2 Chronicles 22:1-4. An introduction to Ahaziah, the youngest and only surviving son of the evil King Jehoram. God turned against Jehoram because of his evil ways and his leading the people into idolatry. Therefore, God allowed the Philistines to invade Judah and carry away all of the king's possessions and his sons and his wife. The only child left to Jehoram was his youngest son, Jehoahaz (aka Ahaziah). Then Jehoram was struck with an incurable bowel disease and died in great agony "to no one's regret." (2 Chronicles 21:20). So the people made Ahaziah king at the age of 42. He reigned only a year, and relied on his mother, Athaliah as his counselor. Athaliah walked in the ways of Ahab and counseled her son in her wicked ways. Ahaziah "did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, as the house of Ahab had done; for after the death of his father they were his counselors, to his undoing."

I must admit that I feel a little sorry for Ahaziah. He had his world disrupted and his family taken from him at a very young age; his father died an agonizing death; his brothers were all slain after being taken captive; and then he is made king of Judah by a people who did not regret his father's death. I don't know if he thought he was up to that task, but it is pretty obvious from his history and from his reliance on his evil mother that he was not. He only reigned a year, he was just a placeholder while God was accomplishing other things, but he continued the evil ways of his father and the downward slide of the people. What a tragic life!

I am realizing as I struggle through life's adversities how much we are affected and influenced by our family and closest friends, especially by our parents. It is almost impossible to see our parents clearly, we are so reliant upon them, attached to them, and we love them! But we are all sinners, even our parents. So we have an obligation to try to look at everyone who influences us from a loving but truthful standpoint. Are they influencing us for good? Is God calling us to listen to him over them? How do their actions and teachings fit with our informed understanding of God's Word?

If we find that anyone is leading us astray even in a small matter we must act in accordance with our own conscience and not take their advice. This applies even to our parents. This is not to say we don't love them, in fact the love is often what blinds us to their faults and leads us to follow them. But following anyone, even a parent, away from God even in the smallest of things will lead to our undoing, just as it did to Ahaziah.