Thoughts on 2 Kings 3

Today’s reading: 2 Kings 3; John 2

2 Kings 3 gives us a helpful glimpse into the broader inner-workings of the geopolitical landscape at the time of the divided monarchy (and really much of the Old Testament in general).

When I read about nations and kings in the Bible, my first instinct is to think in terms of what we consider a nation today. The global political context I have lived my whole life under is one of well-defined national boundaries, unified governmental systems, and nobody being allowed to touch those borders. Granted, some of those borders are artificially imposed by outside forces, especially in the Middle East and Arica, which has caused significant issues over the years, but still, there are internationally recognized borders and one country is not “allowed” to just decide they want more land and try to take their neighboring countries over.

But this is far from the notion of nations that existed back in Old Testament times, and 2 Kings 3 gives us some insight into that if we are not used to thinking of nations this way.

2 Kings 3 tells us that the king of Moab previously delivered tribute to the Israel, but when Ahab died he rebelled, meaning he thought Jehoram was not solidified enough in his reign to be able to force Moab into submission and this was his opportunity to gain some freedom. But when he rebelled, Jehoram sought out Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, and the king of Edom, and the three of them together went against Moab.

What’s important to realize is that there is not some long-standing alliance between Israel and Judah. They have been enemies since Israel split into two kingdoms, fighting one another, taking territory from one another, and even hiring other nations to attack one another. Even as Jehoshaphat has tried to make some amount of peace between the two kingdoms, we can see how dependent this kind of peace is on who happens to be in power at the time. The next generation king on either side could decide they are not interested in any sort of peace and try to take land/people from the other kingdom.

Rather than well-defined borders with unified governments, you had regional kings/warlords who existed in a tenuous stasis alongside one another much of the time. Yes, each one would like to expand his territory and power, but if he overextends, he won’t have the resources to control everything under his power, which would create internal unrest and opportunities for someone to rise up against the king from within, and would also create a period of weakness for other surrounding nations to swoop in and claim parts of his kingdom for their own. This meant it was seldom one nation trying to conquer another nation and take their land, and was much more commonly one nation trying to suppress other nations around them and force them to pay tribute and to be available to help militarily. Sure, there were regular skirmishes for control of border cities and lands, but, in general, it benefited everyone to not get too greedy.

What you see then throughout the Bible, especially in the conquest narratives, is the kind of thing we see here in 2 Kings 3, with multiple kingdoms gathering together as a larger army for a mutually beneficial purpose, even if/when there isn’t necessarily peace between those nations. None of these three kings (of Judah, Israel, and Edom) wanted the land of Moab, because that would put them in a vulnerable position, but they also didn’t want it to go to the other kings because they wouldn’t want to see those kingdoms expanding. However, they would all rather see Moab wiped out so there is no threat from them to any of the other three nations than allow them to rebel and exist as an independent kingdom. So instead of trying to conquer Moab, they swept through, killed the people, and destroyed the farmland and the cities, making it useless land for anybody to try to claim for their own.

Other than when larger, more powerful nations arise and move into the area, like Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, or Rome, this is the kind of national/political landscape of the Biblical world we are reading about in the Old Testament.