Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 Kings 15-16.

In today’s passage, we read of two kings of Judah who did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, which makes it four kings in a row who did so.  For the two mentioned today the writer gives a caveat to the fact that they did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.  That caveat was that the high places were not removed and that the people continued to offer sacrifices there.  In the past, I have always read that as a (mild) condemnation of these kings.  I realized today that this was actually a statement on the limits of the government to turn people away from sin.  Despite having a good ruler who led them to worship God, the people, at least, some of them, continued in their idolatry.  The good rulers in Jerusalem are in stark contrast to those in Samaria.  In Samaria, the kings outright encouraged the people to commit idolatry.  The end result being that the ruling house was overthrown by a violent result about every other generation, reflecting an ongoing breakdown of the rule of law.  This stands in stark contrast to the two kings of Judah mentioned in yesterday’s passage who were assassinated, but still succeeded on the throne by their sons.  And while the writer merely says that the kings in Samaria did evil in the eyes of the Lord by not turning away from the sins of Jeroboam I, he clearly implies they did much worse in what he says about King Ahaz of Jerusalem.  The writer tells us that King Ahaz followed the ways of the kings of Israel and even sacrificed his son in the fire.  And while the writer tells us that the people offered sacrifices at the high places under King Ahaz’s father and grandfather, here he tells us that King Ahaz did so as well.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.