We are going to swing back to ISRAEL (N) and look at King Jeroboam today.
• King JEROBOAM is the 3rd successor of JEHU, succeeding his father JEHOASH, who fought with Judah’s King AMAZIAH in the first part of 2 Kings 14 (we saw last Sun).
• Read 2 Kings 14:23-29.
Again verse 24 says “He did evil in the eyes of the Lord and did not turn away from any of the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit.”
• Yet he reigned for 41 years, by the grace of God. He wasn’t cut off quickly. God showed MERCY to a disobedient Israel.
• What we just read wasn’t really about Jeroboam’s deeds. Rather we saw more of God’s acts of kindness for His people.
One, God restored the boundaries of Israel, through Jeroboam.
• 14:25 He was the one who restored the boundaries of Israel from Lebo Hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, in accordance with the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, spoken through his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath Hepher.
• God SPOKE through His servant JONAH and prophesied a restoration of Israel’s boundaries. God would achieve that through Jeroboam.
• This was remarkable because the only other time Israel was that big was when Solomon was King. Jeroboam restored Israel’s land back to its former limits.
Jonah was the one who gave this prophesy, but we do not have a record of it in the Scriptures. We know Jonah from the book of Jonah. He was a prophet of Israel.
• Now we know why he was so reluctant to go to Nineveh when the Lord called him to, because Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, Israel’s enemy.
Two, God showed mercy because He SAW their pain.
• 14:26 The LORD had seen how bitterly everyone in Israel, whether slave or free, was suffering; there was no one to help them.
• We saw the same comment in chapter 13 when Jehoahaz was King. God saw how severely they were oppressed (under the Arameans) and sent a deliver.
• God was moved with compassion by what He saw. So take heart, God sees and He understands our need.
Three, God saved Israel through Jeroboam.
• 14:27 And since the LORD had not said he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, He SAVED them by the hand of Jeroboam son of Jehoash.
• (The author seems to be surprised that God did not judge them for their evil ways; at least, not yet.)
• So God helped Jeroboam overcame the Arameans and conquered Damascus, its capital. 14:28 mentioned his military achievements and how he recovered the lands for Israel.
God has been good to Israel. He spoke and gave them His Word. God saw their suffering and came to rescue them. He enabled them to overcome their enemies!
• From historical and archaeological records, it has been proven that Jeroboam’s reign was Israel’s most stable and prosperous time.
• And it has been all the works of God, by the grace of God, because of His mercy, and not because of Israel’s merit or goodness.
Did Israel see the hand of God in all of these? Did they recognised God’s blessings?
Did they turn from their idolatry and return to the One who cares for them?
To understand this we need to look at TWO Minor Prophets who ministered during this time. Beside Jonah, we have AMOS and HOSEA.
Amos 1:1 The words of Amos, one of the shepherds of Tekoa—the vision he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel.
• If your bible has subtitles, you can flip through the pages of AMOS and get a sense of its theme.
• Amos warned Israel of God’s impending judgement for their disobedience, their unwillingness to return to God, for their pride and unrepentance.
• Amos 5:4-6 4This is what the Lord says to Israel: “Seek me and live; 5do not seek Bethel, do not go to Gilgal, do not journey to Beersheba. For Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will be reduced to nothing.”
6Seek the Lord and live, or He will sweep through the tribes of Joseph like a fire; it will devour them, and Bethel will have no one to quench it.
The people ignored God’s warnings. See this interesting account:
• Amos 7:10-17 10Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent a message to Jeroboam king of Israel: “Amos is raising a conspiracy against you in the very heart of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words. 11For this is what Amos is saying: “‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will surely go into exile, away from their native land.’”
12Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. 13Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom.”
14Amos answered Amaziah, “I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. 15But the Lord took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ 16Now then, hear the word of the Lord. You say, “‘Do not prophesy against Israel, and stop preaching against the descendants of Isaac.’
17“Therefore this is what the Lord says: “‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword. Your land will be measured and divided up, and you yourself will die in a pagan country. And Israel will surely go into exile, away from their native land.’”
Eventually Assyria will invade Israel and take the people as captives.
• Amos 6:14 For the Lord God Almighty declares, “I will stir up a nation against you, Israel, that will oppress you all the way from Lebo Hamath to the valley of the Arabah.”
• Same phrase we read here in 2 Kings 14:25 – from the entrance of Hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, the land that you’ve taken will soon be taken away.
• They will lose whatever God has given them. Assyria will overrun Israel.
Look at HOSEA, the other prophet who served during Jeroboam II reign.
• Hosea 1:1 The word of the LORD that came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the reign of Jeroboam son of Jehoash king of Israel.
• Hosea 14:1-3 Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God. Your sins have been your downfall! 2Take words with you and return to the LORD. Say to him: "Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips. 3Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount war-horses. We will never again say `Our gods' to what our own hands have made, for in you the fatherless find compassion."
When would Assyria invade? In 2 Kings 17 under King Hoshea, the last King of Israel, some 42 years away, after Jeroboam’s passing.
Jeroboam II 41 years Jehu’s 3rd
Zechariah 6 months Killed by Shallum Jehu’s 4th
Shallum 1 month Killed by Menahem
Menahem 10 years
Pekahiah 2 years Killed by Pekah
Pekah 20 years Killed by Hoshea
Hoshea 9 years ASSYRIA attacks Samaria, ends Israel (721BC).
Amazingly both Minor Prophets did not end their prophecies with doom. Both ends with HOPE – God will restore Israel and their repentance will bring God’s blessing.
• God will not destroy Israel for good; that’s not His intention. God is not going for annihilation but discipline.
• When Israel repent and return, they will find God’s grace. God will restore them.
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Back to 2 Kings 14, what do we see here? God’s mercy. God’s acts of mercy!
• Despite their stubbornness, God gave them time. God gave them warnings.
• God gave them a WINDOW of mercy and sent in His prophets to urge the people to return. This is the heart of God!
That explains why JONAH wasn’t happy going to Nineveh. He wants God to judge them and not save them. The people of Nineveh repented.
• Jonah 4:1-2 1But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. 2He prayed to the LORD, "O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.
• The people of Israel did not recognise God this way but Jonah KNEW Him.
• He has seen it too many times. God is merciful. He does not take delight in judging man. He wants man to know Him and be saved.
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CLOSING: After God judged the world with a flood in Noah’s time, He said to Noah,
• Gen 9:11 “I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
• That’s MERCY. He is not giving us what we deserve.
• And to assure us, and as a sign of the covenant, the Lord says,
• Gen 9:13 “I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.”
When John saw a glimpse of heaven and the throne of God in Rev 4:
• Rev 4:2-4 2At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. 3And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne.
• We cannot see the throne of God without seeing the rainbow.
• When I see God metes out His judgement on the throne, I will see also the rainbow. That’s the mercy of God.
In every judgement, there is mercy. God shows mercy before He judges. He has shown Israel His mercy with every judgement.
• In order words, we cannot accuse God of being merciless, because with every judgement passed, His mercy would have been shown.
• God does not judge without warning. God does not discipline without love.
God is merciful. Ponder on this and give thanks, as we take the Holy Communion today.
• Look at the cross. We see God’s wrath and also God’s mercy for us.
• We see Jesus serving the JUST sentence for sin, not His but ours.
• But at the same time we see the REASON He was there – God’s MERCY for us. He did not give us what we deserved.
A.W. Tozer (The Attributes of God: A Journey into the Father's Heart):
“When Jesus died on the cross the mercy of God did not become any greater. It could not become any greater, for it was already infinite. We get the odd notion that God is showing mercy because Jesus died. No - Jesus died because God is showing mercy. It was the mercy of God that gave us Calvary, not Calvary that gave us mercy. If God had not been merciful there would have been no incarnation, no babe in the manger, no man on a cross and no open tomb.”
Do we, or do we not understand the mercy of God? Are we grateful?
• Think of God’s lovingkindness and give thanks.
• Do not take His mercy for granted. Examine our lives. Heed His Word.
