WBC-11-Kingdom of Judah Alone
Kingdom of Judah Alone THE FAILURE OF SEVEN PROMINENT KINGS OF JUDAH The kings of Israel were, without exception, depraved and ungodly men, wholly given over to idolatry and licentiousness. And it is a striking fact, worthy of our most thoughtful consideration, that their evil characters and deeds are stated in the Scriptures, without any attempt at concealment or palliation. Never were the annals of any kingdom so written by a human chronicler. Wherefore we have in this remarkable feature of Bible history a further proof of the Divine Authorship of the Holy Scriptures. The history of the line of the kings of Judah is characterized by the same outspoken truthfulness, notwithstanding that there would be every incentive, humanly speaking, to glorify the house of David by concealing the faults and extolling the virtues of his descendants. Of some of the kings of Judah, it is stated in the baldest terms that they were wicked men; and of others, who did follow the Lord, their failures and departures are recorded quite as impartially as are their virtues.
Taking a rapid survey of the career of the most prominent kings of David’s line, we may read therein some valuable lessons, and receive therefrom some wholesome and impressive warnings.
David, in his "last words" (2 Samuel 23:1-7), had declared by inspiration what God requires in those who rule over men, saying, "The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruletlh over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God" ; and, being a prophet, David foresaw and foretold the failure of his own line, for he went on to say, "Although my house be not so with God, yet He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure." The subsequent history of David’s line fully confirms this prophecy, making it quite clear that his house was "not so with God." Again and again we read of a king who began well, and continued for a longer or shorter time to walk "in the first ways of his father David," that is to say, in the fear of God, and according to the law of God, but who, later on, departed from those ways, some after one manner, some after another. It will be a profitable exercise to pass briefly in review the most prominent of those instances of departure from the right ways of the LORD.
1. Solomon, who was beloved of God, made a good start; and God blessed him with riches and honours in abundance, so that his kingdom is famed above all the kingdoms of the world for its glory and magnificence. For "King Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom." "And the king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars made he to be as the sycamore trees that are in the vale for abundance" (1 Kings 10:23; 1 Kings 10:27). "And all King Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; none were of silver, it was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon" (1 Kings 10:21). But Solomon failed in the vital matter of obedience to the law of the LORD. Moses had expressly said, concerning the one who should be chosen for a king: "But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to go down to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses. ...Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away; neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book, out of that which is before the priests the Levites; and it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, and to keep all the words of this law and these statutes to do them." (Deuteronomy 17:14-20.)
Solomon violated the law in the most flagrant manner, in each of the three particulars expressly stipulated in the above Scripture. We have already quoted the passages which record how he greatly multiplied to himself silver and gold; and we further read that "Solomon loved many strange women (together with the daughter of Pharoah) ...And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods" (1 Kings 11:1-8). Further it is written that "Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen" (1 Kings 4:26). "And Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen; and he had a thousand and four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, whom he bestowed in the cities for chariots, and with the king at Jerusalem. And a chariot came up, and went out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and an horse for an hundred and fifty" (1 Kings 10:26-29). Because of this flagrant disobedience, the Lord rent away the ten tribes from the Kingdom of David.
2. King Asa also began well. He "did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, as did David his father. He took away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made" (1 Kings 15:11-15). Moreover, he "commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers, and to do the law and the commandment. Also he took away, out of all the cities of Judah, the high places and the images; and the kingdom was quiet before him" (2 Chronicles 14:3-5). "And he brought into the house of God the things that his father had dedicated, and that he himself had dedicated, silver, and gold, and vessels" (2 Chronicles 15:18). Thus Asa avoided the sin of multiplying gold and silver unto himself, and devoted those precious things to the LORD.
Therefore, the LORD greatly prospered him, and gave him rest on every side. Moreover, when the Ethiopians and the Lubims came against him with a huge host, and Asa cried to the LORD for help, He smote his enemies before him, insomuch that they were destroyed before the men of Judah; and they carried away very much spoil (2 Chronicles 14:7-15). Nevertheless, afterwards, when Baasha came against Asa with a relatively small army, Asa brought out the silver and the gold out of the treasury of the LORD, in order to hire aid from the king of Syria, thus not only turning to man for help, but actually bartering away the precious things of the LORD in order to procure it. And not only so, but when God sent a prophet to reprove him, he flew into a rage, and put him in prison. And finally, when God chastened him by sending a disease upon him, Asa, in his sickness, sought not to the LORD, but to the physicians (2 Chronicles 16:1-14). Thus in Asa we have the example of one who knew the LORD, and who "yet," in difficulty and sickness, turned to man for help.
3. Again in the history of King Jehoshaphat we find one who began well, and went on well for a time. We have already given a sufficiently full outline of the career of this good king. So we need only, for our present purpose, point out that Jehoshaphat’s error was of a different character from that of his forefathers, Asa and Solomon. It consisted in "joining affinity" with Ahab, the utterly corrupt king of Israel, even going so far as to say to him "I am as thou art, and my people as thy people, and we will be with thee in the war" (2 Chronicles 18:1-3). That friendship with his ungodly neighbor caused far more damage to the house of David and to the people of Judah than the worst that Ahab could have inflicted by waging incessant warfare against them. Thus we learn from the career of Jehoshaphat the vital importance to the people of God of separation from the world; for "the friendship of the world is enmity against God" (James 4:4). Jehoshaphat did not, like Solomon, multiply wives to himself, or horses, or silver and gold. Nor did he, like Asa, fail to seek the Lord in time of need (see 2 Chronicles 18:4). But he became "unequally yoked together with unbelievers"; he had fellowship with unrighteousness, and joined himself in a common cause with men of Belial (2 Corinthians 6:14-17); and thereby he brought disaster upon himself and his posterity for four generations (Exodus 20:4).
4. Joash was a king who enjoyed from his infancy the great benefit of godly restraint and tuition under the care of Jehoiada, the priest. So it is recorded that "Joash did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest" (2 Chronicles 24:2). But it appears that the commendable deeds of Joash were due to the strong influence of Jehoiada. There is no evidence that the heart of Joash was ever changed, but the contrary appears.
For, "after the death of Jehoiada came the princes of Judah, and made obeisance to the king. Then the king hearkened unto them; and they left the house of the Lord God of their fathers, and served groves and idols; and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their trespass" (2 Chronicles 24:17-18). Moreover, the people under Joash stoned the prophet whom God sent to reprove them; and Joash manifested the basest ingratitude toward the house of his benefactor, Jehoiada, by slaying his son. Therefore he was afflicted with " great diseases, " and" his own servants conspired against him for the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, and slew him on his bed, and he died; and they buried him in the city of David; but they buried him not in the sepulchres of the kings" (2 Chronicles 24:20-25). From the career of Joash we may learn the immensely important fact that a good bringing up, and the restraints of good moral influences, though of very great value, are but external in their action, and do not avail for salvation and a new heart without personal faith and the inward work of" the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost" (Titus 3:5). Without personal faith and the regenerating work of the Spirit of God it will surely happen "according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire" (2 Peter 2:22).
5. Amaziah, the son of Joash, was one who "did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart" (2 Chronicles 25:2). He obeyed the voice of the prophet in dismissing the army of Israel which he had hired to help him; and God thereupon gave him victory over the Edomites. Yet, when he returned from the slaughter of the Edomites, he brought their gods with him, "and set them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself before them, and burned incense unto them. Wherefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against Amaziah, and He sent unto him a prophet which said unto him, Why hast thou sought after the gods of the people which could not deliver their own people out of thine hand?" (2 Chronicles 25:6-15). Amaziah would not, however, receive this reproof, but silenced the messenger of God; and when he essayed to go to war against the king of Israel, he was defeated. The end of his career is told in these words: "Now after the time that Amaziah did turn away from following the Lord,. they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem; and he fled to Lachish; but they sent to Lachish after him, and slew him there" (2 Chronicles 25:27). From the history of this king we may learn the inveterate disposition of the natural heart of man to turn to idols, and to trust in any creature rather than in the living God. The folly of trusting in the gods of a nation who could not deliver that nation is apparent. Yet such was the folly of this descendant of the wise King Solomon, and such were the gods chosen by this degenerate scion of the house of David.
6. Uzziah’s reign was the next to the longest of all the kings, fifty-two years. (Manassah reigned fifty-five.) "And he did right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that Amaziah his father did. And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had knowledge of the visions of God, and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper" (2 Chronicles 26:4-5). "But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction; for he transgressed against the Lord, and went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense" (v. 16). This was the sin of pride and presumption. For Uzziah was not content with the honours of the throne, but desired those of the priesthood as well. But "no man taketh this honour to himself, but he that is called of God as was Aaron" (Hebrews 5:4). God had strictly separated the offices of king and priest. Only in Jesus Christ are they united. Hence, of all the characters in the Old Testament none was both a king and a priest, save Melchisedec, in whom the two offices were united only that he might stand as a type of Christ in His royal and eternal priesthood (Hebrews 7:1-3). Therefore was Uzziah smitten with leprosy for his presumption, and had to live apart "in a several house" until the day of his death (2 Chronicles 26:17-21). Hence Uzziah stands before us as a warning against the pride of the natural heart. Man is a sinner; and leprosy is a type of sin. He may effectually conceal the corruption of his heart from his fellow men; "but God looketh upon the heart"; and all things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do. None can approach unto the presence of a holy God, except such as are " called," and are made fit for His presence by the Atonement which He has provided. When Uzziah transgressed this rule, which guards~ the sanctity of God’s presence, the corruption that was in his heart was allowed to come to the surface, where all could see it; and then, in bitter humiliation, "he himself hasted to go out" (v. 21). If others could see what is in our hearts we would shun the light of day, and much more the light of God’s holy Presence.
7. Finally, in Hezekiah we have doubtless the best of all the kings of David’s line "after David himself; for it is written that "he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord according to all that David his father had done" (2 Chronicles 29:2). "He trusted in the Lord God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah; nor any that were before him. For he clave to the Lord, and departed not from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses. And the Lord was with him, and he prospered whithersoever he went forth" (2 K. 18:5-7). Of the chief incidents of his reign we shall speak later on. At this point we would only call attention to his conduct in the incident of the ambassadors from Babylon, who came to bring the congratulations of their king after that Hezekiah had been healed from a deadly sickness by the direct action of God in answer to prayer. The incident is related three times (2 K. 20:12-19; 2 Chronicles 32:24-31; Isaiah 39:1-8). In the account in 2 Chronicles 32 it is stated that Hezekiah, after his miraculous recovery when sick unto death, "rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him; for his heart was lifted up, therefore there was wrath upon Judah and Jerusalem" (v. 25). His ingratitude and failure consisted in this, that when those heathen ambassadors of high rank and station came and paid their respects to him, he did not glorify the Lord, Who had healed him, but, with puerile vanity, he displayed the baubles and showy trumpery, which constituted his own regal glory. For "he showed them all the house of his precious things, the silver and the gold, and the spices and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures; there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah showed them not" (2 K. 20:13). In all this there was not one word to the praise and glory of God. Wherefore, in 2 Chronicles 32:31 we have this comment: "Howbeit, in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart." Ingratitude and vanity were "in his heart," but he was unaware of it. Such sins, however, are very grievous in one on whom God has lavished the riches of His grace and mercy. Therefore God "left him," so that what was in the heart might come out, as in the case of Uzziah. How earnestly then ought we to pray continually, "lead us not into temptation"
Here we have before us a complete sheaf of seven typical kings of Judah, illustrating the various ways in which one who "did run well" may falter, or stumble, or turn aside. We can make no better or more apt comment upon these inspired records, which have been written for our admonition, than that of the apostle Paul, who, speaking of the lessons which are to be found in the Old Testament types, said: "Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall" (1 Corinthians 10:12). In the case of all these kings it was prosperity and ease that led to their downfall. We may well, therefore, contrast with them the case of their father David, whose life was one of hardships, persecutions and afflictions, during the entire reign of Saul, and of conflicts and domestic troubles after he himself came to the throne. But in all that befell him he was humble, lowly minded, tender-hearted, submissive to the will of God, and always full of thanksgiving and praise to the Rock of his Salvation. Hence David made a good~ ending; for "he died in a good old age, full of days, riches and honour" (1 Chronicles 29:28). Let such of us, therefore, as are advanced in years, seek grace continually that we may end well; and let our ambition be that of the apostle who said, "Neither count I my life dear unto myself, that I might finish my course with joy’" (Acts 20:24).