The Consequences of Forsaking the Lord. (2 Chronicles 21: 1-20)

Today’s episode is titled “The Consequences of Forsaking the Lord.”

We all know that sin has consequences. We all know that turning away from the Lord carries a cost, but what do those consequences actually look like?

How severe can they become, and how far-reaching can the fallout be?

There are many answers to those questions found across the Bible, but since we’re studying 2 Chronicles today, we’re going to look at a passage that illustrates some of those consequences with real clarity.

 Chapter 21 introduces us to Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, a man who inherited a godly legacy but chose a very different path. His story is a stark reminder that forsaking the Lord is never a small matter. It affects families, nations, and futures. And it shows us what happens when a leader abandons the God who blessed his father.

  Turn with me to 2 Chronicles 21, and let’s look together at the consequences of forsaking the Lord….

Transcript

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Welcome back to today's episode of the Bible Journey Daily Podcast. It is great to be here again today. Wonderful to have you with me as we continue what I trust is a steady walk through the Book of Two Chronicles. Now, this is a book that I've said many times isn't just written to record events. It's meant to teach us. It takes a particular perspective through the events that are also described in the main elsewhere in the Book of Kings. But it is meant to teach us how God can work in the lives of his people and specifically how God builds his temple physically here in a particular occasion at this point in history, but also how he desires to build in our lives, in us, and in our person today, the temple of his Holy Spirit. Now, before I begin, I just want to pause again and say thank you for those of you who choose to support this ministry through Patreon. Your generosity is what makes this possible for me. Truly, without your help, I would not be able in any way to devote the time needed to study, prepare, write, and record these episodes, and in fact all the teaching I do across all the areas online. You are the reason this teaching is reaching listeners around the world, and it's reaching them for free in their tens of thousands, and I am deeply grateful. Anyway, today's episode is titled The Consequences of Forsaking the Lord. And that title captures what I really believe is the heart of what this chapter of Chronicles, chapter twenty-one, is trying to tell us. We all know that sin has consequences, and we all know that turning away from the Lord will carry a cost. But what do those consequences, what can they really look like? How severe might they become? And how far reaching can the fallout be? There are many answers to those questions found across the Bible, but since we're studying two chronicles today, we're going to look at a passage that illustrates some of those consequences with chilling clarity. Chapter 21 introduces us to Jehoram, the son of Jehosaphat, a man who in a sense inherited a godly legacy but chose a very different path. His story stands as a stark reminder that forsaking the Lord is never a small matter. It can affect families, nations, and futures, and it shows us what happens when a leader abandons the God who blessed both him and his father. And indeed, the nation they were called to lead. Welcome to today's episode of the Bible Journey Daily Podcast. The text begins and opens by telling us that Jehoshaphat rested with his ancestors and was buried with them in the city of David, and Jehoram, his son, succeeded him as king. So Jehoshaphat has now died, and his son Jehoram takes the throne. But beginning with Jehoram's reign, the history recorded in Chronicles, we begin to see move rather downhill now. There is a decline that will eventually lead, we know, to calamity, but also to captivity. The text continues. Jehoam had brothers, all the sons of Jehoshaphat, king of Israel. So Jehosaphat actually had several sons. He had six brothers in total. And verse 3 tells us that Jehoshaphat gave those sons gifts of silver, gold, and fortified cities, but he gave the kingdom to Jehoram because he was the firstborn, which was the normal of that day. So far everything appears normal here. A father dies and the eldest son becomes king, and then the younger sons receive cities and wealth. At a lesser level. But then comes verse 4, where we begin to see the story take a little bit of a dark turn. It says, When Jehoram established himself firmly over his father's kingdom, he put all his brothers to the sword, along with some of the officials of Israel. Wow, that's shocking, isn't it? As soon as he had secured the throne, the throne, he kills all six of his brothers, and indeed seven other important people, some translations say princes. Why? Likely because of his close ties to the wicked northern kingdom. Perhaps he feared competition from his brothers. Perhaps he just wanted absolute control. Perhaps he was being influenced by the same spirit that dominated Ahab's house. Whatever the reason, this is the first sign, a very clear sign that this is a king who has forsaken the Lord. The story continues in verse 5. Jehovah, Jehoram was 32 years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for eight years. So this is a relatively short reign, only eight years. Roughly, Bible experts will tell you from eight four eight to eight four one BC. Verse six continues, he followed the ways of the kings of Israel as the house of Ahab had done. For he married a daughter of Ahab, and he did evil in the eyes of the Lord. So mark that phrase. Notice it, he did evil in the eyes of the Lord. Jehoram walked in the way of the northern kings of Israel, the wayward part of the nation, not the southern kings of Judah. And these northern kings were the very same kings who had abandoned the Lord, willingly embraced idolatry, and led the Israel, the northern kingdom, into ruin. And why did Jerobam follow their ways? Answer you may remember, because he was married off to Ahab's daughter. Jehoshaphat, his father, had arranged this marriage years earlier. We heard that when we studied a couple of chapters ago. He did it in a way that he thought might he hoped it might bring peace between the kingdoms, but now Judah is infected with the same attitude and the same wickedness that had previously destroyed Israel. One Bible commentary I read, and it put it very bluntly, as people tended to do in yesteryears, it says, Ahab's daughter was a tool in Satan's hand to bring judgment on God's people. Whatever, Jerum's marriage is the thing that is very clearly being here described as that which brought Ahab's idolatrous position into Judah. And Jehoram's wife brought Ahab's influence right into the palace, and thereafter we know Jerobam embraced those godless practices of the northern kingdom. Verse 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. So that's a lovely little verse added in by way of a sort of beautiful contrast. Jehoram is wicked. Jehoram forsakes the Lord. Jehoram even murders his brothers, and it is Jehoram who leads Judah astray. But God will keep his promise. The covenant God made with David is kept, and it is described and referred to as a lamp, a light that will never be extinguished. So even though Jehoram deserves judgment, God will not destroy the wider house of David. He will discipline him, but he will not annihilate them. So these opening six verses give us the first section of this chapter. He is the first king in David's line, whose judgment by the chronicler is entirely negative. There's no he was good and bad, good at times and bad at times here. His story is being presented as a classic example of the consequences that follow when a person, especially a leader, forsakes the Lord. The very nature of the evil he's practiced is now revealed, has been revealed in these opening seven verses of the chapter. His enemies will now be revealed in the next section that follows, and in it we see the beginnings of the domino effect of forsaking the Lord. So now the text turns to his enemies, and the connection between these two things is unmistakable. Verse 8. In the time of Jehoram, Edom rebelled against Judah and set up its own king. So Edom now rebell revolts against Judah. This is significant because Edom had been under Judah's authority since the days of David. But now under Jehoram's leadership, Edom revolts from within. They reject Judah's rule. They appoint their own king and they break away completely. This is the first domino to fall, but others will follow soon. It says So Jehoram went there with the officers and all his chariots. He rose up at night and attacked the Edomites who had surrounded him. So Jehoram attempts a sort of counterattack. He tries to regain control and he launches a night assault, but it fails. His response to Edom is futile. He cannot win. He cannot regain his authority and he cannot reverse the revolt. Then verse 10 tells us to this day Edom has been in rebellion against Judah. Meaning that even at the time this book was written, which is many years later, Edom was still independent. Jehoram's failure had long-term consequences. That is clear. And then another enemy appears in the text, Libna in verse 10. Libna also revolted, revolted at this time, it says, because Jehoram had forsaken the Lord, the god of his ancestors. Low Libna was a city about twenty five miles southwest of Jerusalem. It is a strategic location and it now joins Edom in the rebellion. Why? Well the text plainly tells us they did it because Jehoram had forsaken the Lord. So this is the spiritual explanation behind what these appear as mainly political and military events. Jehoram's spiritual rebellion produces national instability. His idolatry produces political collapse, and his sin is what causes people to rise up against him as enemies. You see, when a leader forsakes the Lord, the consequences always ripple outward, and it all happens because Jehoram led Judah into idolatry. Verse 11. He also built high places on the hills of Judah, and he caused the people of Israel to prostitute themselves, and he led Judah astray. So this is sort of spiritual prostitution on the highest level. This is not just physical immorality, but spiritual immorality and unfaithfulness. Jehoram, we're told, built high places, so he actually encouraged idol worship. He led the people astray. He normalized those pagan practices in the kingdom, and he's one of the few kings of Judah of whom nothing good is said because of this. So he had enemies rise up against him, and he has a revolt across the land. He is experiencing constant instability. But did that drive him back to the Lord? No. Instead, he doubles down in idolatry. Verse 12. Jehoram then received a letter from Elijah the prophet. Now this is remarkable. Elijah is the great prophet of the northern kingdom, and he sends a written message to Jehoram in the south. Now this is the only written prophecy of Elijah we see recorded in Scripture. And the letter, we're told, says in verses twelve and thirteen, This is what the Lord says. You have not followed the ways of your father Jehoshaphat, or of Asa, king of Judah, but you have followed the ways of the kings of Israel, and you have led Judah and the people of Jerusalem astray. You have murdered your brothers who were better than you. So Elijah simply lists Jehoram's sins here. He rejected the godly example of his father Jehoshaphat, and indeed Asa, and he followed the wickedness of Ahab's house instead of his father's house. He is the one who has led Judah into idolatry, and he even reminds him of the fact he murdered his own brothers, which the text then adds they were actually better than him. Then comes the judgment as described by Elijah. So now the Lord is about to strike your people, your sons, your wives, and everything that is yours with a heavy blow. So Jehoram's sin, the consequences of it, will be seen to affect his family. His wives and his children are mentioned here. It will affect also his possessions, the whole kingdom. And what that tells us is of course that sin always affects more than just the sinner. Then verse 15, you yourself will be very ill with a lingering disease of the bowels until the disease causes your bowels to come out. Now this is graphic. It's describing something really severe, and it has to be said rather humiliating way to die. That's what's going to happen to him in the future. Now, of course, commentators speculate as to what will happen, what was going on here. Ucers, dysentery, chronic intestinal disease, severe inflammation of the bowel. The exact diagnosis, people love to speculate, but it's unknown. But what matters is this? Jehim's punishment is physical sickness in this occasion, and it's been linked as a direct consequence of his forsaking the Lord. Now, as an aside, some scholars like to question whether Elijah could have actually written this letter since he was taken, translated its call to heaven during Jehoshaphat's father's reign. But Jehoram co-reigned with Jehoshaphat for several years. We know that from earlier texts. So Elijah may have written a letter before his translation to heaven, or he may have simply entrusted it to Elisha for later delivery. Either way, the content and the context of the letter is clear. And that extra detail isn't really relevant in that way. The point is Elijah wrote it, and Jehoram was the one who received it, and it is recording that God judged him. Okay, let's just think what we've seen and read so far. We see the evil actions that he took and decisions that he took in verses 1 to 7. Then in verses 8 to 11, we see the rebellion and those rise up, his enemies appear, and now in verses 12 to 15, through this prophecy, this written prophecy of Elijah, his punishment is revealed. The consequences of forsaking the Lord are unfolding before us step by step through this text. Political revolt, national instability, spiritual corruption, prophetic judgment, and even at the end, physical disease. Now there's one final section that we need to cover next, and it begins in verse 16. It says, The Lord aroused against Jehoram the hostility of the Philistines and of the Arabs who lived near the Kushites. So Jehoram's troubles are definitely not over. The Lord himself, it says, stirs up more enemies, this time the Philistines and the Arabs. These nations join forces and they attack and invade Judah. Verse 17 says they attacked Judah, invaded it, 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 Ahaizeah the youngest. So this prophecy of Elijah is indeed fulfilled. Judah is invaded, the palace is plundered, and Jehoram's possessions are taken. Even his wives are taken, his sons are taken, and he's only left with his youngest son. This would have been devastating for him. Now remember Jehoram murdered his own brothers, and now his sons are taken from him. Jehoram brought misery on his family, and now that misery returns unto him and his family and his family. Sin, you know, always comes full circle. And then that prophesied disease, that horrible disease strikes. Verse eighteen. After all this the Lord afflicted Jehoram with an incurable disease of the bowels. So the physical judgment that Elijah indeed foretold now arrives. And verse 19 In the course of time, at the end of two years, his bowels came out because of the disease, and he died in great pain. Now I'm sorry, this is graphic, but it is also illustrating a death that is humiliating. It is also a slow and agonizing death. You need to note that Jehoram suffered for two years with a disease so severe that his intestines literally deteriorated within and came out. Jehoram's end is painful, prolonged, and tragic, and it's being positioned as a direct consequence of forsaking the Lord. And then we're told that no one mourns him. His people made no funeral fire in his honour, it says, as they had for his predecessors. Now kings were normally honored, of course, with a funeral fire. This was a sign of respect, but Jehoram receives none. And in final verse, he passed away to no one's regret. What a statement. No one mourned him, no one grieved his loss, no one missed him, no one even regretted his death. He had lived without honor, and he died without honor, and he left no legacy, it says that was worth remembering. And the final verse he was buried in the city of David, but not in the tombs of the kings. So he's buried, but not even with the other kings. He's excluded from the royal tombs, and he is denied the honor that had been given to pretty much all of his predecessors. His burial is a quiet thing, his death is unlamented, and his memory is left stained forever. You see, Jehoram forsook the Lord, and for him the consequences were devastating, severe. I want to list them clearly so you don't miss the severity of what has gone on here. Firstly, invasion by neighbouring nation. By neighbouring nations. Edom revolted, Libna revolted, Philistines and Arabians joined together and invaded, and his kingdom collapsed around him. Secondly, he experienced the loss of his own family. His wives were taken, his sons were taken, he's only left with his youngest child. And then that painful physical death. He suffered two years with an incurable disease, and we're told he died in great pain. And finally, no one even regretted his passing. He died unloved, unmourned, and unhonored. And these are being portrayed here as the consequences of his forsaking of the Lord. So I think there are two great spiritual lessons for us here. Two really outstanding spiritual truth that it is worth taking on board. Firstly, our sins do not only affect us, they affect others. Jehoram's rebellion brought suffering not only just on him but on his family and the entire nation. Sin is never an isolated thing, it will always spread and affect other people. And secondly, there's also a warning here that sin can on occasion affect us physically. Now, of course, not all illness is a result of sin. In fact, most illness is not a result of sin. The Bible makes that clear. But sometimes illness can be a consequence of sin. It can be a discipline for sin, or even a punishment, or simply handing us over to the consequences of our own actions and the physical consequences that arise out of that. Now, this is not just Old Testament teaching. The New Testament confirms this. In that famous passage in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, believers were acting selfishly, unlovingly, even at the Lord's table. And Paul writes to them and says, This is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. So wickness, sickness, and on this occasion it would appear even premature death. These are being positioned as the consequences of sin. Severe sin in the way they're abused. The Lord's Supper, but even in that Paul then immediately adds good news by immediately following up that first verse by saying, But if we were more discerning concerning ourselves, we would not come under such judgment. In other words, if we judge ourselves, and if we recognize and confess our sin, repent and walk with the Lord, we avoid his discipline in every way. Now Jehoram was given that opportunity, but he refused to, how shall we say it, judge himself. He certainly refused to repent, and he didn't turn back, and the consequences followed on from that. Now this chapter is one of the most chilling chapters, certainly, in the Book of Two Chronicles, if not in the whole Old Testament. It shows us, without any exaggeration, without any softening the edges, that's for sure, what can happen when someone who has inherited a godly legacy chooses to forsake the Lord. Jehoram's life is meant to be a tragic illustration of the potential downward spiral of sin. He started by rejecting the example of his father. He embraced the wickedness of Ahab's house, who he had been married into, and then he murdered his own brothers, and he led the nation into idolatry when he became king, which provoked revolt, instability, and in the end even invasion. And then at the end of his life he suffered physical judgment. He died in agony, and when he departed, no one was sorry. His story should remind us that sin always has consequences, sometimes immediate, sometimes delayed, sometimes personal, but sometimes much wider than that, community or even national. But there are always consequences and they're always real. And yet, even in this dark, dark chapter, we still can see the faithfulness of God. The covenant, you see, remember, that with David still stood. The individual sin, ultimately, the long-term consequences, did not fall on the nation. The lamp still burned, and God disciplined, but he did not destroy the Davidic nation or the covenant. So Jehoram's life warns us that God's covenant can comfort us, and together with obedience, we can learn to walk humbly, faithfully, and wholeheartedly with the Lord in our lives every day. And I trust an understanding of this passage enables you to do exactly that. Thanks for being with me today. And his warnings are actually for our protection. Now, in our next episode tomorrow, we'll continue our journey into 2 Chronicles chapter 22, where the story of Judah, the nation, takes another dramatic turn. So I'll hope you'll come back for that study too. It's an important chapter tomorrow, and I really am looking forward to exploring it with you. But until then, may the Lord keep your heart faithful, may He also keep your steps steady and your life anchored in his grace. And I'll see you in the next episode. Bye-bye for now.