2 Chron 22 – Study

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: 2 Chron 22:1-9

1 The people of Jerusalem made Ahaziah, Jehoram’s youngest son, king in his place, since the raiders, who came with the Arabs into the camp, had killed all the older sons. So Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah began to reign.

2 Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for one year. His mother’s name was Athaliah, a granddaughter of Omri.

3 He too followed the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother encouraged him to act wickedly. 4 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as the house of Ahab had done, for after his father’s death they became his advisors, to his undoing. 5 He also followed their counsel when he went with Joram son of Ahab king of Israel to wage war against Hazael king of Aram at Ramoth Gilead. The Arameans wounded Joram; 6 so he returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds they had inflicted on him at Ramoth in his battle with Hazael king of Aram.

Then Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to Jezreel to see Joram son of Ahab because he had been wounded.

7 Through Ahaziah’s visit to Joram, God brought about Ahaziah’s downfall. When Ahaziah arrived, he went out with Joram to meet Jehu son of Nimshi, whom the Lord had anointed to destroy the house of Ahab. 8 While Jehu was executing judgment on the house of Ahab, he found the officials of Judah and the sons of Ahaziah’s relatives, who had been attending Ahaziah, and he killed them. 9 He then went in search of Ahaziah, and his men captured him while he was hiding in Samaria. He was brought to Jehu and put to death. They buried him, for they said, ‘He was a son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the Lord with all his heart.’ So there was no one in the house of Ahaziah powerful enough to retain the kingdom.

A. Find Out:    

1. How did Ahaziah come to be king? v.1
2. What did he do and why? v.3,4
3. What further did he do? v.5,6
4. What occurred through that visit? v.7
5. How did it happen? v.8,9

B. Think:

1. How was Athaliah related to Ahab? Read 1 Kings 16:28
2. How does Ahab’s house influence Ahaziah?
3. How does that bring his downfall?

C. Comment:

      After Jehoshaphat, the southern kingdom degenerated spiritually under his son, Jehoram, who married Ahab’s daughter (21:6), Athaliah, and she obviously worshipped the same false gods as her mother and father (see family table that follows). When Jehoram died by God’s judgement, part of that judgement had included upset with surrounding nations and tribes, and this had meant all his sons being killed, with the exception of the youngest, Ahaziah. He is now dominated by his mother and so simply goes along with the false worship of the northern kingdom.

      Advised by her he goes to give military support to his uncle, Joram, in Israel . Joram however was seriously wounded and so Ahaziah goes to visit him in Jezreel. Unfortunately for him this coincided with Jehu’s visit to exercise the judgement of God on Joram. Joram is killed and Ahaziah flees to Samaria . Jehu pursues him and kills him also. Thus his reign is ended very rapidly.

      Under-girding all this activity is the ungodly influence of the house of Ahab. The Lord speaks against and acts against both the northern and southern kingdoms and the total spiritual shambles is potentially brought to an end. The enemy is clearly seeking to destroy the people of God through idolatry and the only way to deal with that is to eradicate the idol worshippers. This is all-out spiritual war!

D. Application:

1. Recognise that Satan seeks to undermine and destroy God’s people.
2. Do not join your heart with ungodliness and unrighteousness.

NB. Verses 10 to 12 are covered with th next chapter