Conclusion of the Book of Kings

In the Book of Kings, every king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel is consistently critiqued for committing “the sin of Jeroboam, son of Nebat, which he caused Israel to commit,” by using golden calves to impersonate God. As for the good kings of the Southern Kingdom of Judah, with the exception of Hezekiah and Josiah who removed the high places, the common critique is that “the high places were not removed.” This indicates a consistent inability to wholeheartedly obey. The bad kings, on the other hand, extensively built high places, moving from partial obedience to outright abandonment of God. The golden calves in the Northern Kingdom represent a problem with the object of the people’s worship, while the high places in the Southern Kingdom represent a problem with the people’s attitude toward worship. These two issues caused God’s people in both kingdoms to fall into sin, unaware of their transgression, and they struggled to break free for centuries.

Both the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah were God’s people. During the reigns of Jeroboam II and Uzziah, God granted both kingdoms a secure international environment. However, over forty years of prosperity and stability did not bring any spiritual improvement; instead, it made the people more complacent in their spiritual state. At this point, God raised up Assyria as an instrument of testing and discipline (Isaiah 10:5). As a result, the Northern Kingdom allied with Aram, and the Southern Kingdom bribed Assyria. Whether it was the calf-worshipping Northern Kingdom or the Temple-possessing Southern Kingdom, whether it was the warlords of the North or the descendants of David in the South, all were busy seeking human alliances, with not one nation willing to turn back and rely on God.

God granted the Northern Kingdom these forty-plus years of prosperity and stability to prepare them for judgment. The prophets God sent during this period, Amos and Hosea, no longer merely revealed that Yahweh is God or that God brings salvation. Instead, they declared God’s condemnation (Amos 6:1-7; Hosea 2:2-8) and judgment (Amos 3:13-15; Hosea 13:16), making Israel’s pride clearly evident (Hosea 5:5; 7:10). And within that judgment, they proclaimed the only hope: “In that day I will restore David’s fallen shelter—I will repair its broken walls and restore its ruins—and will rebuild it as it used to be” (Amos 9:11). “I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned from them” (Hosea 14:4).