2 Kings - Chapter 17

In this transcription, the host discusses chapter 17 of 2 Kings, focusing on the fall of the northern ten tribes of Israel and their destruction by Assyria. The host explains how Assyria became a world power and how Israel became a vassal nation to Assyria. The writer lists the sins of the Israelites and explains that their idolatry and disobedience to God led to their downfall. The host also discusses the worship of multiple gods and syncretism in Israel. She encourages listeners to examine their own lives for idols and sins that may be hindering their commitment to God. The host emphasizes the importance of following the Lord's commandments and warns of the consequences of disobedience. She concludes by urging listeners to be women who hear the Lord, read His word, and obey. I'm Julie Callio, your host, and thanks so much for taking time out of your busy schedules to tune in with me today. If by chance you want to contact me, you can do that at bab.bc.pc at gmail.com. Today we are looking at chapter 17 of 2 Kings with the fall of the northern ten tribes of Israel's destruction in 722 BC. Verses 1 and 2 of chapter 17 read, In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hosea son of Elah became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned nine years. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, but not like the kings of Israel who preceded him. In other words, he did not faithfully serve the Lord, but at least he didn't commit child sacrifices. In verse 3 we find that there is a new king of Assyria, Shalmaneser, and he came up and attacked Hosea. Now if we step back to chapter 15, we learned that Assyria was becoming the world power. In verses 19 and 20 we learned that when Menahem was king of Israel, they began to pay tribute money to Assyria, which made Israel a vassal nation to Assyria. In other words, they still were Israel, but if they didn't pay money to the stronger power of Assyria, they would be wiped out. In verses 29 and 30, when Pekah was king of Israel, not only did he give money, but Tiglath Pilesar the third came and took cities of Israel and deported the people to Assyria. Then at the end of chapter 15 we got a glimpse that Israel was joining forces with Aram, also known as Syria, to wage war against Judah, so the king of Judah, Ahaz, joined forces with Assyria and Judah paid tribute money to Assyria to help fight for them and he did. Chapter 16 verse 9 says the king of Assyria complied by attacking Damascus and capturing it. He deported its inhabitants to Kerr and put Rezin to death. Rezin was the king of Syria and Aram and Damascus was its capital. Chapter 16 ended with Ahaz the king of Judah died and his son Hezekiah succeeded him as king. Now we see how Assyria handled Israel. Verses 3-6 tell us that Israel had paid Assyria money yearly to be protected, but Hoshea decided to stop sending them money and he joined forces with Egypt on the southern border against Assyria. Shalmaneser seized king Hoshea and put him in prison. Shalmaneser invaded the entire land of Assyria and then marched up to the capital of Samaria and laid siege to it for three years. What that means is they camped outside, no one could come in or out of the walled city, but finally they captured it and deported the Israelites to Assyria in various places. In verses 7-23 the writer gives a commentary of why this happened. Ladies there are times in life when bad things happen to godly people and we don't understand why like with the book of Job. Sometimes on this earth we figure out why. Sometimes we can at least see God bring some good things out of the bad situation. But here with Israel it is crystal clear that they have placed themselves in this mess. Verses 7 and 8 say all this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God who had brought them out of Egypt from under the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshipped other gods and followed the practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before them as well as the practices that the kings of Israel had introduced. Then the writer lists their sins. Verse 13 says the Lord warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and seers turn from your evil ways observe my commands and decrees in accordance with the entire law that I commanded your fathers to obey and that I delivered to you through my servants the prophets. But they would not listen they did not trust the Lord they rejected his decrees. Verse 15b they followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless. They sacrificed their children to the gods and fire. They provoked the Lord to anger. Verses 18 and 19 so the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them from his presence. Only the tribe of Judah was left and even Judah did not keep the commands of the Lord their God. They followed the practices Israel had introduced. Verse 20 therefore the Lord rejected all the people of Israel he afflicted them and gave them into the hands of plunderers until he thrust them from his presence. The writer then reminded his readers that it all started with Jeroboam the first who enticed Israel to idolatry and that is why they are in exile. The story now continues with verse 24 to the end of the chapter. Not only did the king of Assyria remove the Israelites from their land but then he placed people from other cultures into their land. They took over Samaria and surrounding towns. These people did not worship the Lord but their own gods so the Lord sent lions among them and killed some of the people. The common belief was that certain gods had certain lands and so these people cried out to the king of Assyria and word got to him verse 26 the people you deported and resettled in the towns of Samaria do not know what the God of that country requires. He has sent lions among them which are killing them off because the people do not know what he requires. At this the king of Assyria sent back some of the priests who had been exiled to live in Bethel to teach them how to worship the Lord. Because Israel was known for their ungodly priest it seems that was not much better. Then verses 32 and 33 say they worshiped the Lord but they also appointed all sorts of their own people to officiate for them as priests in the shrines of the high places. They worshiped the Lord but they also served their own gods in accordance with the custom of the nations from which they had been brought. Ladies one thing that the Jewish religion, the Christian religion and the Muslim religion all have in common is that they worship just one God and the Torah or the books of the law make it clear they were to worship the one true God and explain how to do it. And the rest of chapter 17 tells us that. That's called monotheism. In these verses we have polytheism which is a worship of multiple gods but we also have something called syncretism which is when two or more religions mix together to become one like when the people selected anyone they wanted to be priests instead of following the Lord's guidelines as to who can be priests. The last verse of chapter 17 says even while these people were worshiping the Lord they were serving their idols. To this day their children and grandchildren continue to do as their fathers did. So ladies let me ask you is there anything in your life that you have placed above the Lord? Sometimes for mothers it's easy to make your children an idol. In the era we live money power and influence are idols. As a Christian do you say Jesus and chocolate Jesus and coffee Jesus and ladies it should be Jesus only no and. Let's ask the Lord to open our minds and hearts and may we be courageous to ask him to reveal to us what idols or what sins are getting in the way of us being totally committed to the Lord Jesus Christ. Ladies I confess to you that sometimes it has seemed so overwhelming to be totally committed to the Lord and at other times it seems as if it's the only option but I can promise you that when we walk in the ways of the Lord we are blessed even in the hard times even in the tears and when we walk in our own ways it may seem good for a while. For instance when the kingdom of Israel split into two kingdoms in 931 BC with King Jeroboam of Israel and the destruction of Israel was not until 722 BC the Lord's grace upon Israel was 209 years but think about how many people were led into sin think about the children and the grandchildren of these people all because of King Jeroboam the first and his sin which trickled down to every generation until it was demolished. We can get away with our sin for a while but the people we affect and the effects on our own hearts are deep. If you have heard his voice today please oh please don't be like the nation of Israel instead let's be women who hear the Lord read his word and obey. Until next time and thanks so very much for listening.