And he did evil in the sight of Jehovah, and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin; he departed not from them.
Jehoahaz becomes king of Israel, and the first thing Scripture records about him is a verdict, not an achievement. The sin named against him is not his own invention but Jeroboam's — which raises two questions: why God calls this worship evil, and why no king of Israel would give it up.
The phrase "evil in the sight of the LORD" is not the opinion of Jehoahaz's contemporaries. One writer notes how often the same verdict falls on these kings, and whose eyes set the standard:
The same sad formula describes the moral conduct of these kings of Israel again and again, and it never varies: "He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD." His ways may not have looked sinful to the people around him. But God, who "sees not as man sees," called it "evil." He sent on him and his subjects the punishment their wicked idolatry deserved.
The verse names a sin but does not describe it. That description came long before, when Jeroboam secured his new kingdom by his own reasoning:
The new king, Jeroboam, soon fell morally. He judged by human wisdom and forgot the fear of Jehovah, and he made two golden calves. His aim was to break the strong links of a shared worship, so that they would no longer tie his subjects to Judah and Jerusalem. A new priesthood had to be set up. He devised everything about worship out of his own heart.
The new worship was a careful copy of the real thing. Another writer traces the copy point by point:
He patterns his worship after the form of worship laid down in the law of Moses. "A house of high places" replaces the temple. In place of the priesthood of Levi he puts "priests from all classes of the people, who were not of the sons of Levi." Israel had its Feast of Tabernacles, so Jeroboam set up a feast too, but a month later. He sets up an altar at Bethel to match the bronze altar, places it before the idol, and burns incense on it instead of burnt offerings.
Jehoahaz did not depart from these sins. One writer explains what held them in place:
Jehu cared for himself and not for God. The golden calves were a political religion, and it suited the policy of the ten tribes to keep them. If the ten tribes had no calves of gold, they would have gone back to their allegiance to Jehovah in Jerusalem... To make a kingdom, Jeroboam had to make a religion. If a common bond as important as religion falls apart, and men's minds are divided in religion, you cannot count on them in politics.
Jeroboam is never named in these verdicts without this clause attached. It marks out a category of sin worse than personal failure:
Like a death knell, the sad words the Spirit uses to mark out this man come again and again: "Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin." One chapter alone repeats them four times (2 Kings 15:9, 18, 24, 28). There is something appalling about it... Personal sins are bad enough, but to turn away God's people from the centre which He has set up — what could be worse?
Jehu had destroyed Baal worship, yet he left the calves standing. One writer weighs that zeal against a single act of obedience:
Jehu thought he had done everything by his work of extermination. He did not understand that all the zeal imaginable was not worth one act of obedience — the act that would have separated him from the religion of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, by which he made Israel to sin.
What the father kept, the son continued — and the nation paid:
Jehu took no care to walk in the law of the Lord, and the sins of Jeroboam are not given up. His son, Jehoahaz, did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. As a result the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and they were given into the hands of their enemies.
- Verdict. "Evil in the sight of the LORD" is the refrain over these kings. Their conduct may have looked fine to the people around them, but God does not see as man sees. He called it evil.
- Invention. The sin he followed began as human calculation: golden calves, a new priesthood, a rival feast. Jeroboam devised the whole of it out of his own heart.
- Convenience. The calves stayed because they were a political religion. Without them the ten tribes would have gone back to Jerusalem.
- Contagion. Jeroboam's lasting title is "who made Israel to sin." Personal sin is bad enough. Turning God's people away from the centre He set up is worse.
- Consequence. Jehu's zeal without obedience left the calves standing. His son kept them. God's anger gave Israel into the hands of their enemies.
And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hand of Hazael king of Syria, and into the hand of Ben-Hadad the son of Hazael, all those days.
Israel's northern kingdom had run through several generations of kings. Not one of them broke with the idol-worship Jeroboam had set up. This verse records what that brought on the nation: God's anger, and years under Syrian control. So who was the real power behind Israel's defeats?
Jehoahaz kept the sins of his father Jehu, and of every king before him:
Jehoahaz followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, as his father Jehu had done (v.2). None of the kings who reigned in Israel (the twelve tribes) were godly men, but all followed the idolatry that Jeroboam had introduced. Again the Lord's anger was aroused against Israel, so that they were oppressed by Hazael the king of Syria and by his son Ben-Hadad (v.3).
God's verdict on this king was "evil," even though his neighbours may have seen nothing wrong:
The same sad formula describes how these kings of Israel behaved, and it never changes: "He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord." His ways may not have looked sinful to the people around him. But God, who "sees not as man sees," called it "evil," and sent on him and his subjects the chastisement their wicked idolatry deserved.
God handed Israel over to Syria. One writer looks back to an earlier invasion, where God used the Midianites in the same way:
The Midianites did not know that it was Jehovah who had delivered Israel into their hands, yet in reality they were only the rod with which it pleased Him to punish His people. As with the Assyrian (Isa. 10): "Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury!" When He has finished with His rod, He can break it or burn it. "Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it, or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it? As if a rod should wield him who lifts it, or a staff should lift him who is not wood!"
Years earlier Hazael had stood before Elisha with a message about a sick man. The prophet wept:
When Hazael came before him with his message, Elisha realised that a fateful moment had arrived for Israel. So he told his visitor that there was no real reason why the sick man should not recover — but that in fact he would not, because Hazael was destined to be king over Syria. Then he wept. All the cruelties that come with war rose up before his mind. He knew Israel richly deserved the chastening rod, yet he loved the people, and mourned over the ruin coming upon them.
Older translations end this verse "all their days," which shows how long the pressure lasted:
"Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz" (2 Kings 13:22). There was no relief until Joash's day. If his repentance truly came from "godly grief" for his own sins and the nation's, this must have tested his faith. But when has faith ever flourished untried? So do not waver or stumble, dear fellow believer, at "the testing of your faith." God "listened" to Jehoahaz, though he died while Hazael was still devastating his kingdom.
The oppression had a goal, and it reached it:
God was even in this way seeking to turn them back from their idolatries to repentance. This bitter chastisement seems to have had a healthy effect upon Jehoahaz, for he "sought the Lord." When the "kindness" of God fails to bring men to repentance, His "severity" is needed, and He uses it.
Israel's trouble was self-inflicted. Even so, the Lord listened when their king cried to Him:
They were a backslidden people. They had turned their backs on God, gone their own self-willed way after idols, and were only reaping what they had sown. Then King Jehoahaz sought the Lord. We know this was always the last resort of these children of Jacob. It had always been proof that they were at their wits' end. Yet the Lord listened to his cry, and this was evidence of the patience of their God and ours. He is a God ready to forgive and rich in mercy.
- Cause — Jehoahaz kept Jeroboam's idolatry. God, who does not see as people see, called it evil and sent the chastening it deserved.
- Rod — Hazael conquered, but he was the rod in God's hand. Such instruments never know their part, and God can break the rod when He has finished with it.
- Tears — Elisha had already wept over this invasion. He knew Israel deserved the rod, and still loved the people who would feel it.
- Length — The pressure lasted "all their days," past the praying king's own death. God tested faith instead of giving a quick fix.
- Aim — Kindness had failed, so God used severity, and it worked: the king sought the Lord, and found Him ready to forgive.
(And Jehoahaz besought Jehovah, and Jehovah hearkened to him; for he saw the oppression of Israel, because the king of Syria oppressed them.
Israel is being ground down by Syria, and the king on the throne is a man whose heart has never changed. Then he prays — and the verse tells us God listened, and tells us why.
The pressure on Israel was not an accident of politics. One writer traces it back to a prophecy about Hazael, the Syrian king. He reads the suffering as what God used when His kindness failed to reach them:
In this brief aside we see how Elisha's prophecy came true: Hazael pitilessly oppressed the people of Israel (2 Kings 8:12). No wonder the man of God, who loved Israel so much, wept when the man destined to carry out these cruelties stood before him. Even in this way God was seeking to turn them back from their idols to repentance. This bitter discipline seems to have done Jehoahaz good, for he "sought the favor of the LORD." When God's "goodness" fails to bring men to repentance, He must use His "severity," and He does.
Nothing here suggests Jehoahaz changed his ways. That is what makes the verse remarkable:
Yet what mercy in the heart of God! Jehoahaz prayed to the Lord with no change of heart at all. That was enough for Him to answer, moved by the misery and oppression of Israel. He takes account of the slightest movement of an unhappy soul toward Himself. God is very easily found. The most ungodly man turns toward Him for a single instant and receives an answer. Who can ever say, after that, that he sought Him in vain?
The verse gives God's reason for listening: He saw what Syria was doing to them. One writer notes how late the prayer came, and how the Lord answered it anyway:
They were a backslidden people. They had turned their backs on God and gone their own self-willed way after idols. They were only reaping what they had sown. Then King Jehoahaz prayed to the Lord. We know that this was always the last resort of these children of Jacob. It had always been proof that they were at their wits' end. Yet the Lord listened to his cry, and this was evidence of the patience of their God and ours. He is a God ready to forgive and full of mercy.
This verse says God listened. Yet verse 22 says Syria kept oppressing Israel for his whole reign. That gap is itself a lesson:
The prayer of Jehoahaz was heard, but it was not fully answered at once… Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, was the first one through whom a partial deliverance came (verse 25), and the full deliverance came under his grandson Jeroboam II. Here we see how the Lord hears prayer. In His sovereignty and all-wise purposes He may delay the answer for many years. It should be enough for God's people to know that He hears prayer and to leave the answer with Him, who does all things well. And so Jehoahaz saw nothing but oppression (verse 22), though he had turned to the LORD and had prayed. It was a trial of faith.
The relief God sent did not produce a changed nation. Verse 6 records that they stayed in the sins they had inherited. Still, the bare act of turning to God was not ignored:
How gracious is the Lord! We see, sadly, that the one who began so well finally drifts away from his original integrity. But we see that the man who listens and bows to the Lord is never without at least some measure of recognition on God's part.
Commentators differ on who the deliverer turned out to be. One writer sets the king's cry against a warning about trusting in human strength, and draws a line from it to an open invitation and to a greater rescue:
God warns us in His Word, "Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD" (Jeremiah 17:5). Jehoahaz gives us a better example. He "sought the favor of the LORD," and we read that "the LORD listened to him." Through the psalmist Asaph He had given the invitation: "Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me" (Psalm 50:15). Whether Jehoahaz ever glorified Him we do not know, but God is faithful. He heard Jehoahaz's pleading, but more than that, He pitied His people and gave them a deliverer from the Syrian oppression. Who this was we do not know, but thank God for the Savior we do know!
- Pressure — God's goodness did not turn Israel, so He used His severity. Hazael's cruelty is what drove a king to pray at last.
- Prayer — The cry came from an unchanged heart, at the end of his options. God still heard it. He notices the slightest movement of an unhappy soul toward Him.
- Pity — The stated reason God listened is what He saw: their oppression. His compassion, not the king's merit, is the hinge of the verse.
- Patience — Heard is not the same as answered. Jehoahaz saw only oppression to his dying day; the deliverance came to his son. Prayer heard, answer delayed — that is a trial of faith, not a refusal.
- Provision — God did send Israel a deliverer. The pattern points past Syria to the Saviour we do know by name.
And Jehovah gave Israel a saviour, so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians; and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents as before.
Israel had never left behind the idols Jeroboam set up, and Syria had crushed the nation for years. Yet God gave them a saviour, which raises three questions: why He answered, who the deliverer was, and what Israel did with the rescue.
Israel's suffering was not bad luck. Elisha had foretold it, and God used it to turn the nation back.
This paragraph, set inside the account, shows how Elisha's prophecy came true. Hazael would oppress the people of Israel without pity (2 Kings 8:12). Elisha loved Israel dearly, so he had good reason to weep when the man destined to do these cruel things to his people stood in front of him. Even in this way God was seeking to turn them back from their idols to repentance. This bitter punishment seems to have done Jehoahaz good, for he begged the LORD. When the "goodness" of God fails to bring men to repentance, His "severity" is needed, and He uses it. See Ps. 78:34; Hosea 5:15.
Nothing in Jehoahaz had changed. He asked, and that was enough for God to move.
Still, what mercy there is in the heart of God! Jehoahaz begged the Lord, though his heart was not changed in any way. That was enough for Him to answer, moved by the misery and oppression of Israel… He takes account of the slightest movement of an unhappy soul toward Himself. God is very easy to find. Who from now on could say he had sought Him in vain? The most ungodly man receives an answer if he turns toward Him for even an instant.
God heard the prayer at once. The rescue took two more reigns to arrive.
Verses 5 and 6 form a parenthesis. The prayer of Jehoahaz was heard, but it was not fully answered at once. These two verses give a summary of the whole history: God sent a saviour, and yet they continued in their sins. The first partial deliverance came through Joash, the son of Jehoahaz (verse 25). The full deliverance came under the grandson Jeroboam II (14:25-27). Here is a good illustration of how the Lord hears prayer. In His sovereignty and all-wise purposes He may delay the answer for many years… And so Jehoahaz saw nothing but oppression (verse 22), though he had turned to the LORD and had prayed. It was a trial of faith.
Commentators differ here. Some point to Joash, the son who succeeded Jehoahaz. Others say Scripture never tells us his name.
He heard the pleading of Jehoahaz, but more than that, He pitied His people and gave them a deliverer from the Syrian oppression. Who this was we don't know, but thank God for the Saviour we do know!
One writer does give him a name, and notes how long he had gone unnoticed.
As He gave a Saviour to Israel in their poverty — and that Saviour was without doubt Elisha — so He will still deliver His people. Elisha's presence in the land seems to have been forgotten for forty years. Yet he was there, ready to show the kindness of God to the people whenever they turned to Him.
Israel prayed only when everything else had failed. What God gave back was ordinary life at home — the older translation quoted here reads "in their tents."
Then King Jehoahaz begged the Lord. We know that this was always the last resort of these children of Jacob. It had always been a sign that they were at their wits' end. Yet the Lord listened to his cry, and this was evidence of the patience of their God and ours. He is a God ready to forgive and full of mercy. So we read: "He was gracious to them and had compassion on them, and gave them a Saviour, so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians, and lived in their tents as before." This means they were free and safe and happy, as God always wished them to be.
The next verse shows what Israel did with the rescue.
God was kind and answered their prayer. Even so, Israel kept up their idolatrous worship of the idols Jeroboam had set up, and of a wooden image in Samaria.
- Given a rod. Syria's oppression fulfilled Elisha's earlier word. It was God's severity at work after His goodness had failed to turn the nation back.
- Given a hearing. Jehoahaz prayed out of desperation with an unchanged heart. God still answered. He notices the smallest turn of an unhappy soul toward Himself.
- Given a saviour. Commentators differ on who he was. Some name Joash, some name Elisha, and some say Scripture never tells us — leaving us with the Saviour we do know.
- Given time. God heard at once, but the answer came slowly: in part under Joash, in full under Jeroboam II. Jehoahaz himself lived under oppression to the end. It was a trial of faith.
- Given rest. Living at home again meant free, safe, and happy. Yet Israel kept its idols. Rescue is not the same as repentance.
Nevertheless they departed not from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin they walked therein; and there remained also the Asherah in Samaria.)
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
For he had left of the people to Jehoahaz but fifty horsemen, and ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen; for the king of Syria had destroyed them, and had made them like the dust by threshing.
Israel's king Jehoahaz had prayed, and God had listened. Yet this verse counts the handful of men and chariots he had left, and it raises a hard question: what does it mean for God to hear a prayer while the oppression grinds on?
The numbers measure a collapse. One writer reads them as the outcome of Jehoahaz's whole reign.
Israel's army was left pathetically weak, with only 50 horsemen, ten chariots and 10,000 foot soldiers, because of the destruction the Syrians brought on them. The seventeen years of Jehoahaz's reign ended only in defeat and disaster.
This did not happen overnight. It had started under an earlier king, and the text names the cause.
Already in Jehu's day "the LORD began to cut Israel short." They lost the land east of the Jordan to the Syrians under Hazael. Things grew worse until Jehoahaz's army was down to a pitiful 50 horsemen, 10 chariots, and 10,000 footmen. God's Word traces this situation to the LORD's anger burning against Israel. And no wonder, for they still followed the sins of Jeroboam.
Another writer says the ruin was self-inflicted.
They were a backslidden people. They had turned their backs on God and gone their own wilful way after idols. They were reaping what they had sown.
Threshing crushed grain on a floor to separate the seed. One writer points to where that threshing fell on Israel, and to the man who carried it out.
The threshing of Gilead with iron instruments took place when Hazael of Damascus conquered the land east of the Jordan. Hazael murdered Ben-hadad, and Elisha had predicted all the horrible things he would do to Israel.
Hazael was not acting outside God's control.
When Assyria stopped attacking him, Hazael turned his weapons against Israel. God used him as the instrument to punish His guilty people, and "to cut Israel short." Hazael struck all the borders of Israel. He kept up this hostility to the end of his life. From time to time God gave His people relief, but they did not turn from their evil ways.
Verses 5 and 6 tell of a saviour and of continued sin; verse 7 then circles back to the wreckage. One writer explains why the answer to Jehoahaz's prayer took generations to arrive.
Verses 5 and 6 form a parenthesis. The seventh verse tells of the destruction the king of Syria had caused among Israel. The prayer of Jehoahaz was heard, but not answered in full at once… God worked a partial deliverance first through Joash, the son of Jehoahaz. The full deliverance came under the grandson, Jeroboam II. Here we have a good illustration of how the Lord hears prayer. In His sovereignty and all-wise purposes He may delay the answer for many years.
Jehoahaz never lived to see the relief. One writer turns this into encouragement for believers who are still waiting.
When has faith, untried, ever flourished? Do not waver, then, or stumble, dear fellow-believer, at "the trial of your faith." God "listened" to Jehoahaz, though he died with Hazael still busy at his work of devastation in his kingdom.
Israel's army was almost gone, but not gone. One writer measures the loss against Israel's better days.
How reduced they were from the days when they followed the victorious Joshua into the land God had given them! What a change from the prosperous days of David and Solomon! Their sins had brought them so low. God's mercy had spared them from destruction.
The same writer applies this to believers who have drifted away from God.
"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). Wherever there has been backsliding, this is the way of restoration. And restoration to fellowship with our God and Father and our Lord Jesus Christ means deliverance from oppression and defeat, and spiritual revival.
after_note: DELETE We come out from under the hand of the Syrian, and live in our tents as before.
- Cause. The army did not shrink by bad luck. God's anger burned against a people who kept following the sins of Jeroboam.
- Instrument. Hazael threshed Israel like dust, and God used him as His rod against His own guilty people. Real cruelty, never out of His hand.
- Remnant. The tiny army left measures the ruin sin caused and the mercy that stopped short of wiping Israel out.
- Delay. God heard Jehoahaz's prayer, yet verse 7 still records the wreckage. Full deliverance came only under his son and grandson.
- Comfort. He died with the oppression still raging. God can hear a prayer while the trouble goes on, and that is the trial of faith, not a refusal.
And the rest of the acts of Jehoahaz, and all that he did, and his might, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
The account of Jehoahaz ends the way most reigns in Israel end. A note points the reader to other records, which listed his "might." Yet his seventeen years had shrunk Israel's army to almost nothing. So what is this record of might, and who keeps the real account of a life?
The verse just before this one reports a crushed nation. One commentator holds the two facts together — the ruined years and the official record of strength.
Despite God's kindness in answering prayer, Israel kept worshipping the idols Jeroboam had set up, and a wooden image in Samaria too. The Syrians destroyed Israel's army and left it pitifully weak: only 50 horsemen, ten chariots and 10,000 foot soldiers. The 17 years of the reign of Jehoahaz ended in nothing but defeat and disaster. Yet verse 8 tells us that the rest of his acts and his might are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. These are not the Chronicles found in the Bible.
One writer draws a lesson for anyone whose prayer was heard while the trouble goes on.
"Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz" (2 Kings 13:22). There was no respite until Joash's day. If his repentance truly came from "godly sorrow" for his own sins and the nation's, this must have tested Jehoahaz's faith. But when has untested faith ever flourished? So do not stumble, dear fellow-believer, at "the trial of your faith." God "listened" to Jehoahaz, though he died with Hazael still busy destroying his land.
The delay was not a refusal. Another writer traces how the answer arrived across three generations.
Jehoahaz prayed to the LORD, and the LORD, so abundant in mercy, listened. He listened because He saw the oppression of Israel under the king of Syria… A partial deliverance came first through Joash, the son of Jehoahaz (verse 25), and the full deliverance came under the grandson Jeroboam II (14:25-27). Here we see how the Lord hears prayer, and how in His sovereignty and all-wise purposes He may delay the answer for many years. It is enough for God's people to know that He hears prayer, and to leave the answer with Him, who does all things well.
This phrase comes up again and again in Kings. One commentator explains what these records were, and why losing them costs the believer nothing.
Men wrote these chronicles during the reigns of all the rulers of those times, Jewish or Gentile. They have nothing to do with the Word of God. They record what it did not please the Lord to record or explain. These chronicles have been lost. The believer needs none of them; he has God's Word. There in God's account he finds all that he needs, and God's own evaluation of people, events and things. Writings that are not inspired may record certain deeds, even with great exactness, but nothing more than human evaluation ever goes with those deeds. Men of God — prophets and seers — could have a hand in drawing up these chronicles, yet such writings are still not the inspired Word of God.
Even the biblical record is selective about this king, and the reason is his distance from the line of David.
Second Chronicles, which gives the history of the family of David, makes no mention of Jehoahaz because there were no relationships between this king and Judah. When such relationships did not exist, this book passes over those kings in silence.
One writer read through these lists of forgotten names and drew a lesson for every reader.
God lets us go over such a record of names, and there is something deeply solemn in it for the soul. People forgot those names long ago, yet God has remembered every one, with every detail of their pathway through this world. Some day our names likewise will be lost to mankind, but neither we nor our ways will be forgotten by God.
The same kind of note about another king, Jotham, lists his "ways" as well as his wars.
"All his wars" implies that he fought enemies throughout his sixteen years on the throne… His "ways" were written down too. God's saints are called to walk, as well as to war. Ours, like king Jotham's, "are written in the book." So may we say, like another Hebrew king, "I will take heed to my ways"!
- Two books. Jehoahaz's deeds went into a national record that is now lost. What God chose to keep is in Scripture, and only there do we get His evaluation, not man's.
- Two records of might. The lost record listed his strength. Scripture shows an army of fifty horsemen. God's account is the honest one.
- Prayer heard, answer delayed. He died with the oppressor still ravaging his land. Yet deliverance came through his son, and in full through his grandson.
- Trial, not refusal. Faith that is never tested never flourishes. It is enough that God hears; leave the timing with Him.
- Names God remembers. Human records perish, and people will forget our names. But God writes down our ways — so take heed to your ways.
And Jehoahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in Samaria; and Joash his son reigned in his stead.
Verse 9 gives the usual closing notice for a king of Israel: he dies, they bury him in Samaria, and his son takes the throne. But Jehoahaz had prayed, and God had heard him, so this quiet ending raises a question: what happened to the answer?
Verse 8 points to a record of his "might." Yet his whole reign came to nothing. One writer sets the ruined army beside the closing notice:
The Syrians had destroyed Israel's army. It was left pitifully weak, with only 50 horsemen, ten chariots and 10,000 foot soldiers. The 17 years of the reign of Jehoahaz ended only in defeat and disaster. Verse 8 does tell us that the rest of his acts and his might are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. But that is not the same as the Scripture books of Chronicles. At his death his son Joash succeeded him on Israel's throne.
They buried him in Samaria, the capital he never cleansed. On the day he died the enemy was still at work in his land. One commentator turns that hard fact into encouragement:
There was no relief until Joash's day. This must have been a test of Jehoahaz' faith, if his repentance truly came from "godly sorrow" for his own sins and the nation's. But when has faith ever grown strong without being tested? So do not waver or stumble, dear fellow believer, when your faith is tried. God "listened" to Jehoahaz, even though he died while Hazael was still destroying his realm.
God can hear a prayer the moment it is made and answer it generations later. At verse 9 the man who prayed is dead, and the relief has still not come:
God heard the prayer of Jehoahaz, but did not answer it in full at once… He gave a partial deliverance first through Joash, the son of Jehoahaz. The full deliverance came under the grandson Jeroboam II. Here is a good picture of how the Lord hears prayer. In His sovereignty and all-wise purposes He may delay the answer for many years. It should be enough for God's people to know that prayer is heard and to leave the answer with Him, who does all things well.
Earlier in the chapter God promised Israel a rescuer. The son named in verse 9 is that rescuer:
This saviour appeared, as we shall see, in the person of Joash, the son and successor of Jehoahaz. At last the people might enjoy a little quiet. If they had given God the credit for this favour, the blessing would have continued. But "they did not depart from the sins of the house of Jeroboam"; they "walked in them." People often note that the world is happy to enjoy God's favours without taking the least care to serve Him.
God had told Jehu how long his family would hold the throne. The handover in this verse is one more step in keeping that word, even though the family stayed in its idolatry:
The Lord kept His promise to Jehu: "Your sons of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel." Jehoahaz followed his father on the throne. Second Chronicles gives the history of the family of David. It says nothing about Jehoahaz, because this king had no dealings with Judah… Jehoahaz did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam any more than his father did. Even the Asherah stayed in Israel's capital — the idol of the Phoenician goddess of love, whose impure worship Ahab had started at Samaria.
Commentators differ on how the numbers here fit together. One notes only that the next verse "seems inconsistent" with the reign lengths, "whatever may be the explanation" (Leslie M. Grant). Another suggests a shared throne:
Compare the numbers in verse ten with those in verse one of the same chapter and the first verse of the following chapter. It is clear that Joash reigned together with his father during the last two years of his father's life. That was not unusual in ancient times. This easily explains a problem in the dates that otherwise has no explanation.
- Sin. Jehoahaz kept the idolatry of Jeroboam and left the Asherah standing in Samaria — the city where they buried him.
- Rod. His seventeen years brought only defeat and disaster. He left a token army and an enemy still in the land.
- Cry. God heard his prayer, yet he died while Hazael was still destroying his kingdom. That was a trial of faith, not a failure of God.
- Delay. The answer came in stages: partial rescue through his son, full rescue through his grandson. God hears at once, and may go on answering for years.
- Gift. The son who "reigned in his place" was himself the promised deliverer, and the handover also kept God's word to Jehu about four generations.
In the thirty-seventh year of Joash king of Judah began Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz to reign over Israel in Samaria, for sixteen years.
A date, a capital city, a length of reign — that is nearly all this verse gives us about Jehoash, king of Israel. Two questions follow. Why does the dating overlap his father's reign? And why is the record of a strong king so short?
Israel and Judah both had a ruler called Joash at the same time, and the numbers in this chapter seem not to line up. One writer explains the puzzle as a shared throne:
Compare the figures of this verse with those in verse one of the same chapter, and in the first verse of the next chapter. It is clear that Joash (Jehoash, shortened) reigned jointly with his father during the last two years of his father's life. Two kings sharing a throne was not unusual in those days. This explains a chronological difficulty that otherwise has no answer. The same simple answer would most likely clear up the hardest chronology puzzles in Scripture — apart from a few that certainly go back to copying mistakes.
Some have called Joash a good man. One writer weighs that verdict against what God has recorded:
A little show of religious, or even half-religious, feeling goes a long way with some people in reckoning others "good." Some have supposed that Joash reformed, or repented, toward the end of his life… But the words, "he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam," rule out any thought of real or lasting repentance at any point in his life. God is more eager to record any good in these kings' lives than any of His people are to read it. He has noted none in Joash's; and where He is silent, who will dare to speak?
King after king in Israel kept up the sins of Jeroboam. The motive was easy to see:
Not only did he not turn aside from any of the sins of Jeroboam, but "he walked in them" (v. 11). The Word here shows us that he took them as his rule of conduct. One king of Israel after another followed the same path, and their motives were very strong and easy to see. Humanly speaking, their authority and their hold on the kingdom were tied to a religion that kept them apart from Judah's worship, with its temple and Jerusalem at its centre. To return to the worship of the LORD would have meant giving up their rule. It would have meant bowing to the family of David and surrendering their own royal rights.
Joash was not a weak king. Yet the record of his sixteen years passes over nearly all he did:
As for the power of Joash of Israel, it was great. His reign was important, and he accomplished many things. But he lived without God, and what is left of him? As with so many other rulers over men, nothing remains of him but this word: "This one was born there" (Ps. 87:4).
Within these sixteen years comes one striking scene. Joash goes to the dying Elisha, and commentators read the visit differently. One sees real feeling behind it:
This may surprise us. But it is clear there was no pretence, mockery, or insincerity in all this. It was nature. Perhaps this king of the house of Jehu had badly neglected Elisha up to now. Now the prophet was about to be taken away. That stirred his conscience, as was only natural, and so he seeks the dying prophet.
Another sees God at work in it, and draws the wider principle:
Scripture gives two accounts of Joash's reign. Between them we find the end of Elisha's career, and what was able to make this evil king an instrument of deliverance for his people. This was grace. God shows grace whenever and as long as He is able to do so. Grace delights in a soul where even a flash of repentance appears, or in the mere sigh of an oppressed heart.
The visit ended with a test.
Elisha put his dying hands on the king's hands. By this he meant the king to understand the truth God spoke more than three hundred years later through the prophet Zechariah: "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts" (Zech. 4:6)… Only Joash's lack of faith kept him from destroying the Syrians completely. That lack showed in his half-hearted striking of the ground with arrows just three times. And it was to him according to his faith.
- Reign — Father and son ruled together for the last two years of Jehoahaz's life. That is why the numbers seem to clash.
- Rule — Joash took Jeroboam's sins as his rule of conduct. Returning to the Lord's worship would have cost him his crown.
- Record — He was powerful and achieved much. But he lived without God, and almost nothing of him remains.
- Rescue — God still met him. Grace fastens on even a flash of repentance or the sigh of an oppressed heart. It made this evil king a deliverer for his people.
- Reach — The arrows measured his faith. He stopped at three, and so he stopped short of destroying Syria: it was to him according to his faith.
And he did evil in the sight of Jehovah; he departed not from any of the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin he walked therein.
Joash (also called Jehoash) follows his father onto Israel's throne, and God's verdict on him repeats the verdict on the kings before him, with one phrase added that makes his case worse. So what does it mean to walk in another man's sins, and why did king after king keep a sin everyone could name?
The verse does not stop at saying Joash failed to turn away. It says he walked in them. One commentator takes that added clause as the point of the record, and gives the blunt reason these kings all made the same choice.
He did not simply refuse to turn aside from any of the sins of Jeroboam; he "walked in them" (v. 11). The Word is showing us that he took them as his rule of conduct… Their authority and their hold on the kingdom were, from a human point of view, tied to a religion that kept them apart from Judah's worship, with its temple and Jerusalem at the center. To go back to the worship of the LORD would have meant giving up their rule, putting themselves under the family of David, and giving up their own royal rights… This is all the more striking in the case of Joash of Israel, because later God gave the king of Judah and Jerusalem into his hand. If he had had any concern for the LORD at all, he now had his chance to renew the religious bond with the temple of God that Jeroboam had broken.
The verse names Jeroboam as the source of these sins. He did not stumble into idolatry; he designed the golden calves for a purpose, and later kings like Jehu had their own reasons to keep them.
Jehu cared for himself and not for God. The golden calves were a political religion, and it suited the policy of the ten tribes to keep them. If the ten tribes had no calves of gold, they would have gone back to giving their allegiance to the LORD in Jerusalem… To make a kingdom, Jeroboam had to make a religion. If you break up a shared bond as important as religion, and religion divides men's minds, you cannot count on them in politics.
Some have judged Joash more kindly than this verse does. One commentator answers them, starting with Josephus, an ancient Jewish historian.
Josephus calls him a "good man." That wrong judgment of Joash's character probably rests on his visit to the dying prophet Elisha. A small show of religious, or even half-religious, feeling goes a long way with some people in counting a man "good."… But the words, "He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam," rule out any thought of real or lasting repentance at any point in his life. God is more eager to record any good in the life of one of these kings than His people are to read it. He has recorded none in Joash's life. Where He is silent, who will dare to speak?
Verse 11 is not a one-off remark. One writer hears it as a refrain over the kings of Israel, set against a different refrain over the kings of Judah, the southern kingdom.
This phrase, "the high places were not taken away," runs like a refrain through the history of the faithful kings of Judah, apart from two exceptions. Another refrain marks out the kings of Israel: "He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin." These kings shaped their religious conduct by the head of their royal house, who was an idolater… But it is always very dangerous to settle into a system which does not seek the mind of God as its source, even when that system boasts of great age.
Joash was not a weak king. One writer weighs what his power finally amounted to.
The power of Joash of Israel was great. His reign mattered, and he achieved many things. But he lived without God — so what is left of him?
The verdict is not the last word. One writer points to what stands between the two halves of Joash's history.
Between these two parts of the record we find the end of Elisha's career, and what could make this evil king an instrument of deliverance for his people. This was grace. God shows grace whenever He is able, and for as long as He is able. Grace delights in a soul where even a flash of repentance appears, or in the bare sigh of an oppressed heart.
- Rule — Joash did not just fail to leave Jeroboam's sins. He took them as his rule of conduct.
- Reason — The calves were a political religion. Leaving them meant losing the throne, so the kings kept them.
- Refrain — The same sentence follows king after king. Each one measured himself by the head of his royal house, not by God.
- Reckoning — A visit to a dying prophet did not change the verdict. Where God records no good, no one should add any.
- Rescue — Grace still made this evil king a deliverer, because grace answers the faintest sigh of an oppressed heart.