Commentary - 2 Kings 15:27-31

Bird's-eye view

In this brief section, we are watching the last, sputtering gasps of the northern kingdom. Israel is a nation in a death spiral, and the historian here is simply recording the milestones on the way down. The reign of Pekah is notable not for its glory, but for its predictable unfaithfulness and for the heavy hand of God's judgment that fell during his time. This is not just a political history; it is a theological history. God had made covenant promises to Israel, and Israel had treated those promises with contempt. The consequences, therefore, were not random geopolitical events. The arrival of the Assyrians was not an accident. The conspiracy of Hoshea was not a surprise to God. This is the story of a holy God dismantling a rebellious nation, piece by piece, in accordance with the very terms of the covenant they had for so long despised.

The passage shows us a three-fold cord of rebellion and judgment. First, we have the king's sin, which is the standard, boilerplate rebellion of Jeroboam. Second, we see the external judgment of God, using a pagan king as His razor. And third, we see the internal rot, where the nation begins to devour itself through conspiracy and assassination. It is a grim picture, but a necessary one. It teaches us that sin has consequences, that God's warnings are not idle threats, and that He is sovereign over the affairs of evil men, using them to accomplish His righteous purposes.

Outline

Context In 2 Kings

We are deep into the unraveling of the northern kingdom of Israel. The narrative in 2 Kings has been a long, sorry tale of one unfaithful king after another. The stability that characterized the southern kingdom of Judah, for all its own faults, is entirely absent here. The northern kings almost universally come to power through violence and leave power the same way. Pekah's reign is no different. He himself had conspired against his predecessor, Pekahiah (2 Kings 15:25), and so it is no surprise that his own end comes by the same means. This is the principle of sowing and reaping played out on the national stage. The context is one of accelerating decay. The sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, the original sin of the northern kingdom, have now fully metastasized. The nation is ripe for judgment, and God is beginning the final harvest.

Key Issues

The Sins of Jeroboam

It is impossible to understand the history of the northern kingdom without understanding the foundational sin of Jeroboam. When the kingdom split, Jeroboam's primary concern was political, not theological. To prevent his people from returning to Jerusalem to worship, which he feared would lead to a political reunification under the house of David, he established a counterfeit religion. He set up golden calves in Dan and Bethel and declared, "Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt" (1 Kings 12:28). This was not just a minor liturgical infraction; it was a fundamental violation of the first and second commandments. It was state-sponsored idolatry designed to secure his own political power. Every subsequent king of Israel, including Pekah, is judged by this standard. Did he depart from the sins of Jeroboam? The answer, over and over, is no. This sin was the spiritual poison that guaranteed the nation's eventual death.

Commentary

27 In the fifty-second year of Azariah king of Judah, Pekah son of Remaliah became king over Israel in Samaria and reigned twenty years.

The historian is meticulous with his dating, anchoring the chaos in the north to the long and relatively stable reign of Azariah (also called Uzziah) in Judah. This contrast is deliberate. While Judah has its own share of godlessness, the Davidic covenant provides a ballast that Israel utterly lacks. Pekah's reign is stated as twenty years, a significant length of time. But a long reign is not necessarily a sign of God's blessing, especially when it is a reign of persistent evil. A man can be proficient at sinning for a very long time, and God can be patient for a very long time. But patience has its limits.

28 And he did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh; he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel sin.

Here is the verdict, delivered without any ambiguity. The standard of judgment is not a relative one, comparing Pekah to the kings of surrounding nations. The standard is the law of God. "He did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh." And the specific nature of that evil is identified immediately. He continued the institutionalized idolatry of Jeroboam. This was not a personal, private failing. This was public, state-sanctioned apostasy. He perpetuated the sin "which he made Israel sin." A wicked ruler does not just damn his own soul; he drags his people down with him. This is the terrible responsibility of leadership. Pekah was a spiritual disease vector, ensuring that the infection of idolatry would continue to plague the nation.

29 In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came and took Ijon and Abel-beth-maacah and Janoah and Kedesh and Hazor and Gilead and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali; and he took them away into exile to Assyria.

And here are the wages of that sin. Notice the direct connection. The text does not say, "And as it happened, during that time, the Assyrians were expanding their empire." No, the theological grammar is clear: because of the evil of Pekah and Israel, God acted. And how did He act? He called for a foreign army. Tiglath-pileser did not wake up one morning and decide to invade Israel out of the blue. He was a tool, a divine instrument of judgment. God is sovereign over the kings of the earth, and He moves them about like pieces on a chessboard to accomplish His purposes (Prov. 21:1). This was the beginning of the end. God was not striking the heart of the kingdom yet; He was trimming the edges. He took the northern territories, the land of Naphtali, and carried the people off into exile. This was a severe warning, a foretaste of the total destruction to come. It was a divine amputation, cutting off a diseased limb in the hope that the body might repent. But it did not.

30 And Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah and struck him and put him to death and became king in his place, in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah.

The judgment of God comes from without, and it also bubbles up from within. Pekah, who had taken the throne by conspiracy, now loses it by the same means. He who lived by the sword, died by the sword. The internal political rot of the nation is just as much a tool of God's judgment as the external military threat of Assyria. When a people abandon God, He gives them over to their own lusts and ambitions. The nation begins to cannibalize itself. Hoshea rises up, strikes Pekah down, and takes the throne. This is not a righteous revolution; it is just one sinner replacing another. This is what a nation looks like when it has been untethered from the law of God. It becomes a snake pit of treachery and violence. Hoshea would go on to be the last king of Israel, the man holding the reins when the whole rotten structure finally collapsed.

31 Now the rest of the acts of Pekah and all that he did, behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.

The historian concludes with the standard formula, pointing to the official records. But the important things have already been said. What mattered about Pekah's reign was not his building projects or his economic policies. What mattered was his relationship to Yahweh. He was an idolater who led his people in idolatry. Consequently, God judged him, using both a pagan emperor and a domestic traitor to bring about his end. The story is a stark reminder that God will not be mocked. A man, and a nation, will reap what they sow.

Application

The story of Pekah is not simply ancient history. It is a standing warning to all nations and all leaders. The first principle is that national sin invites national judgment. When a nation's leaders institutionalize evil, they are setting their people on a collision course with the justice of a holy God. We cannot mock God's law in our public life and then act surprised when our society begins to disintegrate from the outside and rot from the inside.

Second, God is sovereign over all politics, both international and domestic. He raises up kings and He brings them down. He can use a pagan superpower like Assyria as His rod of discipline, and He can use the treacherous conspiracy of an ambitious underling. There is no political event that is outside of His control. This should be a terror to the wicked and a comfort to the righteous. Our trust is not in princes or presidents, but in the Lord who made heaven and earth.

Finally, the persistent sin of Jeroboam, the sin of altering worship for political convenience, is a perennial temptation. We are always tempted to trim the demands of God, to make our worship more palatable, more convenient, less offensive to the surrounding culture. But counterfeit worship is no worship at all. It is idolatry, and it provokes the wrath of God. The lesson of Pekah is a simple one: fear God and keep His commandments. There is no other foundation for a man or for a nation.