The Bible says, “Be not deceived. God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” (Gal.6:7)
Few would argue the validity of the natural law of sowing and reaping. The farmer who does not sow much cannot expect to reap much; the farmer who doesn’t sow anything can expect to reap nothing. The farmer who sows much can hope to reap much. It is, in the natural realm, the law of sowing and reaping.
The same law governs our lives in the spiritual realm. Sow discord and discord you will reap; sow love and love will be produced; sow righteousness and the fruit of righteousness, peace, will be reaped. Sow sin and sin will be reaped.
The Old Testament affords us a striking illustration of the principle of sowing and reaping in the life of King Jehoram, oldest son of King Jehoshaphat.
No one born in Judah contemporaneously with Jehoram enjoyed a brighter prospect for life at birth.
His family was royalty. No educational opportunity known to his peers was denied young Jehoram. His father was a good king and was a godly example for the most part. His grandfather, King Asa, was also a godly king whose ways pleased the Lord. His great, great, great grandfather was King Solomon. Jehoram had been blessed with a goodly heritage.
Educationally, materially, spiritually, socially, and culturally— Jehoram’s advantages were totally out of the reach to most young people of his time. Surely he would follow the example of his father and grandfather and “buy up” these extraordinary advantages.
Sadly, it was not to be. II Chronicles 21:6 gives us God’s evaluation of Jehoram’s life: “And, he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, like as did the house of Ahab.” No king in Israel (the northern ten tribes of the divided kingdom) displeased God more than Ahab, and Jehoram—fifth king of Judah, the southern sector of the kingdom, following the post-Solomon division—walked in the ways of wicked Ahab.
We can follow his fall by looking at his Youth, his Adulthood and his “Old Age.”
- His Youth: An Unhealthy Devotion.
In II Chronicles 21:2,3 one reads that Jehoshaphat had seven sons including Jehoram. Jehoram was the firstborn, but Jehoshaphat left abundant riches to all of his sons born after the first son, Jehoram. Those gifts were “great gifts of silver, and of gold, and of precious things with fenced cities in Judah: but the kingdom gave he to Jehoram; because he was the firstborn.”
But following his father’s death, Jehoram strengthened himself and “slew all his brethren with the sword, and divers also of the princes of Israel.” (II Chr. 21:4) In his youth, this firstborn son of the king got everything he wanted, but it would seem he got nothing of what he really needed. He apparently was spoiled to the core as his selfish, wicked acts of murder would suggest. He was a young king whose sails for life were set early—against truth, humility, gratitude, honesty, morality, and against God.
- His Adulthood: An Unholy Decision.
Jehoram was 32 years of age when he ascended to the throne. His life was set on a collision course when he took the daughter of the wicked King Ahab for his wife. (II Chr. 21:6) The Bible promptly states, right after it tells us of Jehoram’s unbiblical alliance through marriage with Ahab’s daughter, that “he wrought that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord.” (II Chr. 21:6) No doubt the murders of his six brothers had the blessings of the family of Ahab.
God had plainly warned against unholy unions with unbelievers in marriage. (Deut. 7:1-4) Samson, a judge of Israel, ignored God’s warning—and his parent’s pleading—and got one of the Philistines’ daughters. Along with her, he got more grief than he could have imagined. “A mistake made here (in marriage) is a mistake for life. One can remove a partner from sight, but not from the soul.”
- His “Old Age”: An Unheeded Warning.
Jehoram’s pitiful plight is outlined in II Chr. 21:8-17. He waged war unnecessarily with the Edomites. He built shrines of idolatry in the high mountains of Judah and compelled his subjects to worship at these places rather than in Jerusalem. For these transgressions and the murders of his brothers who were “better than thyself,” God sent Elijah to tell Jehoram that he would send a plague to his people, to his children, his wives, and all of his goods. (II Chr. 21:14) Besides that, God was going to smite Jehoram with a sickness, so that his bowels would “fall out by reason of the sickness day by day.”
But, before dying his slow death, God stirred up the Philistines and the Arabians, who came up against Jehoram and Judah and “brake into it, and carried away all the substance that was found in the king’s house, and his sons also, and his wives; so that there was never a son left him, save Jehoahaz, the youngest of his sons.” (II Chr. 21:16,17)
Jehoram’s “old age” came early. He was made king at the age of 32, and by the time he was 40, death by disease had claimed his life. His biography is sadly summarized by the chronicler: “Thirty and two years old was he when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years, and departed without being desired.” (II Chr. 21:20)
“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:31)
Editor’s Note: If you are keeping track of this series on the Old Testament Kings, you will find the installment on King Asa in the September 26, 2023, edition of this blog, appearing under the title “Good Starter, Good Finisher.” To find it, click here, or click “read in browser” at the end of any of these “You and God” blog posts. When you do, you will find the text of the post repeated. Scroll all the way to the end of that text and keep scrolling, and you will find a complete archive of all my 450 posts by month and year. The Asa post is in September 2023. Or, if you prefer, simply email me and request that I forward you a copy of the post.
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