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.

2 Chronicles 21:11-15

11 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. 12 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. 13 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. 14 So now the Lord is about to strike your people, your sons, your wives and everything that is yours, with a heavy blow. 15 You yourself will be very ill with a lingering disease of the bowels, until the disease causes your bowels to come out.’”

Today’s title is “Jehoram and Elijah”

Elijah was living in the Northern Kingdom of Israel at the time of Ahab. King Ahab was a notorious idol-worshipper. He and his queen Isabel eagerly promoted and campaigned for the idolatry of Baal and Asherah throughout the kingdom while banning worshipping God. Elijah passionately fought hard against such idolatry of Ahab and Isabel. He wanted to restore the worship of the Lord in the Northern kingdom. Elijah envied the southern kingdom of Judah where kings and people alike worshipped the true God Jehovah at the temple of Jerusalem. Finally, the evil king Ahab died on the battlefield. Elijah must have viewed the death of King Ahab as an opportunity of spiritual revival in the Northern kingdom. “Finally, we can worship the true and living God like the Southern kingdom of Judah”. He might have thought to himself. But Elijah soon heard heartbreaking news from the Southern kingdom. Jehoram, the new king of the Southern kingdom of Judah abandoned the worship of true God unlike his predecessors such as king Jehoshaphat or king Asa and adopted the ways of Ahab. So he wrote a letter that contained the heartbreaking frustrations and righteous anger of God and of himself. Can you imagine the devastating disappointments and frustrations of Elijah? Why did God let Elijah go through such heart-breaking spiritual backsliding of the Southern kingdom as if what he had suffered from the hand of Ahab and Isabel wasn’t enough? Isn’t it just too much for such a faithful servant of God? What do you think? We can fully sympathize with the frustration and anger Elijah. BUt like in Elijah’s days, there are times that the evil just seems to engulf one people after another and one nation after another. In a way, our times are somewhat like that. We deplore and lament like Elijah. We want to seek an audience with God like Elijah for an explanation that makes sense to us. Right? But what does today’s passage tell us? I believe that it tells us that the days of evil are numbered no matter how persistent and prevalent they may look. Ahab went down. Jehoram went down too. But Elijah went up. That’s what really matters, doesn’t it? How about you? Are you going down or going up?