Daily Devotional for Thursday, May 1

Wicked King Jehoram

   “Then Jehoram went forth with his princes, and all his chariots with him: and he rose up by night, and smote the Edomites which compassed him in, and the captains of the chariots. Moreover he made high places in the mountains of Judah, and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit fornication, and compelled Judah thereto,” 2 Chronicles 21:9, 11.

Jehoshaphat was loyal to the Lord, but his oldest son, Jehoram, “walked in the way of the kings of Israel” (2 Chronicles 21:6). Jehoram married one of Ahab’s daughters. He was influenced by her idol worship and began to worship her gods. What’s worse, he led the people of Jerusalem to worship false gods and turn from the Lord. He set up high places for worshiping other gods in Judah’s hill country. 

God’s Law was clear about idol worship. He said to look away from the idols and gods of other nations lest they be enticed (Deuteronomy 29:18). “Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image…to bow down unto it: for I am the Lord your God:…if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant: I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror,…and cause sorrow of heart:…And I will set my face against you,…And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images,…and my soul shall abhor you” (Leviticus 26:1, 15-17, 30). 

Our disobedience has severe consequences. Although Jehoram’s actions were detestable to the Lord, God was determined to not remove his lamp because He had made a covenant with David that he would always have a son on the throne. God would not remove Jehoram from the throne, but Jehoram and those who followed his example would suffer for forsaking the Lord, “And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them” (Psalm 106:36).

THOUGHT

“Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols” (Psalm 97:7).

Kelli Reynolds