Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 15; 2 Kings 16
Second Kings 15 and 16 cover the reigns of Azariah, Jotham, and Ahaz over Judah and the reigns of Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, and Pekah over Israel.
At the age of sixteen, Azariah (Uzziah) began to reign over Judah in the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel and reigned for fifty-two years in Jerusalem (15:1-2; 14:21).
Azariah did what was right in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. But Azariah did not remove the high places, and the people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places (15:3-4).
Due to his trespass in touching the priestly service, Azariah was stricken by Jehovah so that he became a leper until the day of his death (v. 5a; 2 Chron. 26:16-21). He did not keep God's ordinance that only the priests ordained by God could participate in the priestly service. Azariah overstepped and touched the priestly service. This was a great offense to God, and it led to Azariah's becoming a leper.
Azariah's son, having become the acting king, was over the household and judged the people of the land (2 Kings 15:5b).
After the death of his father Amaziah, Azariah built up Elath and restored it to Judah (14:22).
Azariah slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. He was succeeded by his son Jotham (15:6-7).
Zechariah began to reign in Samaria in the thirty-eighth year of Azariah king of Judah and reigned for six months (v. 8).
Zechariah did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah as his fathers had done. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, by which he caused Israel to sin (v. 9).
Shallum conspired against Zechariah, struck him down before the people, and reigned in his place. This was in fulfillment of God's word spoken to his forefather Jehu that, because of his faithfulness to God, his sons would sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation (vv. 10-12).
Shallum reigned for one month in Samaria, in the thirty-ninth year of Uzziah (Azariah) king of Judah (v. 13).
Menahem came up from Tirzah, murdered Shallum, and usurped his throne (vv. 14-15).
Because those in Tiphsah did not open to him, Menahem captured Tiphsah and its borders, slaughtered all the people, and ripped open the pregnant women (v. 16). It is hard to explain why, having the law of God, he could be so evil and unrestrained.
Menahem began to reign over Israel from the thirty-ninth year of Azariah king of Judah and reigned for ten years in Samaria (v. 17).
Menahem did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah. Throughout all his days he did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, by which he caused Israel to sin (v. 18).
Pul king of Assyria came against the land, and Menahem gave him quite an amount of money exacted from Israel, from all the great men of wealth. Then the king of Assyria returned and departed from the land (vv. 19-20).
Menahem slept with his fathers and was succeeded by Pekahiah his son (vv. 21-22).
Pekahiah began to reign over Israel in Samaria from the fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah and reigned for two years (v. 23).
Pekahiah did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, by which he caused Israel to sin (v. 24).
Pekahiah was murdered in his palace in Samaria by Pekah, his captain, who usurped his throne (vv. 25-26).
Pekah began to reign over Israel in Samaria from the fifty-second year of Azariah king of Judah and reigned for twenty years (v. 27).
Pekah did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, by which he caused Israel to sin (v. 28).
During the days of Pekah, Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria invaded Israel and carried some of the people away captive to Assyria (v. 29).
In the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah and king of Judah, Hoshea conspired against Pekah, killed him, and reigned in his place (vv. 30-31).
At the age of twenty-five, Jotham began to reign in Jerusalem in the second year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, and reigned for sixteen years (vv. 32-33).
Jotham did what was right in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that his father Uzziah had done. But the high places were not removed, and the people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places (vv. 34-35a).
Jotham built the upper gate of the house of Jehovah (v. 35b).
In those days Jehovah began to send Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah against Judah (v. 37).
Jotham slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. He was succeeded by his son Ahaz (vv. 36, 38).
At the age of twenty, Ahaz began to reign in Jerusalem in the seventeenth year of Pekah king of Israel and reigned for sixteen years (16:1-2a).
Ahaz did not do what was right in the sight of Jehovah his God, as David his father had. Rather, he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He caused his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the nations that Jehovah had dispossessed before the children of Israel. Also, he sacrificed and burned incense in the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree (vv. 2b-4).
Rezin king of Syria and Pekah king of Israel came to attack Jerusalem. They besieged Ahaz but were not able to conquer him (v. 5).
Rezin king of Syria restored Elath to Syria and drove the Jews from there. The Syrians then came to Elath and dwelt there (v. 6).
Ahaz sought the help of the king of Assyria by humbling himself as his servant and his son and at the cost of giving to the king of Assyria a present of the silver and the gold of the house of Jehovah and of the treasuries of the king's house. The king of Assyria attacked Damascus, took it, carried the people of it away captive, and killed Rezin (vv. 7-9).
Ahaz went to meet the king of Assyria at Damascus and saw the altar that was there. He adopted the pattern of this altar and through Urijah the priest he built an altar according to it in Jerusalem. Then Ahaz offered sacrifices upon it and charged Urijah the priest to burn all his offerings and the people's offerings upon that great altar. Ahaz then removed the bronze altar from the front of the house of God and put it by the side of his altar. The bronze altar would now be for Ahaz to inquire by. Next, Ahaz changed the way of putting the laver and bronze sea made by Solomon. Then because of the king of Assyria, he removed the way to enter the house of God on the Sabbath and the king's entry to enter the house of God (vv. 10-18).
Ahaz slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. He was succeeded by Hezekiah his son (vv. 19-20).
From the time that Solomon, the builder of the temple, became fallen and corrupted until the children of Israel were carried away into captivity was a period of four hundred years. During this time God expected a change among the children of Israel, but year by year they stubbornly remained the same. This forced God to give them up. Although God gave up Israel, He kept the principle, found in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, of gaining some overcomers so that He could still have a lineage of people on earth to maintain His economy and carry it out. All the real prophets in the times of the kings and the captivity, such as Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jonah, Daniel, and Zechariah, were overcomers. Through such overcomers Ezra and Nehemiah were awakened to realize that they had to go back to the land of their fathers.
The entire history of Israel is a type for God's economy. The fulfillment of this type can be seen in the history of Christianity. Today Christianity is in captivity, but we in the Lord's recovery are outside the captivity. In the type, the Lord's recovery started with a small number, with ones such as Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah. Today the recovery may be small in number, but it is spreading into the captivity to call out more overcomers. The Lord's recovery is not to gain all the Christians in this age but to call out a smaller group to be the overcomers. In the book of Revelation, the Lord Jesus repeatedly issues a call for the overcomers (2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21). These overcomers will become Mount Zion, the peak in God's accomplishment of His economy (14:1).
The Bible is one book consisting of two sections — the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament contains many types and pictures, and in the New Testament we have the fulfillment of the typology in the Old Testament. Most fundamental Christians, however, pay attention only to part of the fulfillment of the Old Testament typology in the New Testament. In the recovery the Lord, by His mercy, has been continually showing us more and more concerning the fulfillment of the Old Testament typology in the New Testament, especially in relation to God's economy.
In reading the books of 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings, we need to see the link between the Old Testament books of history and the New Testament. This link is God's economy for Christ and for Christ's Body. This link is shown in the kings' history, which includes the prophets as God's overcomers. Again and again, the prophets came in either to help the kings or to deal with them. For example, Nathan helped David and also rebuked him. Elijah dealt with Ahab; Elisha performed miracles in life; and Isaiah helped Hezekiah.
In the book of Isaiah two short prophecies clearly show the link between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Isaiah 7:14 says that a virgin would bring forth a son whose name would be called Immanuel. Isaiah 9:6 says that a son would be given to us and that his name would be called the mighty God and the eternal Father. These prophecies reveal that God would become a man as a little child. The mighty God, the eternal Father, became a man in order to make man God in life and in nature (but not in the Godhead). However, in order to be made God in this way, man first needed to be redeemed. Isaiah 53 is a strong chapter on the redemption of Christ. In His humanity the God who had become man was man's Redeemer, slain for man's sin. God redeemed man for the purpose of making the redeemed man God in life and in nature so that God can have a consummation of His economy in the Body of Christ as the enlargement of Christ. This Body of Christ will consummate in the New Jerusalem as God's full expression and enlargement for eternity. In typology the history of the kings is linked to God's becoming a man to redeem man back to Himself that He might make His redeemed people God in life and in nature so that He might have for eternity a universal, corporate expression of Himself. This, in brief, is God's economy.
Jesus, who is God become man, eventually became the life-giving Spirit in His resurrection (1 Cor. 15:45b). The matters related to this are unveiled in the twenty-seven books of the New Testament. The New Testament shows us that Jesus is God becoming man through incarnation; that He lived a human life on earth; that He died an all-inclusive death, which solved all the problems in the universe, including sin, death, Satan, the world, and the old creation; and that He entered into resurrection. In resurrection He uplifted His humanity into divinity, regenerating His humanity to be the firstborn Son of God (Rom. 1:3-4; Acts 13:33; Rom. 8:29). In that same birth we, the many members of Christ, were regenerated with Him (1 Pet. 1:3). In and through His resurrection Christ also became the life-giving Spirit.
The life-giving Spirit, who is the all-inclusive Christ, is the consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God. This Spirit is also the reality of Christ's resurrection. Furthermore, this Spirit, the consummated Triune God, is the pneumatic Christ, who is the embodiment of the Triune God. The aggregate of all this is the life-giving Spirit. Such a marvelous matter is unveiled in detail in the New Testament, from Matthew to Revelation.
The goal of God's economy is to work on His redeemed people in order to make them God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. This can be accomplished only through, by, with, and in the life-giving Spirit. It is crucial for us in the Lord's recovery to see that our Christ today is in resurrection and that in resurrection He is the pneumatic Christ, the life-giving Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God. We have Him as the all-inclusive, compound Spirit in our spirit. Now every day we must do everything in our spirit in order that this life-giving Spirit may transform us, conform us, and eventually glorify us that we might be made God in life and in nature.
