2 Kings 3:1-7: a reflection

1Now Jehoram the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned twelve years. 2He did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight, but not like his father and like his mother, for he put away the pillar of Baal that his father had made. 3Nevertheless he held to the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin. He didn’t depart from them. 4Now Mesha king of Moab was a sheep breeder; and he supplied the king of Israel with one hundred thousand lambs and the wool of one hundred thousand rams. 5But when Ahab was dead, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel. 6King Jehoram went out of Samaria at that time, and mustered all Israel. 7He went and sent to Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, saying, “The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you go with me against Moab to battle?” He said, “I will go up. I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.”

Jehoram is a mixed picture, and that is what makes him worth a look. He did evil in the LORD's sight, the text says, but not like his father Ahab and his mother Jezebel; he took down the pillar of Baal that his father had made. A real step in the right direction. And yet the very next line: he clung to the sins of Jeroboam and would not let them go.

Notice the shape of his half-reform. He got rid of the obvious, embarrassing idol, the Baal pillar everyone could point to. But the older, more convenient sins, the ones woven into how the kingdom ran, he kept. It is easy to put away the sin that has become an embarrassment while quietly holding onto the one that still pays.

That pattern is closer to home than we like. We clean up the visible thing, the one people would judge us for, and feel we have reformed, while the comfortable compromise stays untouched because it still serves us. So let Jehoram prompt an honest question today: what obvious idol have I taken down, while clinging to a quieter sin I have simply decided to keep? Ask God to show you what you are still holding, and to help you let it go too.

Lord, I am quick to remove the sins that embarrass me and slow to give up the ones that still serve me. Show me what I am clinging to, and give me grace to let it go.