The Company You Keep

2 Chronicles 21-24

Many parents have advised their children to be careful of the company they keep, because the parents know by experience that we can become tempted by others to do things that we might otherwise have avoided. Kings are not immune from that temptation. While their were no angelic kings in Judah, by and large the Kings of Judah were more likely to do good in God's sight than evil compared with the Kings of Israel. That is, until  Jehoram King of Judah married Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab King of Israel. He was so evil that no one was sorry when he died and they did not bury him in the tomb of the kings of Judah. His son and wife succeeded him into leadership of Judah and brought dishonor to the nation. The trend wasn't stopped until the influence was completely removed by taking the baby Joash and secreting him away for his first seven years until he could be declared King.