Today I lead off by finishing the story of the kingdom of Israel. But first, a coda to the story of Joash. The turning of Joash away from the Lord set the final clock running on Judah. And yes, there was a signature event that started the clock...
2Ki 12:17 At that time Hazael king of Syria went up and fought against Gath and took it. But when Hazael set his face to go up against Jerusalem,
2Ki 12:18 Jehoash king of Judah took all the sacred gifts that Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah his fathers, the kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own sacred gifts, and all the gold that was found in the treasuries of the house of the LORD and of the king's house, and sent these to Hazael king of Syria. Then Hazael went away from Jerusalem.
How many kings had been warned by now that God wasn't going to put up with them turning to money or foreign allies ahead of Himself? Apparently this final indignity to the Lord set off Joash's servants, and they murdered him for his earlier crime of killing the son of the priest Jehoiada. Not that things would be better in Israel. Their own clock started with the first of God's '4 generations from Jehu' to fall. His son Jehoahaz was next up, and he quickly abandoned God for the cult religion Jeroboam had established- until God sent the kings of Syria to piecemeal conquer the kingdom. And then...
2Ki 13:4 Then Jehoahaz sought the favor of the LORD, and the LORD listened to him, for he saw the oppression of Israel, how the king of Syria oppressed them.
2Ki 13:5 (Therefore the LORD gave Israel a savior, so that they escaped from the hand of the Syrians, and the people of Israel lived in their homes as formerly.
2Ki 13:6 Nevertheless, they did not depart from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, which he made Israel to sin, but walked in them; and the Asherah also remained in Samaria.)
That savior would take the form of his grandson Jeroboam (called Jeroboam II to avoid confusion with the original). For Jehoahaz, though- much like us when we practice what I call "soap opera prayers", prayers only sent up in direst need while ignoring God any other time- the die was cast. Ben-Hadad of Syria made mincemeat of his army, and things looked bleak indeed. After Jehoahaz passed, his son Jehoash took over (and don't I wish they broke up these similar names a bit!). He was a carbon copy of his dad, but in him the built up to that salvation promised Jehoahaz started. He held his own against Syria; and when the concurrent king of Judah, Amaziah, needed a whupping, God gave him the job...
2Ki 14:8 Then Amaziah sent messengers to Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, "Come, let us look one another in the face."
2Ki 14:9 And Jehoash king of Israel sent word to Amaziah king of Judah, "A thistle on Lebanon sent to a cedar on Lebanon, saying, 'Give your daughter to my son for a wife,' and a wild beast of Lebanon passed by and trampled down the thistle.
2Ki 14:10 You have indeed struck down Edom, and your heart has lifted you up. Be content with your glory, and stay at home, for why should you provoke trouble so that you fall, you and Judah with you?"
But, the story goes on, Amaziah didn't listen, and Jehoash whupped him good- we'll flesh that out next time. His looting of Jerusalem after the battle made a nice nest egg for his son, the aforementioned Jeroboam II. Now, contained in the story of J2 is a familiar figure...
2Ki 14:25 He restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher.
2Ki 14:26 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.
2Ki 14:27 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.
Yes, that Jonah! But the commentators point out that Jonah was one of the few prophets whose exact words were NOT quoted in the Books of Kings; whether this was due to the evil of J2 or his own disobedience in the matter of Nineveh, they don't speculate. But that was the 4th generation, and now it begins to fall apart. It was at this point that Amos began his prophecies announcing the coming fall of Israel; and generation 4, J2's son Zechariah, was murdered by a commander named Shallum just 6 months into his reign. Shallum, fared no better, there were two other commanders lusting for the throne, and Menahem won this contest, ending Shallum's 30-day reign with his murder, and committing gross barbarities in putting down the other.
The good news for Menahem was, he was strong enough to end the string of anarchy; the bad news, the weakened and repentant Nineveh of Jonah had been replaced by the reborn monster led by Tilgath-Pilesar, and Menahem had to wring every last dollar he could out of his subjects to buy the Assyrians off temporarily. He bought himself a reign of 10 years, and passed things off to his son, Pekahiah. Which is the original Israelite kiss of death; if you exempt the 4 generations God gave Jehu, sons of kings had a bad track record as kings- 3 had been assassinated, one fell through a roof, and one died in battle- and Pekahiah became the 4th assassination. Two years in, his commander Pekah killed him, and the clock started moving in earnest. Pekah had a 20-year reign, and it was late in that reign he allied himself with Syria to bring Judah into an alliance with them against Assyria, by force.
Judah had just acquired a new king, Ahaz, and he came to the Lord to get some help. Isaiah the prophet lets us in on what happened next:
Isa 7:1 In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah the king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it.
Isa 7:2 When the house of David was told, "Syria is in league with Ephraim," the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.
Isa 7:3 And the LORD said to Isaiah, "Go out to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer's Field.
Isa 7:4 And say to him, 'Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah.
Isa 7:5 Because Syria, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has devised evil against you, saying,
Isa 7:6 "Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,"
Isa 7:7 thus says the Lord GOD: "'It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass.
Isa 7:8 For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. And within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered from being a people.
Isa 7:9 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.'"
We'll pick up the story of that battle next time; but note that prophecy of 65 years, because this is going to be one of those "the Lord really does what He says" moments. It wasn't long after this, though that yet another conspiracy led by a guy named Hoshea killed off Pekah after a 20 year reign- and became the last king of Israel. Now, the writer of Kings has an interesting evaluation of Hoshea:
2Ki 17:1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah began to reign in Samaria over Israel, and he reigned nine years.
2Ki 17:2 And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, yet not as the kings of Israel who were before him.
The Bible doesn't say what it was that Hoshea did different; it is known at this time Hezekiah of Judah had invited the people of Israel to worship the True God in the Temple, and Hoshea may have green-lighted this. The Book of Kings also throws in that there was a 9-year interregnum between Pekah's murder and the start of Hoshea's reign, that we have no more data on. However, we do know that there was, at best, 21 years from Isaiah's prophecy and the destruction of Israel's kingdom by Shalmaneser of Assyria. So what happened to 65 years?
The key is the way the prophecy was phrased. The 65 years wasn't to the shattering of Ephraim as a KINGDOM- it was from being a PEOPLE. And that 65th year was in the middle of the reign of Manasseh of Judah- right when Esarhaddon of Assyria attacked the entire area, exiled Manasseh to Babylon, and, it would seem, exiled the last of the Israelites from Samaria. Much like the chronology of Quirinius in Luke, the dating that makes a skeptic go, "Ah-HAH!" is actually hidden just below the surface, by a misreading of the phrasing. God warns you that He hides things from unbelievers.
And the ending to our story today... Hoshea did the oft-repeated diplomatic move that destroyed many a king; pretend obedience to Assyria, try to make a backdoor deal with Egypt. But making an alliance with Egypt in those days was a lot like Germany making an alliance with Austria in World War I. Hoshea was captured and disappears from history; and Israel disappeared as a people.
Why would God do such a horrible thing to His "Chosen" people? Remember, Jesus told the pharisees, "I can make descendants of Abraham from these rocks!" Faith is the key to salvation. Israel? Well, remember I mentioned Hezekiah's inviting them to worship at the Temple? What I didn't mention was the response...
2Ch 30:10 So the couriers went from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, and as far as Zebulun, but they laughed them to scorn and mocked them.
Next time, what we can learn from the last good kings of Judah.
