Shallum assassinated Zachariah and became king of Israel in his place and had only a short one-month reign. That would make him the king with the second shortest reign. Zimri was the king with the shortest reign of only a few days. He was murdered by Menahem, who traveled from Tirzah to Samaria and struck him now. Shallum’s reign was so short that it was not possible to even evaluate the impact of his reign. Second Kings 15:15 said that whatever he did including the conspiracy he led against Zachariah was all written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. How Menahem had Shallem killed was described in verses 16. He was purported to strike Tiphsah from Tirzah and all who resisted him. We can only guess that the people of Tiphsah did not welcome him, so they resisted and refused to let him in. But the cruel Menahem not only broke their resistance but also committed atrocities. It was said that he ripped open the womb of all the pregnant women. This is cruelty personified.
Having
killed Shallum, Menahem then became king of Israel and ruled in Samaria for ten
years. He was no better than any of the predecessors, for it was said that he
did evil in the sight of the Lord and did depart from the ways of
Jeroboam I. This suggests that he perpetrated the sin of idolatry Jeroboam had
introduced.
One
lesson we can take away from these verses is that sin will make us lose our
conscience. Shallum unconscionably murdered Zachariah and he himself was killed
by Menahem. Then Menahem took his cruelty to an even greater level. He not only
killed Shallum but also carried out extreme atrocities of ripping the wombs of
pregnant mothers apart. It’s hard to think that his conscience didn’t even
disturb him. That’s the depravity of sin. It will leave us engaging in wicked
and unconscionable acts with the least bit of feeling. Only a sure relationship
with God will keep our conscience alive!
No comments:
Post a Comment