‘Living History’ Meditations No.20: The southern kingdom
Approach: As you will note from the references, 1 & 2 Kings focuses mostly on the northern kingdom while 2 Chronicles focuses mostly on the southern kingdom. This is going to be the shortest of all of these ‘studies’ because for the southern nation, Judah, I am going to summarize it in a table as follows, with the kings (lengths of reigns in brackets), how they were generally, and steps God took (judgments) to get them back on track. I’ll comment further at the bottom of the table:
| 1. Rehoboam (17) | Unfaithful to God | Pressured by Egypt |
| 2. Abijan (3) | Not fully committed to God | No judgments |
| 3. Asa (41) | Twice didn’t seek God’s help | Foot disease |
| 4. Jehoshaphat (25) | Made 2 bad alliances with Israel | Rebuked for alliances |
| 5. Jehoram (8) | False worship, did evil | Pressured by Libnah and Philistines |
| 6. Ahaziah (1) | Ditto, fought alongside Israel | Executed |
| 7. Athaliah (6) | Wicked queen | Executed |
| 8. Joash (40) | Good but later abandoned the Lord | Pressured by Aram , murdered |
| 9. Amaziah (29) | Half-hearted, worshipped Edomite gods | Merely rebuked |
| 10. Uzziah (52) | Later became proud & foolish | Afflicted by leprosy |
| 11. Jotham (16) | A good king | No judgments |
| 12. Ahaz (16) | Worshipped idols, did not rely on God | Pressured by Aram and Israel |
| 13. Hezekiah (29) | Mostly good but later proud | Rebuked for pride |
| 14. Manasseh (55) | Seriously bad | Carried off to Babylon (but repented & returned) |
| 15. Amon (2) | Did evil | Assassinated |
| 16. Josiah (31) | Best king of both kingdoms | No judgments (self-destructed in battle) |
| 17. Jehoahaz (2m) | Probably bad | Pressured by Egypt |
| 18. Jehoiakim (11) | Did evil | Carried off to Babylon |
| 19. Jehoiachin (3m) | Did evil | Carried off to Babylon |
| 20. Zedekiah (11) | Ignored God & did evil | Carried off to Babylon |
Good Kings? Only 2 kings could be considered really good : Jotham & Josiah. Four others were mostly good – Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah & Uzzia, although Asa twice failed to seek God’s help, Jehoshaphat had a tendency of making bad alliances with Israel, Hezekiah was good until later when he exhibited pride, and Uzziah was the same.
A Spiritual Battle: What we can see through this is that there was a constant spiritual battle going on, observed in the common summary verses at the beginning of each king’s reign, e.g. in respect of the early kings after Rehoboam, “He committed all the sins his father had done before him; his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God,” (1 Kings 15:3 of Abijah) and, “Asa did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, as his father David had done.” (1 Kings 15:11-14) and “The LORD was with Jehoshaphat because in his early years he walked in the ways his father David had followed.” (2 Chron 17:3-6). When you read the chapters about all the kings, watch out for, and take note of, such summary verses which indicate good / bad / sometimes good!
God’s Inputs: Perhaps one of the things I find most remarkable about the biblical record in respect of the southern nation, is the incredible wealth of prophecy that we find in both Jeremiah and Ezekiel addressed to both leaders and the people in the years of what is probably at least the last three reigns before the Exile finally came. The urgings and the warnings were utterly explicit; there was no room for misunderstanding, but despite these clarion calls from heaven, the leaders and the people refused to repent. It would take decades in Babylon for their hearts to be turned! So to the Exile we must turn.
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