NOTES for Ch2 21:1-20
As a result of Jehoram’s wicked reign, the kingdom suffers military defeats, while the king himself suffers from agonizing diseases. Jehoram’s subjects perish, and so do his sons, yet such grievous events cannot surprise us and do not seem unexpected. For it was Jehoram himself who set the machinery of destruction in motion when he began the extermination of his own people by slaughtering his brothers. Without repentance, such machinery cannot stop until it has exhausted itself.
Nevertheless, while permitting the disasters that befall the state because of the king’s sins, the Lord allows neither the state nor the king to perish. He bears even with a wicked king who belongs to David’s line because of the promise He made to that line. The Lord remains faithful to His word given to people even when we are not faithful to Him.
Yet His apparent “inaction” must not be interpreted as grounds for believing in our own impunity. No, the perversion of the highest Truth will not go unpunished, and if we sink into sin and refuse to be cleansed by repentance, evil will poison us with its filth. This is what happened to King Jehoram...