Bible Commentaries
2 Kings 15

Verses 1-20

XV

THE REIGNS OF UZZIAH, JOTHAM, AND THAZ (OF JUDAH) AND ZECHARIAH, SHALLUM, PEKAHIAH, AND PEKA (OF ISRAEL)

2 Kings 15:1-16:20; 2 Chronicles 26:16-28:17

In this chapter we begin with the brief reign of Zechariah who was the last king of the dynasty of Jehu. He was a weakling preceded by four strong men, but himself very inferior to his predecessors. Zechariah reigned only six months, and during that six months we have the same story of sin and corruption repeated as we have had in all the reigns previous to him. He was murdered by a usurper named Shallum, and thus ends the dynasty of Jehu as had been prophesied: that his children to the fourth generation only should sit upon the throne.

Then follows the brief reign of Shallum. The usurper succeeds in removing Zechariah and seizes the throne. His reign is short lived, but during that time we have an even more terrible picture of the condition of the people as described in the book of Hosea, Hosea 4-14. It is during this period and after, that Hosea gives us the bulk of his prophecy. In Hosea 10:3, referring to one of these revolutions when the dynasty was changed, we find this statement: "Surely now shall they say, We have no king; for we fear not the Lord; and the king, what can he do for us?" which indicates that the people felt themselves without a king. They cared not for God nor for the king. The kingdom was without a head) without a central government, the result of such condition of affairs is the anarchy which he describes. In Hosea 4:1-2 we have a catalogue of the sins of the people: "Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel; for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land; nought but swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery; they break out, and blood toucheth blood." So frequent were the murders that the blood of one is not dried up before another one takes place and there is a continuous stream of blood.

Next comes the brief reign of Menahem, who seized the throne through murder, destroyed all the dynasty preceding him, and the brief statement made in regard to his character would indicate that he was a man, barbarous in his ferocity, a murderer and a relentless freebooter.

The record tells us that when Uzziah was exalted, his heart was lifted up with pride, and he assumed to perform the functions of the priesthood. He thrust himself into the Temple to offer the incense which the law placed in other hands. There the priest met him, bravely stood in the way of that offering, and while the spirit of persistence was upon him, God smote him with leprosy, and from the day that leprosy struck him he had to be isolated from the throne and the people and though he lived years afterward a regency was established by his son, Jotham. It is called Uzziah’s reign, but Jotham acted as king until his leprosy killed him.

In 2 Kings 15:19-20 and 1 Chronicles 5:26 we find that Pul, king of Assyria, or the great Tiglath-Pileser, approaches the Northern Kingdom, and Menahem had to pay a large tribute in order to maintain his kingdom, a thousand talents of silver: "And Menahem exacted the money of Israel, even of all the mighty men of wealth, of each man fifty shekels of silver, to give to the king of Assyria, so the king of Assyria turned back, and stayed not there in the land." Thus he was able to maintain his throne and kingdom by paying Tiglath-Pileser a heavy tribute. Then follows the reign of Pekahiah, the son of Menahem. He was a little improvement upon his father. In a short time he was himself butchered by Pekah who seized the throne and established another dynasty. His character was in line with the other kings of Israel in general: "He departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat."

About this time Uzziah died. It is notable that he was buried "in the field of burial with his fathers, for they said, He was a leper." Just at this time, Isaiah, the greatest of Old Testament prophets, had his vision, and also the prophetic work of Amos and Hosea of Israel and Micah of Judah falls in this period. From these prophets we get a fine description of the customs and practices of this time.

Upon the death of Uzziah, his son Jotham, reigned in his stead. His mother’s name was Jerusha, the daughter of Zadok. His character was ahead of any other king in the period except Hezekiah. He didn’t put down the high places, but he didn’t commit particular sins to aggravate the condition of the people. He carried forward some important building enterprises. He built the upper gate of the Temple, the wall of Ophel, cities in the hill country of Judah and castles and towers in the forest. He was also successful in war with the Ammonites who paid him large tribute.

During the reign of Pekah several things happened. The kingdom was now nearing its end and we read that Pul, the great Assyrian king approached eastern Palestine, conquered it, deported the entire population "and brought them unto Halah, and Habor and Hara, and to the river of Gozan," and there they remained. Tiglath-Pileser was the first of the great Assyrians that inaugurated the system of deporting a rebellious people, thus rendering them powerless to oppose him. He picked them up, and transported them to other countries, and brought in others to take their places, simply transferred whole nations. Thus all eastern Palestine had gone into exile.

We now come to Ahaz and the whole picture is black. He reigned sixteen years and he crowded into that time as much meanness, vileness, as a man can put into sixteen years. Let us glance at the record itself to see some of the things that he did. In the sketch of his character it is said, "He did not that which was right in the sight of the Lord his God, like David his father. But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yea, and made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel. And he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree." There was a confederacy formed against him to which the prophets give particular notice. The king of Israel and the king of Syria entered into an alliance to destroy Judah. Here the prophet Oded comes in and the record says, "Behold, because the Lord, the God of your fathers, was wroth with Judah, he hath delivered them into your hand, and ye have slain them in a rage which hath reached up unto heaven. And now ye purpose to keep the children of Judah and Jerusalem for bondmen and bondwomen unto you: but are there not even with you trespasses of your own against the Lord your God?" You acted as the sword of God against Judah. Ought it not to put you to thinking that God would make some other nation the sword against you? ’Spurgeon has a great sermon on that text: "Are there not even with you trespasses of your own against the Lord your God?" Spurgeon preached his sermon to those harsh censorious people who with an eye of a buzzard can detect anything fowl, or dead, or decaying in the character of other people, and he made this charge in the sermon: "You that condemn others, you who are so ready to pass a harsh and inexorable judgment upon them, are there not even with you some trespasses against the Lord your God?" Our Lord carried out the thought thus: "What judgment ye mete unto others shall be measured unto you." Not only was Ahaz smitten by this confederacy from the north, but the Edomites on the south revolted against him; on every side the enemies came in and smote him.

Now we come to his next sin. Instead of turning to God with repentance and asking the Lord to help him he seeks an alliance with Tiglath-pileser, the king of Assyria, and invites him to smite Syria for a consideration: "Now I will foot the bills." In order to foot the bills he strips the house of God of all of its precious ornaments and with that gold he buys the service of the Assyrian king to smite the Syrians and the Assyrian was ready enough to do the smiting. He had an eye in that direction already and he did smite, but he demanded that Ahaz should come up to Damascus and pay tribute to him.

So we come to the third great sin of Ahaz. When in Damascus he studied the form of the altar of burnt offerings that the idolaters had up there and was very much pleased with it; so before he leaves he sends a plan of it to a certain priest and instructs him to make one just like it, and when he gets home he moves God’s altar off to one side, and puts up this heathen altar that he had copied. He didn’t stop at that; he shut up the holy place, and closed up all the services of the worship of the true God. That gives some idea of his sins.

In 2 Kings 15:29 we have the account of another terrible deportation by Tiglath-Pileser. He came "and took Ijon, and Abel-beth-maacah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all of the land of Naphtali, and he carried them captive to Assyria." Thus we see that northern Israel was stripped of all of its land east of the Jordan and of all its land north of the plain of Esdraelon, and only the hill country of Ephraim was left, about one-tenth perhaps of the entire dominion. So the kingdom is going, falling, being stripped of its possessions gradually.

In 2 Kings 15:30-31, we have an account of the death of Pekah, which was the result of a conspiracy of Hoshea, the son of Remaliah. But between Pekah and Hoshea we find, according to good authority," another interregnum of nine years which is determined by comparing 2 Kings 15:27; 2 Kings 15:30 and 2 Kings 17:1.

QUESTIONS

1. Who succeeded Jeroboam II, and what was his character?

2. How long did he reign, what was the manner of his death, and what promise of Jehovah was fulfilled in him?

3. Who succeeded Zechariah and what was the story of his reign and death?

4. Who succeeded Shallum and what was his character?

5. What was Uzziah’s sin, what was its punishment and what is meant by "several house"?

6. Who became king regent and what was his special work as such?

7. What invasion of Israel just here and what results?

8. Who succeeded Menahem, what was his character and what the manner of his death?

9. Who succeeded Pekahiah and what was his character?

10. What is notable in the death and burial of Uzziah, what great prophet had his vision in the year of Uzziah’s death, and what other prophets came in this period?

11. Who succeeded Uzziah, who his mother and what his character?

12. What was the spiritual condition of his people, what of his building enterprises and what of his conquest and result?

13. What deportation of Israel here, who took them and where, and what the market condition of Judah at this time?

14. Who succeeded Jotham, what was his character, and what horrible thing did he practice?

15. Recite the account of the war between Ahaz and Rezin and Pekah including the account of Isaiah and the work of Oded the prophet.

16. What invasion here of Judah, what was the result and what reason assigned?

17. What distressed condition of Ahaz at this time, to what source did he turn for relief and what result?

18. What second deportation of Israel, who took them and where?

19. Recite the story of Ahaz’s sacrilege and its lessons.

20. What of the interregnum between Pekah and Hoshea and how determined by the author?