2 Kings 14:25

Jeroboam did evil in the LORD's sight. He did not turn from any of the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin. Even so, his reign lasted forty-one years! One might think, and this history gives several examples, that God always cut off at once the kings whose conduct dishonoured Him. That is the case with Zechariah, the son of this same Jeroboam, but it is not so here. God has different ways which He knows how to reconcile with His longsuffering and His mercy. His pity for Israel's oppressed condition directs His ways concerning Jeroboam's reign… God raises up a saviour for this people in the person of this king who had incurred His displeasure.

"The sea of the plain" was the Dead Sea. So his kingdom stretched almost two hundred miles from north to south. He was, no doubt, the "saviour" promised under the unfortunate reign of Jehoahaz… The Lord saw that Israel's affliction was very bitter, and that no one at all was left to help Israel. He had not said that He would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven. Instead He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash. This was not for any goodness that He saw in them or in Jeroboam their king, but "because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."

The territory of Hamath, the principal city of upper Syria, had at one time belonged to Solomon. Jeroboam's victory restored to Israel "the entrance of Hamath," a very important strategic position. The city of Hamath itself does not appear to have been part of the conquest. But the borders of Israel now ran again from the entrance of Hamath to the Salt Sea, that is, the Dead Sea. Taking this land enlarged Israel's territory at the expense of Judah's, since part of Damascus and of Hamath had once belonged to Judah.

Moreover, it is a selected revelation. It does not record everything God has revealed to His people over these 4000 years. Jonah prophesied of the restoration of the coasts of Israel from the entering of Hamath to the sea of the plain. Scripture records that God's word came true, but it does not keep the words of the prophecy itself… It is a mistake to think that the Bible holds every inspired message the Spirit of God gave to man. We have everything we need to know and to have. We do not have everything the prophets told others at different times.

But the Lord knew that Jonah was a true servant of His, despite his failure. He took care to leave on record a testimony that lets us recognise him as such. This verse calls Jonah Jehovah's servant, whose prophecy He had Himself fulfilled.

Jonah's name means dove. God set him apart for a mission to the Gentiles, and he disliked it so much that this is likely why the religious leaders of Judah forgot that a prophet had arisen out of Galilee (John 7:52). Jonah was born in Gath-hepher, in the northern part of Palestine. He probably lived at the same time as Elisha, or else came right after him. We learn this from 2 Kings 14:25-27, which tells us that Israel enlarged its coasts, taking land back from the Syrians, just as Jonah had predicted. His book is perhaps the earliest prophetic book we have.