King Jehu of Israel has passed away and his son, Jehoahaz, has ascended to the throne. "In the twenty-third year of Joash son of Ahaziah king of Judah, Jehoahaz son of Jehu became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned seventeen years." (2 Kings 13:1) When we studied the reign of Joash we learned that it was in his twenty-third year as king that he demanded an accounting for why the repairs of the temple had still not been completed. So we know Joash is occupied with the temple repair project in the southern kingdom of Judah when Jehoahaz becomes the leader of the northern kingdom.
King Jehu did away with the state-sponsored religion of Baal worship when he became king but he did not do away with the religious system put in place by the northern kingdom's first leader, Jeroboam, which involved bringing offerings and sacrifices to the golden calves located at Bethel and Dan. Presumably these calves were intended by Jeroboam to represent the Lord but this type of things was expressly forbidden by the Lord and no one was to be bringing sacrifices and offerings to an image. No one was to be bringing sacrifices and offerings to any altar other than the one at the temple in Jerusalem. Because Jehu rid the nation of the temple of Baal and did away with the false prophets connected to the religion of Baal, the Lord promised him that his dynasty would endure to the fourth generation, but because Jehu clung to the religious system put in place by Jeroboam, Jehu's son will also cling to the religious system involving the golden calves. I think the dynasty would have endured far longer if the Lord's commandments had been obeyed regarding how and where He was to be worshiped.
The author of 2 Kings says of Jehoahaz: "He did evil in the eyes of the Lord by following the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit, and he did not turn away from them. So the Lord's anger burned against Israel, and for a long time He kept them under the power of Hazael king of Aram and Ben-Hadad his son." (2 Kings 13:2-3)
A large number of the people are performing the same sinful religious practices as Jehoahaz and his father Jehu before him. The whole nation begins to suffer as a result of this sin. Jehu began some great religious reforms in Israel but he did not go far enough. He should have removed the golden calves and an Asherah pole that will be mentioned later. (The goddess Asherah was believed to be the consort of Baal.) Jehu should have allowed and encouraged the people to go to the temple in Jerusalem with their sacrifices and offerings. I think it's quite likely that the reason he didn't allow and encourage this is the same reason Jeroboam instituted calf-worship in the first place: to prevent the people from going into the kingdom of Judah and perhaps transferring their loyalty to the kings of the Davidic line. Because Jehu did not go far enough with religious reforms in Israel, we were told that the Lord allowed the kingdom to come under the oppression of Aram. "Hazael overpowered the Israelites throughout their territory east of the Jordan in all the land of Gilead (the region of Gad, Reuben and Manasseh), from Aroer by the Arnon Gorge through Gilead to Bashan." (2 Kings 10:32b-33)
Jehoahaz didn't do away with the calves or an Asherah pole either, which is why we find Israel still being oppressed by the Arameans in Jehoahaz's day. But Jehoahaz appeals to the Lord for help and he does it in such a sincere spirit that the Lord hears his prayer. "Then Jehoahaz sought the Lord's favor, and the Lord listened to him, for He saw how severely the king of Aram was oppressing Israel." (2 Kings 13:4) The Lord gave the heathen nation of Aram the upper hand over Israel for a time as a method of discipline against Israel's king and the people for their sinful religious practices but this doesn't mean the Lord gave Aram unlimited power over Israel. The Lord only allows a season of discipline to last as long as it needs to last to accomplish His purpose in that season of time. This season of discipline accomplishes something good spiritually for Jehoahaz so the Lord steps in now and gives relief.
Exactly how the Lord provides relief is debated by scholars. We will look at this next portion of our text and then discuss it. "The Lord provided a deliverer for Israel, and they escaped from the power of Aram. So the Israelites lived in their own homes as they had before." (2 Kings 13:5) Who or what is this deliverer? Some scholars believe this is a reference to the rising nation of Assyria, for Assyria began to trouble the nation of Aram around this time in history. That may have prevented the Arameans from being able to fully concentrate on their efforts to subjugate the entire nation of Israel. Other scholars believe this is a reference to Jehoahaz's son's successful battles (which we will look at later in our current chapter) against the Arameans. We can't say with any certainty who or what this mention of a "savior" represents but what we can take away from this passage is that the Lord always has a purpose for any season of discipline and that He never allows it to last longer than necessary and that He never allows it to become more severe than necessary.
Although the Lord hears the prayer of Jehoahaz and gives the people some relief from the Arameans at this time, the people still don't abandon the golden calves at Dan and at Bethel. If any sort of a revival took place it must have been short-lived. This is why the kingdom does not experience a reversal of fortunes even while the Arameans aren't currently plaguing it. "But they did not turn away from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, which he had caused Israel to commit; they continued in them. Also, the Asherah pole remained standing in Samaria. Nothing had been left of the army of Jehoahaz except fifty horsemen, ten chariots and ten thousand foot soldiers, for the king of Aram had destroyed the rest and made them like the dust at threshing time." (2 Kings 13:6-7) The nation is not powerful and prosperous because the Lord never promised to bless sin. The Lord can't bless sin because to reward bad behavior would be to encourage bad behavior. The Lord only promises to bless obedience.
Very little is told to us about Jehoahaz's seventeen years as king. The author of 2 Kings concludes this section by making reference to a book we no longer possess. "As for the other events of the reign of Jehoahaz, all he did and his achievements, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel? Jehoahaz rested with his ancestors and was buried in Samaria. And Jehoash his son succeeded him as king." (2 Kings 13:8-9) The "book of the annals of the kings" is generally considered to be a lost book. While it's true that the books of 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles sometimes include additional information that is not found in the books of 1 Kings and 2 Kings, there appears to have been at least another volume about the kings that has been lost to time. We don't find any additional information about Jehoahaz in either of the volumes of Chronicles; therefore we must conclude that this information was contained in a volume that went missing before the Bible was ever put together.
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