2 KINGS 17
Read 2 Kings 17:1-41 The time has come for the Northern kingdom of Israel. After generations of turning away from God, the Lord finally brought judgement upon them. Since the nation of God’s people was divided into two after the death of Solomon the northern kingdom has been led away from God: from their first king, Jeroboam, who set up his own religion in defiance of God (1 Kings 12), to Ahab who oppressed God’s prophets and made his people worship other gods right up to the last king of Israel, Hoshea.
Hoshea did evil in the eyes of the Lord, but he was perhaps not as bad as some of his predecessors (v2). However, his diplomatic sense was not too clever. Like Menachem before him, he paid protection money to the new superpower, Assyria. But then he decided to make a pact with the king of Egypt, named So, and stopped the protection payments. When Assyria came knocking for their money Hoshea refused – bad move! Assyria laid siege to Israel, who waited for help from Egypt. But none came. So was a so-so ally at best, and Assyria attacked Israel, imprisoned the king Hoshea and deported the Israelites to various parts of the Assyrian Empire.
The politics of the Middle East had knocked the Kingdom of Israel out of existence. But the Bible makes it very clear in verse 7-23 that the real reason for the demise of Israel was their sin – the political manoeuvrings of the time was simply the mechanism that God used to bring his justice upon the apostate nation of Israel. God is sovereign; he is in charge of everything, and he sometimes uses what we would think of as purely human actions to carry out his will. ‘The Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them from his presence’ (v18). That is the effect of sin, and we have seen that from the Garden of Eden at the very beginning; sin separates us from God. We give thanks that in Jesus Christ that separation can be reversed.
The southern kingdom of Judah continued independently as a free nation. But there was a warning for them here seeing their brothers and sisters to the north being judged by the Lord. A stark reminder for them comes in v19 where there is a reminder that they too are moving away from the commands of the Lord – will they suffer the same fate as their countrymen to the north?
At the end of the chapter we see that Assyria repopulated the land of Israel (called Samaria here after the capital) with conquered people from other parts of their empire. They came with their own various gods which they continued to worship although they did also worship the Lord as well being the ‘local’ God. This adopting of a combination of religions is called ‘syncretism’ and is why in Jesus’ time there was hostility between the Jews and the Samaritans; pure versus impure worship. And for us syncretism can be an issue, combining worship of the Lord with the standards and practices of the secular society around us.