Useful Bible Studies > 2 Kings Commentary > chapter 13
During this period of history, few of the people in northern and central Israel served the true God sincerely. Most of the people preferred to follow wrong and evil religions. They turned away from the true God and they would not obey his law. They behaved as if God had not chosen them to be his special people.
We might expect that, in such circumstances, God himself would turn away completely from them. He would send them away from the land that he had given to them; he would declare them no longer to be his people. However, the effect of that would be very terrible. If God truly turned away from them, the effect would be to destroy their nation completely.
God did not do that. He had made his covenant (promises) to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob about the future of their family (for example Genesis 12:2-3, 15:5, 22:17-18 and 28:13-15). God promised to use that family, which became the nation called Israel, to show his kindness to people from every nation. God always acts for the honour of his own name; he always carries out his promises.
God had to act against the people’s evil deeds – however, he did it in a different way. He did not destroy their nation, but he caused them to have a fierce enemy, Hazael, the king of Aram (8:12-13). God would later rescue them from Aram’s army: that showed that God was still working on behalf of Israel.
The time would come when God sent his people away from their land (17:1-23). However, even then, God did not turn away from his covenant with Israel (Jeremiah 31:35-37). He destroyed their kings and their government – but he caused their nation to continue to exist, even without their own land and in foreign nations. God would not destroy their nation completely, because of his promise to bring them back, both to their land, and to himself (Deuteronomy 30:1-10; Romans 11:11-27).
Next part: Jehoash's three successes in battle against Aram (2 Kings 13:24-25)
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