One of my daughters has begun her collegiate studies up in north Georgia near the Tennessee border. She took her car with her. As November brought cold weather to Augusta, Georgia, an alarm bell went off in my mind. “It will be even colder at Covenant College. I wonder how the antifreeze is in Elise’s car.” A few texts, a few calls and back came the needed answer: the car was okay. “Whew,” went my heart. “Oh, okay,” went hers. Her lesser knowledge about frozen radiators made for lesser concern.
Another thing we have had less of is rain. Less rain means less water in Clark’s Hill lake where my boat floats. When the lake level dropped below the 324 feet1, a yellow light began blinking in my mind. “Better check the boat; you don’t want it to be grounded.” So, off I went and found there was enough water under it, but as the level seemed to shrinking I pushed and paddled the boat over to my neighbor’s empty dock. There it will stay until Thanksgiving vacation.
Let us turn toward ancient Israel now. Asa and Jehoshaphat had been good kings. Not so their descendant and successor: Jehoram. While to that point God was unwilling to erase David’s kingdom he was unwilling to prosper or facilitate it. Circumstances were about to spring up that would result in a sinner’s shrinking Kingdom.
Shrinking: Edom lost
Each of these unexpected events had to be dealt with. They could be ignored but not safely so. In 2 Kings 8, Jehoram faced an unexpected event.
20 In his days Edom revolted from the rule of Judah and set up a king of their own. (2 Kings 8:20–ESV)
Edom was a vassal kingdom on Judah’s southern border and one that wrapped itself around the Dead Sea’s southern tip. They had their own ruler of sorts, but he was a deputy king of Judah. This deputy king and his council chose this time to break free from Judah’s rule. I don’t know how the information trickled or flew back to Jerusalem, but it was not good news. Ignore my boat and it gets stuck till next season. Ignore the revolting Edom and it may remain lost forever.
21 So Jehoram went to Zair with all his chariots. The Edomites surrounded him and his chariot commanders, but he rose up and broke through by night; his army, however, fled back home. 22 To this day Edom has been in rebellion against Judah. (2 Kings 8: 21-22a–NIV)2
A great part of me wants to know more: the unknowables, like councils held, goodbyes said, first steps as the army staged itself and moved out. While the scribes of 2 Kings recorded very little they did tell us that Jehoram took all of his chariots. Why did he call them all up? For a show of force? Shock and awe? Or, could it have been an expectation of stiff resistance?
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