Judgment and Grace: The Faithful Character of God. 2 Kings 14:1-17:23
God is righteous and He is just. He is also love and in human experience somehow we try to set these apart as being contradictory concepts: how can He be righteous and at the same time love. We fall prey to this kind of compartmentalization in the way that we talk abo0ut God as if these attributes are independent of each other. But if we just think about ourselves and how someone might describe us in a number of different ways. They might describe us if they see us in certain circumstances as being very kind, gentle and loving, and then they might see us at other times as being rather harsh and angry. Then they might see us at other times as being rather strict and stern. All of those attributes that may characterize us are all part of the same person; they are not isolated from one another, they are all part of the total package of attributes. That is how we should look at God. Even as we break these apart as a prism breaks apart the light into its different components, when we talk about the character of God and reflect on certain dimensions of His character we do that in order to come to understand the different elements in Him, and in terms of a teaching situation we do it for various pedagogical reasons. But in reality all of these fit into one unified whole in the character of God and one does not contradict another. His righteousness is a loving righteousness; it is a loving, knowing, truthful, unchanging righteousness. His knowledge is a righteous and truthful unchanging knowledge; His power is a righteous, holy, loving infinite and eternal power. All of these fit together in a way where they do not contradict one another.
At times we talk about God's integrity, focusing on four specific attributes and how they interact and intersect with one another; and as in Psalm 111 there is an emphasis on each of these attributes in that psalm as they relate to God's covenant with Israel. The purpose of the praise psalm there is to praise God for His faithfulness to His covenant, to His compassionate grace [chesed, God's loyal love], and the psalm affirms the absolute love that God has for His people Israel. He does not do anything that is not in line with that faithful, loyal love, and He does not desert His covenant.
Starting in 2 Kings 14 through 17 we see the decline, the deterioration, the depravity of the northern kingdom, and in chapter 17 under king Hoshea who is the last king in the north, the northern kingdom is defeated by the Assyrians. They are wiped out and deported and relocated to various places in the Assyrian empire. In chapter 14 we see the introduction of Jeroboam II, beginning in verse 23. He is mentioned briefly in vv. 15, 16 and then his reign is covered in vv. 23-29. We will see that his is an extremely long reign, the longest reign that we see among the kings of the northern kingdom, and it was a time of God's grace before judgment. There is tremendous prosperity that occurs at that time but it is their abuse of prosperity and their failure to turn to the Lord in the midst of that prosperity that really sets the stage for their final judgment. It confirms them in their apostasy. There is a principle there: Often God's grace to us prior to judgment is a period that simply confirms us in our own sin and confirms our own rebellion towards God, and this is what was true of the nation Israel. Of the last six kings in the northern kingdom five are assassinated. It was not a time of tremendous national stability, they were falling apart nationally, not because they were following false systems of economics or politics, or because they had a bad military and put their priorities in the wrong place; their collapse is due to their spiritual collapse, and that is the point in this whole section. It is to demonstrate that the real problem that a nation has and the real problems that an individual has do not come from having secondary systems of failure, they come because the root is a failure to trust God, a spiritual problem, and all of the other problems are just manifestations of that core spiritual problem. And of the core spiritual problem isn't fixed, it doesn't matter what happens economically or militarily because eventually the individual or the nation will collapse, will implode. What we see in this last fifty to eighty-year period that includes Jeroboam II is that collapse that occurred.
Jeroboam did a lot of things right. He was a very good administrator, militarily competent, extending the borders of the northern kingdom almost to the extent that they were under Solomon. Under his time there was tremendous economic prosperity and they were no longer being held under the thumb of Hazael in Damascus because the Assyrians had come in from the north east and defeated the Arameans, and there were also some other groups that were on the rise along their northern border that pretty much set the stage for the collapse of the Arameans. In that vacuum Jeroboam was able to regain much territory but it is a pseudo success. There is definitely prosperity there and definitely military conquest but it is not because they are so great, it is because their enemies were just worse and less prepared. So God dealt with them in grace and expands the empire, giving them economic prosperity as an opportunity for them to turn back to Him, but they just used that as an opportunity to become further enmeshed in their rebellion against Him.
Some of the kings' reigns are so short there is not much to say about them. Beginning with Jeroboam II in 2 Kings 14-16, he is the third one in the line from Jehu. Remember that God had prophesied that Jehu would only last to the fourth generation, which would be Zechariah, so he is also the sign of grace before judgment to the house of Jehu. He is ambitious, an administrative genius and military power, he expands north almost as far as it had been under the reign of Solomon. He also expands the kingdom down to the south. But this is the last period of prosperity in the north, the last time when God is extending grace to them. In the midst of economic prosperity there is a great divide between the wealthy and the poor, there is no justice in the land, and the rulers' exercise power for their own benefit. One of the things seen in a paganized culture is the self-centeredness of those in power and their abuse of those that are under there authority. This is a message that we find in some of the prophets that are operating during this time period as they are bringing that announcement of judgment to the rulers and leaders in the northern kingdom.
The basic assessment that we have of Jeroboam II is that he did evil. 2 Kings 14:24 NASB "He did 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 sin." Even though there were positive things that happened in terms of some of his accomplishments the spiritual assessment was that he, like all of the other rulers in the north, was evil. But it is also a time period of God's grace as extended to them in terms of their economic and military prosperity. It was the first time in a generation that they had really had any measure of stability and peace ion the northern kingdom, so it shows us again that God in His justice also extends grace before He lowers the boom and brings about the judgments that He has promised. The people in the north rejected that extension of grace, which happens so often in history. Never has a nation passed the prosperity test, and few individuals truly pass the prosperity test. Once they get prosperous they often put their hopes and dreams into the details of life, the economics, the luxury that they have, and they become self-satisfied in their security and get their eyes off of God and put it on themselves. That is always the core of all arrogance. There are different manifestations of it but it all boils down to self-absorption.
Jereboam died after a lengthy reign (41 years) and replaced by his son Zechariah, the last of Jehu's line. He has a short reign of six months, from 753-752. His reign is covered in 2 Kings 14:28, 29; 15:8-12. And again, his assessment in 15:9 NASB "He did evil in the sight of the LORD, as his fathers had done; he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel sin." That is just the ongoing drum-beat throughout this period: they continued to reject God; they bought into a completely false system of thought which was oriented around a false religious system. Every system of thought ultimately is grounded in a religious system, whatever it may be, whether it is Marxism or socialism it is religious. Whether it is some sort of system such as rationalism or empiricism they all end up being in some level of religion because they say something about ultimate reality. When there are abuses in any system that is often because they have brought in ideas. So again we see a ruler who will not turn the people back to God and is assassinated. This is God's judgment on the nation as well. When there is a nation that sees its leader assassinated again and again and again we can imagine the chaos, the confusion and uncertainty that is happening on a day to day basis. We can imagine the tremendous consequences in terms of the value of money, productivity, and just the mental state of the people; and they basically became the slaves of the monarchy in the north.
2 Kings 15:10 NASB "Then Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against him and struck him before the people and killed him, and reigned in his place." Assassination is evil; it is the murder of a ruler and the epitome of an anti-authority position. Anti-authority is one of the worst sins in the Scripture; that was the sin of Satan, and it takes us back to his arrogance and his rejection of God. Shallum is only the ruler for a month before he is taken out by Menahem, and he imposes an evil, brutal regime upon the north. There is excessive taxation because they have to pay tribute during this time to Assyrians who are beginning to come down and threaten them. One of the examples of his brutality is that we are told that when he became king he attacked a town in the north called Tiphsah. Some locate this in the north in northern Syria, up near the Euphrates, and others locate this further south in Samaria, so we are not sure. 2 Kings 15:16 NASB "Then Menahem struck Tiphsah and all who were in it and its borders from Tirzah, because they did not open {to him;} [surrender] therefore he struck {it} and ripped up all its women who were with child." He brutally murdered every pregnant woman in the town and this is a little bit of an idea of the character of his reign over the next ten years. The assessment is given in verse 18: "He did evil in the sight of the LORD; he did not depart all his days from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel sin."
Then there is intensified pressure against the north. 2 Kings 15:19 NASB "Pul [Tiglath-pileser], king of Assyria, came against the land, and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver so that his hand might be with him to strengthen the kingdom under his rule." That is why the taxation was so high and now the people are virtually enslaved by the Assyrians so that everything they produce has to go to paying off the tribute, to try to buy security.
Pekahiah the son of Menahem sets up now as king and this is the seventh dynasty to be established in the north and then he in turn is assassinated by one of his commanders, Pekah. Pekah is the one who set up the alternate monarchy across the Jordan. He reigns from 740-732—752 is when he originally set up his alternate government in the Trans-jordan. Pekah continues the same idolatrous path. He is now going to resist the Assyrians, but by now that becomes a sin because God has already announced that this judgment is coming and there is nothing they can do about it. So these last two kings Pekah and Hoshea want to resist the Assyrians but that resistance becomes a sin.
Pekah is on the throne for eight years and then Tiglath-pileser invades, captures the northern territories in the northern kingdom, the people are deported. In light of that defeat Hoshea leads an assassination squad against Pekah and kills him. There is some indication from Assyrian inscriptions that the Assyrians backed Hoshea and had a role in the assassination. So this is the trajectory of the northern kingdom that ends in their defeat, and the people are taken out in divine discipline and judged.
If we had lived through that period we would wonder as we saw the brutality of these various rulers and the brutality of the Assyrians, is God really just, is God really fair, is God really righteous, is God really a loving God to let all of this happen? Yet this is exactly what the Word of God states. 2 Kings 17:7ff gives us the indictment. The indictment is based on the covenant, what God had promised. God had told them what would happen if they were disobedient, now God judges them and the cry would be that God is not very fair. Te same thing happens to us individually and also to other nations throughout history.
2 Kings 17:7 NASB "Now {this} came about because the sons of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and they had feared other gods." Notice how this is centered on the exodus event. It identifies God as the one who brought them up out of Egypt—not that golden calf that Jeroboam had built in Bethel and Dan, but the true God of Israel who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt and delivered them from slavery to the Pharaoh. [8] "and walked in the customs of the nations whom the LORD had driven out before the sons of Israel, and {in the customs} of the kings of Israel which they had introduced." Instead of living according to the customs and the Mosaic Law that God had given them where there was real freedom and prosperity they chose to follow the laws of the Canaanites, they chose to be like all the other peoples on the earth, they rejected the great legacy that God had given them in the Mosaic Law. [9] "The sons of Israel did things secretly which were not right against the LORD their God. Moreover, they built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city." If we read down through the whole chapter we see that they are into demonism, into idolatrous worship, into human sacrifice. [17] "Then they made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, and practiced divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him."
This is all grounded back in the Mosaic Law. Exodus 20:2 NASB "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
In Leviticus 18:2 that commandment is reiterated. NASB "Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, 'I am the LORD your God. [3] You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt where you lived, nor are you to do what is done in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you; you shall not walk in their statutes." What was the judgment in 2 Kings 17? It is that they did exactly what God told them not to do. But there is always grace, always hope. Whenever there is disobedience there is always the promise of grace and forgiveness. Deuteronomy 30:1-3 NASB "So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call {them} to mind in all nations where the LORD your God has banished you,
2 Kings 17:13 NASB "Yet the LORD warned Israel and Judah through all His prophets {and} every seer, saying, 'Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments, My statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you through My servants the prophets.'" Sending the prophets is God's grace. He is not just a God of righteousness and judgment, but He is a God of grace in generation after generation, reaching out with the truth to those who were antagonistic to Him, to those who rejected Him, to those who hated Him. But God continuously did the right thing; that is what love is. He challenged them to come back to the law" "Turn [shub] from your evil ways."
When man rejects God man rejects absolutes, and so he rejects law; he wants to make up law as he goes along. We see that in our culture. There are those who are conservative who think that we should go back to the Constitution, the Constitution as interpreted in the light of the original intent of the founders. There are those who are called lose constructionists or liberals and they want the Constitution to be interpreted as a "living document"—that its meaning changes from generation to generation. Once that view is adopted what happens is that laws are made up as we go along and it really doesn't matter what the law says. That is why we have the problem with illegal immigration. We ignore the law because of various factors. But the law says to do one thing or another and we have to abide by the law; we are a people who believe in the rule of law. But once we reject God the rule of law really goes out because the rule of law really implies that there is an external basis for absolutes. That is the first thing to go and so we become lawless. As a nation we are becoming a lawless nation and the more we slip into relativism and make it up as we go along the more lawless we will become. But there is always hope, the same hope that Israel had: the hope to turn back to God. That comes through the preaching, the proclamation of His grace that God in His love has provided the perfect solution. That solution is through the Lord Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins. There is always hope as long as we are alive; God is still in charge; God can still change things.
What we see in these chapters is the total compatibility of God's justice and righteousness with His perfect, unchanging love. Love brings justice because that is what is embedded in the law. Once we throw out the law and the absolutes then we never can define justice anymore, we can't define love anymore, and everything in the culture begins to deteriorate and fragment, and it just picks up momentum from year to year. But there is always hope and that hope is in the truth of God's Word and in trusting in Jesus Christ as savior.