2 Kings 14:17-22. The death, by treachery, of Amaziah, King of Judah. This was in the time of the divided Kingdom. Amaziah is introduced to us in 2 Kings 14:1-6. He took the throne at age 25, and he followed the rules, but he didn't quite "get it," "he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, yet not like David..." He killed the servants who had killed his father, but not their children, because the Lord prohibited punishment of children for the sins of their father. (The implication being that a ruler like David would have found a wiser way to deal with this situation.) Basically, Amaziah was an OK ruler - he followed the letter of the law, but did not quite understand the spirit of it, in his fallible human way. He sought a meeting with the king of Israel - presumably for diplomatic reasons - but didn't take a very obvious "no" for an answer, so Judah and Israel eventually warred against each other, Judah was defeated, the treasury of the House of the Lord was looted, and 400 cubits of Jerusalem's wall was broken down. Eventually, a conspiracy against Amaziah resulted in him fleeing Jerusalem, but he was tracked down and killed. His killers did bring his body back to Jerusalem, though, and buried him with the kings of Judah in Jerusalem.

Here we see the life and times of a so-so king - things weren't absolutely horrible for the people or for the kingdom, but there was war, the city walls were broken, and the treasury was looted. Amaziah was not a terrible person, but he was not a good ruler. His pride and unwillingness to learn to be a good leader ultimately meant that, politically, he had to go for the nation to survive. So, he was killed, but he was buried with his fathers in Jersulam, so he was not completely disrespected.

The Books of Kings seem to be litanies of these kinds of kings, of both Judah and of Israel - some are OK, some a bit better, some really bad - but no king is like David. And so the fortunes of both kingdoms ebb and flow as the fallibility of their leaders affects the kingdom. Under Amaziah, war with Israel could have been avoided - Jehoash, the king of Israel, even said to him "Be content with your glory and stay at home, for why should you provoke trouble?" "But Amaziah would not listen" and he kept pestering Jehoash until Jehoash finally went up to battle against Judah.

I think the point of these so-so king stories is to show how truly special David was, and point to how truly special Jesus will be. So-so leaders are what we usually have, throughout history, and that is why history is full of senseless wars, assassinated leaders, and nation-state power struggles. Rulers without vision and without wisdom, who may be trying, but not really understanding the point of true leadership, and usually have too much of their own self-interest at heart, often get us into heaps of trouble. They need wisdom - they need to seek it, and not to trust in themselves. They need to listen, even to their enemies, and learn. But they just aren't capable of that.

There would never be any one like David until Jesus, and Jesus would be so much more than David, but also so different. Our true king is not an earthly king at all, but the king of the universe - limitless in wisdom, love, and humility. And he will save all of humanity from our so-so natures.