Apr
24
Good Riddance
Filed Under Devotional
There are certainly figures in history that led their nations or groups such that the citizens were saying good riddance rather than good bye when they left or died. These are people we remember as being either evil or incompetent (or, sometimes, both). There are few who were held in such contempt by his citizens and God more than Jehoram.
Elijah sends the king a letter telling him that God is aware of all of his sin and that God was about to make life very hard. God doesn’t make idle threats. The surrounding countries rise up and attack Judah. They carry off all the goods in the palace and take the king’s sons and wives. He was left with only his youngest son. Then, Jehoram is afflicted with an incurable disease of the bowels that lasted two years and caused him to die in great pain.
The final insult was how he was remembered:
“[...] His people made no fire in his honor, as they had for his fathers.
Jehoram was thirty-two 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.” 2 Chronicles 21:19b-20
Wow. This is not a life of Job where God was testing a righteous man. This was God letting out a little deserved judgment on a man who had systematically sinned and led others to do the same.
The phrase “to no one’s regret” echoed for me. How awful to live a life where no one regrets that you are dying. That’s a good riddance kind of death.
I’d rather be known for something else:
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34
That will engender a “good bye”. Or, more likely, a “see you in Heaven!”