2 Kings 14 – Study

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: 2 Kings 14:23-29

23 In the fifteenth year of Amaziah son of Joash king of Judah, Jeroboam son of Jehoash king of Israel became king in Samaria, and he reigned for forty-one years. 24 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord and did not turn away from any of the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit. 25 He was the one who restored the boundaries of Israel from Lebo Hamath to the Dead Sea, in accordance with the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, spoken through his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath Hepher.

26 The Lord had seen how bitterly everyone in Israel, whether slave or free, was suffering; there was no one to help them. 27 And since the Lord had not said he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam son of Jehoash.

28 As for the other events of Jeroboam’s reign, all he did, and his military achievements, including how he recovered for Israel both Damascus and Hamath, which had belonged to Judah, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel? 29 Jeroboam rested with his ancestors, the kings of Israel. And Zechariah his son succeeded him as king. 

A. Find Out:

1. How long did Jeroboam reign? v.23
2. How is Jeroboam summarised? v.24
3. Yet what did he do? v.25a
4. Why was he able to do this? v.25b
5. Why was change coming about? v.26,27
6. What further did Jeroboam do? v.28

B. Think:

1. How did Jeroboam re-establish Israel ?
2. How did he go further than that in respect of Aram ?
3. Why did all this happen?

C. Comment:

      The biggest danger here that we have is to look upon historical events and assume they ‘just’ happened, but the books of Kings are not just records of the comings and goings of the various kings; they are the record of a people, now divided into two, who are the people of God, and for whom God acts.

     God has a plan and it is to bring as many people as possible into relationship with Him. Part of the expression of that plan in this present passage is to maintain His people Israel while at the same time disciplining them to bring them back to Himself. That disciplining involved using the city-state of Damascus, known as Aram, to wear away at Israel in the hope Israel will call on their God. However, there was obviously a fine balance to be achieved. Too much of the enemy would mean Israel destroyed and so now, we see the Lord intervenes to redress the balance and emboldens the new king, Jeroboam, to reclaim the periphery areas of Israel and restore the boundaries.

       Understand that this is an act of God taking place. Moreover He emboldens Jeroboam to actually go against and overrun Damascus during his reign. During his time, therefore, there would have been a lightening of the load from enemy attack. If only Jeroboam could have gone the whole way and fully restored Israel in their proper relationship to the Lord, but he didn’t!

D. Application:

1. As Jesus said, God is constantly working (Jn 5:17 )
2. Can we see the hand of God in today’s affairs?