The next king of Judah was Jehoshaphat’s son Jehoram (II Chronicles 21:1), with his name sometimes shortened to Joram (II Kings 8:21-23). There was also a King Jehoram / Joram of Israel; so many biblical names are unusual to us, which makes it easy to get confused as to who said what to whom; and it’s even more confusing when two people with the same name are both involved in a story (just as sometimes happens today, of course).

During the reign of King Jehoram, portions of the kingdom of Judah broke away – Edom and Libnah. The Chronicler gave a specifically theological reason for this revolt: it happened because Jehoram “had forsaken the Lord, the God of his ancestors” and had “made high places in the hill country of Judah, and had led the inhabitants of Jerusalem into unfaithfulness” (II Chronicles 21:10-11).

As the Chronicler was assembling his history, he had been following the text of II Kings pretty closely; but right at this point he inserted a letter from the prophet Elijah which we otherwise would not know about (21:12-15). Interestingly, it is the only information about Elijah that the Chronicler included. Elijah’s prophetic letter declared that because Jehoram had been so wicked, killing his own brothers (21:4, 13) and leading Judah into apostasy, the Lord would bring a great calamity on Jehoram and his house, including a severe intestinal disease in his own body (21:15).

And so it happened. The Philistines and the Arabs invaded, plundering the king’s palace and carrying off all his wives and sons except for one, the youngest, Jehoahaz (21:16-17); and after two years of an incurable disease of the bowels, Jehoram died in acute pain (21:18-19). “He departed with no one’s regret” (21:20). May we learn from his fate, in hopes that we will avoid experiencing the same.

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We are grateful, O Lord, that you have been merciful to us, again and again. Yet we are slow to learn to live in obedience: instead we presume upon your grace, as if you owed us forgiveness. Teach us repentance, O God: lest we too end up under terrible judgment for having forsaken you.

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