Like father, like son: the story of King Amon

Scripture passage: 2 Kings 21:19-26

2 Kings 21:19–26 ESV

Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Meshullemeth the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, as Manasseh his father had done. He walked in all the way in which his father walked and served the idols that his father served and worshiped them. He abandoned the Lord, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the Lord. And the servants of Amon conspired against him and put the king to death in his house. But the people of the land struck down all those who had conspired against King Amon, and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place. Now the rest of the acts of Amon that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? And he was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza, and Josiah his son reigned in his place.

This morning, we come to the story of King Amon. We covered the story of Amon’s father, Manasseh, several weeks ago, but as a quick recap, Manasseh’s life looked something like this:

The story of Manasseh

Reigns at 12 years old (2 Kgs. 21:1)

Breaks every religious taboo imaginable (2 Kgs. 21:2-9)

Sheds much innocent blood throughout Jerusalem (2 Kgs. 21:16)

Repents upon being taken captive by Assyria (2 Chr. 33:11-13)

And, given what we have read about Manasseh’s son, we can agree that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. It truly embodies the saying, ‘Like father, like son.’ Both father and son had abandoned the covenant of God and indulged in covenant unfaithfulness. That brings us to our first point.

The covenant unfaithfulness of Amon

The bible tells us one key difference between Amon and Manasseh his father. It’s not found in the book of the Kings, but rather in the book of Chronicles.

2 Chronicles 33:23 ESV

And he did not humble himself before the Lord, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself, but this Amon incurred guilt more and more.

King Amon stubbornly refused to repent from his sins. And what’s strange is that Manasseh revelled in gross idolatry for about 49 years before repenting, whereas Amon dies after warming the throne for two years, from age 22 to 24. The bible tells us that he served the idols his father served, and abandoned the Lord, the God of his fathers. And so he dies as a result of a conspiracy among the royal servants, who stick it to him in his very own house.

This should serve as a warning to those of us who indulge in sin and say to ourselves, ‘I’ll repent later after having some fun.’ Amon walked in the way of Manasseh, and he fell all of a sudden, in his house, in the place where he felt most secure. My friends, we must heed the warning the Lord has prepared for us in this passage. And that message is this:

There is no hiding place from the Lord’s wrath, so repent of your guilt before it is too late.

Proverbs 28:18 ESV

Whoever walks in integrity will be delivered, but he who is crooked in his ways will suddenly fall.

Psalm 139:7–8 ESV

Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!

Amon’s covenant unfaithfulness and death illustrates a universal truth: we become what we worship. We devote ourselves to certain idols because we want something specific from them. We’re saying, ‘Here’s the sacrifice you want, now give me what I want.’ In other words, ‘I’ll serve you, so long as you serve me.’ And since we’re the ones setting the terms of the covenant, it very quickly goes downhill. That is why the bible emphasizes that the end of idolatry is death. When we place our souls into the care of idols, we end up becoming just like them.

Psalm 135:15–18 ESV

The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; they have eyes, but do not see; they have ears, but do not hear, nor is there any breath in their mouths. Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them.

Jeremiah 10:14–15 ESV

Every man is stupid and without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols, for his images are false, and there is no breath in them. They are worthless, a work of delusion; at the time of their punishment they shall perish.

This is exactly what we see when we look at the story of Amon from a literary perspective.

2 Kings 21:21, 23 (ESV)

He walked in all the way in which his father walked and served (abad) the idols (gillulim) that his father served and worshiped them […] And the servants (abad) of Amon conspired against him and put the king to death in his house.

Amon served idols and died by the hand of those who served him.

The word for ‘idol’ here is Gillulim, which is an especially derogatory term.

Gillulim = Gel (dung) + Galal (to roll) = balls of dung

It is a combination of the word gel, which means ‘dung’ and galal, which means ‘to roll.’ Gillulim therefore means ‘balls of dung.’ And so we catch a glimpse of God’s perspective: Amon worshiped balls of dung. He entered into a transactional relationship with dung, and in return he got what dung can give. In other words, the bible is telling us that all the idols in the world to whom we entrust our souls have as much capacity to save us as the dung in our toilet bowls.

Idolatry is not only the adoration of images … but also trust in one’s own righteousness, works, and merits, and putting confidence in riches and power.

Martin Luther

We must not abandon the covenant which the Lord has given us. The story of Amon must deter us from the path of Amon, of covenant unfaithfulness.

The covenant faithfulness of the people of the land

2 Kings 21:24 ESV

But the people of the land struck down all those who had conspired against King Amon, and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place.

This group of people called themselves the people of the land. You would think that everyone would be celebrating the death of Amon the Apostate tyrant king, and that Amon’s killers would be honored as saviors of the nation. But these people of the land put Amon’s killers to death, and put Amon’s 8-year-old son on the throne. From a worldly perspective, that’s like installing Robert Mugabe’s son as the president of Zimbabwe. It’s especially unwise. There must have been people back then who said, ‘Like father, like son,’ and braced themselves for another reign of terror and apostacy. After all, that’s what happened with Manasseh and Amon. So why not instill an era of democracy and put an end to this nepotism nonsense? He’s just an 8-year-old child. But the people of the land stayed faithful to God’s covenant which He had made with King David. They cared less about the political repercussions, and more about the divine covenant God had made with David. And it isn’t the first time this ‘people of the land’ group appears in the bible. In fact, it was the people of the land who put an end to Athaliah’s reign, and installed the rightful king Joash upon the throne.

So who were these ‘people of the land’?

They rejoiced and blew trumpets at the fulfilment of God’s covenant.

2 Kings 11:14 ESV

And when she looked, there was the king standing by the pillar, according to the custom, and the captains and the trumpeters beside the king, and all the people of the land rejoicing and blowing trumpets. And Athaliah tore her clothes and cried, “Treason! Treason!”

2. They destroyed the idols and false priests.

2 Kings 11:18 ESV

Then all the people of the land went to the house of Baal and tore it down; his altars and his images they broke in pieces, and they killed Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. And the priest posted watchmen over the house of the Lord.

The bible doesn’t give us any further description of this group known as the ‘people of the land.’ The only defining characteristic we see is that they rejoiced in keeping God’s covenant, whether it made sense or not. They acted in obedience and faith to the covenant. And so we need to ask the question:

Why should God’s covenantal people act in obedience and faith?

In order to answer this, we need to look at God Himself. God Himself initiated the covenant with us. God Himself promised us to be better than the idols. So let’s see briefly how God proved Himself as a covenant partner in the Kings period.

The covenant faithfulness of God

At the beginning of the Kings period, God made a covenant with David, promising to establish the throne of his descendants.

2 Samuel 7:12–13, 16 (ESV)

When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever […] And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’ ”

In our study of the Kings of Judah, there is one consistent fact that runs through the whole lineage: the line of David is never wiped out, no matter how hard the Devil may try. Since the division between the northern and southern kingdoms, there was only one Davidic dynasty across the 20 kings from Rehoboam to Zedekiah. On the other hand, there were 9 different dynasties across the 19 kings in the northern kingdom.

And whenever anyone threatened to cut off the Davidic lineage, God preserved an heir as promised. Furthermore, no matter how evil and wicked the kings of Judah were, God did not break His promise. In fact, it was in the darkest hours of the southern kingdom that God reinforced the covenant promises.

We see this in the reign of the wicked king Abijah

1 Kings 15:4 ESV

Nevertheless, for David’s sake the Lord his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, setting up his son after him, and establishing Jerusalem,

We see this in the reign of the extremely wicked Jehoram

2 Chronicles 21:7 ESV

Yet the Lord was not willing to destroy the house of David, because of the covenant that he had made with David, and since he had promised to give a lamp to him and to his sons forever.

When the descendants of David were faith-less, God was faith-full.

And what we see in all this is that God Himself was obedient to the covenant.

In fact, God was so obedient to the covenant that His Son Jesus Christ died in accordance to the covenant on our behalf.

Galatians 3:13 ESV

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—

God's covenantal people should act in obedience and faith because God Himself is obedient to the covenant and faithful to His people. Our Lord Jesus Christ embodied this covenant faithfulness on the cross: ‘I’ll stick to the covenant no matter what, only let Me take your place.’

Philippians 2:8 ESV

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Christian obedience is unlike every other kind of obedience. It is not the obedience of slaves or soldiers, but essentially the obedience of lovers who know, love and trust the person who issues the commands.

John Stott

Conclusion: Let us dare to enthrone the true King

Some of us this morning might be struggling to make important decisions in life. It might be a decision regarding a job that forces us to skip church. It might be a decision to tithe or give thanksgiving offering even when our bank accounts are running thin. Only God knows what you’re going through. But through this Word, God is saying to you, ‘Do crazy covenant things with Me. Have I not proven Myself?’

The people of the land did not know what would happen in the next chapter of the bible. They did not know if Josiah was going to be great or wicked. But because they dared to enthrone a child, God worked amazing things.

Let us not follow the way of Amon, but let us dare to be obedient. Let us dare to enthrone Jesus as the King over our lives. Let us do crazy covenant things with your crazy covenant God. Let us not bow down to balls of dung like King Amon, whether it be our popularity, our careers, or anything that we’ve allowed to take precedence over the things of God. Instead, let us have the attitude of the Apostle Paul, who counted all such things as dung in order to gain Christ.

Philippians 3:8 (ESV)

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as dung, in order that I may gain Christ

Let us pray.