Jehoram, Jehoshaphat's 1st born son becomes king and he quickly defies the Lord.
He followed the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for he married a daughter of Ahab. He did evil in the eyes of the LORD. (verse 6)
Yet God is gracious is He not?
7 Nevertheless, because of the covenant the LORD had made with David, the LORD was not willing to destroy the house of David. He had promised to maintain a lamp for him and his descendants forever.
God is like that of course with us...we disobey. And who are we to say that we are not sinful. My sin, anger, worry, greed, lust, is not as God intends. And it is through God's grace alone that we are not punished.
And here we see ultimately, God's judgement come down hard on Jehoram.
16 The LORD aroused against Jehoram the hostility of the Philistines and of the Arabs who lived near the Cushites. 17 They attacked Judah, invaded it and carried off all the goods found in the king’s palace, together with his sons and wives. Not a son was left to him except Ahaziah,the youngest.
18 After all this, the LORD afflicted Jehoram with an incurable disease of the bowels. 19 In the course of time, at the end of the second year, his bowels came out because of the disease, and he died in great pain. His people made no funeral fire in his honor, as they had for his predecessors.(verses 16-19)
We need to both fear God and love Him. We need to fear Him so that we can remain humble before Him (and others) and to respect His greatness and His power. We also need to love Him because His grace is abundant and available for all of us - all the time. How great is that!
My Prayer: Lord, your grace and love abound! Praise God for how great and loving you are - and to me as I am not deserving. Please God forgive me of my sin, anger, pride, greed, etc. I want to purified of this sin so please help me - transform my heart and my life Lord. Help me seek you out and to repent with an eye of living my life solely for you, to love and to follow you with everything I have.
