25. PEKAHIAH
PEKAHIAH
"In the fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah, Pekahiah the son of Menahem began to reign over Israel in Samaria, for two years. And he did evil in the sight of Jehovah: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin."
Although we are now at the seventeenth king of Israel, all of them evil in varying degrees, we see that God has not changed His standards. Sometimes as human beings we feel that age and long usage can make good and acceptable that which God terms bad or unacceptable in His sight. The norms of society change, and with them even the rulings of our court systems. But God does not change. Nor will He ever alter His standards to accommodate our ever-changing ideas. He is absolutely holy and righteous.
Pekahiah did evil in the sight of the Lord. He departed not from the sins of Jeroboam. In presenting His divine assessment in these words, God shows that He was looking for Israel’s kings to actively turn away from the sins of their predecessor, Jeroboam. "Cease to do evil, learn to do well" (Isa 1:17) is the divine principle by which He expects us to act. So in the New Testament also, we are each called upon to withdraw from iniquity, to purify ourselves away from vessels to our Lord’s dishonor (2Ti 2:19-21 marg.) if we would be vessels to honor, serviceable to the Master, prepared for every good work. Non-participation in evil is not enough. God demands clear-cut separation from it.
Pekahiah, as so many before him, is assassinated by one of his captains. Pekah the son of Remaliah with fifty Gileadites conspires against Pekahiah and kills him in the very citadel of the royal palace at Samaria. In 1Ch 5:26 we see that the tribes who had chosen their possession in Gilead, despite being mighty men, are the first to be carried into Assyrian captivity.