2 Kings 15:1–17:5; Galatians 5:1–6:18; Proverbs 8:1–8
Those who do not learn from their mistakes are bound to
repeat them. The OT people of God, divided into the two kingdoms of Israel and
Judah, illustrate this is true. A brief outline summarizes decades of
repetition.
In ISRAEL,
Zechariah, the son of Jeroboam reigned over Israel in Samaria six months. He did
what was evil in the sight of the Lord,
as his fathers had done and made Israel sin. Shallum the son of Jabesh struck
him down and reigned in his place. (2 Kings 15:8–10)
Shallum lasted one month. Menahem put him to death and
reigned in his place. He is known for sacking the people of Tiphsah because
they did not open it to him, and for ripping open all the women who were
pregnant. He lasted ten years, but was also evil and “did
not depart all his days from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which
he made Israel to sin.” (2 Kings 15:13–18)
Mehahem’s son, Pekahiah then reigned two years, continuing
in the sins of Jeroboam. Then Pekah the son of his captain, put him to death
and reigned in his place for twenty years, doing evil with the same sins Jeroboam
until Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came and captured much of his land and carried
the people captive to Assyria. (2 Kings 15:23–29)
Hoshea also reigned over Israel, doing “evil in the sight of the Lord,
yet not as the kings of Israel who were before him.” The king of Assyria
made him pay tribute, but found treachery in him, therefore put him in prison
and invaded Israel, besieging Samaria for three years. (2 Kings 17:1–5)
In the meantime in JUDAH,
Azariah, son of Amaziah was sixteen years old when he began to reign. He did
what was right in the eyes of the Lord as
his father had done, but the people still sacrificed and made offerings on the
high places. The Lord touched the
king so he was a leper all his life while Jotham his son governed. (2 Kings
15:1–5)
Later, Jotham began to reign. He was twenty-five years old
and ruled sixteen years, doing what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father had done, but the
people still sacrificed and made offerings on the high places. (2 Kings
15:32–35)
Then his son Ahaz began to reign at twenty years of age,
but “he did not do what was right in the eyes of
the Lord his God, as his father
David had done, but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even burned
his son as an offering, according to the despicable practices of the nations
whom the Lord drove out before the
people of Israel. And he sacrificed and made offerings on the high places and
on the hills and under every green tree.” When the king of Syria and
Pekah of Israel came to conquer him, they failed. Yet Ahaz sent silver and gold
from the house of the Lord to the king of Assyria as protection money against
Syria and Israel. (2 Kings 16:1-4, 7–8) He messed with the altar from the house
of the Lord, part of the reasons for his downfall.
The records show that even the ‘good’ kings did not learn
from past history. Solomon writes about wisdom and his words call out to those
kings (and to us also): “To you, O men, I call, and
my cry is to the children of man. O simple ones, learn prudence; O fools, learn
sense. Hear, for I will speak noble things, and from my lips will come what is
right . . . .” (Proverbs 8:4–6) Solomon was a wise man, but he did not
follow his own advice!
Paul’s words to the Christians at Galatia also speak to
the foolishness of abandoning wisdom: “You were
running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not
from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump.”
(Galatians 5:7–9)
He also said, “For if anyone
thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself . . . . Do not
be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.”
(Galatians 6:3, 7)
Yet as I read this history and remember mine, I know that
I am no better. Sin is a repetitious and forgetful enemy that pulls us away
from wisdom and into trouble. This is why I need Jesus, my Savior.
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