I once went to a funeral of an extended family member, with whom I had some shared interests and quite enjoyed engaging with.
However, he had a complicated background with quite a bit of alienation and estrangement within his immediate family. He died in his 70’s quite unexpectedly and his funeral was quite sad. Not only did few people show up, but some were there out of obligation rather than respect, in fact very few people actually regretted his death.
In this account of king Jehoram of Judah it is said of him that no one regretted his death and that he was not buried in the tombs of the kings. (21:18-20).
He died as a despised individual.
To understand this we need to remember that the Chronicler is reminding the returned exiles to Jerusalem of their history in such a way as to inspire obedience and love for God instead of the idolatry and wickedness that had brought about the exile and destruction of Jerusalem.
The Chronicler gives much more attention to Jehoram than the book of Kings (2 Kings 8) partly because he is primarily concerned with Judah and Jerusalem but mostly because his example is so bad. Jehoram, according to the Chronicler, played a significant role in the failure of Jerusalem and is a very negative example, especially given that kings are the shepherds (pastors) of God’s people.
A letter from Elijah, the prophet to the northern kingdom, sums up his contribution:
And a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, “Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father, Because you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father, or in the ways of Asa king of Judah, but have walked in the way of the kings of Israel and have enticed Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem into whoredom, as the house of Ahab led Israel into whoredom, and also you have killed your brothers, of your father’s house, who were better than yourself, behold, the LORD will bring a great plague on your people, your children, your wives, and all your possessions, and you yourself will have a severe sickness with a disease of your bowels, until your bowels come out because of the disease, day by day.'” (2Ch 21:12-15 ESV)
The basic message of this to the returned exiles is DO NOT BE LIKE THIS! Do not cause something like the exile to happen again.
Maybe the sole purpose of your life is to be an example to others
He was so despised for the trouble he caused that even his fellow idolaters had no interest or regret for his death; it’s like they were standing around at the funeral saying ‘I’m not eulogising (praising) him.’ And he wasn’t even dignified with a burial with the other kings of Judah, and God himself caused his painful death as a judgement on him and a warning to others.
It’s important to understand that the Bible rarely, and never simplistically, equates the manner of someone’s death to their sin – Jehoram is one of the few exceptions to this. He was a nasty person and died a God cursed death (Deut 28:59). He didn’t cause the complete collapse of Judah only because of God’s covenant with David (21:7).
Extraordinarily, the true and righteous Davidic king of Israel died a God cursed death, but the tomb had no rightful claim on Him (Acts 2:22-36).
Ray Patchett and Steve Messer