44. § 6. Jehu, Jehoahaz, Jehoash, Jeroboam II, and Zechariah, the Five Kings of the Dyn...

§ 6. Jehu, Jehoahaz, Jehoash, Jeroboam II, and Zechariah, the Five Kings of the Dynasty of Jehu—In the Kingdom of Israel—Joash, Amaziah, Uzziah, In the Kingdom Of Judah

One of Jehu’s first acts after he came to the throne was one of murder, perpetrated on the servants of Baal. With respect to this deed the same thing holds good that we have already said regarding the acts by which Jehu made his way to the throne. Objectively considered, it was just, for by the law idolatry was punishable with death. But we are led to form a different judgment when we examine into the subjective motives of Jehu, even apart from the unjustifiable stratagem. These motives seem to have been almost exclusively selfish. The servants of Baal were by every interest attached to the house of Ahab. By their destruction Jehu hoped to bring over to his side the far more numerous party of the adherents to the worship which had formerly been legally introduced into the kingdom of Israel. This view is based not solely on the universally reprehensible character of Jehu, but also specially on the circumstance that he allowed the continuance of calf-worship. This shows that he used religion only as a means to his end. If his zeal had been truly pious, he would have destroyed the illegal calf-worship. But he feared by this means to break down the wall of separation between the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah, and at the same time to make enemies of the followers of calf-worship. As a punishment for this reprehensible frame of mind, it was foretold that his family would retain the throne only to the fourth member, and even during his lifetime the kingdom of Israel was very much oppressed and weakened by the Syrians under Hazael. He died, after having reigned for a period of twenty-eight years. When the wicked Athaliah received news of the death of her son Ahaziah, in the kingdom of Judah, her ambition, which amounted almost to madness, led her to slay the royal princes and take possession of the government. Yet Jehosheba, a sister of Ahaziah, probably by another mother, married to the high priest Jehoiada, had succeeded in keeping Joash, a very young son of Ahaziah, from her murderous hands, and concealed him in an apartment adjoining the temple. After Athaliah had ruled over the kingdom for six ye Joash, the lawful heir to the throne, whom the people followed with enthusiasm, with whose preservation the fulfilment of the promise made to David was associated, was raised to supreme authority. “The party inclined to heathenism,” Ewald remarks, “which had been formed in Jerusalem during the short supremacy of the two former kings, may have supported Athaliah, as well as the faithful followers of the house of Omri who might fly to her in Jerusalem when persecuted in the kingdom of the ten tribes. But in the kingdom of Judah, since the days of Asa and Jehoshaphat, the attachment to the old religion had become too powerful, and the love to David’s house could not long be suppressed. The foreign element which had been introduced by Jehoshaphat’s close connection with the house of Omri, was thrust out.” Joash was seven years of age when he ascended the throne, and remained for a considerable time under the influence of the high priest Jehoiada, even after he was grown up, and, while this priest lived, proved himself a God-fearing ruler. He showed great zeal in the restoration of the temple, which, according to 2 Chronicles 24:7, had not only been neglected, but intentionally destroyed. After the death of Jehoiada a great change took place. It became apparent that the piety of the king had been without independent basis,—that he had only followed Jehoiada. To the worldly-minded higher nobility the supremacy of the priesthood, as it may be called, had always been an abomination. Yet while Jehoiada lived they had not ventured to make any revolt; but after his death, according to 2 Chronicles 24:17, they had turned to the king with a request that he would remove the prohibitions against idolatry and proclaim universal freedom of religion. The king yielded, and soon the disorder which had existed under Ahaziah and Athaliah again prevailed. As invariably happened in time of need, the Lord raised up prophets, who reproved the people for their sin, and announced the punishments which threatened them. By the commandment of Joash, Zechariah, the most prominent among them, the son of his fatherly teacher Jehoiada, was slain, because the king’s conscience testified too loudly to the truth of his censure. While dying, he continued to predict the closely-impending judgments The instrument of their accomplishment was the army of the Syrian Hazael, which inflicted a severe defeat on the stronger Judaite army,—Joash being slain by some of his own servants, after having reigned for forty years. His son Amaziah succeeded to the throne. In the kingdom of Israel, in the twenty-third year of Joash king of Judah, Jehoahaz ascended the throne. Of him little is related of any consequence. During his reign the Syrians brought the kingdom to the brink of the abyss. But its allotted time had not yet run out. The weak beginnings of repentance in king and nation were followed by deliverance.

After having reigned for seven years, Jehoahaz was succeeded by his son Joash, under whom Elisha died at an advanced age. The news of the mortal illness of the prophet deeply affected the king, though not at other times piously disposed. He thought he must now necessarily succumb to the dangers which threatened him on the part of the Syrians, who were again making preparations for war. The Lord graciously accepted even this weak beginning of faith, and comforted the king by a favourable promise given through the prophet. The prophet connected this promise with a symbolical action. The king was to shoot an arrow from the window towards the direction of the Syrian kingdom. This arrow, the prophet says, is a symbol of the complete destruction which thou shalt bring upon the Syrians. He then tells the king to take the remaining arrows and shoot them into the earth. The king complies, but ceases after having shot three arrows. By this means he betrayed his want of faith, or rather the weakness of his faith. He knew from what had gone before that the shooting of an arrow signified a victory over the Syrians. Hence he could have had no other reason for ceasing so soon, than doubt as to whether the Lord could do more than what was already promised. Three victories over so mighty an army strike him as something so great, that he scarcely believes the Lord sufficiently powerful to grant it. With justice, therefore, the prophet is angry; with justice he accuses him of having deprived himself of complete victory over the Syrian kingdom by the want of faith which betrayed itself in this outward act. King and people—the people are not to be regarded as in opposition to the king, but as represented in him—thus saw how faith was the only means of salvation, want of faith the sole cause of their misfortune. The promise of Elisha with respect to the Syrians was accurately fulfilled. Thrice conquered, they were obliged to restore the cities which they had wrested from the Israelites under the former reign. In the kingdom of Judah Amaziah appeared at first in a favourable light. His first care was to put to death the murderers of his father. In 2 Kings 14:6 it is expressly stated that he spared their children on account of the law. At that time, therefore, the word of God had more influence over him than the oriental custom, the result of carnal disposition, arising on the one hand from a spirit of revenge, and on the other from timidity. Afterwards, however, he was guilty of great crimes, in consequence of which the judgments of the Lord overtook him and his people. He began a war against the Idumeans, who, as already related, had revolted under Joram, without his having been successful in reducing them to subjection again. The Idumeans sustained a great defeat in the Valley of Salt, at the extreme end of the Dead Sea, and the victorious army of Judah succeeded in penetrating to their capital, Seia or Petra. This battle very much weakened the power of the Idumeans, and it was long before they recovered themselves. From Amos 2:1-3, it seems to follow that the king of the Idumeans lost his life on this occasion, his corpse becoming an object of revenge for the Moabites, on account of the former participation of the Edomite in the Moabite expedition. Incidentally, however, this war led to the fall of Amaziah. He had captured several Edomite idols, and to these, it is related in Chronicles, he paid divine honour. This is explained on the assumption that he was infected by heathen ideas. Doubtless he looked upon Jehovah as the supreme God, and could not do otherwise, since he had just experienced His superiority over the Edomite idols. Nevertheless he regarded the latter as having a real existence, and thought that by showing honour to them as well as Jehovah, he would bring them over to his side, and thus best prevent their rendering assistance to their oppressed people, and making it more difficult for him to keep them to their allegiance. It was therefore sheer unbelief which prompted this mode of action; and, being blamed for it by a prophet, he threatened him with death. The prophet declared that the Lord would punish him, and the prediction was speedily fulfilled. The victory over the Idumeans had in every respect exercised a most injurious influence on the king, who was not sufficiently strong in spirit to be able to bear good fortune. It had led him to indulge in foolish arrogance and pride. On an empty pretext, he declared war against Joash the king of Israel, who had become very powerful through his conquest over the Syrians. Joash warned him in vain. He then anticipated him, and made war in the territory of Judah. At Beth-shemesh the Judaites suffered a great defeat. Jerusalem was taken, the treasures of the king and of the temple were carried away, and a portion of the wall broken down, in order to give free access to the Israelites. Joash died soon afterwards; Amaziah survived him for fifteen years. It seems, however, that the angry people dethroned him immediately after the taking of Jerusalem, in consequence of which he was obliged to flee to Lachish, a city of Judah. The government was then carried on in the name of his son Uzziah; and Amaziah, making a final attempt to recover it, was slain. In favour of this we have 2 Chronicles 25:27, where we read that from the time when Amaziah turned away from following the Lord, they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem; so also 2 Kings 14:19. In the books of the Kings the successor of Amaziah is called Azariah; but in Chronicles, Isaiah, and Zechariah he appears under the name of Uzziah. This is explicable from the circumstance that the names of oriental kings were more appellativa than propria, and hence others, having the same meaning, were frequently substituted for them. Under the long reign of Uzziah (he was sixteen years of age when he came to the throne, and reigned for twenty-five years), the kingdom of Judah rose to great prosperity and power,—a consequence of the pious disposition of the king. But the nation was not able to bear its prosperity, and sank into luxury and immorality, though there still remained a considerable number who feared God in spirit and in truth. Externally the fear of God prevailed almost universally under Uzziah. This God-fearing community attached itself to the prophets, who continued to come forward more and more powerfully and numerously from the time of Uzziah, as the great divine judgments in the kingdom of Judah approached nearer to their consummation. Uzziah was under the spiritual guidance of the prophet Zechariah; but when Zechariah died, and he was thus left to himself, he was unable to bear his prosperity. Not satisfied with the kingly dignity, arrogance led him to aspire to the priestly dignity also. This could only happen by means of a gross violation of the Mosaic constitution. And when the king was guilty of this, he was smitten with the punishment of leprosy. He now lost his own dignity, as a retribution for having striven after that which did not belong to him. For, being a leper, he could not associate with any one, but was obliged to dwell in a house apart; hence he could not carry on the government, which fell to his son Jotham, who held it in the name of his father. What makes the reign of Uzziah specially remarkable, is the fact that the first beginnings of prophetic authorship belong to it,—a circumstance which is by no means accidental, but is due to the fact that from this period prophetic prediction found richer material. We shall readily be convinced of this, if we consider the subjects with which prophecy occupies itself in Isaiah: for example, Isaiah appeared in the latter days of Uzziah; as early predecessors he had the three prophets, Hosea, Amos, and Jonah, in the kingdom of the ten tribes, and also Joel and Obadiah, the two prophets of Judah. The kingdom of Israel was destined to rise once more to brilliant supremacy, then to sink down for ever. Jeroboam II., the son of Joash, enlarged it to the same extent which it had had at the time of the separation under Jeroboam I. But with the death of Jeroboam the kingdom of Israel advanced towards destruction with rapid strides. Under his long reign, which was not characterized by a spirit of piety, immorality and apostasy from the Lord prevailed more and more. Bloody internal dissensions prepared the way for ruin, which was finally accomplished by the Assyrians. Ewald says: “The germs of internal dissolution and destruction, which lay hid in the kingdom from its foundation, broke forth the more rapidly and unchecked owing to the long period of undisturbed prosperity; and the rising supremacy of the Assyrians found it the more easy to destroy a kingdom which from the beginning had possessed no healthy life.” The death of Jeroboam, which took place after a reign of forty-two years, was followed by an interregnum of twelve years. Finally, his son Zechariah was established on the throne by his adherents; but, after a wicked reign of six months, he was slain by Shallum, and thus the prophecy was fulfilled that the family of Jehu should occupy the throne only to the fourth member. God had taken care that the nation should know the interpretation of its fate. The predictions of the two prophets,—viz. Amos, who was sent out of Judah into the kingdom of the ten tribes under Jeroboam, but was soon driven thence, and Hosea, who appeared towards the close of the reign of Jeroboam, and preached almost to the end of the kingdom of the ten tribes,—pointed unmistakeably to the perverted foundations of this kingdom, rebuked its apostasy, and announced the impending judgments—the fall of the house of Jehu, and the complete overthrow of the kingdom of the ten tribes.