2 Kings 8:16-23
"16 In the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab, king of Israel, when Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, began to reign. 17 He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. 18 And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. 19 Yet the Lordwas not willing to destroy Judah, for the sake of David his servant, since he promised to give a lamp to him and to his sons forever.
20 In his days Edom revolted from the rule of Judah and set up a king of their own. 21 Then Joram passed over to Zair with all his chariots and rose by night, and he and his chariot commanders struck the Edomites who had surrounded him, but his army fled home. 22 So Edom revolted from the rule of Judah to this day. Then Libnah revolted at the same time. 23 Now the rest of the acts of Joram, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?"
The sacred historian is not slow to pinpoint for us the reason for the sinister downward trend in the fortunes of Judah, in the reign of Jehoram, Jehoshaphat's son. He married the daughter of Ahab! One would have thought that the spectacle of Jezebel's tyrannous influence over Ahab, and the immense power that she wielded in the northern kingdom, would be sufficient warning to any prospective suitor of a daughter of hers against any kind of alliance, but Jehoram apparently did not learn from this or from his own father's unhappy associations with Ahab. One wonders whether the first prospects of his marriage with her developed during one of his father's visits to Ahab's palace. Jehoshaphat lived to regret his ill-advised approaches to the northern capital in more than one way!
But notice especially what is recorded in 19. There was a restraint upon the sin of Judah, in spite of all Jehoram did, for God willed to preserve His people for David, His servant's sake, and would not bring final judgment upon them. In this we see the longsuffering of God with His erring people, slow to anger, in face of much that might provoke His wrath. To see the sovereign will and purpose of God at work, whether men will or no, is a very impressive sight indeed. It can never be an excuse on the part of His chosen ones for presumption - He very speedily deals with them if they take advantage of it - but for those upon whom God has set His hand it is passing wonderful to know that nothing will ultimately prevent the fulfilment of His purposes in us and through us, not even the sin which we mourn so much in our hearts!