Down, down, down

 II Kings 14-18 is the time period historically out of which the Book of Hosea comes.

“If you start to read Hosea repeatedly you’ll be familiar enough with the book that you then can go back to Isaiah 28 and begin to notice themes in the chapter that are kind of mirrored in the Book of Hosea,” says Richard Jordan.

“I’ve said to you over and over that each of the 66 chapters in the Book of Isaiah will have information that correlates with the 66 books of the King James Bible . . . there are themes and ideas that pop up in one that pop up in the other and even through Paul’s epistles it works out that way!

“What that tells you is whoever wrote your Bible already knew what the end was going to be when they wrote the Book of Isaiah.

“Isaiah 28 starts out talking about one of the judgments on Ephraim, and Hosea is going to focus on Ephraim, which is one of the tribes of the northern kingdom and sort of the pseudonym for the whole of the northern kingdom of Israel.

“The nation of Israel at this time in history is divided into two parts: the northern kingdom (the 10 tribes) called Israel and the two southern tribes called the ‘kingdom of Judah.’

“Somebody once called Hosea ‘Israel’s northern kingdom Jeremiah.’ Jeremiah is known as ‘the weeping prophet,’ and he was there in the land when Nebuchadnezzar came in and he prophesied before the captivity, during the captivity and after the captivity.

“There are places in Jeremiah where he talks about how he can’t stop the tears from coming; the weeping for the sins of his people and for the judgment that is coming upon them for their rejection of God’s Word.

“Hosea is sort of that same kind of a prophet to the northern kingdom. Verse 1: ‘The word of the LORD that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.’

“Just notice when you read the time element here about when this is. He lists four kings of Judah and then lists only one king of Israel.

“Four kings cover about a 50-year period of time. Now, Jeroboam the son of Joash, is, by the way, Jeroboam No. 2. When he tells you he’s the son of Joash, that’s so you know he’s not talking about ‘Jeroboam, the son of Nebat’ who caused Israel to sin and was the one who was involved with the dividing of the kingdom after Solomon died.

“The first Jeroboam is the reason there is a division between the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. He started that second course of judgment back there.

“Jeroboam No. 2 starts to reign in Judah about the same time as Uzziah and there are a bunch of kings in Judah after him but they’re not listed. And they won’t be listed in any of the Minor Prophets when he begins to identify who they are. The reason for that is the spiritual condition of the northern kingdom.

“II Kings 14:23 informs, ‘In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria, and reigned forty and one years.’

“Joash king of Judah is one the high marks spiritually, politically and economically of the nation of Judah of all the sons of David. He had a tremendous life and ministry; he went out and destroyed the Baal worshippers out of the land (Kings 12 and 13 detail Joash’s life).

“He was a tremendously effective leader for the southern kingdom. It was during this time politically and economically the nation Israel, the southern kingdom just prospered and went ahead. So in the south there’s a real economic and spiritual revival going on. In the north it’s just exactly the opposite.

“I think about this situation and it reminds me of a nighttime picture of Korea on internet satellite. South Korea is lit up and North Korea is just like a black space. With these nighttime pictures of the globe on the internet, it’s fascinating where the lights and so forth are. That’s where there’s some productivity, some wealth, some ability to have electricity.

“I read verse 23 and I say, ‘How in the world I’m supposed to keep this stuff straight?!’ You got two Joashs—one in the south and one in the north! You got to be sure you notice which one they are because they’re different. One’s a good guy and one’s a bad guy.

“The next verse says, ‘And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.’

“You see he doesn’t start out so good. The spiritual heritage of Joash the second corresponds with the spiritual heritage of Jeroboam the first.

“Thirteen times in your Scripture the expression occurs, ‘Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.’ He’s the ultimate source of rebellion in the northern kingdom.

“Verse 25: ‘He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the LORD God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gath-hepher.’

“One of the reasons Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh is because he didn’t want God to deliver Nineveh; he wanted God to destroy them. Jonah’s prophesying here about the same time that Hosea is going to be.

“God used Jeroboam the son of Joash to deliver Israel, so they were not completely wiped out and destroyed at this time. This guy is the last king in the northern kingdom who God ever operated through.

“So when you come to Hosea and these other prophets, when they list the kings in Israel they stop with this guy because he’s the last one God worked through and the prophets don’t recognize any of the rest of the kings; they’re unfit to mention in Hosea and the other prophets when they list the heritage and the time period in which they’re operating.

“You see verse 29: ‘And Jeroboam slept with his fathers, even with the kings of Israel; and Zachariah his son reigned in his stead.’

“Almost every one of his descendants doesn’t sleep with their fathers. You know what happens to them? They get bumped off. Even the kings of Israel and Zechariah his son reigned in his stead.

“Chapter 15:8 says, 'In the thirty and eighth year of Azariah king of Judah did Zachariah the son of Jeroboam reign over Israel in Samaria six months.'
[9] And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his fathers had done: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.
[10] And Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against him, and smote him before the people, and slew him, and reigned in his stead.

“So he’s assassinated. There’s a coup in his government and they take him out and they sort of ‘Et Tu, Brute?’ and they turn on him and slay him. And then this dude Shallum takes over.

“So you come to verse 13: Shallum the son of Jabesh began to reign in the nine and thirtieth year of Uzziah king of Judah; and he reigned a full month in Samaria.
[14] For Menahem the son of Gadi went up from Tirzah, and came to Samaria, and smote Shallum the son of Jabesh in Samaria, and slew him, and reigned in his stead.

“This dude didn’t get to reign but a month before somebody came and bumped him off! Another assassination.

“Verse 25 says, ‘But Pekah the son of Remaliah, a captain of his, conspired against him, and smote him in Samaria, in the palace of the king's house, with Argob and Arieh, and with him fifty men of the Gileadites: and he killed him, and reigned in his room.’

“Verse 30 says, ‘And Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and smote him, and slew him, and reigned in his stead, in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah.’

“You go through here and what’s happening is just total complete bedlam in the northern kingdom and it comes to the place, you come over to chapter 17, Elah (that’s the guy who bumps off his predecessor).

The chapter reveals, “In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
[7] For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharoah king of Egypt, and had feared other gods.’

“The Assyrian captivity takes over so this is the last king in the northern kingdom. After Jeroboam the son of Joash, all of the kings after him, there’s just contention, fighting, murder, confusion and they’re just going down, down, down until finally they’re carried away into captivity.

“That carrying away into captivity is a warning of God to the southern kingdom because the southern kingdom was always an illegitimate kingdom. In the first 11 chapters of I Kings you’ve got King David, he dies, Solomon takes the throne and you have the reign of Solomon. Then in chapter 11 Solomon dies. When he died, he had a son Rehoboam take the throne.

“But when Rehoboam took the throne, this guy Jeroboam is going to come along and divide the kingdom. The reason he does that starts in I Kings 11:26.

“Verse 28 says, ‘And the man Jeroboam was a mighty man of valour: and Solomon seeing the young man that he was industrious, he made him ruler over all the charge of the house of Joseph.’

“A cross reference to think about is Genesis 10:8 when Nimrod became a mighty hunter before the Lord. There’s a spiritual connection between that with Nimrod and what’s going to happen with this character here.

“Jeroboam is told by the prophet, ‘God’s going to use you to divide the kingdom and the reason he’s going to do it is because of worshipping false gods.’ Baal worship begins in Genesis 10 with Nimrod and that false, counterfeit religion culminates with the Tower of Babel.”