Heeding God’s warning signs in time

When I was about twelve, my family spent a week’s holiday by a branch of the River Danube. The first day when we went down to one of the beaches nearby, my brother and I were about to play in the shallows first before going in for a proper swim, when a man came up to warn us. Apparently not half hour earlier a boy and girl of about our age were swept away by a treacherous current from where we were standing. It seemed odd that a place looking so harmless (the water did not look deep at all) could be so dangerous but not knowing much about rivers, we heeded the warning. We never heard back about those poor children, but I remember the cold shiver running down my spine when I thought of them later in the day and I felt the shock that it could have been us.

Israel’s sin and disintegration

In our reading, the story of the northern kingdom (Israel; 2 Kings 15:8-31) is flanked on either side by the reign of southern kings in Judah (2 Kings 15:1-7, 32-38). As the latter looked on, Israel disintegrated into chaos. It was a warning for Judah of what could happen to them, too. In the fourth generation after Jehu, Zechariah is assassinated after only six months on the throne (2 Kings 15:8, 10) and with it, God’s grace, which was extended to Israel for so long, runs out. Conspiracy follows conspiracy and four of Israel’s last six kings in our chapter are assassinated (2 Kings 15:10, 14, 25, 30). After Jeroboam II’s long and peaceful reign, Assyria, the great empire of the north, is beginning to expand and make conquests. Israel pays Assyria off with a hefty tribute to avoid war (2 Kings 15:19-20) but is later conquered anyway and a substantial number of Israelites are taken captive into Assyria (2 Kings 15:29). Hoshea is Israel’s last king (2 Kings 15:30) and the country’s final demise is imminent. Throughout the chapter, the evaluation of Israelite kings is like a constant drumbeat: ‘he did evil in the sight of the LORD’ (2 Kings 15:9, 18, 24, 28).[1]

Warning signs amid right living and compromise

Compared to this, Judah’s kings are better. Both Azariah/Uzziah and Jotham do what is right.[2] Nevertheless, the praise is tempered as this faithfulness is compromised by the high places (shrines dotted about in the land), where people continue to worship instead of the Jerusalem temple (2 Kings 15:3-4, 34-35). There are also warning signs in Judah that not all is as it seems. Illness is not necessarily God’s judgment, but an ancient audience would have immediately felt unease hearing that ‘the LORD struck the king [Azariah]’ with leprosy (2 Kings 15:5). It suggests punishment for sin and Chronicles tells the fuller story of the king’s arrogance (2 Chron 26:16-21).[3] Likewise, his son, Jotham faces the coalition of Aram (Syria) and Israel as they turn on Judah and once again, it is the LORD who sends them (2 Kings 15:37). God being behind the military conflict suggests that Judah is coming under judgment, too, for living compromised lives. Will they heed the warning?

Heeding God’s warning in time

Our chapter makes for sober reading and highlights two important lessons. First, it is possible to think that we are doing fine when we compare ourselves with others who are much worse than us. Judah may have looked at Israel and felt that they were certainly not as bad! Yet the disconcerting aspects in Judah’s kingdom likewise suggest that a compromised faith not fully devoted to God can lead us down the same road as outright rebellion against Him. About 120-30 years after Israel’s demise, Judah also went into exile. In fact, I wonder if the exiles did not listen to their history with regret thinking, ‘If only we had listened to the warning signs while there was still time!’. As always, not every difficulty is a sign that something is wrong and when we seek God, He will guide us to know what to think. Nevertheless, the Lord sometimes brings challenges into our lives to awaken us that all is not well with how we live. He is able to communicate with us, so we understand the connection between our compromise and its consequences. May we be people who live wholeheartedly for the Lord and heed His warning in time.

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[1] Shallum only reigns for one short month (2 Kings 15:13), which is probably why there is no evaluation of his reign. The assessment of Israel’s last king, Hoshea, comes in 2 Kings 17:2. He, too, does evil though he is not quite as bad as the kings before him. Nevertheless, at this stage, there is no turning back the disaster.

[2] Uzziah is a variant of Azariah (note the alternating use in 2 Kings 15:1, 32). Chronicles uses the name Uzziah (2 Chron 26:1-23).

[3] Azariah/Uzziah’s leprosy is not what we know as Hansen’s disease (it was not known in Israel at this time), but some sort of skin disease described in Leviticus 13:1-46. While this may not seem serious to us, it was a major disaster for a person because they were considered defiled and could not enter the temple precincts and were thus barred from God’s presence. The breaking down of the skin resembled the disintegration of the body in death and evoked horror in ancient Israelites.

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