Micah, as we’ve seen, was a prophet of Judah (the southern kingdom) like his contemporary Isaiah. The book that bears his name is a collection of the oracles he gave over time. The opening verse tells us that his ministry extended across the reigns of three of the kings of Judah: Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Jotham, like his father Uzziah (also known as Azariah) before him, was a king who did right in the sight of God. The same could be said about his grandson Hezekiah, who was an exemplary king in many ways. But Jotham’s son Ahaz did not honor God, and it was during his reign that Judah became a vassal to ever-expanding Assyrian Empire.

To this point, though, we’ve said little about the northern kingdom of Israel, which also had its succession of good kings and bad kings. From the time of Uzziah in Judah to the south to the fall of the northern capital, Samaria, there were six kings in Israel: Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, Pekah, and Hoshea.

So…ready for a pop quiz? We’ll do multiple choice. Which of these six kings of Israel was a “good” king, who did right by God and the people?

• (a) Zechariah
• (b) Pekahiah and Pekah
• (c) Hoshea
• (d) None of the above

The correct answer is………………………….

None of the above. (I know, it’s confusing. You may have been thinking of other biblical characters with the same or similar names.) Indeed, none of the six kings listed did right by God, though some were worse than others. This continued the sorry state of affairs that already existed, and this led to the downfall of the northern kingdom.

How bad was it? You can read their brief stories in 2 Kings 15 and 17. We’ve seen how, to the south, the mantle of kingship passed from father to son. In the north, Zechariah was indeed the son of the previous king, Jeroboam II, who reigned 41 years. Likewise, in the list above, Pekahiah was the son of Menahem.

But all of the rest of the Israelite kings in the list ascended to the throne by assassination. Shallum killed Zechariah after the latter had reigned only six months. Shallum, in turn, reigned only a month — one month — before he was assassinated by Menahem. Poetic justice, perhaps? Later, Pekah killed Pekahiah, and Hoshea in turn killed Pekah.

Are you sensing the pattern here?

And while all this royal drama was happening, Assyria was steadily making its incursions into Israel. During Menahem’s 10-year reign, King Pul of Assyria invaded. Menahem essentially bribed him to leave by collecting enough money from the wealthy to make it worthwhile for the Assyrian to return home with his pockets lined with silver. Any savvy leader would know that this was merely kicking the political can down the road; Assyria would surely return.

And return they did. During Pekah’s 20-year reign, Tiglath-Pileser invaded, capturing one Israelite town after another, and beginning to deport the people to Assyria. It was Pekah and his Aramean allies who were attacking Judah, prompting Ahaz to bribe Tiglath-Pileser to help him, making Judah a vassal to Assyria.

And it was Hoshea, the last king of Israel, whose acts pounded the final nail into the coffin of the northern kingdom. As a vassal to the Assyrian king Shalmaneser, Hoshea feigned tribute while secretly courting an alliance with Egypt. When Shalmaneser found out, he captured and imprisoned Hoshea, besieged and conquered Samaria, and finished the deportation that Tiglath-Pileser had already begun.

You can read a summary of the whole sad story in 2 Kings 17:7-23. The passage catalogs all the sorry ways God’s people continued to serve idols, despite the fact that God had rescued them from slavery in Egypt, despite the warnings given by one prophet after another. They forgot their history, ignored God’s prophets, and eventually paid the price.

This is the tradition that Micah carries on in the southern kingdom, knowing that Jerusalem will suffer the same fate as Samaria if the people don’t repent. As we’ll see in upcoming posts, it’s not a job he relishes.