The Sovereign Obituary: The End of Jeroboam's Folly Text: 2 Kings 14:28-29
Introduction: History with a Point
We live in an age that does not know what history is for. To the modern secularist, history is either a meaningless catalogue of events, a random series of power plays, or, more recently, a therapeutic tale to be manipulated for the sake of current political grievances. But the Christian must understand that history is none of these things. History is a story, and it is a story with a divine author, a central conflict, and a glorious conclusion. It is His story. And because God is the author, every word is freighted with meaning. Every jot and tittle serves His ultimate purpose.
The books of Kings are a primary case in point. This is not history written for the sake of history. This is not a mere recitation of political achievements and military campaigns, though it includes those things. This is covenantal history. This is history interpreted for us by the Holy Spirit. The standard by which every king is measured is not his GDP, the stability of his borders, or the length of his reign. The standard is the law of God. The question is always, "Did he do what was right in the sight of the Lord?" And for the kings of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, the answer, tragically, is always a resounding no. They are all measured against the original sin of their founding father, Jeroboam son of Nebat, who set up the golden calves and institutionalized apostasy for political convenience.
In the verses before us, we come to the end of the reign of another Jeroboam, Jeroboam the second. By all external, worldly metrics, his was a successful reign. He was a mighty warrior who restored the borders of Israel. He brought a measure of prosperity and strength back to a wayward nation. If he had a CNN or a Fox News in his day, the pundits would have been full of praise. And yet, the biblical assessment is blunt: "he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin" (2 Kings 14:24). His success was a hollow shell, a temporary reprieve granted by a merciful God who saw the affliction of His people, but it was not a sign of His approval of Jeroboam. And as we see in our text today, this kind of success is fleeting, and the final accounting is what truly matters.
God writes the obituaries, and He always tells the truth. He is the one who determines what is worth remembering, and what is simply filed away in the chronicles of men. He is the one who oversees the transfer of power, whether to a son or to a judgment. And He is the one who teaches us, through these stark and brief summaries, that a life, or a kingdom, built on any foundation other than obedience to His Word is destined for the dustbin of history.
The Text
Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam and all that he did and his might, how he fought and how he restored Damascus and Hamath to Judah in Israel, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? And Jeroboam slept with his fathers, even with the kings of Israel, and Zechariah his son became king in his place.
(2 Kings 14:28-29 LSB)
The Divine Footnote (v. 28)
We begin with the summary of Jeroboam's reign:
"Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam and all that he did and his might, how he fought and how he restored Damascus and Hamath to Judah in Israel, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?" (2 Kings 14:28)
At first glance, this might seem like a simple historical reference, a kind of ancient bibliography. But we must read this with theological eyes. The Holy Spirit is making a deliberate point here. He acknowledges the worldly accomplishments of Jeroboam. Yes, there were "acts." Yes, he had "might." Yes, he was a successful general who "fought" and "restored" territory. The Bible does not deny these earthly realities. God is the God of facts.
But notice what He does with these facts. He relegates them to a footnote. He says, in effect, "If you want the details of his military prowess and political maneuvering, you can go look them up in the secular records, in the official court histories." That book, "the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel," is lost to us. And this is not an accident. God, in His providence, allowed that book to perish, while He preserved this one. Why? Because what God wants His people to remember about Jeroboam is not his might, but his sin. The inspired record, the history that endures, is the one that evaluates him on a covenantal basis.
This is a profound lesson in what truly matters. The world is impressed with power, wealth, and military victory. God is impressed with righteousness, faithfulness, and humility. All the things that Jeroboam would have put on his resume, all the things that would have been carved on his victory stele, are dismissed by God into an uninspired, and now non-existent, book. What God preserves for all time is the theological summary: he was an idolater who continued in the sins of his namesake.
This is a direct assault on the pride of man. We want to be remembered for our strength, our accomplishments, our legacy. But God is telling us that if those things are not consecrated to Him, if they are not the fruit of faith, they are ultimately irrelevant to the story He is telling. The uninspired chronicles are where the deeds of unfaithful men are recorded. The inspired Scriptures are where the deeds of God, and the faithfulness or unfaithfulness of His covenant people, are recorded. We should be far more concerned with what is written in the Lamb's Book of Life than with what might be written in the chronicles of men.
The Common End and the Coming End (v. 29)
Verse 29 gives us the end of the man and the continuation of the dynasty, however briefly.
"And Jeroboam slept with his fathers, even with the kings of Israel, and Zechariah his son became king in his place." (2 Kings 14:29 LSB)
First, we see the great equalizer. "Jeroboam slept with his fathers." This is a standard biblical euphemism for death. For all his might, for all his restored territories, Jeroboam II died just like every king of Israel before him. Death comes for the successful and the unsuccessful, the mighty and the weak. He was a powerful man, but he was still just a man. He breathed God's air, and when God decided his time was up, he breathed his last. His might could not keep death from the door. This is the end of all flesh, and it is a reminder of our utter dependence on the God who holds our breath in His hands.
He slept "even with the kings of Israel." He joined the long line of apostate kings in the grave. He had a royal funeral, no doubt. He was buried with honors. But he was buried with the unfaithful. He inherited their throne, he walked in their sins, and he joined them in their death. This is the wages of sin. The path of disobedience, no matter how outwardly prosperous it may seem for a time, leads to the grave.
And then we see the immediate consequence: "and Zechariah his son became king in his place." On the surface, this looks like a smooth, stable transition of power. The dynasty of Jehu, which God had promised would last for four generations (2 Kings 10:30), is continuing as promised. And this is a testimony to the absolute faithfulness of God's Word. God promised Jehu four generations, and four generations is precisely what He delivered, down to the letter. Jeroboam II was the third, and his son Zechariah would be the fourth.
But we must see the sovereignty of God in this. God keeps His promises, even to unfaithful men. His faithfulness is not contingent on our performance. He promised four generations, and He brought it to pass. But we who have the rest of the story know that this succession is the beginning of the end. Zechariah will reign for a mere six months before he is assassinated (2 Kings 15:10), and the Northern Kingdom will descend into a bloody chaos of coups and conspiracies that leads directly to its destruction by Assyria. The temporary stability of Jeroboam's reign gives way to the judgment that has been brewing for centuries.
God's promise to Jehu was a promise with a timestamp. It was a promise of a limited dynasty, not an eternal one like the promise to David. And with the accession of Zechariah, the clock is about to strike midnight. The death of the mighty Jeroboam is the prelude to the death of the nation. His long, prosperous, but wicked reign was the calm before the storm of God's final judgment on the house of Israel.
Conclusion: The King Who Endures
So what are we to make of this brief, formulaic conclusion to a king's reign? We are to see the world through God's eyes. We are to learn to measure success by God's standards, not the world's.
Jeroboam II had power, but not piety. He had military might, but not moral uprightness. He restored Israel's borders, but he did not restore Israel's worship. And so, his legacy is one of failure. His might is a footnote. His death is a reminder of man's frailty. And his son's succession is the final tick of the clock before judgment falls.
This entire history is written to make us long for a different kind of king. The sorry parade of unfaithful kings in Israel, and often in Judah as well, is meant to show us the futility of placing our hope in princes, in mighty men who sleep with their fathers. They all fail. They all sin. They all die. Their kingdoms, built on the sand of idolatry and political expediency, all crumble.
This history drives us to the one true King, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the king whose acts are not relegated to a footnote but are the centerpiece of all history. He is the king whose might was shown not in conquering cities, but in conquering sin and death. He is the King who did not just sleep with His fathers, but who went into the grave and broke its power, rising again to a kingdom that will never end.
His succession is not temporary; He reigns forever at the right hand of the Father. His chronicles are not lost; they are written in this holy book and on the hearts of His people. The story of Jeroboam is a story of temporary, worldly success that ends in judgment. The story of Jesus is the story of a cross and an empty tomb that ends in everlasting glory. We are called to serve this true King, to build our lives, our families, and our churches not on the principles of Jeroboam, but on the solid rock of the Word of God. For only that which is done in faithfulness to King Jesus will endure the final accounting.