Theological Commentary: Click Here
2 Kings 15
is more of the same. We have a pair of
kings of Judah who do what is right in the sight of the Lord, even if they do
let the high places of Ba’al worship remain.
We have more kings in Israel who do not do what is right in the sight of
the Lord. We have leadership changes in Judah
passed on by generation in the line of David.
We have leadership changes passed on by treachery and scheming in
Israel. Not much changes.
We do,
however, see the end on the horizon for Israel.
Tiglath-pileser comes onto the scene for Assyria and starts making
demands. He starts by conquering a large
chunk of Israel and drags the people in the land he captures back to
Assyria. The Hebrew people start to
become enslaved in captivity. We shouldn’t
be surprised by this at all. None of the
kings of Israel have tried to uphold God and His ways. God has given them time to repent and they
haven’t. Judgment comes.
Even in the midst
of judgment, though, I think that it is very interesting to look at the human
interaction. When Pekahiah cannot prevent
portions of Israel from being carved up by Tiglath-pileser, his captain
conspires against him to take over power.
Even in the midst of its decline, people gather like vultures to take
their share of what’s left. Pekahiah is
assassinated and Pekah steps up to don the mantle of king over Israel.
There is
another thought that I get out of this.
Not only will people grab at any power – even power of a downward
spiraling organization – people will also believe what they want reality to be
instead of what actual reality is. The
kingdom of Israel is doomed. It is to be
judged. It is in selfish rebellion against
God. Nobody seems to step up and
acknowledge this. People grab at power
and think that they can hold back the tide of God’s judgment. Pekah thinks that he can do more against
Assyria than Pekahiah could do. He
believes in his own version of reality instead of God’s version of true
reality.
<><
No comments:
Post a Comment