Articles
Two Funerals that Said a Lot
When Asa, king of Judah, died, “they buried him in his own tomb which he had cut out for himself in the city of David, and they laid him in the resting place which he had filled with spices of various kinds blended by the perfumers’ art; and they made a very great fire for him” (2 Chronicles 16:14).
When Asa’s grandson King Jehoram died, they buried him in the city of David but not in the tombs of the kings. The Bible says “he departed with no one’s regret” (2 Chronicles 21:20). What was the difference?
Asa was a good man, a reformer. He cut down the altars and pillars associated with idolatry. He removed Maacah, his own mother, from her “queen mother” position because of her idolatry. He fortified the cities of Judah. His reign was mostly a peaceful one, though he did make some significant blunders near the end.
Jehoram was a reformer, too, but in the opposite direction. His first act as king was to kill all his brothers! He led Judah back into idolatry (Ahab and Jezebel were his in-laws). Edom, the Philistines, and the Arabs fought against Judah during his reign. You can understand why he was not particularly missed!
When you depart this life, or for that matter even when you move to another town, what will the reaction be? Will people mourn? Will they hardly notice? Will they perhaps even breathe a sigh of relief? It depends: are you helping or hindering the cause?
