Scripture Daily

Context No. 358 of 4322 · 2 Kings

Context · Reflection

2 Kings 21:10-15: in context

10The LORD spoke by his servants the prophets, saying, 11“Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, and has done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, who were before him, and has also made Judah to sin with his idols; 12therefore the LORD the God of Israel says, ‘Behold, I will bring such evil on Jerusalem and Judah that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle. 13I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plumb line of Ahab’s house; and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. 14I will cast off the remnant of my inheritance and deliver them into the hands of their enemies. They will become a prey and a plunder to all their enemies, 15because they have done that which is evil in my sight, and have provoked me to anger since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.’”

This is a word of judgment against Judah, spoken through the prophets because of King Manasseh, who had done evil worse, the text says, than the pagan nations before him, and had dragged the whole nation into idolatry with him. And the images God uses for the coming disaster are worth slowing down over, because they are strangely ordinary and all the more chilling for it.

I will wipe Jerusalem, God says, as a man wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. It is a picture from the kitchen, a plate scrubbed clean and then flipped over to drain, and it is being used for the emptying of the holy city. But the more pointed image is the measuring line. I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, God says, and the plumb line of the house of Ahab. Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom, already destroyed for its sin, and Ahab's house was already condemned and wiped out. God is saying he will measure Jerusalem by the very same standard he used on them. There is no separate, gentler measure for Judah because it holds the temple and considers itself the chosen city. The same plumb line that found the north wanting will be laid against the south, and it will find the same crookedness. Being the special one bought no exemption from the standard.

That is the assumption the passage quietly demolishes, the belief that the judgment which falls on others somehow will not be applied to me, because of some status I imagine sets me apart. God is consistent; he uses the same line on everyone. Where have I assumed that the standard I would readily apply to someone else does not really apply to me, because I am, in my own mind, the chosen exception?

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