2 Kings 15:13-22
"13 Shallum the son of Jabesh began to reign in the thirty-ninth year of Uzziah king of Judah, and he reigned one month in Samaria. 14 Then Menahem the son of Gadi came up from Tirzah and came to Samaria, and he struck down Shallum the son of Jabesh in Samaria and put him to death and reigned in his place. 15 Now the rest of the deeds of Shallum, and the conspiracy that he made, behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. 16 At that time Menahem sacked Tiphsah and all who were in it and its territory from Tirzah on, because they did not open it to him. Therefore he sacked it, and he ripped open all the women in it who were pregnant.
17 In the thirty-ninth year of Azariah king of Judah, Menahem the son of Gadi began to reign over Israel, and he reigned ten years in Samaria. 18 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He did not depart all his days from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin. 19 Pulthe king of Assyria came against the land, and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver, that he might help him to confirm his hold on the royal power. 20 Menahem exacted the money from Israel, that is, from all the wealthy men, fifty shekels of silver from every man, to give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria turned back and did not stay there in the land. 21 Now the rest of the deeds of Menahem and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? 22 And Menahem slept with his fathers, and Pekahiah his son reigned in his place."
The grim farce of enthronement and succession recorded in this chapter bears witness to the disorder and chaos that was rapidly overcoming Israel and dragging her to her doom. One has only to recall the constitutional crisis brought about by the abdication of King Edward VIII in the 1930's to realise the kind of unsettlement and turmoil experienced by God's people at that time, when within little more than ten years six monarchs had come and gone. Lawless might has a very uneasy seat whether it be monarchy, as in Israel, or totalitarian dictatorship, as in Russia and China, and this is evidenced alike in the court of the northern kingdom and in the secret councils of the Kremlin, where suns have risen and set rather too rapidly for comfort since the death of Stalin. But this is only what we should expect since God is God. It is He Who calls the tune even when rulers are most blasphemous in their repudiation of Him, and they are but tools in His hand, did they but know it, for the fulfilling of His will. We must never forget this when we read through passages like this, so full of disturbance and anarchy - it is because He has withdrawn, not because He has lost control that lawlessness abounds. He permits it, so long as it pleases Him to do so, and until He chooses to bring it to an end, in judgment. He is the great Watcher of world events, and He bides His time until His purposes ripen and come to fruition. This should comfort and reassure His saints, and would, if they remembered it more, in times of international tension!