Sinful Leadership and Affliction

2 Kings 14:23-29 

    23 In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, became king in Samaria, and reigned forty-one years. 24 And he did evil in the sight of the LORD; he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin. 25 He restored the territory of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the LORD God of Israel, which He had spoken through His servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet who was from Gath Hepher. 26 For the LORD saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter; and whether bond or free, there was no helper for Israel. 27 And the LORD did not say that He would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven; but He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash.
    28 Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all that he did—his might, how he made war, and how he recaptured for Israel, from Damascus and Hamath, what had belonged to Judah—are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? 29 So Jeroboam rested with his fathers, the kings of Israel. Then Zechariah his son reigned in his place.

Jeroboam II ruled Israel in the same sinful manner as the first Jeroboam of Nebat.  He led sinfully, which resulted in the people of the real King to follow his bad example into their own sins of idolatry and disobedience through disregard of the word of the LORD.  This Jeroboam was still used by God to save them by restoring territory lost previously, for the LORD still upheld the covenant promises He made with Israel because they were in desperate need of help.  Yet His notice of their need of a helper did not automatically mean that He would keep from blotting out the name of that sinful nation, but that He was their helper for a chance to yet change in repentance and faith to trust and obey His word again.  This is how He calls us in Christ as well, giving us a Helper who cannot allow us to fail eternally (John 14:15-18).  At this point in time for Israel, however, the help was not eternal for individuals but for the whole of His people when the Savior Messiah would pay the price of all their sin and ours.  He saved us by His own hand (Isaiah 40:10-11) and left His Helper in us to give us this eternal hope in the New Covenant of His blood, which is His own life given in place of ours to pay for our sin and open the gates of Himself to enter into the spiritual holy of holies to worship Him in spirit and in truth.  The sinful leaders who amplify our affliction for sin cannot save us, for sin os our birthright from Adam which we cannot legislate away (Romans 3:23, 6:23).  But no matter who rules which kingdom here on earth until that time, we have a King eternal in the heavens as our new bodies will be also in which to stand forever before Him at last (2 Corinthians 5:1-2, Job 19:25-27).  We are all written in His book, not as mere history like these kings of old, but as His united people called out to Himself based on His work for us and not our own vain attempts to earn that divine favor.  His son reigns in His place, and His Spirit will finish the work begun in us in a lifetime of sanctifying grace.  This is the hope of our calling (Ephesians 1:18).