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March 3 - 2 Kings 17 · A Chapter a Day Bible Reading

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  Hello friends, it's Sean here. Great to have your company on
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  this Monday, the 3rd of March, where we are going to be
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  tackling a significant reading. This is the chapter that we
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  covered today, where the northern nation of Israel is
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  destroyed. The Assyrian emperor will come
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  and he will take away this people group from their
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  homeland. And when we think about exile,
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  there's a couple of different models, and we'll get to the
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  Babylonian model later as as Judah goes into exile.
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  But today, when they say they exiled the people of Israel,
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  what that means is they inserted a great hook through the
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  underside of their jaw and out their mouth, attached to the
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  long rope where every one of the people was attached so there's
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  no escape. And they took them, LED them by
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  that rope out of their nation, out of their land, and then
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  scattered them individually across the entire empire.
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  Which means when people settled in their new areas, they lost
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  their language, they lost their culture, they lost their
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  identity, and they became part of the Assyrian melange that
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  that combination of all the different nations.
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  And so when we hear today about this exile, it really is the
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  destruction and loss of the entire northern Kingdom of
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  Israel. And then of course, the author
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  of Second Kings will go on to describe why this happened
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  because of what the Israelites have done for countless
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  generations. So it's a brutal reading with a
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  brutal outcome. But this is what happened
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  friends, and so that is what we will read today.
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  Buckle yourselves in as we read together.
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  Second Kings chapter 17. Hoshaya, son of Elah, began to
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  rule over Israel in the 12th year of King Ahaz's reign of
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  Judah. He reigned in Samarian 9 years.
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  He did what was evil in the Lord's sight, but not to the
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  same extent as the kings of Israel who ruled before him.
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  King Shalmanazar of Assyria attacked King Hoshaya, so
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  Hoshaya was forced to pay heavy tribute to Assyria.
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  But Hoshaya stopped paying the annual tribute and conspired
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  against the king of Assyria by asking King so of Egypt to help
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  him shake free of Assyria's power.
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  When the king of Assyria discovered this treachery, he
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  seized Hoshaya and put him in prison.
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  Then the king of Assyria invaded the entire land, and for three
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  years he besieged the city of Samaria.
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  Finally, in the ninth year of King Hoshaya's reign, Samaria
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  fell and the people of Israel were exiled to Assyria.
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  They settled in colonies in Hala, along the banks of the
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  Hebor River, in Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
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  This disaster came upon the people of Israel because they
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  worshipped other gods. They sinned against the Lord
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  their God, who had brought them safely out of Egypt and had
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  rescued them from the power of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.
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  They had followed the practises of the Pagan nations the Lord
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  had driven from the land ahead of them, as well as the
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  practises the kings of Israel had introduced.
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  The people of Israel had also secretly done many things that
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  were not pleasing to the Lord their God.
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  They built Pagan shrines for themselves in all their towns,
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  from the smallest outpost to the largest walled city.
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  They set up sacred pillars and asherah poles at the top of
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  every hill and under every green tree.
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  They offered sacrifices on all the hilltops.
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  Just like the nations the Lord had driven from the land ahead
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  of them. So the people of Israel had done
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  many evil things, arousing the Lord's anger.
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  Yes, they worshipped idols, despite the Lord's specific and
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  repeated warnings. Again and again the Lord had
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  sent His prophets and seers to warn both Israel and Judah.
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  Turn from all your evil ways. Obey My commands and decrees,
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  the entire law that I commanded your ancestors to obey, and that
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  I gave you through my servants, the prophets.
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  But the Israelites would not listen.
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  They were as stubborn as their ancestors who had refused to
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  believe in the Lord their God. They rejected His decrees and
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  the covenant He had made with their ancestors, and they
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  despised all his warnings. They worshipped worthless idols,
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  so they became worthless themselves.
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  They followed the examples of the nations around them,
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  disobeying the Lord's command not to imitate them.
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  They rejected all the commands of the Lord their God and made
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  two calves from metal. They set up an asherah pole and
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  worshipped Baal and all the forces of heaven.
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  They even sacrificed their own sons and daughters in the fire.
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  They consulted fortune tellers and practised sorcery and sold
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  to themselves to evil, arousing the Lord's anger.
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  Because the Lord was very angry with Israel, He swept them away
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  from His presence. Only the tribe of Judah remained
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  in the land. But even the people of Judah
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  refused to obey the commands of the Lord their God, for they
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  followed the evil practises that Israel had introduced.
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  The Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel.
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  He punished them by handing them over to their attackers until he
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  had banished Israel from his presence.
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  For when the Lord tore Israel away from the Kingdom of David,
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  they chose Jeroboam son of Nebat as their king.
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  But Jeroboam drew Israel away from following the Lord and made
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  them commit a great sin. And the people of Israel
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  persisted in all the evil ways of Jeroboam.
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  They did not return from these sins until the Lord finally
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  swept them away from His presence, just as all his
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  prophets had warned. So Israel was exiled from their
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  land to Assyria, where they remained to this day.
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  The king of Assyria transported groups of people from Babylon,
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  Kutha, Ava, Hamath, and Sefavaim and resettled them in the towns
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  of Samaria, replacing the people of Israel.
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  They took possession of Samaria and lived in its towns.
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  But since these foreign settlers did not worship the Lord when
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  they first arrived, the Lord sent lions among them, which
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  killed some of them. So a message was sent to the
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  king of Assyria. The people you have sent to live
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  in the towns of Samaria do not know the religious customs of
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  the God of the land. He has sent lines among them to
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  destroy them because they have not worshipped him correctly.
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  The king of Assyria then commanded send one of the exiled
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  priests back to Samaria, let him live there, and teach the new
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  residents the religious customs of the God of the land.
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  So one of the priests who had been exiled from Samaria
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  returned to Bethel and taught the new residents how to worship
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  the Lord. But these various groups of
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  foreigners also continued to worship their own gods in town
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  after town where they lived. They placed their idols at the
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  Pagan shrines that the people of Samaria had built.
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  Those from Babylon worshipped idols of their God Sukhov
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  Benoth. Those from Kutha worship their
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  God Nergal, those from Hamath worshipped Ashima, the Avites
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  worshipped their gods Nibaz and Tartak, and the people from
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  Sefavaim even burned their own children as sacrifices to their
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  gods Adramalek and Anna Malek. These new residents worshipped
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  the Lord, but they also appointed from among themselves
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  all sorts of people as priests to offer sacrifices at their
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  places of worship. And though they worshipped the
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  Lord, they continued to follow their own gods according to the
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  religious customs of the nations from which they came.
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  And this is still going on today.
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  They continue to follow their former practises.
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  Instead of truly worshipping the Lord and obeying the decrees,
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  regulations, instructions and commands, He gave the
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  descendants of Jacob, whose name he changed to Israel.
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  For the Lord had made a covenant with the descendants of Jacob
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  and commanded them. Do not worship any other gods,
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  or bow before them, or serve them, or offer sacrifices to
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  them, but worship only the Lord who brought you out of Egypt
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  with great strength and a powerful arm.
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  Bow down to him alone, and offer sacrifices only to Him.
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  Be careful at all times to obey the decrees, regulations,
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  instructions and commands that He wrote for you.
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  You must not worship other gods. Do not forget the covenant I
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  made with you, and do not worship other gods.
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  You must worship only the Lord, your God.
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  He is the one who will rescue you from all your enemies.
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  But the people would not listen and continued to follow their
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  former practises. So while these new residents
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  worship the Lord, they also worship their idols, and to this
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  day their descendants do the same.
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  Oh Lord, this is hard for us to hear that finally after
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  generation after generation after generation of
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  disobedience, the consequences of their choices finally come
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  home and take away the nation of Israel into exile into into
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  being lost to the pages of history.
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  My Lord, we know that we are no better that our hearts, our
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  hearts fall before other things other than you, and we struggle
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  to continually and consistently worship You alone above all
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  else. But Father, you have given us
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  Jesus, that no matter how poor we are at following you, Jesus
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  sacrifice, his death in our place, and his resurrection
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  opens the way for us to be with you.
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  Oh, thank you. Thank you for this new covenant,
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  this new way of being that we rest in your arms covered in the
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  blood of Jesus. We are so grateful for this
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  incredible deal that you offer us.
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  And so we worship you, our loving, forgiving God.
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  And thank you that we have a place eternally in your family.
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  Now we pray all of this in the saving name of Jesus, Amen.