Today we will be studying the fourth and fifth of five kings of Israel who come to the throne of Israel during the decades that Uzziah sat on the throne of Judah.
In our last study session we looked at King Menahem, the only one of the five who was not assassinated but who presumably died a natural death. His son, Pekahiah, now wears the crown. Pekahiah ascends to the throne during King Uzziah's fiftieth year as king of Judah; the author of 2 Kings often uses the name "Azariah" for Uzziah, as he does in this next verse. "In the fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah, Pekahiah son of Menahem became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned two years. Pekahiah did evil in the eyes of the Lord. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit." (2 Kings 15:23-24)
Pekahiah, like most of the kings of the northern kingdom with the exception of those of the Ahab Dynasty, clings to the golden calf religion put in place by Jeroboam I. As we've noted before, Jeroboam's intention appeared to be to use these calves as symbols of the God of Israel, so in a sense he was still worshiping the Lord but in the wrong way. The Lord forbade the people to craft images to represent Him and He forbade the people to bow down to any type of image. So although the kings who adhered to Jeroboam's religious system weren't as spiritually wicked as those of the Ahab Dynasty (who forsook the Lord entirely in favor of Baal worship), the Lord was not pleased with the way they had corrupted their worship of the one true God.
There are men in Pekahiah's kingdom who are not pleased with him politically. Their motives are not provided to us but one of the king's officials, along with fifty other men, decides to take the life of the king and the lives of the men who may have been his top two aides. "One of his chief officers, Pekah son of Remaliah, conspired against him. Taking fifty men of Gilead with him, he assassinated Pekahiah, along with Argob and Arieh, in the citadel of the royal palace at Samaria. So Pekah killed Pekahiah and succeeded him as king. The other events of Pekahiah's reign, and all he did, are written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel." (2 Kings 15:25-26)
Many scholars propose that Pekah, called here "one of his chief officers", was the captain of the king's bodyguards. If so, then the man most responsible for the king's safety was the man responsible for the king's death. This would be like having the director of the Secret Service taking the life of the president of the United States. If Pekah was the captain of the king's bodyguards, he would have had regular and unquestioned access to the king's personal living space inside the palace. But Pekah still needed conspirators in order to strike the king dead and not be killed by any of the palace guards, so he had fifty armed men with him who were on his side. After killing the king, Pekah and his conspirators declared Pekah king of Israel.
Pekah reigned the longest of any of the five kings we've been studying. He took the throne of Israel by force near the end of the reign of King Uzziah (Azariah) of Judah. "In the fifty-second year of Azariah king of Judah, Pekah son of Remaliah became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned twenty years. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit." (2 Kings 15:27-28) Pekah managed to hold onto the crown longer than four of his predecessors but not because he was a better man, spiritually speaking, than the four who ruled before him. The majority of the people may have liked him more than they liked his predecessors but the Lord was no more pleased with his spiritual life than He was with the four who ruled before Pekah.
On a side note, I found something interesting in one of the commentaries I studied and it was something I had not stopped to think about before. The commentator asked why Jeroboam's father (Nebat) is always mentioned in conjunction with Jeroboam's perverted style of worship. The conclusion this particular Bible scholar came up with was that Nebat was somehow responsible for Jeroboam's waywardness. If that were not so, the scholar could not see why Nebat was shamed over and over in the Bible by having his name linked with his son's sin. You'll recall that Jeroboam harbored the fear that his people would revolt against him if they were allowed to go to Judah to worship the Lord at the temple. Nebat may have been in his son's ear at all times, at least in the beginning of his reign, advising him how to maintain control of the people by maintaining control of their worship activities. We were told in 1 Kings 12 that Jeroboam "thought to himself" that the people might turn against him if he allowed them to go to the temple and that he made the two golden calves "after seeking advice". Did he seek this advice from his father? Was it Nebat's suggestion that he make the golden calves? I think this theory is highly likely and that the scholar is probably correct who said that Nebat is always mentioned in conjunction with his son's sinful style of worship because he supported and encouraged it---and possibly came up with the idea in the first place.
Pekah reigns over Israel for a long time but his reign is not free of trouble. The king of Assyria had attacked Israel during the reign of King Menahem, who bought a truce with the Assyrian king by paying him what amounted to around $25,000 in silver at today's prices. The king of Assyria evidently did not trouble the nation of Israel during the remainder of Menahem's reign or during the reign of Menahem's son, Pekahiah. But he returns while Pekah is on the throne. "In the time of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria came and took Ijon, Abel Beth Maakah, Janoah, Kedesh and Hazor. He took Gilead and Galilee, including all the land of Naphtali, and deported the people to Assyria." (2 Kings 15:29) This is Tiglath-Pileser III, also called King Pul in the Bible (Pul being his throne name in Babylon, for he had conquered Babylon and declared himself king over it).
We will learn more about Pekah when we switch back to studying the kings of Judah. But the author of 2 Kings now describes the end of his life. "Then Hoshea son of Elah conspired against Pekah son of Remaliah. He attacked and assassinated him, and then succeeded him as king in the twentieth year of Jotham son of Uzziah. As for the other events of Pekah's reign, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?" (2 Kings 15:30-31) Pekah, a violent assassin, is himself killed by a violent assassin. Not only does his life end violently rather than by natural means with a son succeeding him as king, but his reign ends with the loss of a great deal of the territory of his kingdom. The political and military instability of the nation is directly related to the spiritual corruption of the nation. Had the kings of that era and the people of that era remained faithful to the Lord, no enemy could have successfully invaded the country. No enemy could have taken any of their land or any of their citizens. But the Lord warned them if they strayed from the right ways He would "cause you to be defeated before your enemies". (Deuteronomy 28:25a) The nation's eventual fall to Assyria is beginning here in Chapter 15.
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