Commentary - 2 Kings 13:22-25

Bird's-eye view

This brief section of 2 Kings serves as a potent distillation of Old Testament theology in narrative form. It is a story of sin, judgment, and improbable grace, all pivoting on the unshakeable foundation of God's covenant faithfulness. Israel, under the feckless leadership of Jehoahaz, is brought to the very brink of annihilation by the relentless oppression of Hazael of Aram. This is not random geopolitical misfortune; it is the disciplined, covenantal curse of God upon a people deep in idolatry. Yet, just when the darkness seems absolute, the narrative turns. The reason for this turn is not a newfound righteousness in Israel, but rather God's own memory. He remembers His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This remembrance is not a passive recollection but an active intervention. God's grace, rooted in a covenant made centuries prior, becomes the hinge upon which history swings. The death of the oppressor and the subsequent, limited victories of Jehoash are the direct result of this grace, demonstrating that even in the midst of judgment, God's purpose to preserve His people for the sake of His ultimate promise will not be thwarted.

The passage is a microcosm of the entire biblical story. Man sins, God judges, and yet, because of a promise He made, God provides a deliverer. The deliverance here is partial, a mere shadow, but it points forward to the ultimate deliverance that would come when God, in His ultimate compassion, would not just turn toward His people but become one of them. The three victories of Joash are a token of God's mercy, but they also highlight Israel's persistent weakness, reminding us that temporary political solutions are never the final answer. The final answer is a king who secures a permanent victory, a victory not just over Aramean raiders, but over sin and death itself.

Outline

Context In 2 Kings

This passage sits within the long, sorrowful decline of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The dynasty of Jehu, which began with such violent, zealous reform, has quickly decayed into the same idolatrous pattern as its predecessors. The immediate context is the reign of Jehoahaz, Jehu's son, whose wickedness has brought the nation to its knees (2 Kings 13:1-9). The army of Israel has been decimated, reduced to a token force. The narrative has just recorded the death of the great prophet Elisha, whose final prophecy predicted three victories for Israel over Aram. This section, verses 22-25, functions as the historical fulfillment of that prophecy and the theological explanation for it. It bridges the reigns of Jehoahaz and his son Jehoash (also called Joash), showing the transition of power in both Aram and Israel. It serves as a crucial reminder that behind the machinations of kings and the outcomes of battles, the driving force of history is the covenant purpose of God.

Key Issues

The Stubbornness of Grace

We are accustomed to thinking of stubbornness as a vice, and it usually is. We see the stubborn refusal of Israel to repent, generation after generation. We see the stubborn pride of kings who would rather see their nations ruined than humble themselves before God. But this passage confronts us with another kind of stubbornness altogether: the stubbornness of God's grace. Israel has done everything in its power to nullify the covenant. They have chased after every idol, broken every commandment, and ignored every prophet. By all human standards of contract law, they have forfeited any claim to God's blessing. They have earned their destruction.

But God's covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was not a simple contract. It was a divine oath, a unilateral promise rooted in God's own character and purpose. And so, when Israel is at its lowest point, oppressed and seemingly abandoned, God acts. Why? Not because of their merit, for they have none. Not because of their repentance, for it is fleeting at best. He acts because of His covenant. His grace is more stubborn than their sin. His faithfulness is more persistent than their rebellion. This is the bedrock of our hope. If our standing before God depended on our ability to hold up our end of the deal, we would be as doomed as the Northern Kingdom. But our standing depends on the stubborn, unilateral, covenant-keeping grace of God, demonstrated here in a small historical skirmish, and displayed for all time at the cross of Jesus Christ.

Verse by Verse Commentary

22 Now Hazael king of Aram had oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz.

The verse opens with a summary statement that is bleak and absolute. This is not about a single battle or a brief period of hardship. This is a sustained, grinding oppression that characterized an entire royal generation. Hazael was God's razor, the instrument of His judgment that Elisha had wept to foresee (2 Kings 8:12). "All the days of Jehoahaz" means that for seventeen years, Israel knew nothing but the heel of Aram on its neck. This is what sin does. It does not lead to freedom and flourishing; it leads to bondage and misery. The author wants us to feel the weight of this long oppression, to understand that Israel's predicament is not an accident of history but the direct and predictable consequence of turning away from Yahweh.

23 But Yahweh was gracious to them and had compassion on them and turned to them because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not bring them to ruin or cast them from His presence until now.

Here is the great turning point, the hinge of the entire passage. The word "But" is one of the most beautiful in all of Scripture. On one side of it lies the relentless logic of sin and death; on the other lies the inexplicable logic of divine grace. The text piles up the reasons for God's action, and none of them are located in Israel. Yahweh was gracious, giving them what they did not deserve. He had compassion, feeling their misery as His own. He turned to them, reversing His posture of judgment. And why? The ultimate ground is given: because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The patriarchs had been dead for centuries, but God's promise to them was still alive and active, shaping the destiny of nations. This covenant was the anchor holding Israel fast, preventing God from bringing them to final ruin or casting them from His presence. The phrase "until now" is a bit ominous, acknowledging that this grace is a temporary restraint, not a permanent pardon. The final judgment for the Northern Kingdom is still coming, but for now, because of the patriarchs, there is a reprieve.

24 Then Hazael king of Aram died, and Ben-hadad his son became king in his place.

God's grace begins to work itself out on the stage of history in the most ordinary of ways. Kings die. The great oppressor, Hazael, the man who had been a terror for decades, is subject to the same mortality as everyone else. God does not need a dramatic miracle to begin a deliverance; He simply lets nature take its course. Hazael dies, and his son, Ben-hadad, takes the throne. As is often the case in Scripture, a powerful, nation-building father is followed by a lesser son. The instrument of God's sharp judgment is removed, and a blunter instrument takes its place. God's providence governs not just the rise of kings, but their fall and the character of their successors as well.

25 Then Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz took again from the hand of Ben-hadad the son of Hazael the cities which he had taken in war from the hand of Jehoahaz his father. Three times Joash struck him and recovered the cities of Israel.

Now the deliverance promised in verse 23 takes concrete, military form. Jehoash, the king of Israel, goes on the offensive. The tide has turned. He fights against the new, weaker Aramean king and begins to reclaim the territory his father had lost. The text is specific: "Three times Joash struck him." This is not a random number. It is the direct fulfillment of Elisha's deathbed prophecy (2 Kings 13:18-19), where the king's half-hearted striking of the ground with arrows limited his victory to three battles. So the victory is real; cities are recovered, and the oppression is eased. But it is also limited. It is a partial, measured deliverance. It is a taste of grace, enough to show that God is faithful to His covenant, but not enough to solve Israel's fundamental problem, which is their sin. The victory is a signpost pointing to God's mercy, but it is not the final destination.

Application

This little slice of history is a picture of our own story. Like Israel, we are born into a covenant, but we are also born into sin. Our natural inclination is to follow the idols of our age, and this rebellion brings us under a just and holy oppression, the tyranny of sin and the fear of death. Left to ourselves, our story would be one of grinding defeat, "all the days" of our lives.

But God. Because of a covenant He made, not with Abraham, but with His own Son before the foundation of the world, He is gracious and has compassion. He turns to us, not because we have cleaned up our act, but because He is faithful to His promise. He deals with our great oppressor, Satan, not by waiting for him to die of old age, but by crushing his head through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Through Christ, we are offered not a partial victory, not the recovery of a few border towns, but a complete and total deliverance from the domain of darkness.

The story of Joash's three victories should be a warning to us. He received a measure of grace but missed out on the full measure because of his hesitation and lack of zeal. How often do we do the same? God offers us total victory over a particular sin, complete freedom from a destructive habit, and we settle for a truce. We strike the ground three times when He wanted us to strike it until we were exhausted. We are content with a little less misery instead of pursuing the complete joy and holiness that is offered to us in the gospel. This passage calls us to see the absolute foundation of God's covenant grace, and to respond to it not with the half-heartedness of Joash, but with a robust and zealous faith that takes God at His word and lays hold of the full victory won for us at Calvary.