2 Kings 14:23 - Meaning and Application

This is the account of Jeroboam the Second’s reign. It likely shows how closely Jehu’s family held to the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who led Israel into sin, because they even gave the heir to the throne that name. They seemed to think it was an honorable name, even though God’s Word marks it with shame.

His reign was long, the longest of all the kings of Israel. He ruled for forty-one years. His contemporary, Azariah, king of Judah, reigned even longer, for fifty-two years. This Jeroboam ruled as long as Asa had ruled in Judah (1 Kings 15:10), yet one did what was good and the other what was evil. We cannot judge a man’s character by how long he lives or by how much he prospers. The same end comes to the righteous and the wicked.

His character was the same as the other kings of Israel. He did evil (2 Kings 14:24), because he did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam. He kept the calf worship going and never gave it up, thinking there was no harm in it because his ancestors had done it. But a sin is no less evil in God’s sight just because it is old and familiar. It is a weak excuse for avoiding good, to say that we are used to doing evil.

Yet he prospered more than most of those kings, because, though he did evil in one matter, there may have been some good in him in other ways, and God showed favor to him. God did this, first, by sending prophecy. He raised up Jonah son of Amittai, a man from Galilee, which shows how mistaken those were who said that no prophet could come from Galilee (John 7:52). Through Jonah, God made known his mercy toward Israel, even though they had sinned against him. He encouraged Jonah to support the kingdom’s effort to recover its former land, and this promise from God would have strengthened their success. It is a sign that God has not cast off his people when he still gives them faithful ministers. When Elisha, who strengthened Joash, was gone, Jonah was sent to encourage Joash’s son. Happy is the land that has prophets in one generation after another, alongside its kings, so that the word of the Lord may endure forever.

We learn much more about this Jonah in the short book that bears his name. It is likely that when God sent him to Nineveh, he was still young and ready for such a task. It may also be that he had not been long familiar with God’s visions when he later acted so wrongly and became so upset. If so, his later work among Israel is a clear sign that God had forgiven his earlier faults and foolishness. A man’s receiving a commission can itself point to pardon. One who has known mercy in spite of his own failings can more readily encourage others to hope for mercy too. Some people begin badly, with foolishness and hot temper, and even handle their work awkwardly at first, yet later become useful and respected. People should not be thrown aside for every fault.

God also showed favor through providence, by arranging events as his word had said. Jeroboam’s armies succeeded, and he restored Israel’s borders. He recovered the frontier towns and regions from Hamath in the north to the Sea of the Plain, that is, the Dead Sea or Sea of Sodom, in the south, which the Syrians had seized (verse 25). Two reasons are given for why God granted these victories. First, their distress was very great, and that moved God’s compassion (verse 26). Even though no clear sign of repentance is mentioned, God saw how bitter their suffering was. Those living in lands held by enemies were harshly oppressed and had nothing secure of their own. The rest were likely worn down by repeated raids, robbed of their goods, and kept in constant fear. There was no one left, no one shut up or free, towns and countryside alike were stripped bare, and no helper appeared. They had been brought very low in many parts of the land at the start of Jeroboam’s reign, and God, out of pure pity, heard the cry of their distress, not any prayerful cry that is mentioned here. He rescued them through Jeroboam’s hand. Let those in painful and helpless trouble take comfort from God’s pity. We read that he has deep mercy and is full of compassion (Isaiah 63:15; Jeremiah 31:20; Psalm 86:15).

Second, the decree for Israel’s total destruction had not yet gone out. God had not yet said that he would wipe out the name of Israel (2 Kings 14:27), and because he had not said it, he would not do it. If this refers to the later scattering of the ten tribes, then he did say it and bring it about. Still, that name remains under heaven in the gospel Israel, and will remain to the end of time. Since they still bore the name that was meant to have lasting honor, God showed them this kindness, and he also did it for the sake of the ancient honor attached to that name (2 Kings 13:23).

This is the end of Jeroboam’s reign. We read of his power and his wars (2 Kings 14:28), but he slept with his fathers (2 Kings 14:29). Even the strongest must give way to death, and there is no discharge from that battle. Israel had seen many prophets through the years, a steady line of them in every age, but none had put their prophecies in writing until the prophets of this period began to do so. Their prophecies became part of Scripture. In Jeroboam’s reign, Hosea began to prophesy, and he was the first to write his prophecies. That is why the Lord’s word through him is called the beginning of the word of the Lord (Hosea 1:2). In that same time, Amos prophesied and wrote his prophecy, and soon after came Micah, and then Isaiah, in the days of Ahaz and Hezekiah. In this way, God never left himself without witness. Even in the darkest and most corrupt times of the church, he raised up some who were burning and shining lights to their own generation by their preaching and lives, and a few by their writings, to give light to us on whom the ends of the ages have come.