Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Your Reputation After Death | The Writings | 2 Chronicles 21

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. I'm sure you've noticed that when you go to a funeral, the person who died is always made out to be a saint. Sometimes you listen to the eulogy and you barely recognize the person they are talking about. And I think that comes from a good motive. I mean, when a person passes away, there's a desire to remember the good things about them, not the bad. What's the point of saying the bad parts out loud?

Starting point is 00:00:34 Our tendency to focus on the positive makes Sheila Smith's obituary for her father even more surprising. You're going to think I'm making this up, but I promise I'm not. This obituary was posted to the funeral homes website. Buckle up. She writes, Leslie Ray Charping was born in Galveston, Texas on November 20, 1942, and passed away January 30th, 2017, which was 29 years longer than expected and much longer than he deserved. Leslie battled with cancer in his latter years and lost his battle, ultimately due to being a horse's rear end he was known for.

Starting point is 00:01:12 He leaves behind two relieved children, along with six grandchildren and countless other victims, including an ex-wife, relatives, friends, neighbors, doctors, nurses, and random strangers. At a young age, Leslie quickly became a model example of bad parenting, combined with a complete commitment to drinking, drugs, womanizing, and being generally offensive. Leslie enlisted to serve in the Navy, but not so much in a brave and patriotic way, but much more as a part of a plea deal to escape sentencing on criminal charges. Leslie was surprisingly intelligent. However, he lacked ambition and motivation to do anything more than being reckless, wasteful, squandering the family savings, and fantasizing about get-rich-quick schemes. Leslie's hobbies included being abusive to his family and expediting trips to heaven for the beloved family pets.

Starting point is 00:02:04 Leslie's life served no other obvious purpose. He did not contribute to society or serve his community, and he possessed no redeeming qualities besides quick-witted sarcasm, which was amusing during his sober days. With Leslie's passing, he will be missed only for what he never did, being a loving husband, father, and good friend. no services will be held. There will be no prayers for eternal peace and no apologies to the family he tortured. Leslie's remains will be cremated and kept in the barn until the family donkey's

Starting point is 00:02:35 wood shavings run out. Leslie's passing proves that evil does in fact die and hopefully marks the time of healing and safety for all. Wow. That was a brutal assessment of what sounds like a brutal life. What if you lived your life and no one was sad when you died? We're going to meet King Jehoram in Second Chronicles 21, and at the end of his life, no one mourned. Here's how the chapter ends. King Jehoram's people made no funeral fire in his honor as they had his predecessors. Jehoram was 32 years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years. He passed away to no one's regret and was buried in the city of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.

Starting point is 00:03:16 So what's the story of the king whose death no one regretted? Well, at the beginning of Chapter 21, we learned that his father, Jehoshaphat, was one of the good kings. Jehoshaphat had arranged things so that when he died, his oldest son Jehoram would be made king. To minimize the chance of a family coup, Jehoram's siblings were given gifts and then moved to different parts of the kingdom. This was a wise move by Jehosephat as internal fights for power were always destabilizing to both the family and the kingdom. But even though Jehoram had been named king, he was. was so insecure and arrogant that he killed all his siblings. Here's verse four. When Jehoram established himself firmly over his father's kingdom, he put all his brothers to the sword along with some of the

Starting point is 00:04:02 other officials of Israel. Jehoram's response to all the blessings he'd received from his family and ultimately from God was to strike out at others to gain even more power for himself. He didn't just kill his siblings, but he also killed other officials in Israel. In other words, Jehoram killed anyone who is a threat to himself. The next verse helps explain more. It says, Jehoram was 32 years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years. He followed the ways of the kings of Israel as the house of Ahab had done, for he married a daughter of Ahab. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord. Before his father, Jehoshaph had died, he arranged a marriage between his son Jehoram and Ahab's daughter. But the problem is that Ahab was one of Israel's most wicked

Starting point is 00:04:47 kings. So the author wants us to connect this marriage to Jehoram's wicked choices. He's not saying that Jehoram gets off the hook and can blame his wife, not at all. It's more likely that these spouses discourage the other from following God. They were a bad influence on each other. Your choice of a husband or wife is of massive importance. That person will go a long way in shaping the kind of person you become, either for better or for worse. Jehoram's sinful rebe. rebellion against God came with steep and severe consequences. For starters, two smaller countries, Edom and Libna, revolted against Jehoram and put him in Judah at war. And the text explicitly says that these countries rebelled because Jehoram had forsaken the Lord. The prophet Elijah wrote a letter

Starting point is 00:05:36 to Jehoram and lays out even more consequences for his sin. We pick up in verse 14. So now the Lord is about to strike your people, your sons, your wives, and everything that is yours with the heavy blow. You yourself will be very ill with the lingering disease of the bowels until the disease causes your bowels to come out. We're told at the end of the chapter that this bowel disease led to a very painful death. This is a brutal chapter. But in the middle of the messiness, in the middle of the brokenness, in the middle of the sin, in the middle of the brutality, there is a glimmer of hope. In the middle of all God's judgment, he may, makes a promise, or rather he reaffirms his commitment to a promise he'd made earlier to King David.

Starting point is 00:06:23 Here's verse 7. Nevertheless, because of the covenant the Lord had made with David, the Lord was not willing to destroy the house of David. He had promised to maintain a lamp for him and his descendants forever. See, Jehoram had sinned greatly against God, but God refused to let the dynasty die. God kept his promise to have a descendant of David sit on Israel's throne. He refused to destroy the house of David. God's grace was greater than Jehoram's sin. So what are some of the lessons that we can learn from this tough chapter? Here's one. Who you marry is really important. The New Testament says that we should be equally yoked within a marriage. That means if you're a Christian, you should look to marry another Christian. If you want to walk with God and that's a value in your life,

Starting point is 00:07:14 then you should look for another person who's walking with God in their life and will encourage you to do the same thing. Now look, if you're a Christian and you're married to someone who isn't, this is not the time to get discouraged. The Bible says that you should pray for your spouse to come to faith and then live your life in a way that makes following Jesus attractive. A second thing we can learn is about insecurity. Jehoram's insecurity led him to kill his siblings and other officials. in Israel. He was insecure about who he was in the position that God had given him. When we are insecure, maybe it's about our appearance, or maybe it's about our family. Maybe it is about the job we have or how much money we make. When we are insecure, that brings out some of the worst parts of us. We lash out at others. We are critical of others. We are hard to be around. Third, God works through sin and brokenness.

Starting point is 00:08:14 whole story is a disaster and yet God is still at work. And here's why that's good news to you and me because our life often feels like it's a disaster. It feels like it's broken and messy. And we can have confidence that God is at work even in our mess. Fourth, God's grace is greater than our sin. Jehoram's wickedness did not cancel out God's promise. And our sin cannot cancel out what God has promised to do for us in Jesus. Now, look, that doesn't mean that I won't have to face the consequences of my sin. I will. Now, I hope it's not bowled as He's like Jehoram had.

Starting point is 00:08:56 But we do have consequences for our sin, and God lets us experience those so that we can learn from our sin. Learn to follow him, learn that his path is always the best path in our life. But our sin never cancels out God's grace. His grace is greater than our sin. As we start Holy Week, what I want you to think about is this. Every human king failed. Even the best ones were far from perfect, much less a king like Jehoram. And yet God kept his promise to David that he would put his son, Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ, the king, on his throne.

Starting point is 00:09:42 Our confidence is not in our self. It's not in our goodness. Our confidence is not in human leaders and pastors, in musicians, and Christian leaders. Our confidence is only in King Jesus. He is the true king, the perfect king, who always obeyed God. And right now, he sits on his throne and he intercedes for us. Put your hope in him. Amen.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Your Reputation After Death | The Writings | 2 Chronicles 21

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