Jehoahaz now becomes king after his father. His reign lasts 17 years. He unfortunately did evil in God’s eyes and persisted in the sins of Jeroboam (2 Kings 13:1-2).
This did not make God happy. God was in fact burning with anger. God really desires for us to want relationship with Him over anything else. He wants our whole heart devoted to Him. But He will not force it. Instead because of His justice and mercy He allows discipline with the hope it will bring us back toward Him. Just like we discipline our children, God does with us in His perfect knowledge and grace.
God allows, for a long time, the Israelites under Jehoahaz’s rule to be kept under military pressure and oppression from the opposing nation of Aram. See what Jehoahaz finally does in the passage.
Read 2 Kings 13:4-6 (emphasis mine).
“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. 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. 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.”
Matthew 6:33 tells us to “seek first the kingdom of God”. When things got hard and Jehoahaz is finally really feeling it he does seek out the Lord’s favor. Don’t you love how the Lord listens to Jehoahaz? God sees everything, nothing is hidden from Him. Sometimes He watches and waits for us to ask.
Sometimes He has to allow the heat to rise to get our attention. Jehoahaz finally gets this and looks to God. See what God does--He provides a deliverer. We are not told exactly who or what this delivered was but God provides it. When this happens the oppressive power of Aram stops.
Unfortunately though even after getting relief from this long military oppression they still do not turn away from the sins of the house of Jeroboam. Seriously, what is wrong here? You think that they would learn but yet again they do not. This is so hard to understand but again and again we do see it as a pattern of human behavior. Even in our own behavioral patterns.
I want you to see what a huge deal this deliverer should have been to the people. There was great devastation experienced at the hands of the Aram army.
Read 2 Kings 13:7.
“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.”
It is so sad when the answer is right before us. God will provide yet in our sin nature we persist in our sins. This was the case for the people of Israel again.
Jehoahaz’s son Jehoash is the next king on the throne. His reign lasted 16 years. He continued to walk in the sin of Jeroboam. He also had some military tension with his brothers of the southern kingdom of Israel and the country of Aram.
Now an interesting thing about Jehoash was that he was grieved over Elisha the great prophet’s illness because it was going to cause him to die. He wept over this. He also asked for his advice about the kingdom of Aram. This is interesting stuff to read. If you get a chance read 2 Kings 13:14-20.
Now read this about our God. I just love this passage.
Read 2 Kings 13:22-23.
“Hazael king of Aram oppressed Israel throughout the reign of Jehoahaz. But the LORD was gracious to them and had compassion and showed concern for them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. To this day he has been unwilling to destroy them or banish them from his presence.”
Now, is that not a great passage about God’s great mercy, grace, compassion and love for His people? There is absolutely nothing that can separate His loved ones from His love. He remembers, He sees, He delivers. God is so amazing. God is a covenant God who takes His covenants seriously. We could learn so much from Him about this. I could go on and on about this but because of this study I will end here.
One last thing to note about Jehoash is how he tried to refuse a war with his own people in the southern kingdom. But the southern kingdom became arrogant and persisted anyway. Jehoash attacked and won. He also took treasuries from the Lord’s temple back with him.
1-Take a look at your own sin patterns in your life. Do they resemble Israel’s? Why or why not?
2-Do you see when we seek God first that He will provide a deliverer? Share your thoughts.
3-I praise God for the new covenant we live in. God gave us Jesus the final deliverer. We stand in Him in righteousness before God through we still have not been brought to completion. Take a moment and just praise God for His great grace.
4-Doesn’t God’s stubborn love astound you? Explain a time when God persisted in His love for you while you continued in your stubborn ways.
Copyright 2008-Refresh My Soul Ministries-Angela Parsley
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