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Context No. 3096 of 4322 · 2 Kings

Context · Reflection

2 Kings 8:25-29: in context

25In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel, Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah began to reign. 26Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he began to reign; and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Athaliah the daughter of Omri king of Israel. 27He walked in the way of Ahab’s house and did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight, as did Ahab’s house, for he was the son-in-law of Ahab’s house. 28He went with Joram the son of Ahab to war against Hazael king of Syria at Ramoth Gilead, and the Syrians wounded Joram. 29King Joram returned to be healed in Jezreel from the wounds which the Syrians had given him at Ramah, when he fought against Hazael king of Syria. Ahaziah the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, went down to see Joram the son of Ahab in Jezreel, because he was sick.

Ahaziah becomes king of Judah, and the verdict on him is quick and damning: he walked in the way of the house of Ahab and did evil in the LORD's sight, as Ahab's house had done. And the text gives the reason: for he was son-in-law to the house of Ahab. He then joins Ahab's son Joram in war against Syria.

The tragedy of Ahaziah is spelled out in that one phrase: he walked in the way of Ahab's house, for he was son-in-law to it. His marriage alliance with that wicked dynasty shaped his whole reign; through the connection he absorbed their idolatry and evil. It shows how deeply our closest alliances, marriages, families, partnerships, form us, for good or for ill. Ahaziah did not so much choose his own path as drift into the path of the house he had joined himself to. The company we bind ourselves to shapes the direction we end up walking.

What alliances and close relationships are shaping the direction of my life, and are they drawing me toward God or, like Ahaziah's, away from him?

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