The kings who followed Ahab and Jehoshaphat are quite confusing because there is Ahaziah and Joram, also known as Jehoram, both sons of Ahab; and there is Jehoram and Ahaziah, son and grandson of Jehoshaphat, who all ruled and died in the same window. For this post, I’ll focus on Ahaziah and Joram. These are brothers who ruled for about 14 years in between Ahab’s death and Jehu’s cleansing of the line of Ahab, recorded in 2 Kings 1-9, which involves much of Elisha’s ministry.
Ahaziah was first in line to the throne, and he is noted for a very short reign of under two years. He fell through the lattice in his upper chambers and the injuries would turn out to be fatal. Ahaziah turned to inquire of Baal, likely at the advice of his mother, Jezebel, who was still alive. But Elijah interrupted the messengers and told them that because he did not seek the Lord, he would die. Then Ahaziah sent three companies of soldiers to arrest Elijah, who then called fire down from heaven and consumed the first two companies. Elijah then told the captain of the third company the same message, and Ahaziah died of the injuries from his fall.
Joram was another of Ahab’s sons; I’ll use Joram here to help the distinction between Joram of Israel and Jehoram of Judah who reigned during the same time. Ahaziah had no children and thus could not carry the line, so Joram became king instead. In both cases, the queen mother, Jezebel, very likely ruled them just as she had Ahab. You don’t have a domineering wife who is not also domineering over her children.
Joram, who reigned for 12 years, actually gets quite a bit of coverage in Scripture via the ministry of Elisha. During Elisha’s ministry, he would have let Joram die in the desert in his war against Moab if not for Jehoshaphat calling for a man of God. Syria continued its war against Israel, and Elisha kept warning Joram about Syria’s movements calling for the king of Syria to go after him. That is when Elisha asked God to open the eyes of his servant to see the armies of God surrounding the Syrians. Elisha’s miracles with the widow and the oil, the floating axe head, the raising of a woman’s son from the dead, and the healing of Naaman (the only leper to be healed in that time) were done. Syria eventually besieged Samaria to the point where the people were cannibalizing their own children, and Joram wanted Elisha’s head for this famine due to the siege. Elisha then prophesied the end of the siege and a huge feast from the Syrians came ready for them. That night, the Lord’s army sounded like a calvary charge, and the Syrians fled for their lives. When four lepers found the Syrian camp empty, they reported it to the king.
But Joram and his nephew, Ahaziah of Judah, would meet their end together along with his mother, Jezebel. Joram went to war with Hazael of Syria and was wounded in battle. Ahaziah of Judah came to visit his uncle, and both were slain by Jehu. The same day, Jehu also went after Jezebel herself and got one of her eunuchs to throw her down from her tower window where she would die. Before the people could gather her body, the dogs had ripped her to shreds.
So what is the backstory of these two kings? We don’t know their ages when they became kings, but they were rather young as Ahaziah had no children and he would have been older than Joram. The backstory is quite simple: Ahab and Jezebel. Ahaziah was injured from a fall, and he went to seek the Baals for advice. Joram seemed to be given even more opportunities to see the Lord in action than his father Ahab and yet he still refused to believe, though I could argue he respected Elisha more that Ahab respected Elijah. Joram was considered an evil idolator, but he was not given a moniker that he was worse than Ahab. Ahaziah was judged for being just like Ahab. While these two are mentioned by name due to their reigns, they had 68 brothers. Yes, Ahab had seventy sons, not including daughters like Athaliah. Needless to say, Jezebel was incapable of bearing them all herself as Ahab’s reign was only 22 years. Ahaziah and Joram were among Jezebel’s children, which is why they had the primary rights to the throne; like father like son, Jezebel would have controlled them and taught them in the ways of the worship of Baal. Ahaziah in particular was an obedient child in this regard. Joram chose not to follow Baal, but he did not depart from the golden calf idols that Jeroboam set up. He may have learned that following Baal did no one any good.
Both young men would have lived through Elijah’s ministry. Ahaziah despised Elijah, but Joram seemed to at least respect Elijah and Elisha. That said, Elisha had no respect for Joram for even though he put away the Baal idols, he still followed the idols of Israel and did not seek the Lord. If Jehoshaphat was not there in the desert with Joram, Elisha would not even look at him. But Joram respected Elisha enough to bring him to the court and that was why Elisha was able to continually tell Joram of Syria’s moves. But Joram’s moves never garnered respect from the Lord. Yet Elisha kept giving Joram the evidence of the true God just as Elisha did with Ahab, and in both cases it never took. One reason for this would be Jezebel’s presence. She isn’t mentioned except for when she was killed, but we can safely assume that she controlled her sons just like she controlled Ahab, though Joram didn’t follow as tightly or as closely as Ahaziah did.
What can we learn from these two kings? Ahaziah seems to be a carbon copy of his mother Jezebel, a “momma’s boy.” Little is said about his relationship with his mother, but considering how quickly he turned to Baal and how he sought to arrest Elijah, and considering how Jezebel handled Ahab, Ahaziah would have been a total slave to her. She would have controlled his mind.
Joram didn’t get all the brainwashing Ahaziah did because he was only second-in-line and wasn’t supposed to rule as long as his brother was alive. He knew that the Baals were false gods. He saw the fire fall from heaven. He saw the battles Ahab won. He likely had to help solve problems with the drought. He saw his brother turn to the Baals and die as a result while Elijah summoned fire to consume the soldiers who sought to arrest him. He knew that Baal was a false god and so he put him away. But he left the golden calves up and did not depart from those idols. And to our knowledge, Joram never sought the Lord, but he did listen to Elisha more and better than the kings before him. With Joram, we can learn that it’s not enough to depart from the pagan gods if you don’t give up your idols. We can also learn how a reputation from a father can hover over you; if it is a bad reputation, extra work has to be done to undo it. And because Joram never turned to seek the Lord, he would complete the curse his father left on him and his blood would avenge Naboth, whom Ahab murdered just for a piece of land.
And all this does not consider the effect of Athaliah, their sister who married Jehoram of Judah and brought more idolatry to the land. We’ll look at what Judah was going through next week with Jehoram, Ahaziah, and Athaliah.
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