king into venturing off to Ramoth Gilead just as Jehoshaphat had done with Ahab. But just as Ahab had been killed then (2 Chronicles 18:34), so also Ahaziah his grandson was wounded at the same place, although he did not die of that wound.
In a sense, we have an example here of a child trying to what their parent (in this case, grandparent) either failed to do, or did poorly. What had not gone well for Jehoshaphat, Ahaziah tried to do again. For them, it was the war on Ramoth Gilead. How many things in our lives are attempts to fix what went wrong for someone else? How many girls think that their mothers failed at being the ideal wife for a difficult or bad man, and so that’s exactly what they set out to do? They go looking for a bad guy, a difficult guy, an abusive, even dangerous guy, so that they can somehow show that they can do it; it can be done. But they’re usually wrong.
There is a positive side to this. Parents try to teach their children to do a at least little better than they themselves were able to do. I certainly pray that my sons will be better men, better Christians, better servants of God than I have been. I know my mistakes, and I’m so glad that they have not made most of the ones I made by their ages.
Heavenly Father, bless the generation that follows ours. Build them up with the gospel of Christ our Lord. Teach them to love you with their whole heart. Teach them to learn from their mistakes as well as ours, and to pass along their faith to the generation that follows theirs.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – 2 Chronicles 22:1-6a