50 Years

2 Kings 13-14

            Considering how the narrative slows down sometimes, today’s two chapters move at warp speed. From Jehoahaz to Jeroboam II we cover around 65 years. The story goes from Israel being completely under the thumb of the Arameans to the Arameans being under the thumb of Israel. (The rise of the Assyrian empire on Aram’s northeast border certainly helped, although that is nowhere mentioned in the Bible.)

            Of course, the author of Kings has little interest in the political fortunes of either kingdom, otherwise he might have told us more about Jeroboam II, the longest tenured of the northern kings, the one who restored her borders and ushered in an era of economic prosperity. No, Kings remains interested in faithfulness to the Lord, and, even though this period was by many measures the best in Israel’s history, the author points out that these three kings continued in the sins of Jeroboam I, presumably his shrines at Bethel and Dan.

            This single-minded focus reminds us that the only thing that finally matters is faith. We may look at people and judge them good, but without faith they have no standing before God. In Lutheran theology, we call that kind of goodness ‘civic righteousness.’ We recognize that many people—believers and unbelievers alike—do things that are ‘good’ for the world. On the other hand, we also confess that the only righteousness that counts before God is Christ’s perfect righteousness, which is imputed, that is, credited to us through faith in Christ Jesus.