Would you like to read James McNaught’s novel Sinking Sand”? click here: Sinking Sand
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
2 Kings 14:23–29, “In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria, and reigned forty and one years. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the LORD God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gathhepher. For the LORD saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter: for there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel. And the LORD said not that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven: but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash. Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all that he did, and his might, how he warred, and how he recovered Damascus, and Hamath, which belonged to Judah, for Israel, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? And Jeroboam slept with his fathers, even with the kings of Israel; and Zachariah his son reigned in his stead.”
Jeroboam ascension to the throne proved to be the beginning of Israel’s end game. While things may have seemed to be strong for Israel, things were not as they should have been. Long before there was a king in Israel the Lord had foreseen this exact situation. (see Deuteronomy 8:10–14, “When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the LORD thy God for the good land which he hath given thee. Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day: Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the LORD thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage;”) Jeroboam had a long and prosperous reign. Both Israel, in the north, and Judah in the south experienced the same conditions, king who reigned for a long time (Jeroboam for 41 years and Uzziah, Azariah, for 52 years) and times of peace and prosperity. The Assyrians and Syrians both went through fairly quiet periods where they were not actively involved in external campaigns. However, as the Lord predicted, they forgot that they owed everything to the Lord their God and felt self satisfied. After all, they believed that if everything was going well then the Lord must be pleased with them and was rewarding them. During this time they began to forget about the poor and the needy in their communities because the poor and needy were sinning and responsible for their own situation so why should they be helped at all? Jonah, who was determined not to go to Nineveh and preach to them, prophesied that the Lord would restore the northern kingdom to her former size. Eventually Jeroboam died and was succeeded by his son Zachariah.
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