CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.—
2 Kings 14:23. In the fifteenth year, &c., Jeroboam, king of Israel, &c.—Israel’s history resumed. This was Jeroboam II. His reign was marked by idolatry, yet also with great political success (2 Kings 14:25).
2 Kings 14:25. Spake by his servant Jonah—Not found in the Book of Jonah which we possess.
2 Kings 14:26. There was not any shut up, &c.—Comp. Notes on Kings 2 Kings 14:10.
2 Kings 14:27. The Lord said not that He would blot out the name of Israel—The Divine purposes had not yet announced the obliteration of the ten tribes of the house of Israel.—W. H. J.
HOMILETICS OF 2 Kings 14:23-29
NATIONAL PROSPERITY—AN OPPORTUNITY FOR NATIONAL REFORM
JEROBOAM reigned longer than any other king of Israel, and soon gave evidence of possessing considerable capacity and energy. He not only checked the Syrian invasion and regained the portions of his kingdom which had been seized by the foe, but carried the war into Syria and overawed Damascus into submission. Adversity having failed to bring back Israel to the true worship of Jehovah, a period of prosperity is granted, with no better result. Instead of tracing the goodness of God in their national blessings, the people are confirmed in their calf-worship, and attribute their successes to the influence of Baal. It is their last opportunity, and they see it not. Whom the gods wish to destroy, they first madden. The subsequent history of Israel is one of decline and disaster, until as a nation it becomes extinct. The long and prosperous reign of Jeroboam II. may be regarded as an opportunity for national reform. Observe—
I. That the misfortunes of a nation awaken the Divine compassion. “For the Lord saw the affliction of Israel that it was very bitter” (2 Kings 14:26). The Divine compassion seen—
1. In promising help and instruction by a duly authorized messenger. “According to the Word of the Lord God of Israel, which He spake by the hand of His servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet” (2 Kings 14:26). We have no record of the prophecy uttered by Jonah on this occasion, but it doubtless had reference to the victories over the Syrians that would be granted to the arms of Jeroboam, and be accompanied with warnings and instructions to recognise the authority and power of Jehovah. The Lord pitied the ignorance and infatuation of Israel, and the misery which their own sins had brought upon them, and He once more sends His servant to call them to repentance and reformation. A faithful and earnest ministry is a boon to any people, and brings with it a solemn responsibility to all who hear.
2. In suspending the threat of extinction.—“And the Lord said not that He would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven” (2 Kings 14:27). The idolatry and corruption of Israel merited the punishment of Jehovah, but in mercy He deferred the desolating stroke to give them space for repentance. The time came when the Divine compassion ceased, and the prophets Hosea, Amos, Micah, and others foretold the ruin that fell on Israel with such terrible force. Reprieves are not pardons. The Lord waits to be gracious; but where impenitence continues, the threatened vengeance will surely fall.
3. In providing a competent deliverer.—“He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam” (2 Kings 14:27). Jeroboam was “a man of might” (2 Kings 14:28), distinguished by personal prowess and military genius, and by those qualities that make the successful statesman and ruler. Though himself an idolater, he is used as an instrument to deliver Israel and raise the nation to an extraordinary height of prosperity. The Lord has His agents planted in unseen and unexpected quarters. They may seem the most unlikely to carry out His purposes, and may themselves be unconscious of the real drift of the work they are permitted and aided to accomplish.
II. That national prosperity is a token of the Divine beneficence. “He restored the coast, recovered Damascus” (comp. 2 Kings 14:25; 2 Kings 14:28). The dash and enterprise of Jeroboam roused the nation into new life. The success of his arms at the boundaries of his kingdom ensured protection and peace; and the wheels of commerce, once more set in motion, carried prosperity into every part of the land. Confucius has thus portrayed the signs of national prosperity—
Where spades grow bright, and idle words grow dull;
Where jails are empty, and where barns are full;
Where Church paths are with frequent feet outworn;
Law court-yards weedy, silent, and forlorn;
Where doctors foot it, and where farmers ride;
Where age abounds and youth is multiplied—
Where those signs are, they clearly indicate
A happy people and well-governed State.
Prosperity, like every other blessing, is from God; it is often the severest test applied to the conduct of individuals and of nations. The glitter and glut of prosperity may hide the hand that gives. The heart that adversity could not vitiate has been seduced by the subtle smiles of inconstant prosperity.
III. That national prosperity is abused when it does not lead to national reform. “He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord; he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam (2 Kings 14:24). As was the king, so were the people. The sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, like a close-fitting Nessus garment, still clung to his idolatrous descendants. The goodness of God, that was intended to lead them to repentance, was misinterpreted as sanctioning and even rewarding their apostacy, and instead of weaning them from their idols, lulled them into a false confidence in the supremacy of Baal. It is sad to see blessings abused, opportunities neglected, warnings disregarded, and a whole nation sinking into the gulf of ruin. How unspeakable is the compassion of Him who observes the follies and sins of mankind, and yet shows Himself more eager to restore than destroy!
LESSONS:—
1. That prosperity and adversity are tests of fidelity to principle.
2. An opportunity for reformation comes to every indiridual and every nation.
3. The abuse of opportunity intensifies the inveteracy of evil.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
2 Kings 14:25-27. I. Israel’s deep misery (Jeremiah 2:19). II. God’s great pity (Psalms 103:10; Hosea 9:8).—Lange.
—Our faithful God helps us out of trouble, according to His great compassion, even when we have not deserved it of Him; but often not until our distress has reached the highest pitch, and no help is to be expected from any other quarter.
2 Kings 14:25. Jonah must have been prominent among his order in these stormy times, for we find him the counsellor of Jeroboam in a policy of vigour against Syria. Enthusiastically patriotic, the depression of Israel weighed on his heart. But he did not despair of his country even in its darkest hour. It was under the protection of Jehovah, and must rise again, if it repented and returned to its invisible King. With keen insight into the capacity of the new ruler in Samaria, he recognised him as the deliverer promised by God to save His chosen people, and animated him to take the field against the long-dreaded enemy, by the inspired assurance that he would be victorious, and would even extend the narrow limits of Israel well-nigh to the grandeur of David’s empire—from Hamath, in the northern valley of Lebanon, on the Orontes, to the south of the Dead Sea. That Jonah should have been sent on an errand of mercy to a great heathen city (Nineveh) is specially interesting, as the first prominent expression of the Divine love to all mankind found in the Old Testament. The very harshness and exclusive narrowness of the prophet himself heightens the charm of the narrative. God has pity on the great city, although idolatrous; but Jonah is unwilling to carry a message of love outside his own nation. His very conceptions of the Almighty show the imperfect ideas of his time. He thinks to escape from Him by leaving Palestine for a region beyond the sea. And even when forced on his journey, his Jewish bigotry shows itself in his anger that a heathen population should have averted its threatened doom by a timely repentance.—Geikie’s Hours with the Bible.
2 Kings 14:26-27. God’s unfailing interest in His people.—I. He is minutely acquainted with their abject affliction. II. He delays the execution of the judgment their sins deserve. III. He mercifully delivers them from their distress.
2 Kings 14:27. The reign of this king, which was distinguished by so extraordinary a flow of prosperity, increased the religious apostacy, and by consequence the moral degeneracy, of Israel. Under him the corruption of manners became extreme, and laid the foundation for those public calamities which befel the kingdom soon after his demise, and quickly accomplished the destruction of the nation. Hengstenberg observes: “The prosperity only confirmed the people still more in their temerity. Instead of being led to repentance by the unmerited mercy of God, they considered this prosperity as a reward of their apostacy, as a seal by which Jehovah-Baal confirmed the rectitude of their ways. The false prophets, too, did what was in their power to strengthen them in their delusion, whilst the true prophets preached to deaf ears.” Hengstenberg refers in this last sentence to the emphatic warnings addressed to Jeroboam by Hosea and Amos. Although his whole reign was marked by signal successes, notwithstanding that apostacy, which was usually punished by war and loss of national independence, the wrath of God was denounced against Israel, as well as the destruction of the house of Jeroboam, by the two named prophets, whose writings sufficiently attest the faithful execution of their mission.—Jamieson.
2 Kings 14:28-29. Jeroboam had striven for the external prosperity of his people, and when he died, he left the kingdom in a more flourishing condition than any previous king of Israel. For its spiritual welfare, however, he had done nothing. Calf-worship and other service of false gods had continued, and a moral rottenness had found entrance, which brought the kingdom near to ruin. So has many a one at his death left to his children treasures which he has won by long labour and care, but those children have not been bred in the fear and love of God, and have not been taught that “the world passeth away,” &c. (1 John 2:17; 1 Peter 1:24).—Lange.