Look briefly at the following four verses and find the unholy alliance.
16 In the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab, king of Israel, when Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, began to reign. 17 He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. 18 And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. (2 Kings 8:16-18–ESV)
My quickest interpretation from this passage forms from verse 18: Jehoram married the wrong lady and became an evil king. Hastily following are a set of applications, e.g., women can be (are?) corrupting influences, or don’t marry the wrong woman.
It is too simplistic, however, to set up this one event, important though it was in Jehoram’s life, as the fountainhead of his evil tendencies as it presumes too much. It suggests that his style of living before the marriage to Ahab’s daughter was filled with propriety all of which was destroyed by allying himself with a bride from the Northern Kingdom.
The source of evil for every one of us is our heart. From within our core comes ill-health, ungodliness. That is a message of the scriptures and one which is borne out by experience. Jehoram was just the same. Evil was crouching at his door and desired to have him. Placed on the stage of his life was a corrupting influence: a daughter of the evil king Ahab. Any precarious balance was easily tipped and his life-pattern accelerated toward that of his father-in-law.
This match to Ahab was a break from the Lord. He would live and reign for but 8 years eventually dying a painful, ignominious death in his 40th year. We are not told anything about the beauty of this woman, ill-omens attending the marriage, warnings heeded or not from priests or prophets. We are simply told of the marriage and its impact upon Jehoram and subsequently to the nation.
While our circumstances are not going to mimic those of ancient Israeli kings our core tendencies are no different. We must be on the lookout for decisions, which once made will promote ungodliness in our lives. We must be loathe to expedite the ill-health of our hearts no matter what advantage seems to dangle before us.
We could call these things “daughters of Ahab.” We could then ask of ourselves, “what daughters of Ahab are you drawn to?” Do you know what they are? Jehoram’s father was a good king: Jehoshaphat. Often he inquired of the Lord. Probably not often enough for he seems to have been involved in the marriage of his first-born son to this northern princess. He would have done well to ask God before allowing this to proceed. Be very careful that you ask God before allowing things to proceed in your own life.
Lane Ulrich says
I wrote that the marriage to Ahab’s daughter was a break from the Lord. It could be that it was the deciding factor which tipped him squarely away from the Lord. We read and hear of things that worked out preventing a great evil in our lives. Things also go in the opposite direction facilitating a great evil.
Lane Ulrich says
As I kept studying for the subsequent week’s lessons I discovered the name of the northern princess: Athaliah. That is a name that has baggage for me, baggage because of how she reigned as Queen of Judah for some time (6 years actually). What I also discovered was that Athaliah and Jehoram were married when Jehoram was 17 or 18 years of age. It was called in 2 Chronicles 18:1 an alliance. It happened in the prime of both Ahab’s and Jehoshaphat’s kingdoms. So it seems not an accident that this wicked influence was placed into Jehoram’s life.