Learning from the Mistakes of Judah's Good Kings Who Were Succeeded by Bad Sons
As I'm doing some reading of "Thru the Bible Commentary" by the late J. Vernon McGee, I thought that having read through 1st and 2nd Kings, and 1st and 2nd Chronicles, has had me thinking of the roads from revival to ruin. While Israel all had wicked kings (and Jehu wasn't even really righteous even if he did purge out Baal worship) but Judah had a few good kings. But what was the cause of the up and down trends of the Davidic Dynasty from Solomon up to Jehoiakim?
We can notice the incidences of Judah's good kings that have their reforms countered by their wicked sons:
Parenting itself is one huge task that you can't ignore. It didn't matter how much the good kings of Judah made a good reform if they failed to teach their son the same thing. Holiness is not a genetic issue. Holiness is a very personal issue and you can only get holy if you're imputed with it by God's grace! It's very easy (and very foolish too) for great fathers to assume that their sons will automatically be like them. This is simply not true as fathers and sons are different people. David became king but Jesse his father was a shepherd. Solomon had no battle experience like hardened David. I think David should've exposed Solomon more. I think Hezekiah should've taught Manasseh godliness before he was 12. Jehoshaphat should've never had an alliance with Ahab. You can see that the successions of kings meant that while the crown is passed - the next king was to start from scratch. It's important for parents to balance time between work and family if they expect their children to follow in their footsteps.
See also:
We can notice the incidences of Judah's good kings that have their reforms countered by their wicked sons:
- Rehoboam (though he later repented) reversed plenty of Solomon's reforms. He could have started to reverse taxes as Solomon's advisers would have told him. However, he listened to his peers and worsened the economic mistakes that Solomon made. He also never learned from his father's mistakes of having many wives.
- Jehoshaphat held strong to the reforms of Asa except that he made the mistake of siding with Ahab. Why he even allowed his son Jehoram to marry Athaliah is really something. It's a big, terrible mistake when you consider that Athaliah is the daughter of both Ahab and Jezebel. The results were not pretty as his righteous sons were slain (perhaps at the suggestion of Athaliah though the Bible is silent about that) and one grandson of his Ahaziah became a weak king. Jehoram's reign ended in disaster.
- Ahaz himself disregarded the reforms of Joash, Amaziah, and his father Jotham. It's highly possible that Jotham married a wicked woman to result in King Ahaz. Mothers were sometimes mentioned which may explain why some kings were succeeded by wicked sons.
- Manasseh would rule the longest in Judah. Though he later repented yet much is said about his wickedness in both 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles. Why he sat down at such a young age is unknown. It also seems Hezekiah had a godless wife to result in the succession of Manasseh. What Hezekiah did - he undid. Hezekiah would commit the mistake of bragging about his riches to Babylon which was a surefire recipe for disaster.
- Josiah was the last good king of Judah. You can see how he was later succeeded by Jehoiakim (he was cursed that no king will sit after him and this line led to Joseph) and later Zedekiah. While he led the nation to prosperity - he simply made the same mistake his ancestor David made. David was a great king but a poor father.
- Hence, it's possible many of these great kings here were, in fact, terrible fathers!
This is the big mistake that some great men make. Society can sing of their achievements but the home is hardly called a home. One can sing of David's achievements but what can be said about his fatherhood? I guess having many wives led to him being unfocused. I think he should have stuck with Abigail. Instead, he chose to even marry a pagan princess that sired both Absalom and Tamar in his line. He also failed to discipline Amnon's incestuous rape. David was really a failure as a father. Worse, he was already in his 40s and he ended up committing adultery with Bathsheba, a woman that was young enough to be his daughter. It's no wonder one of his advisers namely Ahitophel (Bathsheba's paternal grandfather) would later join the rebellion with Absalom.
Parenting itself is one huge task that you can't ignore. It didn't matter how much the good kings of Judah made a good reform if they failed to teach their son the same thing. Holiness is not a genetic issue. Holiness is a very personal issue and you can only get holy if you're imputed with it by God's grace! It's very easy (and very foolish too) for great fathers to assume that their sons will automatically be like them. This is simply not true as fathers and sons are different people. David became king but Jesse his father was a shepherd. Solomon had no battle experience like hardened David. I think David should've exposed Solomon more. I think Hezekiah should've taught Manasseh godliness before he was 12. Jehoshaphat should've never had an alliance with Ahab. You can see that the successions of kings meant that while the crown is passed - the next king was to start from scratch. It's important for parents to balance time between work and family if they expect their children to follow in their footsteps.
See also: