“When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men. But My mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever.” 2 Samuel 7:12-16
King David’s reward for his loyalty and obedience to the Torah reflects in his legacy described in the books of Samuel. With King David, all the 12 tribes of Israel were united under one ruler. After many battles, even with other Israelites, David consolidated his power and delivered to his son, Shalomah (Solomon), a strong and powerful kingdom, respected by all neighboring nations. Sadly the unity and strength of Israel would not last more than one generation after him.
From Shalomah to the complete dispersion of Israel into the world, there were dozens of kings who followed king David and the books of Kings and Chronicles describe what Yahuah wanted us to learn from their choices, decisions and mistakes. Some of them had an interesting aspect: they started well until something took them out of the right path. The first one being king David’s son, Shalomah.
Like his father, Shalomah was also blessed by our Father. When asked by Yahuah what he wished for himself, all he asked was wisdom to rule Yahuah’s people. Yahuah was so pleased with his humbleness, that He granted Shalomah not only infinite wisdom, but also riches and a long life. King David’s son had also a special task in hand: to build the Temple of Yahuah.
King Shalomah did very well in the beginning, strengthening the relationship with the neighboring kingdoms through marriage. He believed that diplomacy was the best way to secure peace and he wanted to keep peace in Israel at all costs. The Temple of Yahuah was built with knowledge and material from other countries and Shalomah gained immense respect from nations which were previously enemies of the Israelites.
The downfall of Shalomah was also a consequence of his ‘diplomatic’ marriages. At one point, we are told in the Bible that Shalomah had 700 wives and 300 concubines. While most of these women were probably only there as political figures, many women were indeed in his chambers – influencing him with their foreign ideologies and faith. It’s also part of Yahuah’s recommendations that a king should not have too many wives – specially women of heathen faith, just like Eve influenced Adam to eat of the forbidden fruit, all men seem to have a similar weakness: to be easily influenced by the women they love.
Yahuah knew that and warned his people, but Shalomah played with fire anyway and by the end of his reign, he had succumbed to his foreign wives’ gods and joined them in their rituals, turning his back to Yahuah. In the books in the Bible we have available, Shalomah’s transgressions are not so detailed, but there are speculations that Shalomah not only summoned demons, but also burned his own children as sacrifice for Moloch. Although we don’t know exactly what happened, by Yahuah’s verdict we can conclude that his apostasy was indeed beyond repair. Because of Shalomah’s mistakes, the kingdom of Israel would be divided and only Yahudah (Judah) would remain in David’s ancestry line, for David’s sake.
Although it is not explicit in the Scriptures we have available whether Shalomah repented or not, it is assumed that the book of Ecclesiastes is Shalomah's written testimony of repentance before his death. I think it makes sense, since he is mentioned in the New Testament not in a bad light by the Messiah himself.
After the division of the tribes of Israel into two kingdoms, both were naturally weaker on their own and enemies started coming one after another – also as a punishment from Yahuah, of course. Most of the kings who followed Shalomah were idolatrous and led Israel to ruin, but let’s see some kings who had promising starts and got lost along the way.
Yahu (Jehu) was anointed king over Israel and the prophet instructed him to kill all of A’chaz’ (Ahab) male seed – in order to fulfill Yahuah’s judgment after A’chaz and Iyezebel (Jezebel) had killed Yahuah’s prophets. Yahu did as he was told and obeyed Yahuah’s orders faithfully. He not only killed all the male seed of A’chaz, but he also wiped all of Ba’al’s priests and worshipers. Yahuah was so pleased with Yahu that he promised him that He would guarantee that his seed would be in Israel’s throne for four generations.
What happened next was a bit sad, because he was doing so well, but he eventually lost the passion and the wholeheartedness of his servitude – meaning that Yahu, being a leader anointed by Yahuah, did not move his people to stop worshiping idols. In other words, he became a politician - after all, to destroy the high places where Israel continued to sacrifice and burn incense to other gods would be extremely unpopular. With that little stain in his record, Yahu died with an incomplete potential and although his seed did remain in the throne for another four generations, all his descendants were idolatrous and did what was evil in Yahuah’s eyes. What we should learn from Yahu is that true faith requires not only obedience, but to be passionate about doing Yahuah's work.
Now in Yahudah (Judah), we had Yahu’ash (Joash) and his story could easily be the plot of a Mexican soup opera. When his grandmother learned the king (her son) had been killed, she started killing all her male grandchildren so she could rule Yahudah (talk about a nice granny). She killed all but one, who was saved by his sister. Yahu’ash was hidden in the Temple of Yahuah and raised by the prophet as his own son. He was described as a righteous king ‘while the prophet was alive’, meaning when he was left on his own, his mind turned to other gods and destroyed all the good works he had done before. He became so evil that when the prophet’s son came to the king to warn him that he was in the wrong path, he murdered the prophet’s son – probably a man who should be to him like a brother. This was the very dark consequence of his idolatry, it clouded reason and judgement.
The most interesting king in my opinion is Yechiqzqiyahu (Hezekiah). He is described as one of the most faithful kings, unlike any other before or after him. Hezekiah did it all right, until he fell sick and the prophet told him to put his house in order, for he would die. Hezekiah prayed to Yahuah and Yahuah hearkened unto him and added fifteen years to his life. Now one could think that he would use this time to do good things, but as we saw in the 2 Kings, his extra time was mostly used to show us he would be better off dead. Yechiqzqiyahu invited a Babylonian delegation and ended up showing them all his wealth and brought to the world Menashsheh (Menasseh), one of the worst kings Yahudah saw.
Yechiqzqiyahu’s story shows us that Yahuah’s decision – even that of putting an end to our lives – is for the best. In his extra time, the king showed the Babylonian visitors all his wealth, provoking their envy and showing weakness. What about his reaction when the prophet told him that all the wealth would be stolen by the visitors and his sons would become eunuchs in Babylonia? Instead of repenting, he was happy that in his lifetime there would be peace. His short term and selfish vision could not grasp the meaning of what he had brought upon his family. Unfortunately, we see this kind of mindset in too many men in our current generation.
A quick note on Uzziyahu (Uzziah), who although is described as a good king in the Bible, did a very stupid thing by forcing his way into the Temple to burn incense – a task only allowed to the tribe of Levy. When he left the Temple, Uzziyahu was stroke with leper, which meant he could no longer stay within his own people. He lived outside the city until he died. His disobedience was triggered by pride.
To finish with another faithful king, let’s briefly tell the story of Hezekiah’s grand-grandson, Yo'shiyahu (Josiah). Yo'shiyahu was born in a time when all the Torah was long forgotten, but he was faithful to Yahuah and of a good heart. When his priests found a lost scroll in the Temple and he realized how damned all his people was, he tried to lead Yahudah back on track and burned all temples of other gods and the high places and executed all the wicked priests. Sadly, it was too late for Yahudah and Yahuah, seeing that Yo'shiyahu loved and feared Yahuah with all his heart, was merciful enough to kill him in battle before he would see his land suffer judgment. Yo'shiyahu's role was to bring back the Torah to his people and help them acknowledge their upcoming judgement.
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