2 Ki 9-16/Amos/Jonah/

2 Kings
First up is the end of Ahab (at least his son) and Jezebel. They end as Elijah spoke. Jehu is their downfall, a son of Jehosaphat. He also kills the king of Judah, leaving a huge power vacuum. Jezebel calls him "Zimri," referring to a usurper who was on the throne all of a week.

Jehu outlives Jezebel's pronouncement and brings and end to Baal worship (or so you might think) through lots of bloody destruction. His is a bloody reign, though he receives a promise that his sons will reign for four generations.

11: A queen in Judah. Yes, and not a good one. The priest, Jehoida, who is hiding the crown prince brings loyal troops and guards (Carites) to the temple, then they crown Joash. The queen finds out, visits the temple (not a smart move) and is arrested and executed. The kingship is reaffirmed in a particularly Jewish way - covenant between king and people. Baal temples are torn down.

12: Joash grows up and is called Jehoash. He is a relatively good king who tries to do a restoration of the temple, which is not terribly successful. During his reign the people are also paying tribute to King Hazael of Aram (Syria). The violent death of Jehoash may be because of a turn to wickedness mentioned in 2 Chronicles)

13: Jehoahaz and Jehoash (also Joash) - kings of the North. We're back to Israel, don't let the names confuse you. There were two kings, neither of which were very good, but when Joash sought him out he promised he would have some victory over Aram. They indeed are able to fight back with their reduced army...for a while.

14: Battle between Israel and Judah, who is fresh from a successful campaign does not go well for the South. Israel is on the rise and Jeroboam II reestablishes their former borders. He is the King of Amos and Hosea, and Jonah is mentioned, but Jonah is a non-historical drama.

15-16: Starting with the brief description of King Azariah (sometimes called Uzziah) of Judah, who had leprousy, we embark on the downturn of Israel. The sons of Jehu are replaced and they begin to lose the land. Then Assyrian comes into the picture. These will be the people who finally conquer the northern kingdom of Israel. At first Menahem buys them off (King Pul). This will not always work. During the rule of Pekah of Israel, Assyria makes incursions in the north and carries a great many people away.

Then we move back to Judah: Jotham takes over, though he has been ruling in all but name. Verse 37 refers to a conflict that we will read about again in Isaiah 7-9 (a maiden shall conceive and bear a son etc.).

vv. 5-20. What's going on here? Pekah, king of Israel and the Arameans (modern day Syria) form an alliance and attack Jerusalem. King Ahaz of Judah, not a good king, sends money and asks for help from Assyria. Assyria destroys Aram (Syria) and takes Damascus, "saving" Jerusalem. Ahaz visits and makes copies of things from pagan temples and places them in the temple in Jerusalem. As you can imagine, this is not a good thing to do.

Jonah
Jonah is a great story. One of the greatest. However, it did not happen. It is a non-historical story, perhaps even a drama, that shows the open hearts of the Jews arch-enemies, the Assyrians, who were oppressing them, and compares them to the hard hearts of the Jewish people. It would be like if I gave a sermon in which I told of how Osama bin Laden turned to Jesus and laid down his arms while we in America still like to sleep in on Sundays. In some ways, it is amazing it survived, since I'm sure it made a lot of people angry.

Amos
Our first minor prophet. Amos was active during the reign of Jeroboam II, King of Israel. His reign was peaceful and prosperous, however it was full of incredible inequities. By manipulating debt and credit, wealthy landowners got richer while impoverishing small farmers. The smallest debt served as a wedge to separate people from the land their families rightly owned. Amos prophecies that Israel will fall to Assyria and be taken into exile.