Calvary Road Baptist Church
“A Survey Of Satanic & Demonic Warfare In Second Kings”
Second Kings
Our survey of Satanic and Demonic warfare brings us to the book of Second Kings. I read a very lengthy introduction to First and Second Kings when I dealt with First Kings, so there is no need for anything like that at this time. Remember that First and Second Kings were originally a single book, divided into two because the original was so unwieldy.
Second Kings can be almost equally divided into two parts, chapters one through seventeen being the later history of the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah, and chapters eighteen through twenty-five being the history of the surviving kingdom of Judah after the Assyrians overwhelmed Israel.
As we progress, I will bring to your attention indications of Satanic and Demonic Warfare found in the text:
WE BEGIN WITH THE LATER HISTORIES OF ISRAEL AND JUDAH
Second Kings chapter one records the remainder of Ahaziah’s evil reign in Israel. Verse 2 records him inquiring of Baalzebub, the god of Ekron. This name, meaning ‘the lord of the flies’ occurs only four times in the Old Testament.[1] In the very next verse, we read,
“the angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say unto them, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron?”
Thus, the jealousy of God and the animosity He has toward the god of the Philistines in Ekron is undeniable. There can be no doubt that this is war, with fire from heaven killing those men who were on the wrong side of the conflict, verses 10 and 12.
King Joram’s evil reign in Israel is recorded in 2.1-8.15. We read of the prophet Elijah’s translation in a whirlwind in chapter two and his successor Elisha. We are told that Joram put away the image of Baal made by his father in 3.2. We are also told of Jehoshaphat’s recommendation of Elisha, 3.12. Of course, chapter five records the account of Naaman the leper’s cleansing. But it also records the betrayal by Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God for two talents of silver, and leprosy visited upon him by God for his betrayal. Chapter six records the miracle of the floating ax head. More to the point of our interest is the miracle reported in 6.17, where the LORD answered Elisha’s prayer, and a young man was allowed to see a mountain full of horses and chariots of fire surrounding Elisha. It was a glimpse of spiritual reality.
King Jehoram reigned wickedly in Judah in 8.16-24. He is the man who married the daughter of King Ahab and his wicked wife, Jezebel.
Ahaziah’s evil reign in Judah is found in 8.25-9.29. During this time, Jezebel’s death was predicted that dogs would eat her body.
Jehu’s evil reign in Israel is recorded in 9.30-10.36. During this time, Jezebel was thrown from a palace window and died, and dogs did eat her body. Jehu’s was a reign with terrible slaughter, as he slew the family of his predecessor and slew all the worshippers of Baal and burned their images. But he continued to worship the golden calves, 10.29. He traded one form of idolatry for another.
Athaliah controlled Judah in 11.1-20. Athaliah was the mother of Judah’s king. When her son died, Athaliah slew every member of the royal household, except for one child, her grandson Joash. He was in the custody of the high priest, Jehoiada, until the baby’s seventh year. Athaliah was then overthrown, and Joash became king, with Jehoiada serving as his regent until he came of age.
King Joash’s good reign in Judah is recorded in 11.21-12.21. He began to reign at age seven and ruled for forty years when he was assassinated.
Jehoahaz was Israel’s wicked king in 13.1-9. Idolatry remained in Israel, with mention made of the grove in Samaria in 13.6, which was “the Asherah pole, a symbol of the pagan goddess Asherah, Baal’s consort.”[2]
Jehoash ruled wickedly in Israel in 13.10-25. Idolatry continued unabated during Jehoash’s reign. As well, in his time as king, the prophet Elisha died.
Amaziah’s good reign as king in Judah is recorded in 14.1-22. We are told in 14.4, “the high places were not taken away: as yet the people did sacrifice and burnt incense on the high places.” The high places were places of compromise. The people purportedly worshiped the God of Israel according to the requirements of the Mosaic Law, but for the requirement that God’s designated place of worship was the Temple in Jerusalem. Thus, Amaziah presided over a time when the people of Judah worshiped God conveniently.
Jeroboam II reigned wickedly in Israel in 14.23-29. In 14.24, we are told that “he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.” Of course, that means idolatry. And behind all idolatry are demons.
King Azariah’s good reign in Judah is found in 15.1-7. Yet another so-called good king compromised by allowing the people to worship in high places rather than according to God’s directive, 15.4. 15.5 informs us he was smitten with leprosy, but we are not told why in Second Kings. He is known to the prophet Isaiah as King Uzziah.[3]
King Zechariah’s evil reign in Israel is in 15.8-12. The idolatry in the North continued.
King Shallum’s evil reign in Israel is recorded in 15.13-16.
King Menahem’s evil reign in Israel is found in 15.17-22. During this king’s reign the Assyrians begin to demand tribute money.
Pekahiah was an evil king in Israel in 15.23-26. Does he change his ways when threatened by the Assyrians? Nope. The idolatry continued.
Pekah was yet another evil king in Israel in 15.27-31. The military assaults on Israel began under Pekah’s rule, 15.29, when Tiglathpileser was the king of Assyria.
Jotham was a good king in Judah in 15.32-38. When King Jotham succeeded his father, he tolerated the same convenient worship allowed by his father. The looming threat of the Assyrians did not persuade him to obey God strictly.
King Ahaz ruled Judah wickedly in chapter 16. Consider the record of him in 16:3-4:
3 But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yea, and made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel.
4 And he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.
He burned his son in fire, according to the abominations of the heathen. This is what idolatry, energized and instructed by demons, accomplishes in the end. And if you are not familiar with some of the popular methods of aborting unborn babies in our modern era, saline solution abortions chemically burn unborn babies to death. Do you need convincing that Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers are demonic?
King Hoseah was Israel’s wicked king in 17.1-6. When this man was king, Assyria overwhelmed Israel, and the nation effectively ceased to exist. The surviving men were carried away and replaced by captives from other conquered nations.
Israel’s captivity is recorded in 17.7-41. They sinned against the LORD (17.7), feared other gods (17.7), walked in the statutes of the heathen (17.8), secretly did things that were not right (17.9), set up images and groves on every high hill (17.10), burned incense in all the high places (17.11), served idols when the “LORD had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing” (17.12), and on and on the account goes.
THEN COMES THE HISTORY OF THE SURVIVING KINGDOM OF JUDAH
King Hezekiah was a good king, chapters 18-20. Hezekiah was impressive, 18.4:
“He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.”
“He trusted in the LORD God of Israel.”
During his reign, the Assyrians moved against them, besieging Jerusalem and likening the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to the gods of the heathens. Big mistake to make in this spiritual war. So Hezekiah took the matter to God. His response? Second Kings 19.19-37:
19 Now therefore, O LORD our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD God, even thou only.
20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.
21 This is the word that the LORD hath spoken concerning him; The virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.
22 Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.
23 By thy messengers thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down the tall cedar trees thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the lodgings of his borders, and into the forest of his Carmel.
24 I have digged and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places.
25 Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps.
26 Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded; they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up.
27 But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me.
28 Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.
29 And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springeth of the same; and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruits thereof.
30 And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.
31 For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this.
32 Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it.
33 By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD.
34 For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.
35 And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.
36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.
37 And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.
This was spiritual warfare that had spilled over into human affairs, and God showed His people what He is capable of doing when it suits His purpose.
Manasseh was an evil king, 21.1-18. Manasseh had not been born when God blessed his father and his nation. He reintroduced idolatrous worship when he became king and became Judah’s worst king, even defiling the Temple with pagan artifacts. He even made his son pass through the fire, 21.6. It was during Manasseh’s reign that God decided to bring on the Babylonians, 21.12, promising
“Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle.”
King Amon was another evil king, 21.19-26. Almost rivaling his father’s wickedness, Amon was assassinated.
Josiah was a good king, 22.1-23.30. Josiah was actually a great king. His exploits are found in 23.1-30. Yet for his devotion to the LORD, and though there was a brief revival of religion under his rule, God’s promised judgment would still come, 23.26-27.
Jehoahaz was an evil king, 23.31-35. Jehoahaz was part of the problem, not the solution.
Jehoiakim was an evil king, 23.36-24.7. It was during his reign that “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant three years: then he turned and rebelled against him.” But it was short-lived.
Jehoiachin was an evil king, 24.8-17. This was when Jerusalem was overwhelmed, and the Babylonian captivity began.
Zedekiah was an evil king, 24.18-25.7. During his reign, Jerusalem was utterly destroyed, and his children were slain while he watched before he was blinded. The last thing he saw was his children being murdered.
The kingdom of Judah under Babylonian government, 25.8-30. This is the record of the burning of the Temple and houses, the carrying away of everything of value, and the removal of all but the most lowly inhabitants to be ruled by Babylonian appointees.
Elijah, Elisha, Naaman the leper, and kings Hezekiah and Josiah are the prominent personalities in Second Kings. But what is passed over lightly and with little attention is the story of idolatry.
Again and again, we are told of so many kings, “And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.” What does that mean? It means idolatry, idolatry, and more idolatry.
And what lies behind idolatry, be they figures made of gold, silver, brass, bronze, wood, stone, or plastic on the dashboard of the car, a calf or an angel, a cross-legged fat man, or the blasphemy of a figure still hanging from a cross two thousand years after Christ’s resurrection?
Ever and always, behind idols are demons. Paul wrote, in First Corinthians 10.19-20:
19 What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing?
20 But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.
What is Paul telling us? He tells us that the statue, the figurine, the carving, is nothing in and of itself. Idolaters show reverence and adoration and veneration for those things, and we know they are nothing. What is significant is what it behind them, the devils, the demons.
What do Satan and his demons have to do with idols? With idols, they acquire from the gullible, from the naive, and the foolish, the worship and respect they do not deserve. Only God deserves any person’s worship and adoration and praise.
But demons seek what only belongs to God using idols. And because God is rightly jealous, such wickedness outrages Him. And He punishes it. Then and now.
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[1] Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, Pieter W. Van der Horst, editors, Dictionary Of Deities And Demons In The Bible, (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Second Extensively Revised Edition, 1999), pages 154-156.
[2] John F. Walvoord & Roy B. Zuck, General Editors, The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament, (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 1985), page 563.
[3] Isaiah 6.1
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