Thursday, August 2, 2012

Jehoahaz (2 Kings 23:31-37; 2 Chronicles 36:1-5)


Jehoahaz, son of Josiah, becomes king.  He does evil in God's sight.  Within three months of becoming king, he is deposed by Pharoah and carried off in chains.  Pharoah then establishes his brother Eliakim as king and renames him Jehoiakim.  Egypt also levied a huge tax on Judah.

There was another Jehoahaz who was in the lineage of Jehu in the Northern Kingdom.

Here, we see a significant involvement of a regional power in the political system of Judah.  It appears that Judah has become a vassal/puppet state of Egypt.  That said, Egypt is recognizing the Davidic dynasty to remain as kings of Judah.  In other words, Egypt did not set their own Egyptian rulers over Judah.  But the fact that Egypt carried off a king they did not like shows where real power resides.

It also shows that Egypt used the occasion of killing King Josiah to exert control over Judah.

All of this is a predecessor to ultimate Babylonian captivity.  Likewise, the main prophets of the day are speaking about the oncoming deluge of Babylon, even though Egypt is currently the main threat.

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