II Kings 15:10 And Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against him, and smote him before the people, and slew him, and reigned in his stead.
You Get as You Give
What do you want today, and what will you do to get it? There are a number of things that people do in their lives in order to get what they want. They may try to get what they want by cooperation, manipulation, force, or something else.
II Kings 15 is a condensed history. It is the record of several kings written in just thirty-eight verses. Several words are found over and again, such as “conspired,” “smote,” “slew,” and “reigned in his stead.” These words describe what happened over and again as one king murdered another and was in turn murdered by the man who wanted to follow him.
Verse 10 tells us that Shallum killed King Zachariah. In verse 14 it says that Menahem, in turn, killed King Shallum. In fact, the Bible says of Shallum that “he reigned a full month” before he was killed. Here is a man that killed the king before him and was killed by the king that came after him. None of these men were necessarily in the kingly line; they were just ambitious men who aspired and then conspired to become the next king. Verse 25 says that Pekah killed King Pekahiah, and then in verse 30, Hoshea killed King Pekah. Kings were assassinated four times, and those who assassinated were themselves killed in two occasions.
How loyal would the subjects of the kingdom have been to these kings who came to power by murdering someone else? Would any of these kings have trusted their subjects, having themselves come to power by force? Could any of these kings have expected any kind of objective, honest, and sound advice from the people they ruled? How much would these kings have mentored others or planned for the prosperity of their kingdom beyond their own lifespan? Such men would surely have been insecure and would not have trained anyone to rule in their absence. These guys were always watching their backs because they knew that others were going to be prone to do what they had done.
The lesson to learn here is that we should expect to get as we give, whether it be cooperation, manipulation, or force. Which of those three would be your tendency for getting what you want? All three of these things can aid in getting what one wants, but all of them get more than just what you want; they get what you give. The history we have read is a bloody history, but it need not have been so. You will get what you give and you will get as you give. Be mindful not just of what you want to get, but how you are going to get it.