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Bible reading: 2
Chronicles 21:12-20
12 And
there came a writing to him from Elijah the prophet, saying,
Thus saith the LORD God of David thy father, Because thou hast
not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat thy father, nor in the
ways of Asa king of Judah, 13 But hast walked in the way
of the kings of Israel, and hast made Judah and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem to go a whoring, like to the whoredoms of the house
of Ahab, and also hast slain thy brethren of thy father’s
house, which were better than thyself: 14
Behold, with a great plague will the LORD smite thy people,
and thy children, and thy wives, and all thy goods: 15 And
thou shalt have great sickness by disease of thy bowels,
until thy bowels fall out by reason of the sickness day by day. 16
Moreover the LORD stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of
the Philistines, and of the Arabians, that were near the
Ethiopians: 17 And they came up into Judah, and brake
into it, and carried away all the substance that was found in
the king’s house, and his sons also, and his wives; so that
there was never a son left him, save Jehoahaz, the youngest of
his sons. 18 And after all this the LORD smote him in his
bowels with an incurable disease. 19 And it came to pass,
that in process of time, after the end of two years, his bowels
fell out by reason of his sickness: so he died of sore diseases.
And his people made no burning for him, like the burning of his
fathers. 20 Thirty and two years old was he when he began
to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years, and departed
without being desired. Howbeit they buried him in the city of
David, but not in the sepulchres of the kings.
A warning from
God was sent to Jehoram.
The Spirit of prophecy might direct Elijah to prepare this writing
in the foresight of Jehoram's crimes. He is plainly told that his
sin should certainly ruin him.
But no marvel that sinners are not frightened from sin, and to
repentance, by the threatenings of misery in another world, when
the certainty of misery in this world, the sinking of their
estates, and the ruin of their health, will not restrain them from
vicious courses.
See Jehoram here stripped of all his comforts. Thus God plainly
showed that the controversy was with him, and his house. He had
slain all his brethren to strengthen himself; now, all his sons
are slain but one.
David's house must not be wholly destroyed, like those of Israel's
kings, because a blessing was in it; that of the Messiah. Good men
may be afflicted with diseases; but to them they are fatherly
chastisements, and by the support of Divine consolations the soul
may dwell at ease, even when the body lies in pain. To be sick and
poor, sick and solitary, but especially to be sick and in sin,
sick and under the curse of God, sick and without grace to bear
it, is a most deplorable case. Wickedness and profaneness make men
despicable, even in the eyes of those who have but little
religion.
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