As we discussed yesterday, we don't know why the people selected Josiah's fourth-born son to succeed him as king. Possibly this was Josiah's preference which he had already made known prior to his death. We learned in yesterday's study that Jehoahaz is an idolater, and on the one hand we wouldn't expect Josiah to want an idolatrous king for the nation, but on the other hand it may be that all of his sons turned out to be idolaters in spite of his godly influence. His son Eliakim certainly was as we will soon find out. But it could be that Josiah had not named a successor since he was still a relatively young man when he met his death. The people may have chosen Jehoahaz because his political views lined up more with his father's than his brothers' views did. But we will still study yet another potential motive for the people's choice farther down the page.
Jehoahaz only reigns for three months because Pharaoh Necho II deposes him. "Pharaoh Necho put him in chains at Riblah in the land of Hamath so that he might not reign in Jerusalem, and he imposed on Judah a levy of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold." (2 Kings 23:33, 2 Chronicles 36:3) You'll recall that Josiah died because he opposed Necho when Necho was marching up to aid the king of Assyria against the Babylonians. Necho told Josiah not to engage him in battle but he did so at Megiddo, resulting in Josiah being mortally wounded and dying soon after being taken back to Jerusalem. Necho continued on to provide assistance to the Assyrian king but was defeated at Harran and forced to retreat. On his way back toward Egypt, he removes Jehoahaz as king of Judah.
Exactly how and why Necho did this is not recorded on the pages of the Bible or on any known annals of the kings of Egypt. Some scholars speculate that Jehoahaz intended to avenge his father's death and that he may have ambushed Necho and his troops on their way back from Harran. These same scholars propose that Jehoahaz's desire for vengeance is what caused the people to place him on the throne, saying that perhaps his older and more mature brothers were not as quick-tempered and not as eager to make war with Egypt. If the people wanted Josiah avenged (and it's understandable that they mourned deeply for this godly man who was cut down in his prime) they may have felt Jehoahaz was the best man for the job.
A clue that perhaps Jehoahaz did launch an attack against the Egyptian troops is that Necho took him into custody at Riblah. Riblah lay along Necho's route back to Egypt. Jehoahaz's presence along this route indicates to me that a military conflict took place there between his forces and the forces of Necho. Necho did not come and drag Jehoahaz out of his palace at Jerusalem; Jehoahaz was in the land of Hamath (in Syria) which lay over two hundred miles from Jerusalem. The battle must have gone badly for the king of Judah because he was captured and held temporarily at Riblah and then he was taken on to Egypt where he remained until his death. The people who had placed him on the throne must have longed for his return because the Lord told the prophet Jeremiah to tell the people that Jehoahaz would not be restored to his throne but would perish in Egypt. In the book of Jeremiah we find Jehoahaz called by his birth name of Shallum. "For this is what the Lord says about Shallum son of Josiah, who succeeded his father as king of Judah but has gone from this place: 'He will never return. He will die in the place where they have led him captive; he will not see this land again.'" (Jeremiah 22:11-12)
Necho will install a puppet king in Judah who will pay the tribute he demands. This puppet king will be one of Jehoahaz's brothers, Eliakim, and I can think of a couple of reasons why the king of Egypt did things this way. First, there seems to be some evidence that Jehoahaz wanted to avenge his father and perhaps had launched an attack on Necho's life. Jehoahaz could not be trusted as a puppet king of Pharaoh, not only because he wanted Pharaoh dead but also because he was likely to refuse to pay tribute to him, which would have led to the Egyptian king becoming further embroiled in military conflicts while attempting to force the king and the people to submit to him. Necho has already experienced a defeat in his attempt to aid Assyria against the rising world power of Babylon and I'm sure he would like to avoid a long drawn-out siege of Jerusalem.
Second, if it's true that Jehoahaz was the most hotheaded of Josiah's sons, it may be that Eliakim was the most willing to agree to the foreign king's demands. A possible motive for this is that Eliakim may have felt he was the rightful king of Judah and was willing to pay tribute to Egypt in order to become king of Judah. Eliakim was Josiah's second born son and Jehoahaz was Josiah's fourth born son, giving Eliakim more of a claim to the throne by birth order. We know nothing about the eldest brother, Johanan, and I think there's a good chance he is already deceased by this time because the only time he is ever mentioned in the Bible is in 1 Chronicles when Josiah's sons are listed by birth order. If Johanan is no longer living, then Eliakim would naturally have seen himself as the crown prince of Judah and would not have been happy that the people declared his youngest brother king when Josiah died. Necho would naturally consider him the rightful heir as well and it behooved him to place a son of the royal family on the throne instead of trying to install a foreign king or a man of Judah who was not a direct descendant of Josiah. The people would have revolted if he had done that.
"Pharaoh Necho made Eliakim son of Josiah king in place of his father Josiah and changed Eliakim's name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz and carried him off to Egypt, where he died. Jehoiakim paid Pharaoh Necho the silver and gold he demanded. In order to do so, he taxed the land and exacted the silver and gold from the people of the land according to his assessments." (2 Kings 23:34-35, 2 Chronicles 36:4)
Jehoiakim will not be a better man, spiritually speaking, than Jehoahaz was. As we move on tomorrow to begin studying his reign, we will be told that he "did evil in the eyes of the Lord".
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