What is the book of 2 Kings all about? 

“Nevertheless, the Lord did not turn away from the heat of his fierce anger, which burned against Judah because of all that Manasseh had done to arouse his anger. So the Lord said, ‘I will remove Judah also from my presence as I removed Israel, and I will reject Jerusalem, the city I chose, and this temple, about which I said, “My Name shall be there.”’’ (2 Kings 23:26-27)


Like 1 and 2 Samuel, the books of 1 and 2 Kings hang together as a cohesive unit telling one big story. This time it’s the story of how the kingdom of Israel went from its ‘golden age’ under king Solomon to division, depravity and ultimately the devastation of exile. Having looked at 1 Kings last time, let’s see now how 2 Kings closes out the story.


What do we need to know to read 2 Kings?

As we saw in the previous blog post, the book of 1 Kings gives us a very mixed picture of the successive kings of Israel and Judah: some were faithful and wise, but many – or even most – lived out the folly of ignoring or marginalising God. Worse still, they even dragged God’s people down with them. So it was a welcome relief (and no surprise) to be introduced to the succession of prophets – messengers from God who were commissioned and sent to hold the kings accountable. Last time in 1 Kings we met Elijah. And the book of 2 Kings opens with a focus on Elijah’s successor, Elisha.
 

Elisha and Jehu

When Elijah is taken up to heaven on a fiery chariot in 2 Kings chapter 2, Elisha is commissioned to carry on his work. He asks famously for “a double portion” of the power of the Holy Spirit that was on Elijah (2 Kings 2:9). Interestingly, in 1 Kings we have records of no less than 7 miracles that the Spirit did through Elijah; in 2 Kings we have 14 worked by the Spirit through Elisha – his wish was granted! 
Elisha disappears off the scene after the end of chapter 9, having just anointed Jehu to be the next king of Israel. Through Jehu God’s prophecy through Elijah against evil king Ahab and queen Jezebel (see the second half of 1 Kings) is finally brought to fulfilment. He stamped out the worship of Baal from Israel, but he quickly proves to be just as ungodly as the kings before him.

The Northern Kingdom

Ominously, we read in 2 Kings 10:32 that God began to slice off parts of Israel’s land, by allowing other nations to gain territory. This is the beginning of the end for the kingdom of Israel, as we see in the following chapters. Bad king follows bad king, up until chapter 17. At this point, God allows Assyria to conquer Israel and send the people into exile. Unlike the story of the kingdom of Judah, there would be no official return from exile, no official rebuilding project. The kingdom of Israel simply ceases to exist.

The Southern Kingdom

The kingdom of Judah has a slightly different story, as we see in chapters 18-24:
On the one hand, there were some signs of hope. The closing chapters of 2 Kings record the lives of two of the most godly and faithful kings to sit on the throne of Judah: Hezekiah and Josiah. The prophet Isaiah makes headway with Hezekiah (see chapters 19 and 20, as well as Isaiah 36-39), unlike with Ahaz before him (see chapter 16 and Isaiah 7-8). Josiah famously ascends to the throne as a young boy, and after an advisor finds a copy of the Torah in the Temple and reads it to him, he embarks on a huge project of religious reformation. 2 Kings 22-23 tell the story of all his successes in removing idol-worship from Judah and rebuilding the Temple.

Nevertheless there is significant overlap with the story of the Northern kingdom of Israel. Despite Hezekiah’s faithfulness and Josiah’s ambitious reforms, it proves to be too little too late. In 2 Kings 24-25 we read about the Babylonian invasion, where the Temple is destroyed, Jerusalem is razed to the ground, and the people are carried off into exile in Babylon. But the book ends with a tiny glimmer of hope: Jehoiachin (grandson of Josiah) is released from prison in Babylon and invited to eat at Nebuchadnezzar’s table. It’s not much, but it’s just a little sign that God isn’t done with them yet. God will keep His promise to keep the royal line of David going forever. God will not abandon His people completely! But for now they need to suffer the consequences of centuries of spiritual adultery.
 

What do we learn from 2 Kings?

(As the books of 1 and 2 Kings are a cohesive unit, the remainder of this blog is largely a reprint from the previous blog.)
The main purpose of the books of 1 and 2 Kings seems to be to explain how the God who called a people for Himself (first with Abraham and his family, and later on rescuing them from Egypt) and brought them into the Promised Land came to allow them to be exiled from the land. As such it is a key defence of God’s goodness and righteousness – God’s honour – against the backdrop of a succession of kings who oscillate between foolishness and deep-hearted evil. By the end of 2 Kings we are left with no choice but to agree that God’s people deserve to be exiled – it’s not that God has gone to sleep on the job; it’s that the people have consistently turned away from Him. Under this larger purpose we can then see at least 3 things we can learn from 2 Kings:

1. How we treat God really matters. It’s not a matter of indifference whether we worship God rightly, or whether we mix worshipping God with doing what everyone else around us is doing. It’s a matter ultimately of life and death!
2. We must listen to God’s warnings. Closely tied to the first point is the need to listen to the warnings God’s prophets bring. For the people in 2 Kings this meant listening clearly to Elijah, Elisha and Micaiah; for us it means paying attention to the prophetic warnings (and promises) woven throughout the Bible.
3. God’s people need a better king! Most of the kings we read about in 2 Kings were even worse than those in 1 Kings – either more foolish in allowing their hearts to be captured by other things, or more deliberately evil. While Hezekiah and Josiah stand out as generally godly rulers, Jehu (Israel) and Manasseh (Judah) stand as particularly wicked. As we read the tragic stories in the book of 2 Kings we are left crying out for God’s perfect forever King. Moreover, this side of the New Testament we are left rejoicing that God sent His perfect forever King, who is now on the throne of the universe – praise God for King Jesus!