2 KINGS 15
Read 2 Kings 15:1-38
History is repeating itself again and again with a sense of inevitability, and also a growing sense of foreboding. In this chapter we meet five kings of Israel and at the beginning and end of the chapter, two kings of Judah. The five kings of Israel, in continuity with their predecessors, all did evil in the eyes of the Lord (although we don’t know much about Shallum as he only reigned for one month – not much chance to do too much damage!). The two kings of Judah did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but as we have seen with some of their predecessors, didn’t really carry things through. They, themselves, worshipped the Lord but did nothing to get rid of the high places, the worship centres for idolatry, and people continued to defy the Lord and worship pagan gods and goddesses there.
In Israel it seems that chaos reigned. The kings didn’t last long, often because of conspiracies against them by their own officers (v25). There was also the constant threat of invasion from the North. The problems caused by the Arameans had gone because the new superpower in the region, Assyria, had risen up and was conquering all the surrounding nations. King Menachem bought some time by buying them off (v19) with protection money, but this was only ever going to be a temporary measure. And to pay off the Assyrians Menachem had to raise the money by squeezing the rich and powerful of his kingdom – not a popular move!
Years of sin, of turning away from God and worshipping false gods, worthless idols, was now catching up with them. The prophet Hosea spoke into this situation, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. You shall acknowledge no other God but me . . . You are destroyed O Israel, because you are against me . . . Where is your king, that he may save you . . . you said, ‘Give me a king’ . . . so in my anger I gave you a king and in my wrath I took him away” (Hosea 13:4-11).
There is a real sense of judgement here. God keeps taking away Israel’s kings because of their sin, and further judgement will come with the king that he was to give them in the near future. And that king was not a saviour king, but the king of Assyria, who would destroy the nation of Israel.
But, as ever with scripture, this is not the end of the story – there is always hope. And Hosea’s prophecy has an up-side as well as a down-side. In the short term God would provide a king to bring judgement for sin. But in the long term he would indeed bring the saviour king that the Israelites were expecting, the King of Kings, to bring God’s perfect judgement and answer to the problem of sin – Jesus Christ.