Reading the Bible is not primarily about me, though I am tempted to believe it is.
There are many good and true lessons from Scripture to apply to our daily lives (2 Timothy 3:16). But the Bible is about God. It is a record of His redemptive work through history, ultimately culminating in Jesus, whose life, death, resurrection, and impending return open the door to salvation for all.
It can be hard to remember this reality, especially in the Old Testament, when Jesus isn’t explicitly named from page to page. So, I am prone to read myself into David’s fight with Goliath or Ruth’s trust in God’s provision as self-help moralism (“Defeat your Goliaths! Settle for nothing less than your Boaz!”), rather than pointing to the coming Messiah who will put death to death and covenant with His people like a bridegroom.
The tendency to make the Bible about me is particularly deceptive when it comes to the “bad guys” of the Bible, who quickly become a lesson in morality: “Don’t be like Saul and let your insecurities lead you astray! Don’t immediately lose faith in God’s promise and force a goldsmith to fashion you a calf to worship after just having seen 11 miracles of God with your own eyes!” That one may be a little specific, but you get the point.
You are not David. You are not Ruth. And you are not Jehoram.
Jehoram secured his throne by murdering his brothers, established a marriage alliance with the wicked royal family of the northern kingdom, and led Judah into idolatrous worship (2 Chronicles 21:4–6). The author lays this out not so you can avoid the same pitfalls of sin or identify the places where you’ve established idols. No—in God’s infinite wisdom, He puts Jehoram into the line of David to show His audacious grace, mentioned almost in passing:
“Despite Jeroham’s many failures and abject rejection of God, the Lord was unwilling to destroy Judah, for the sake of David His servant.” (2 Chronicles 21:7)
This is the primary lesson of Jehoram and all the kings of Judah: God is faithful to His promise to bring a Savior.
Spoiler alert: even the good kings don’t ultimately save Judah. After the reforms of Hezekiah and Josiah, there is a noticeable hope that Judah will finally get it right. Then, Josiah dies in battle. His sons lead the nation back into wickedness, Judah is eventually carried off into exile in Babylon, and God’s promise to bring the Messiah from the line of David seemingly dies.
But God’s promise is not simply to establish a king who will bring political and systematic reform. His promise is that through the line of David, He will bring a king to establish a kingdom that lasts forever (2 Samuel 7:12–13).
God’s promise is that, despite the absolute failings of king after king in the Davidic line, despite the reforms and return to worship that are always cut short by a sword or old age, through these stops and starts of obedience and rebellion, there is coming a true King who will not fail.
There is coming a King who will be blameless and take the sins of the world upon His shoulders and leave them in a tomb.
There is coming a King who will not only destroy our empty idols but give His people a new heart so they might worship in spirit and in truth.
There is coming a King who will establish a kingdom of people from all tribes, tongues, and nations and reign for eternity with His people in a new heaven and earth.
Jehoram’s story should not drive us to first consider our own failures or measure up our political leaders. Jehoram’s story of doing evil in the eyes of the Lord should drive us to worship. His failures should drive us to marvel at the fact that Matthew still lists him in the genealogy of Jesus alongside children born from adultery, doubting men, and a host of wicked and faithful kings (Matthew 1:1–17).
The Bible is not a record of human faithfulness. It is a record of God’s faithfulness, made flesh in Jesus Christ and offered freely to all. What else can we do but worship?
Want to dive deeper? Check out our sermon series guide on Kings of Judah, or watch the most recent sermon from our Kings of Judah sermon series.
