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Summary: I would like to highlight three things from these six verses: Jeroboam II was a magnificent but unspiritual King, Israel was an unsatisfied nation, and Yahweh was all sufficient God. What is your identity.

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Text: 2 Kings 14:23-29

Theme: Jeroboam II

Greetings: The Lord is good and His love endures forever.

Introduction:

Observation of the Text:

Jeroboam II son of Jehoash, reigned forty-one years, did evil, did not turn away from sins of Jeroboam I, caused Israel to commit, restored the boundaries in accordance with the word of the Lord, everyone in Israel were bitter and suffering. Lord saved them by the hand of Jeroboam. He recovered for Israel both Damascus and Hamath, which had belonged to Judah.

 

We began this month with the bible verse, Daniel 2:21: “And he changed the times and the seasons: he removed kings, and sets up kings: ...” This month, we devoted to the King Maker in midst’s of chaos and deteriorating world. We have seen the lives of the Kings namely, David, Saul, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Ahab, Hezekiah, Jeroboam II, and Josiah.

 

Today, we would see Jeroboam II the King of Israel. I would like to highlight three things from these six verses: Jeroboam II was a magnificent but unspiritual King, Israel was an unsatisfied nation, and Yahweh was all sufficient God.

 

1. Jeroboam II – An unspiritual King (2 Kings 14:23-25, 28-29)

He was the great-grandson of Jehu, son of Jehoash. His reigned the longest of all the kings of Israel, forty one years. His contemporary Azariah, the king of Judah, reigned longer, even fifty-two years. He was victorious but unspiritual King.

Israelite historians state that Jeroboam II was a gifted commander and an able organiser who succeeded in elevating the kingdom of Israel to a last climax before its fall. However, his loyalty to YHWH can be seen from the name of his son Zechariah ("Remembered by YHWH") but also prophet Jonah(14:25), encouraged Jeroboam in his wars and prophesied his victory.

However, Judahite redactors adjudged him as evil king (2 kings 14:24). The six verses allotted to him in the Bible, recorded his sins and evils. 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. He was a wicked king. “We cannot measure men's characters by the length of their lives or by their outward prosperity.” (Matthew Henry).  

 

Jeroboam II might have done hundreds of good things but “He did evil in the sight of the LORD” and, “he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat.” He continued the politically-motivated idolatry than the True worship of Yahweh. He kept up the worship of the calves at Dan and Bethel, and never left that, thinking there was no harm in it, because it had been the way of all his ancestors and predecessors (1 Kings 12:28-30).

 

“He kept up the worship of the calves, and never left that, thinking there was no harm in it, because it had been the way of all his ancestors and predecessors. But a sin is never the less evil in God's sight, whatever it is in ours, for its being an ancient usage” (Matthew Henry).

The Ten Commandments put idolatry as the First SIN against God, God hates the idolaters.

 

Some sins we never see as sins because it’s habitual, practiced and justified by majority, nothing so disturbing and contextually needed.

We are also given chances, challenges to be different in our days and generation or to swim with the stream for survival and justify nothing is wrong. We know what is right and wrong, we know what is good and evil, we know what to continue and to discontinue yet we prefer to go with the flow of the stream than against.

We mostly seek the good will of men than the will of God. Luke 16:15 says “Then he said to them, “You like to appear righteous in public, but God knows your hearts. What this world honors is detestable in the sight of God.”

 

Let’s strive to honour God than men and majority.

2. Israel – An unsatisfied Nation (2 Kings 14:24)

Illustration: Mindless woman! (Adopted and edited)

There was a super market.  It is called the Husband Store.  It is a place where women can shop for a husband. 

The store had 7 floors with each floor having different qualities of a husband.  The higher the floor, the better the husband.  If the woman wanted better qualities, they would simply go to the next floor. But had a restriction saying that once you pass to another floor, you have to settle with that, you cannot go back down to the previous floor. 

 

One woman came into the first floor.  The sign board said that the men on this floor has a job.  She was curious to see what the next level held for her, so she decided to go to the 2nd floor.

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