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And henceforth, the LORD will strike Israel as a reed is shaken in the water, and root up Israel out of this good land that he gave to their fathers and scatter them beyond the Euphrates, because they have made their Asherim, provoking the LORD to anger. And He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he sinned and made Israel to sin.” – 1 Kings 14:14-16

The prophet had warned Jeroboam that his kingdom was on the clock, and the LORD’s preserving hand has stayed execution for over two centuries.  Israel’s prosperity during the Jehu dynasty came during a weak moment for neighboring empires.  But the political chaos in Israel that followed Jeroboam II came at the worst possible time, as both Syria (or Aram), and Assyria, under Tiglath-Pileser III, are ascending.  

The Old Testament spends over 200 chapters building the nation of Israel, from the first call of Abraham to the unified kingdom of David.  The end is described in six verses.  Tiglath-pileser’s successor, Shalmaneser, exacts tribute.  King Hoshea is found in alliance with Egypt.  Samaria is besieged.  Ten tribes are carried into exile and redistributed throughout Mesopotamia. 

There would not be a nation named Israel for almost 2,700 years. 

Much more time is devoted to Israel’s autopsy and the resettlement of the land.  While politically Israel found itself in a weakened position with internal strife and the nearby expansion of a world power, the author makes it clear that this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt…

Two reigns in Judah are sandwiched around Israel’s demise: King Ahaz in chapter 16 and his son Hezekiah in chapter 18.  The Assyrian threat is the thread that connects father and son, and each transfers valuables from the Temple to Assyria: Ahaz to buy assistance from Tiglath-Pileser and Hezekiah to buy time from Sennacherib. 

But while Ahaz walked in the way of the kings of Israel, his son trusted in the LORD… so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, not among those who were before him.  This trust will be tested in a dramatic episode at the end of today’s reading, when Assyria threatens Jerusalem, and its captain, Rabshakeh, asks Hezekiah, “…On what do you rest this trust of yours?”

Our verse for this week is Romans 8:28: And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

2 Kings 16 through 18.  Now let’s read it!

Time moves quickly today as we cover 80 years of history in a blink.  Jehoahaz of Israel seeks the LORD but also maintains the cults of Jeroboam at Dan and Bethel, and his son Jehoash is no better.  While oppressed again by Syria, the author wants us to know why Israel survived: But the LORD was gracious to them and had compassion on them, and He turned toward them because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them, nor has He cast them from His presence until now. 

In the last half of chapter 13 the story ends for the man of God, Elisha.  For most of his life Elisha has been more respected by foreign rulers than he is by Israel's king.  However, Jehoash goes to mourn him, only to reveal the same almost-yet-uncommitted faith of his father. 

In chapter 14 Amaziah reigns in Judah, righteously, yet not like David his father.  His pride drives his story.  Early in his reign he challenges Israel to a duel, which results in his capture and Jerusalem being sacked by their northern brothers.  Later, he is so unpopular that he is driven from the throne and replaced by his sixteen-year-old son. 

Meanwhile, Jeroboam, the great-grandson of Jehu, takes over in Israel.  However, the author spends very little time on Jeroboam II, except to highlight the LORD’s efforts and opinion of Israel’s most prosperous king.  It is significant to note that Jeroboam reigns during Assyria’s weakest era, and it is more important to the author that Jeroboam did what was evil in the sight of the LORD.  He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin.   

Furthermore, Jeroboam’s success was a result of the LORD’s compassion, for the LORD saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter, for there was none left, bond or free, and there was none to help Israel. But the LORD had not said that He would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, so He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash.

In chapter 15, sandwiched between two kings of Judah are the brief accounts of Menahem, Pekahiah, and Pekah: three men who wasted twenty years fighting over the throne.  As prophesied, Jehu’s prosperous line has ended.  Israel is in chaos.  And Assyria is on the rise.

Our verse for this week is Romans 8:28: And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

2 Kings 13 through 15.  Now let’s read it!

“Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.  Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’”              -2 Samuel 12:9-10

2 Kings chapter 10 continues the story of Jehu’s extermination of the house of Ahab and Jezebel.   We’re given an almost hopeful picture: Jehu comes closer than any Israelite king to truly following the LORD.  However, Jehu did not turn aside from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin – that is, the golden calves that were in Bethel and Dan.  Whether or not these calves were disobedient of the first commandment, they certainly were violating the second.

By the end of today’s reading, we’ll be about 120 years into this two-kingdom experiment for the people of the LORD.  The longest-reigning dynasty in the Northern Kingdom has just been upended by Jehu.  While it had survived three successions, it still only lasted 44 turbulent years.  Comparatively, the Davidic dynasty had sustained its throne in Jerusalem for over two centuries. 

But the sword in David’s house was only lying dormant, and it springs to life in chapter 11.  Yesterday we read that Jehu had ended the king of Judah’s life, and today the king’s mother takes the throne for herself.  She is Athaliah, a daughter of Ahab in both body and spirit.  She ruthlessly exterminates the royal house, save one son of Ahaziah: Joash (or Jehoash), who is hidden by his aunt and a faithful priest. 

I’m going to close by addressing a potential point of frustration with all these names.  First, there are many times when people are referred here by two different names.  Joash and Jehoash are an example, as are Joram and Jehoram, and tomorrow you’ll run into Uzziah, also known as Azariah. 

There are also multiple occurrences of certain names: Azariah reigns first in Israel, and then sixty years later another Azariah reigns in Judah; there is also an Ahaziah in each kingdom, and two named Joash who even reign simultaneously for a time.  Tomorrow, you’ll run into a second Ben-Hadad in Syria, and a second Jeroboam.

Remember that you’re reading the actual histories of actual kingdoms.  It can be difficult to keep track of it all.  Very soon, unfortunately, one of these parallel histories will be brought to a close. 

Our verse for this week is Romans 8:28: And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

2 Kings 10 through 12.  Now let’s read it!

And the Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria.  And Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint to be prophet in your place.”  - 1 Kings 19:15-16

Today’s reading picks up in the middle of the siege of Samaria.  The capital of Israel has been reduced to desperation as the king of Syria demands that the man of God – Elisha – be handed over to him. 

So the king of Israel has two options: turn to the LORD for deliverance, or dispose of Elisha and satisfy the Syrians.  By the end of chapter 6, he’s made his decision, but when the messenger from the king arrives, Elisha, like his predecessor, makes a courageous prediction: the LORD will again reveal his power to the king of Israel.  The rest of chapter 7 demonstrates that Elisha knew of which he spoke. 

Before we turn to the next episode, I want to point out the way the author refers to Elisha and Joram, the king of Israel.  Throughout these stories, Joram is almost never named, instead referred to simply as “The King of Israel.”  And Elisha is often called simply, “The Man of God.”  This is perhaps just a literary flourish, or maybe something is being said about the respect, or lack thereof, the author has for them. 

Nonetheless, chapter 8 opens with a closing bookend of the Shunamite woman’s story, whom we met in chapter 4.  After this, the political intrigue reaches a new phase in both Syria and Israel, as Elisha reconnects with Hazael, whom Elijah had anointed to succeed Ben-Hadad in Syria.  Events that Elijah foresaw a dozen years ago are spun into violent motion. 

The middle episode of chapter 8 is intense.  Elisha heads to Damascus, of all places, and Ben-Hadad calls on him, probably elated that Elisha was no longer in the service of Israel’s king.  Listen intently to Elisha’s brief interchange with the king’s messenger (which seems to be a theme in these passages).  The messenger is Hazael, who is told to go lie to Ben-Hadad, and then, tragically, is presented with all the horrors he will bring on Israel.  Elisha’s emotions are jarring to his hearer, and will be jarring to us if we’re willing to meditate on what he could see, both before him, and in the distance. 

Our verse for this week is Romans 8:28: And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

2 Kings 7 through 9.  Now let’s read it!

Last week ended with the transition from Elijah to Elisha as the most prominent prophet in the Northern Kingdom.  In today’s reading a series of signs continue to affirm that Elijah’s spirit is indeed on Elisha. 

Keep in mind that these signs carry multiple layers of significance.  There is the first, on-the-ground layer of importance to the characters: a widow’s home is saved; a boy is raised to life; a man is healed of disease; a borrowed axe head is retrieved.  These were real people, under real threat, who received real deliverance through Elisha. 

Another layer of importance is that these signs are, quite simply, an opportunity for the LORD to reveal His power.  And greatest result of these revelations is when the witnesses turn their awe into worship – a purpose God often makes explicit with “So that [fill in the name] will know that I am the LORD.  This is exemplified today by Naaman, the Syrian general, who asks Elisha for “…two mules’ load of earth, for from now on your servant will not offer burnt offering or sacrifice to any god but the LORD.”

Yet another consequence of these signs – and one we saw emphatically through the Elijah stories – is the connection between the revelatory signs of the prophet and the revelatory message of the prophet.  Ahab is not judged simply by Elijah’s call to repent (though that should have been sufficient); he is forcefully condemned by his obstinance in the face of the mighty confirming signs the LORD did through him.  

This is demonstrated today not so much through the king of Israel – who only emerges by title in chapter 6 – but through the king of Syria.  King Ben-Hadad of Damascus – and this might be a family name we’ve seen before – is so convinced of Elisha’s power that he wants him dead.  Oddly enough, so does the king of Israel.  These intrigues sets up the rest of the Elisha story.  

One final highlight… pay attention to the phrase that opens chapter 5: “Namaan, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the LORD had given victory to Syria.”  Wait:“…the LORD had given victory to Syria…”?  Wasn’t Syria the enemy?  Yet the LORD – the God of Israel – is giving them aid.  That might be a signal to you, the reader, about the LORD’s methods and priorities.

Our verse for this week is Romans 8:28: And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

2 Kings 4 through 6.  Now let’s read it!