"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 Chronicles 22:1) In yesterday's text we were only told that the raiders carried off Jehoram's sons but in today's study we learn that they were put to death after they were taken by the enemy. Since the author of 2 Chronicles mentions "the camp" I assume that Jehoram's older sons were in the army and that the army had gone out to try to repel the invaders and were defeated. Ahaziah was not taken captive and this may be because he wasn't in the battle. Or perhaps he was the only one of Jehoram's sons able to escape the battle, for our next verse tells us he was of an age old enough to serve in the army. It could also be that he was put in charge of hiding his mother and protecting her, since neither of them was taken by the enemy.
"Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem one year. His mother's name was Athaliah, a granddaughter of Omri." (2 Chronicles 22:2, 2 Kings 8:26) Athaliah is the granddaughter of King Omri of Israel, the father of King Ahab. She is the sister of the current king of Israel: Joram. Earlier in our study of the kings we were told that King Jehoshaphat of Judah made an alliance with King Ahab of Israel by marrying his son Jehoram to Athaliah.
Athaliah was a bad spiritual influence on her husband Jehoram and she is a bad influence on her son Ahaziah. "He too followed the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother encouraged him to act wickedly." (2 Chronicles 22:3) "He followed the ways of the house of Ahab and did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as the house of Ahab had done, for he was related by marriage to Ahab's family." (2 Kings 8:7)
Neither Athaliah nor any member of Ahab's family forced Ahaziah to be wicked. Wickedness was encouraged by them but Ahaziah is a grown man. He's not only a grown man but he's also a married man with children of his own, as we will see in tomorrow's study. Granted, he grew up in a household that did not honor the Lord and he has a lot of pressure on him to conform to the religious practices of his grandfather Ahab, but he is the leader of the nation and no one can force him to worship Baal. Being the king means that every day of his life he has to hear, carefully consider, and make rulings on legal cases. Every day of his life he has to make decisions regarding the running of the government and regarding national security. Every day of his life he has to be prepared to lead his army into battle if necessary. A grown man with this much power at his disposal is capable of telling his grandmother Athaliah "no" if he wants to reject her advice. But he doesn't want to say "no".
To look at this from another angle to further back up the point that he is old enough to make a decision capable of affecting the eternal destiny of his soul, I was the same age as Ahaziah when I gave my heart to Christ. I understood the gospel message, I believed the gospel message, and I made up my own mind and willingly chose to entrust my life on earth and the fate of my eternal soul to the Lord. In this same way, Ahaziah knew the truth about the Lord (his godly grandfather Jehoshaphat was still alive until Ahaziah was fourteen years old), and Ahaziah knew a great deal about the religion of Baal because of his parents who forsook the Lord. He made up his own mind whether he would serve the God of Israel---the God who brought his people out of Egypt and gave them a land of prosperity, or whether he would serve the Phoenician god of his grandmother Jezebel---a god that had never done anything for Ahaziah's people (or for anyone else, for that matter, since Baal does not exist). If I was old enough at twenty-two to understand the gospel and to make a decision for Christ, then Ahaziah was old enough at twenty-two to understand the decision he was making when he chose Baal over the Lord.
Ahaziah is a legal adult in both ancient culture and in today's culture. Either then or now, he would be held legally responsible for any contracts he enters into and for any crimes he commits. He is old enough to get married, old enough to sire children, old enough to serve in the army (men in Israel and Judah were eligible for the army at age twenty), and old enough to be crowned king without needing a co-regent to make his decisions for him until adulthood. However, he allows himself to be guided by sinful men. His father murdered all of Jehoshaphat's top officials, who were probably men faithful to the Lord like Jehoshaphat was, and appointed advisers who would tell him what he wanted to hear. So now Ahaziah's advisers are sinful Baal worshipers who tell him what he wants to hear, which is that he must give in to every wicked inclination of his heart. His advisers are men of the house of Ahab, according to 2 Chronicles 22:4: "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 advisers, to his undoing." Instead of choosing godly men of Judah to be his advisers, he listens to counsellors as wicked as Ahab was.
These ungodly advisers will be Ahaziah's undoing. They will tell him to ally himself in war with King Joram of Israel. The battle will result in Joram being wounded and returning to his palace. While Ahaziah is visiting him to see how he's recovering, the man anointed by Elijah to become the next king of Israel will kill them both.
It's vitally important not to seek advice from those who aren't children of the Lord. Even when a believer tells us what they think we should do, we must verify this with the Lord Himself because human beings are capable of error---even godly human beings who have good intentions toward us. Ahaziah had no interest in godly counsel; he only wanted advisers who would tell him what he wanted to hear. He only wanted advisers who would encourage him to live the sinful lifestyle he wanted to live. This is why he will only reign for one year as king of Judah.
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