Dan Bair Spring 2021 God’s Way - Man’s Way Lesson # 8

2 Kings 15-16

King of Judah and a time of prosperity and strength The King, Amaziah, was assassinated after his disastrous war with Israel. His son, Azariah, who is also known as Uzziah, takes the throne at age 16. He will rule for 52 years and he had a relatively righteous rule and Jerusalem and Judah are stable and prosperous during his time in power. Toward the later part of his reign, he came down with leprosy and is forced to live apart from people and his son Jotham begins a co- regency. Jotham sat on the throne in the palace, but Uzziah is the real power behind the throne. This is the context of the calling of the prophet Isaiah. Note the famous call narrative of Isaiah 6, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up and his train filled the temple.” With the death of this righteous and successful king you can understand why Isaiah would be praying in the Temple and how important the demonstration of God as King is to him at that point.

The Assassin Kings of Israel The wheels are starting to come off of Israel as a nation and we see it in the instability of their kings. Zechariah will be the last of the promised four successors of and now we will have a rapid succession of kings in a period of instability that will mark the end of the nation. The Assyrian threat is looming large on the northern border and there is a sense of panic. Zechariah reigns for 6 months and then he is killed by Shallum who takes the throne. He only makes it one month then he is killed by and he holds on to power for 10 years. All of these guys are evil and do not follow the LORD. It is at this point that the Assyria finally reaches Israel and Menahem gave him a large sum of silver and requires continued tribute from the wealthy families of Israel to satisfy the Assyrians who want money and control. He finally died and his son, Pekahiah succeeded him. He reigned 2 years and was assassinated by one of his chief officers, the son of Remaliah. He reigned for 20 years over Israel as the Assyrian threat grew more acute. He will work together with the king of Aram to try to force Judah into an alliance with them to take a stand against Assyria. Tiglath- Pileser the king of Assyria begins to encroach on Israelite territory and Pekah is assassinated by the last king of Israel . He will be on the throne when the Assyrians finally reach and end the nation of Israel in 722 BC.

Back to Judah Jotham will take over for his father, Uzziah, and rule for 16 years and he was generally faithful to the LORD, however his son will not follow the LORD – he will reign for another 16 years and is king during the Immanuel passages of Isaiah 7-12. In order to defend himself from the Aram-Israel alliance against him, Ahaz appealed to Assyria and asked Tiglath-Pileser to help him. He sent him a bribe of all of the gold from the temple and the palace and the Assyrians attacked Damascus to take the pressure off of Jerusalem.

Ahaz then went to Damascus to visit the Assyrian king and he saw an altar to the god of the Arameans and was very impressed so he made a sketch and sent it back to Jerusalem to have it built in the Temple. This, of course, is an abomination to the LORD. His son, , will take over when Ahaz dies. He is a righteous king and will play a major role in saving Jerusalem from the Assyrians.