Scripture Daily

Context No. 4279 of 4322 · 2 Kings

Context · Reflection

2 Kings 15:13-22: in context

13Shallum the son of Jabesh began to reign in the thirty-ninth year of Uzziah king of Judah, and he reigned for a month in Samaria. 14Menahem the son of Gadi went up from Tirzah, came to Samaria, struck Shallum the son of Jabesh in Samaria, killed him, and reigned in his place. 15Now the rest of the acts of Shallum, and his conspiracy which he made, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. 16Then Menahem attacked Tiphsah and all who were in it and its border areas, from Tirzah. He attacked it because they didn’t open their gates to him, and he ripped up all their women who were with child. 17In the thirty ninth year of Azariah king of Judah, Menahem the son of Gadi began to reign over Israel for ten years in Samaria. 18He did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight. He didn’t depart all his days from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin. 19Pul the king of Assyria came against the land, and Menahem gave Pul one thousand talents of silver, that his hand might be with him to confirm the kingdom in his hand. 20Menahem exacted the money from Israel, even from all the mighty men of wealth, from each man fifty shekels of silver, to give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria turned back, and didn’t stay there in the land. 21Now the rest of the acts of Menahem, and all that he did, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? 22Menahem slept with his fathers, and Pekahiah his son reigned in his place.

This passage records a grim stretch of Israel's history: one king murdered by the next, conspiracy after conspiracy, brutal violence, and kings who did evil in God's sight. Shallum kills to take the throne and reigns a single month before he is killed in turn; Menahem seizes control with savage cruelty, then buys off the Assyrian threat with silver extorted from the people. It is a picture of rule grasped by violence and held by fear, all of it hollow and short-lived.

What stands out is the emptiness of it all. These men clawed their way to the throne by murder and force, only to lose it as violently as they took it. Rule seized by violence proved unstable and fleeting; the throne changed hands again and again, and the kingdom drifted deeper into ruin. There was no peace, no security, no lasting good in any of it, only a cycle of grasping, cruelty, and loss.

There is a sober contrast here with the kingdom of God. The kingdoms of this world are so often built on grasping and violence, and they prove as unstable and short-lived as these kings of Israel. But God's kingdom is not seized by force or held by fear; it is founded on righteousness and endures forever. The emptiness of rule grasped by violence throws into relief the security of the God whose reign is just and everlasting.

Do I see the emptiness of rule grasped by violence and held by fear, as unstable and fleeting as these murderous kings of Israel, and do I set my hope instead on the kingdom of God, founded on righteousness and enduring forever under a King who gave himself in love?

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