Scripture Daily

Context No. 1965 of 4322 · 2 Kings

Context · Reflection

2 Kings 14:21-29: in context

21All the people of Judah took Azariah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in the place of his father Amaziah. 22He built Elath and restored it to Judah. After that the king slept with his fathers. 23In 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 for forty-one years. 24He did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight. He didn’t depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin. 25He restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the sea of the Arabah, according to the LORD, the God of Israel’s word, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath Hepher. 26For the LORD saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter for all, slave and free; and there was no helper for Israel. 27The LORD didn’t say that he would blot out the name of Israel from under the sky; but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash. 28Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all that he did, and his might, how he fought, and how he recovered Damascus, and Hamath, which had belonged to Judah, for Israel, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? 29Jeroboam slept with his fathers, even with the kings of Israel; and Zechariah his son reigned in his place.

Jeroboam the Second reigns over Israel, and the record judges him an evil king who did not turn from the sins that led Israel astray. And yet, under him, Israel's borders are restored and its fortunes recovered. The reason given is striking: the LORD saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter for all, slave and free, and there was no one to help them. He had not said he would blot out Israel, so he saved them, even by the hand of this unworthy king, out of compassion for their suffering.

The reason God delivered Israel is worth dwelling on: he saw their affliction, that it was bitter, and that there was no one to help them. Israel did not deserve deliverance; its king was evil, its sins unrepented. And yet God, seeing their bitter suffering and that they had no helper, was moved to compassion and saved them, even through an unworthy king. It was not their goodness that moved him but their affliction; his compassion for their suffering, not their deserving, was the ground of their rescue. There is a moving revelation of God's heart here. God is moved by the affliction of his people, even when they do not deserve his help. He sees the bitterness of their suffering, notices that there is no one to help them, and is moved to compassion. His mercy is drawn not by our merit but by our need, by the sight of our affliction and our helplessness. This is how God has ever been toward his people. He saw the affliction of Israel in Egypt and came down to deliver them; again and again in the book of Judges, when the people cried out under oppression, the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning and raised up deliverers. God's compassion is stirred by the suffering of his people, even undeserving people, even people whose troubles are partly their own fault. There is comfort in this for us in our afflictions, especially when we feel we do not deserve God's help, when our troubles are partly of our own making, when there seems to be no one to help us. God sees our affliction; he notices when we have no helper; and his mercy is moved not by our deserving but by our need. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, the psalm says. The God who saw the bitter affliction of an undeserving Israel and saved them out of compassion is the God who sees our suffering too, is moved by it even when we do not deserve his help, and whose mercy is drawn by our affliction and our helplessness. When we are afflicted and feel we have no helper and no claim on God's aid, we may remember that God is moved by the suffering of his people, and that his compassion is stirred not by our deserving but by our need.

When I am afflicted and feel I do not deserve God's help, that my troubles are partly my own fault and there is no one to help me, can I take comfort that God is moved by the suffering of his people even when they are undeserving, as he saw the bitter affliction of Israel and saved them out of compassion, his mercy drawn not by our merit but by our need?

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