2 Kings 13:1 - Meaning and Application

This short account of Jehoahaz’s reign, and of Israel’s condition during his seventeen years, shows us two deeply moving and useful truths.

First, it shows Israel’s former glory turned into shame and ruin. How different Israel appears here from what it had been, and from what it might have been. Its crown is dishonored, and its glory lies in the dust. It was Israel’s honor that they worshiped the one living and true God, who is Spirit and had given them his own rules for worship. But they traded the glory of the immortal God for the shape of an ox, and exchanged the truth of God for a lie. In doing so, they lost their true honor and made themselves like the nations who worshiped the work of their own hands. Here we are told that the king followed the sins of Jeroboam, Israel’s first king after the split, (2 Kings 13:2), and the people did not turn away from them, but kept walking in them (2 Kings 13:6). Nothing could bring greater shame than these two idol-calf shrines to a people taught in God’s worship and entrusted with his living words.

In all the history of the ten tribes, we never see even one serious break with that idolatry. In every reign, the calf remained their god, and they set themselves apart for that shame. It was also Israel’s honor that they lived under God’s special protection. God himself was their defense, the shield that helped them and the sword that gave them honor. Happy are you, Israel, because of this. But here, as often before, we see them stripped of that glory and left open to the insults of their neighbors. By their sins they stirred up God’s anger, and he gave them into the hands of Hazael and Ben-hadad, kings of Syria (2 Kings 13:3). Hazael oppressed Israel (2 Kings 13:22). Surely no nation was more often plundered by its neighbors than Israel.

This was brought on by their own sin. Once they had provoked God to remove their protection, the richness of their land only tempted nearby nations to attack them. In this reign, the Syrians caused such damage that Israel’s whole fighting force was reduced to only fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand foot soldiers, a weak and shameful army (2 Kings 13:7). Had the thousands of Israel come to this? How the gold had grown dim. When a nation is corrupted by sin, it will surely be brought low by it.

Second, even in these ashes, we still see some sparks of Israel’s old honor. It is not completely forgotten that this is still God’s people, and he is still the God of Israel. Israel had once been known as a praying people, and here that honor begins to appear again. Jehoahaz, their king, in his distress, sought the Lord (2 Kings 13:4). He turned for help not to the calves, which could do nothing for him, but to the Lord. It is fitting for kings to beg at God’s door, and for the greatest people to come humbly to the footstool of his throne. Need often drives people there.

It was also Israel’s old honor that God was near to them whenever they called on him (Deuteronomy 4:7), and so he was here. He could justly have rejected such a prayer as something hateful to him, yet the Lord listened to Jehoahaz and to his prayer for himself and for his people (2 Kings 13:4). He gave Israel a savior (2 Kings 13:5), not Jehoahaz himself, since Hazael still oppressed Israel all his days (2 Kings 13:22), but his son. In answer to his father’s prayers, God gave the son victory over the Syrians, and he recovered the cities they had taken from his father (2 Kings 13:25).

God gave this gracious answer, not because of Jehoahaz or because of that unworthy people, but because he remembered his covenant with Abraham (2 Kings 13:23). In hard times, he had long before promised to remember that covenant (Leviticus 26:42). See how ready God is to show mercy, how willing he is to hear prayer, and how eager he is to find a reason to be gracious. Otherwise he would not look so far back as that ancient covenant, which Israel had so often broken and from which they had forfeited every right to benefit. Let this draw us to him forever, and encourage even those who have turned away to return and repent. There is forgiveness with him, so that he may be feared.