WHICH WAY WILL YOU GO?

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

When Jehoram established himself firmly over his father’s kingdom, he put all his brothers to the sword along with some of the officials of Israel. Jehoram was thirty-two 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. 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.

In the time of Jehoram, Edom rebelled against Judah and set up its own king. So Jehoram went there with his officers and all his chariots. The Edomites surrounded him and his chariot commanders, but he rose up and broke through by night. To this day Edom has been in rebellion against Judah.

Libnah revolted at the same time, because Jehoram had forsaken the Lord, the God of his ancestors. He had also built high places on the hills of Judah and had caused the people of Jerusalem to prostitute themselves and had led Judah astray.

Jehoram received a letter from Elijah the prophet, which said:

“This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: ‘You have not followed the ways of your father Jehoshaphat or of Asa king of Judah. But you have followed the ways of the kings of Israel, and you have led Judah and the people of Jerusalem to prostitute themselves, just as the house of Ahab did. You have also murdered your own brothers, members of your own family, men who were better than you. So now the Lord is about to strike your people, your sons, your wives and everything that is yours, with a heavy blow. You yourself will be very ill with a lingering disease of the bowels, until the disease causes your bowels to come out.’”

The Lord aroused against Jehoram the hostility of the Philistines and of the Arabs who lived near the Cushites. They attacked Judah, invaded it and carried off all the goods found in the king’s palace, together with his sons and wives. Not a son was left to him except Ahaziah, the youngest.

After all this, the Lord afflicted Jehoram with an incurable disease of the bowels. In the course of time, at the end of the second year, his bowels came out because of the disease, and he died in great pain. His people made no funeral fire in his honor, as they had for his predecessors.

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 21:4-20

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

When discussing mankind as a whole, there is at least one absolute truth that applies to everyone.

At some time or another, all of us are going to die?

We don’t like to think about it but it’s true. As sure as we’re living right now, a day is coming when we will stop living here on earth. No more heartbeats. No more breaths. No more, no more.

It’s just that sudden finality of losing everything we enjoy in the world that makes us not even to want to think or talk about it. But that doesn’t make its coming go away. It will eventually come to us all.

Now, I don’t say any of this to depress you. I just want you to deal with the reality of life and ponder which way things will go for you when it ends.

Oh yes, wait. I did leave something out, didn’t I?

You see, we can have some choice as to how our story ends when life is over. It doesn’t need to be all doom and gloom. Actually, the story can end with hope and joy and peace.

I’ll get to that in a minute but let’s go back to how things will work out for the bad, how death can be a dreadful experience for someone, specifically when they choose to shun God and His Son Jesus in favor of sin.

Looking at 2 Chronicles 21, we find a perfect example of what could happen in the person of Jehoram. You may recall that he assumed the throne from his father Jehoshaphat to become the new king of Judah. Unfortunately, that’s where the comparison ends. For as good as Jehoshaphat was, his son was equally evil. Looking at the scriptures, this is what we learn about him:

1. He put all his brothers to the sword along with some of the officials of Israel.

2. He married into the family of Israel’s evil King Ahab.

3. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord and led his people to do likewise.

The bottom line is that Jehoram chose to live apart from God, murdering his own kin, misleading the people God entrusted to him, and worshiping false gods, and as we will see, his decision led to a rather horrid end. For although Jehoram chose to avoid God, God was certainly not choosing to avoid him. We know this because the prophet Elijah sent the king a letter the following personal message from God:

“You have not followed the ways of your father Jehoshaphat or of Asa king of Judah. But you have followed the ways of the kings of Israel, and you have led Judah and the people of Jerusalem to prostitute themselves, just as the house of Ahab did. You have also murdered your own brothers, members of your own family, men who were better than you. So now the Lord is about to strike your people, your sons, your wives and everything that is yours, with a heavy blow. You yourself will be very ill with a lingering disease of the bowels, until the disease causes your bowels to come out.”

Yes, things were going to fall apart for Jehoram and they did so in a hurry.

First, we read that Edom and Libnah rebelled against Judah because Jehoram had led Judah astray and caused the people to prostitute themselves.

This was followed by the Lord raising up the Philistines and Arabs against Jehoram. During the invasion of Judah, scripture tells us that the attacking forces carried off all the goods in the king’s palace along with his sons and wives, leaving only Jehoram’s youngest son Ahaziah who would succeed Jehoram.

And so God’s consequence was coming to bear as prophesized. All that was left was dealing with Jehoram and as we read, it wasn’t pretty. For the king was afflicted with an incurable disease of the bowels as promised and things did not end quickly. In fact, he suffered with the disease for two years before his bowels came out and he died in great pain.

Ouch!

And just in case you might think there was great national mourning over what happened, our passage tells us that his people made no funeral fire in his honor as they had for his predecessors. No, Jehoram passed away to no one’s regret. It was a shame because it all could have ended so much differently.

Jehoram chose which way he would go by rejecting God and then becoming His enemy. If he had only decided to make God His trusted master and guide, we might be reading about him in a whole different light, in the same light that shone when his father Jehoshaphat and grandfather Asa led Judah.

But that didn’t happen. Jehoram, like us all, had a choice to make regarding God. Reject Him and experience His wrath or submit to Him and bask in His favor.

So what have you decided to do? Have you rejected God or submitted to Him?

Your choice will go a long way toward answering the question, “By which way will you go?”

Reject him and maybe you’ll have a very unpleasant thing happen to you. I’m not saying that your bowels will burst from your body like Jehoram but you never know. At a minimum, you certainly will not find your way to eternal life as there is only one way to get there and it’s through God’s Son Jesus, our personal Lord and Savior (John 14:6) You can’t reject the Father without rejecting the Son and you aren’t going to live beyond this life without Jesus.

It’s as simple as that.

This brings me back to the question, “Which way will you go?”

One path leads to destruction and unfortunately death when this worldly life ends. Jesus called this the wide path that many will travel.

The other path leads to life and hope and peace and love and light as we leave this life and enter into the presence of God the Father and Jesus His Son forever. This is the narrow path that Jesus encourages us to take but few will take the offer.

Which way you go, narrow or wide, is up to you. Just choose carefully for eternity is at stake and to pass on it is opting for wrath instead.

And I don’t know any sane person who would want to choose God’s wrath over eternity.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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