Bad Theology

Text for today: II Chronicles 21

When King Jehoshaphat dies, he has seven sons. He bestows wealth and fortified cities on them all, but hands over the kingdom to the eldest, Jehoram, who promptly murders all his brothers. Jehoram's wife, a daughter of King Ahab, leads him to disobey God's commandments, but God refrains from destroying him because he is a descendant of King David. After a while God changes His mind and sends a threatening letter via the prophet Elijah, following which God stirs up the anger of the Philistines and the Arabians, who invade the country and carry off all the king's possessions. Not to do things by halves, God then strikes Jehoram with an incurable disease, and after two years of intestinal mortification he excretes his own bowels and dies in agony, to be mourned by none. In His infinite wisdom and mercy, God ordains that he should be succeeded by Ahaziah, who is evidently no great improvement.

The nature of God's mercy is clearly demonstrated in His treatment of Jehoram and his brothers. God does not lift a finger to save the six virtuous princes, all of whom are descendants of King David, all of whom are better than Jehoram in God's infallible estimation, and any one of whom would presumably have refrained from incurring God's wrath had he been placed on the throne instead. Without God's wrath there would have been no need for Him to stir up the Philistines and Arabians, and no need for the suffering of God's chosen people which the invasion must have involved. Rather than spare His people by allowing one of the virtuous brothers to ascend the throne, God permits the vicious Jehoram a full six years in which to provoke His outrage, and then punishes the entire kingdom for His own dereliction of His fatherly duty to protect His children.