23 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 he reigned forty-one years. 24 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin. 2 Kings 14:23-24
Through the Bible: 2 Kings 14, 2 Chronicles 25
As we talked about a few days ago, 19 kings reigned in Israel from the death of Solomon in 931 BC to the Assyrian invasion in 722. Every single one of them received “did evil in the eyes of the Lord” on his report card.
The average length of reign for a king of Israel was 11 years. And that’s factoring in the very short reigns of Zechariah (6 months), Shallum (1 month) and Zimri (7 days).
When you compare this to the reigns of the kings of Judah (who had eight out of twenty good kings over a period of 345 years) a pattern emerges: good kings typically had longer reigns than evil kings.
In Israel, however, Jeroboam II blows the curve. He reigned 41 years, even though, according to verse 24 he did evil.
I was fascinated to see Enclyclopedia Britanica’s write up of Jeroboam. It begins,
Jeroboam II (8th century BCE), son of Joash, was the last of the great kings of Israel, after whose death the country fell into confusion and ultimate servitude.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jeroboam#ref1250322
The last of the great kings of Israel? Really?
The entry goes on to say that Jeroboam ended the long struggle betwee Syria and Israel. He recaptured the Trans-Jordan territory that had been in Syrian hands. And the entry ends with,
The reign of Jeroboam II saw the greatest success and outward prosperity that Israel had known since the days of Solomon, though the social conditions depicted by Amos meant a national corruption that could end only in disaster.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jeroboam#ref1250322
So, the verdict of secular history is that Jeroboam II was the last great king of Israel. But the verdict of biblical history is that he was evil.
Which verdict matters? I’m sure the Israelites at the time were very happy with Jeroboam. They were prospering. They were expanding their territory. Jeroboam could have campaigned on the promise to “Make Israel Great Again.” And by worldly measures, he did.
But that’s just it: worldly measures aren’t supposed to matter for God’s people. Greatness without godliness is not great. But godliness with contentment, according to 1 Timothy 6, is great gain.
In the end, Israel was eradicated. In Jesus’ day, it had become the Roman territory of Judea. Israel is mentioned in the New Testament less than a hundred times, and usually only in the context of prophecy or Old Testament quotations. Not as a sovereign country.
There’s a lesson here for our modern political campaigns. A leader can be “great” in the eyes of the world but wicked in the eyes of the Lord. And where one stands in the eyes of the Lord is ultimately the only thing that matters.
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