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2 Kings 17 (Part 2) Bible Study (Assyria Resettles Samaria) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh · Bible Study with Pr. Daniel Batarseh | Verse by Verse Series | Maranatha Bible Church - Chicago

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Second Kings 17, verse 24. The dominant theme of this
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section in Second Kings is not difficult to pinpoint.
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Even a plain reading of the rest of this text will reveal a truth
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that is not unfamiliar to us here at Maranatha Bible Church,
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something that we hear quite often.
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What you'll discover in these verses is the recurring phrase,
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the fear of the Lord. You can't miss it, it's
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everywhere. In fact, if you count the phrase
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both on the positive and the negative, meaning to fear the
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Lord or to not fear the Lord, it appears a total of eight times
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in this portion of God's word. And so upon discovering this, I
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was initially thinking to approach the study with you by
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taking all the observations that we make and relating it back to
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that theme, the what, who, when, how of fearing God.
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But we're not going to limit our study to that narrow framework.
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Instead, we're going to approach these verses with a wider lens
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while still acknowledging the unavoidable insights regarding
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this God word. Ah, but it's worth making a note
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for yourself that if you ever want to learn more about the
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fear of the Lord, or if you are teaching somebody about that
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glorious truth, this is a wonderful passage to use.
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There is great insight regarding that.
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And this tax is rich for many reasons.
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Beyond that, as we will discover now, we won't be reading a large
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portion right away. Let's just look at verse 24 and
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continue with that pace until we complete this chapter together.
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Second king 1724 and the king of Assyria brought people from
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Babylon, Katha, Ava, Hamas, and Safar Vayim and placed them in
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the cities of Samaria instead of the people of Israel, and they
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took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities.
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Hopefully you remember that the Assyrians have finally taken,
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removed, displaced the northern Kingdom of Israel.
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Does anybody remember the Last King of Israel named here in our
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study? Well, if you just look down,
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it's right there in the beginning of chapter 17, Hoshea,
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he was the Last King of this Kingdom before Syria invaded and
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removed the entire population, at least most of the population
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from their homeland. And what we discovered in this
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verse is a policy of the Assyrian Kingdom.
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And one of the things that they would do when they would
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conquest and when they would take over a place is that they
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would repopulate that vacant land.
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And so this is was this was an imperial strategy.
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It was when a dominating nation would come remove a people and
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take other subjects that they have dominated and replace those
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that have left an area desolate. And there are many advantages to
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this. One of them would be that it
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would hinder any unified attempt to cause an uprising or
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overthrow those that were conquering them.
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Besides that, you also had the exploitation of goods and and
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bringing these foreign groups this mixed people and forcing
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them to labor to extract goods for again the dominant power.
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And we can imagine how much psychological warfare is
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included in this. But the one thing that we're
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supposed to be gripped by is the fact that this land, this Holy
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Land, the Bible calls it, this promised land, is now desolate.
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I mean, you got to imagine this now, the very same land that was
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promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the very same country
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that God help Joshua and a particular generation of
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Israelites conquer, is now empty.
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This is staggering. This is almost surreal.
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It's so difficult to imagine. But it happened.
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And sadly, some erroneously believe and reference this
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imperative moment in Israel's history to make wild claim about
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the Israelites. So what do you mean?
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Well, there are some who would claim that since the Assyrian
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exile, 10 out of the 12 tribes virtually disappeared into
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history. You probably heard this term the
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the 10 lost Tribes of Israel. Maybe not.
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But the implication of some assert is that the exile served
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as a catalyst for these 10 tribes, a major portion of the
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descendants of Abraham, to essentially be dispersed and
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assimilate to the point of being irrelevant.
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And there are others who are confident about strange
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conspiracies, ideas and legends, including cults that attempt to
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gain authority for the false teachings by claiming descent
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from the scattered tribes of Israel.
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Here's what they will argue that since the Jews were removed from
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their land, many migrated to Europe, Africa, the Americas.
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And since they are of those particular regions or
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ethnicities, they also come from the same stock of Abraham and
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the patriarchs and therefore claim the same covenantal
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blessings. There are groups who base their
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doctrine on that false assumption, and it's possible
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that you might be at some point in your life faced with such
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claims. So what do you do?
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What do you do with movements that would even come to a text
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like this, the one that we're studying, to try to defend a
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certain system of belief that is clearly an error?
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It's very simple. You know your Bible well.
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You know your Bible well. And the way to silence those who
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might come from cults and strange ideas is to remind them
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that though these 10 tribes were displaced, they were never, ever
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lost. They were never lost.
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And a common argument as well. You never read in the Bible how
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these 10 tribes returned to the land.
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True to which I would respond. But you also read that not every
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single member of these tribes were removed completely to begin
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with. We have to remember that almost
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immediately after Israel's schism, after it becoming 2
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kingdoms, you had a righteous remnant, a righteous remnant who
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really wanted to worship the true and living God in the
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northern Kingdom of Israel that migrated to the southern Kingdom
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where the temple was so that they can honor God the way he
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prescribed. And one of the earliest accounts
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of this is found in the book of Second Chronicles.
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So let's turn to the Second Chronicles in Chapter 11, verse
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16. You may not recognize the need
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for this information now, but you never know.
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So be equipped tonight. Second Chronicles 11, verse 16.
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This is when Jeroboam was ruling in the northern parts and
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Rehoboam was still in charge in the southern parts.
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And what do we find in Second Chronicles 1116?
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And those who had set their hearts to seek the Lord God of
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Israel came after them, From which tribes, all the tribes of
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Israel, to Jerusalem, to sacrifice to the Lord, the God
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of their fathers. They strengthened the Kingdom of
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Judah, and for three years they made Rehoboam the son of Solomon
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secure, for they walked for three years in the way of David
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and Solomon. That should settle the matter.
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You have a remnant from all the tribes that made their way to
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the southern Kingdom to worship the true and living God.
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And if that doesn't settle the matter, let's consider what we
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find after the Assyrian exile when Hezekiah becomes the king
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in Judah, which we're going to study next week, and how he
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invited and he sent a message to all the peoples of the land to
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join him in his efforts to reinstate the Passover.
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So we're still in Second Chronicles.
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Go to chapter 30 and look at verse 6.
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Second Chronicles 30, verse 6. So couriers went through all
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Israel and Judah with letters from the king and his Princess,
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as the king had commanded, saying, O people of Israel,
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return to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that
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he may turn again to the remnant of you who have escaped from the
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hand of the kings of Assyria. So not only is Hezekiah reaching
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out to all of Israel, but he is addressing the remnant of
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Israel. Remember, he's the king of the
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southern Kingdom of Judah, and he's reaching out to the
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northern parts. And he's specifically calling
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for those who survived the conquest that we're studying
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here in Second King 17. Which means what?
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That even though most of the tribes were removed, you still
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had those representing every tribe who were left behind who
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have escaped. So you have tribes that early on
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came to Jerusalem, and even after the exile in the northern
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parts, you have people who remained.
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And if there's any confusion of the confirmation of this
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remnant, go to verse 10 of Second Chronicles 30.
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So the couriers went from city to city through the country of
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Ephraim and Manasseh, and as far as Zebulun, But they laughed
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them to scorn and mock them. However, some men of Asher, of
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Manasseh, and of Zebulun humbled themselves and came to
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Jerusalem. So they're lost.
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How can you say they're lost? Yes, a majority of them were
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removed, but not completely erased.
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And even if this conversation were to continue, there is
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evidence in the New Testament that confirms the preservation
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of these tribes. Any ideas come to mind?
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Any references? Any occurrence of the in the New
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Testament that would help us make this case?
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You can actually answer if you know.
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Paul. Tribe of what?
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Sure, tribe of Benjamin. But Benjamin was a part of the
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Kingdom of the South with Judah. Correct?
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But that's still a good answer. I'm talking more about the
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northern tribes that were removed by the Assyrians.
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Anything that we find in the New Testament, the Day of Pentecost,
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that's a good answer as well. Any references to the tribe
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specifically though? Let me ask you a question.
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When the Lord Jesus as a child was brought into the temple by
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his earthly parents, there was a prophetess by the name of where
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was she from? Let's go to Luke chapter 2.
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I think I've held you in suspense long enough.
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Luke 2 verse 36 and we'll look at another answer in the book of
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Luke, Luke 236 reads and there was a prophetess, Anna, the
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daughter of Fanuel of the tribe of Asher, one of the tribes from
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the northern Kingdom. She was advancing years, having
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lived with her husband seven years from when she was a
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virgin. Let's look at another answer and
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Luke that we can go to other places.
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Go to Luke 22. Let's consider the words of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. You are those who have stayed
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with me in my trials. He is speaking to the disciples,
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and I assigned to you as my father assigned to me a Kingdom,
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that you may eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom, and sit on
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Thrones. Judging who?
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The 2 tribes of Israel. Which tribes?
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The 12, The 12 tribes of Israel. Now, some try to spiritualize
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this passage, but the way we should honor it is he is
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speaking about a time when he will rule and reign, and he will
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dispatch his apostles to also give judgment to specific
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jurisdiction, and that is the 12 tribes of Israel.
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This is about the millennial reign of Christ.
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So again, there are people out there that really want to argue,
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especially in the New Covenant, that the Jewish people have no
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relevance anymore, and they would backtrack it even to the
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Exiles that we see, namely the Assyrian one.
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But I'm here to tell you that God hasn't lost any of them.
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In fact, as we study Revelation on Sundays, we're going to
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realize that many of those tribes will be there even in the
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final days of history. Put that in your pocket for
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another time. Let's come back to our main text
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and let's continue reading. In verse 25, we read.
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And at the beginning of their dwelling there, they did not
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fear the Lord. Therefore the Lord sent lions
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among them, which killed some of them.
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So you have this entire group of people known as the northern
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Kingdom of Israel removed from their homes, removed from the
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boundaries of Israel, and they are now replaced with Gentiles
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who clearly worship different gods.
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And though we have new settlers now in this area, they're
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quickly going to learn who really owns this land.
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God. Now, some here we try to explain
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this simply as a natural overpopulation of animals
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resulting from an unregulated region due to the absence of
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humans present. That misses the point.
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What do we read here? That it was the Lord.
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It was the Lord who sent lions among them.
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So this is how God welcomes these new people in a sense.
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They arrive in this place and he wants to introduce these
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newcomers to his awesome and terrifying power, His presence.
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Now think about this. The Lord did not need any king,
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any army, any walls, any Chariots to defend what was his.
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He could recruit animals to do his bidding.
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And there's so many things that we can say about this, but this
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teaches us at least one main thing, that when darkness
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spreads and evil invades, God is still in control.
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That's the beauty of this verse. He is still in power.
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Israel might have been conquered, but the promises and
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the purposes of God we're not right at the beginning.
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He is proving to us that things are still in operation.
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His plans and His purposes are still in motion, and He's
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letting these foreigners know the same.
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And this serves as a wonderful reminder for you and I when we
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look out into the world and we are witnessing A weakening
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Christendom. And perhaps the temptation is to
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be discouraged as we see professing Christians and
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churches and ministries faltering and being overcome by
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deception and evil. You can never afford to forget
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this truth. Christ is never defeated.
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Never. And we see here in the Old
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Testament, and surely it is just as true in the New Testament.
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It is true in this covenant as well.
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And so we find here that the Lord introduces himself in a
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particular way. Matthew Henry said something
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wonderful about this passage. He said the Lord of hosts can
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serve his own purposes by which he pleases small or great lice
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or lions. I love that He doesn't need us.
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He delights to use us, and we should be delighted to be used.
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But he can call a lice or he can recruit lions.
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He can do whatever he pleases. I'm meditating on this and I'm
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thinking there's more to learn from that one verse.
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I find it interesting that the Lord held these pagans
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responsible to relate and to respond to God, the true God
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appropriately. Look back again at the verse.
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It says that they did not fear the Lord, therefore it wasn't
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just because they moved in, it's because they didn't recognize
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them the way they should have. Therefore the Lord sent lions
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among them. So how do we make sense of this?
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What's quite simple, the Scriptures tell us over and over
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and over again that God has many ways of awakening man in his
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sin, awakening man in his falsehood, in order for them to
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be placed on the path of truth. And in this particular account,
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we find that the Lord unleashes an unusual series of tragedies,
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right? People died because of these
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lions in order to alarm them. And the question that we should
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have as we read this is how are these people going to respond?
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How are they going to interpret these events?
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And our answer comes in the next verse.
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So let's read it together. So the king of Assyria was told,
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The nations that you have carried away and placed in the
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cities of Samaria do not know the law of the God of the land.
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Therefore he has sent lions among them, and behold, they are
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killing them, because they do not know the law of the God of
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the land. Then the king of Assyria
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commanded, Send there one of the priests whom you carried away
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from there, and let him go and dwell there, and teach them the
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law of the God of the land. So one of the priests whom they
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had carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel and
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taught them how they should fear the Lord.
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There is both a positive aspect and a clear -1 in these verses.
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The +1 is that these foreigners reacted to the warnings of God
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much better than Israel did in the past.
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Don't you think we we can applaud them?
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Why? Because they responded to this
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divinely orchestrated suffering by looking up, by looking for
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answers, by inquiring. They didn't just dismiss it as
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coincidence. They didn't try to manage their
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own pain. They were on a quest now to look
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for answers, to try to reconcile themselves to, in their limited
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understanding, the God of this region.
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And that's something that we can compare with these children of
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Jacob and how stubborn they were even in their suffering.
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That being said, there is a downside to this.
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And the downside is that Israel, Israel had failed yet again to
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fulfill the purposes of God in the particular area of shining
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the light of the truth to their neighbors.
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How can we make that claim from these verses?
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Well, we just learned that even after the exile, there was a
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remnant who remained in the land.
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So here's my question. If there were people who
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understood who the true God was, what he asked of them, then why
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then they seized the moment and reach out to their bewildered,
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confused neighbors and guide them to the truth.
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That's a question, right? A worthy question to ask the the
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plain answer is that they clearly were not in right
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relationship with God for themselves, which is extremely
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sad because God from the days of Exodus deliver this people from
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Egypt for many reasons, including this wonderful truth
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that they would be a holy nation, that they would be a
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priesthood to mediate to some degree and to guide people,
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namely their neighbors to understanding who the true God
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is. And they failed.
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They failed over and over even when these neighbors came to
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their front step. And this is something for us to
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consider because we can't just criticize these Israelites.
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We got to examine our own hearts as followers of Jesus Christ.
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We need to take heed to instructions like what we find
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in Colossians 4-5 as an example, which says walk in wisdom toward
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outsiders. Walk in wisdom toward outsiders.
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And one of the ways that you and I walk in wisdom in the presence
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of unbelievers is that we are continually mindful and alert of
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their needs, of the opportunities for us to be able
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to give them the hope of the gospel.
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One of my favorite examples of this is with Joseph.
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Joseph's story is a fascinating 1 And the script of his life
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really changed when he was in prison because, as you know, he
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interpreted the dreams of two individuals. 1 was the cup
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bearer Pharaoh, the other the chief Baker.
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And that would essentially be the means for him to be
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delivered and promoted to be second command in Egypt.
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But did it just start with him interpreting dreams
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spontaneously? Now you have to read your Bibles
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carefully one day because Joseph was promoted to be the
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supervisor in that prison. He's walking through the halls.
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He's making his rounds. He's checking off his To Do
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List. And he notices something.
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Why don't we turn there anyway? I was a planter.
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But let's go there. Go to Genesis chapter 40.
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Hopefully this will inspire us afresh to read our Bibles
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carefully and to draw practical wisdom from stories like what we
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find here. Genesis 40.
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Let's look at verse 5. And one night they both dreamed,
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that is, the chief Baker and the cupbearer.
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They both dreamed the cupbearer and the Baker of the king of
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Egypt, who were confined in the prison.
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Each his own dream and each dream with its own
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interpretation. When Joseph came to them in the
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morning, he saw that they were troubled.
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I have different colors underlining that specific part
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of the verse. He saw that they were troubled.
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He was aware of the distress on their faces, but he he didn't
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just make a mental note about it.
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Look what happens in verse 7. So he asked.
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He asked Pharaoh's officers who are with him in custody in his
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master's house. Why are your faces downcast
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today? You know what I asked myself,
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reading this many years ago when it first came to me?
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What if he had just ignored it? What do you just went on with
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his day because he had so many responsibilities?
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What would he have missed if you fail to seize the opportunity
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here to realize disillusionment, despair, and then to see it as a
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way, not realizing the full potential at the moment, but at
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least to be caring enough to inquire and that being the means
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for him to knowing a greater testimony.
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This is something for you and I to consider.
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Because if you and I are not prepared to sacrifice, to step
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in the lives of people who are hurting, who have questions, who
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don't know how to make sense of life, their own lives, what
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we're seeing in the world, if we neglect that, if we ignore that,
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if we don't feel the responsibility to give clarity,
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they will look to another source.
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And in this case, instead of the remnant stepping in, they turn
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to the king of Assyria. Now we might be excited because
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we read there in verse 27 of Second Kings 17 that the ruler
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of this Syrians decides to send back a priest that was carried
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away in exile to teach these new dwellers of how to honor the God
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of the land. But whatever excitement we might
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have, even though we seem to be initially excited, He taught
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them how they should fear the Lord. 1 Little detail will pop
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the balloon of any excitement that you might have enjoyed
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quite quickly. What do I mean by that Revisit?
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28 So one of the priests whom they had carried away from some
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from Samaria, came and lived in where Bethel, and taught them
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how they should fear the Lord. Should Bethel remind you of
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anything in our study of the Book of Kings, both 1st and 2nd
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Kings? What was special about the area
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called Bethel? Any ideas?
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It was a designated place of worship for the Golden calf
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since the days of Jeroboam, so we should remember.
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This should in a sense trigger us.
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Oh, Bethel priest teaching trouble, How so?
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Well, since the days of Jeroboam, when he instituted
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golden calf worship in the land, there was no true priesthood,
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only counterfeit priests. And so we have every right to
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question the legitimacy of this priest who returned to Israel,
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because he must be one of the false ones that was removed from
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the land. And this is the one who's going
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to come back now and teach these people how they should fear God.
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So we should be concerned. We should be worried.
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What is he going to tell them? And this got me thinking, What's
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just as spiritually lethal? Someone ignoring an opportunity
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to guide unbelievers is someone who misrepresents the truth in
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the name of God. Be very careful where you seek
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spiritual answers. Listen, be careful and
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thankfully God has graciously given us His words so we have
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the ability to examine everything that we hear because
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this is the book by which He will hold every man accountable.
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That's why I believe in Scripture alone, because over
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and over in the Bible we're told that He's going to judge us by
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the content of this book. So what excuse do people have,
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especially here in the West, of being deceived when God has
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given us His complete revelation?
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And so on one side you have a remnant of Israelites who fail
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to reach out to these darkened Gentiles, and on the other side
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we have now a priest who's teaching them who knows what
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because he comes from the questionable priest that
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Jeroboam promoted. Unfortunately, we are about to
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witness the fruit of this nameless priests distorted
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compromise teaching and it's heartbreaking.
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Let's read in verse 29. But every nation still made gods
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of its own and put them in the shrines of the high places that
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the Samaritans had made, every nation in the cities in which
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they lived. Before we explain this further,
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I want to highlight a word that appears for the first time in
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the Old Testament and the only time in the Old Testament did
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you see the word in the verse that we just read?
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If you know it, say it out loud. Samaritans, right?
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It appears only here in the Hebrew Scriptures, and we know
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that it appears a handful of times in the Gospels.
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And we should be persuaded that there's something about this
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account that explains something of the history of the Samaritans
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and the animosity that the they had towards the Jews and the
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Jews had towards them during the days of the ministry of the Lord
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Jesus Christ. And there are answers here.
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Who are these Samaritans? Well, the best explanation is
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that they originated from the Israelites of the Northern
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Kingdom. But they developed a new
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identity, especially after this moment, because these Samaritans
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now intermarried with these pagans, and over time they
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became a new breed. And this consistent
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intermingling eventually caused the Hebrews of the Southern
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Kingdom to deem these Samaritans as illegitimate Jews in regards
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to their religion and their race.
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And we see this hostility developing as we continue in our
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study of redemptive history. And there's one place where it
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becomes incredibly clear. It's in the book of Ezra, when
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the southern Kingdom will eventually be removed from the
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land. By who?
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Not the Assyrians, but the Babylonians.
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But later they're permitted to return to the land to restore
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the temple and their homes. Something occurs when those Jews
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of the southern Kingdom return and they are greeted by a people
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who remained in the land. Let's turn to Ezra chapter 4,
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beginning in verse one. Now when the adversaries of
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Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were
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building a temple to the Lord, the God of Israel, pause.
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So right there in verse one, we have to ask yourself, who are
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these adversaries? Well, one thing we know about
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them is what we find in verse 2, They approached Zerubabel.
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So whoever these adversaries were, they abided in the land,
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in the promised land. They were there, They were
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waiting in a sense. And so the people of Judah and
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Benjamin, they returned. They represent the southern
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Kingdom. They come back to their homeland
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and they are approached by what the Scripture says, adversaries.
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They approached verse 2, Zerubbel and the heads of
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Father's houses, and said to them, let us build with you, for
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we worship your God as you do. Again, we're thinking, who are
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you? And we know what the remaining
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part of this verse. And we have been sacrificing to
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him ever since the days of senior Haddon, king of Assyria,
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who brought us here. Do we know who they are now?
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Yes, these are the Samaritans and they trace their roots back
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to the time when the king of Assyria dropped off these pagans
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in the northern parts of Israel. And over time they intermarried
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and they developed their own people group and they're
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claiming the right to be able to join them in this effort to re
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establish the worship of the temple.
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We worship your gods. We worship your God, namely.
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And what's the response of the Jews who returned in verse 3?
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But Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the rest of the heads of the
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father's houses in Israel said to them, You have nothing to do
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with us in building a house to our God, but we alone will build
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to the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of
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Persia, has commanded us. Verse 4.
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Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah
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and made them afraid to build. And this tension only builds
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over the years, over the centuries, and it peaks at the
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time of Christ. But here's what's so
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fascinating. The Lord Jesus Christ, the
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Jewish Messiah, does not interact or reference these
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Samaritans in the way that the average Jew did of his time.
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In fact, when we consider the interaction that we just read,
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you can say that there is a thematic reversal in this
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exchange in one of the Gospel accounts.
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Hopefully this makes sense. Let's turn to John chapter 4.
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We know this chapter very well. It's when Jesus visits the woman
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at the well, and she's from Samaria as we know.
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But look at John 4 verse 7. A woman from Samaria came to
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draw water. Jesus said to her, give me a
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drink, for his disciples had gone away into the city to buy
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food. The Samaritan woman said to him,
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How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of
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Samaria? For Jews have no dealings with
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Samaritans. Now think back to what we just
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read in Ezra chapter 4. In Ezra chapter 4, you had the
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Samaritans who approached the Jews and asked to participate in
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an effort for something good, right?
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And what happens? The Jews, led by Zerubbabel
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among other leaders, denied their request.
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And the response of the people, the land then was to harass them
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and to annoy them and to stifle and to try to hinder their
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efforts. It just made them even more
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embittered. But hundreds of years pass now
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and we stumble upon a Jewish man and he approaches and makes a
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request to who? A Samaritan.
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And initially his appeal was denied as well.
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What did she say? She said how?
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How are you a Jew asking a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?
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Now here's what this gets even more brilliant.
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I don't want to overwhelm you with these references, so let me
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try to speak slowly because when I get excited I tend to speak
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fast. In Matthew 112 you can turn to
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if you want, we learn that Jesus is a descendant of Zerubbabel
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and that interesting the same Zerubbabel that we read of in
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Ezra. So you have the descendant of
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Zerubbabel now engaging with a Samaritan.
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She rejects his appeal, but what does he do in response to her
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stiff armed response? Does he insult her?
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Does he rebuke her? Does he denounce her?
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No, He patiently leads her to the truth and he grants her one
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of the clearest confessions and all of the Gospels that he was
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the Messiah. Who would have thought that?
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You can make a connection with the Lord Jesus Christ in Ezra
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chapter 4 and Second Kings chapter 17, and we see it here.
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The Lord draws this woman not just to himself, but to the
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truth, and she goes back to the Samaritans of her village and
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preaches her testimony with the limited knowledge that she had
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and it brought revival to her town.
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That warmed my heart. I hope it did something to
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yours. Let's come back to our main text
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in verse 32nd, King 17. Forgive me if I mispronounce
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these names. I will try my best.
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The men of Babylon made Sukhoth Binoth, the men of Koth made
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Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima, and the Avites made
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Nibaz and Tartak. And the Sephirvites burned their
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children in the fire of Adra Malik and Anna Malik, the gods
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of Sephirvan. They also fear the Lord, and
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appointed from among all, among themselves all sorts of people,
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as priests of the high places, who sacrifice for them in the
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shrines of the high places. So they fear the Lord, but also
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serve their own gods after the manner of the nations from among
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whom they had been carried away. At first glance these verses
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seem very troubling. How can you say that they fear
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the Lord and in the same breath say that they serve their own
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gods? Seems like a contradiction.
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Well, it's clarified with context.
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All you have to do is keep reading and it begins to make a
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little bit more sense. So look briefly at verse 34.
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To this day, they do. According to the former manner,
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they do not fear the Lord and they do not follow the statutes
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or the rules or the law or the commandment that the Lord
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commanded the children of Jacob. So this helps us understand
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what's really going on here, that whatever allegiance that
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these people groups show to the Lord, it was not the way God
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designed it to be. It was a measure of respect.
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It was a partial recognition. It was a diluted devotion.
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But in reality, they simply added Yahweh to their pantheon.
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To them, he was just the God of this land, not the God of all
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things. And so they thought what was
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demanded of them was just to add Yahweh to their other list of
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idols. And surely this inept priest
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from Bethel didn't make things easier for them to decipher.
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Did he know? If anything, he probably
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encouraged them to worship all these false gods.
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And here's what we can make of this for ourselves.
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Like any truth that's found in the Word of God, our sinful
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inclinations and tendencies can warp what God asks of us, all
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the while thinking we're really honoring Him.
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Let me give you an example. Are there people out there who
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misinterpret and misapply the grace of God?
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Absolutely. Other many who attempt to
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justify even reference Scripture to defend their sin.
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Yes, which means that there is a right and wrong understanding of
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the grace of God. And that's a distinction that
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the New Testament even makes. And where my mind went to when
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meditating on this earlier today is how Peter ends his initial
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epistle. What is he saying?
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First, Peter 5, He says, it's in verse 12.
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I have written briefly to you exhorting and declaring that
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this is oh, I wish we had it on the screen.
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It's in your Bibles, though, He says, let me say it again.
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I have written briefly to you exhorting and declaring that
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this is the true grace of God. Stand for a minute.
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So as he's wrapping things up with his letter, he wants to
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confirm that everything that he explained to them is the true
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grace of God. Which implies what?
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That there's a false grace of God.
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In like manner, can we not say that there is a true fear of God
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and there is a false form of fear of God?
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What we're seeing here with this, this people group is the
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embracing and the deception of a false fear of God, an
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acknowledgement of him, but not the way God intended it to be.
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And so the Holy Spirit wants to confirm in verse 34 that they
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did not really fear the Lord. They added the Lord.
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They had some concept of the Lord, they did things for the
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Lord, but the true fear of the Lord is total devotion to the
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Lord. And So what do we find?
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Let's revisit verse 34. To this day.
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They do according to the former manner.
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They do not fear the Lord, and they do not follow the statutes,
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or the rules, or the law, or the commandment that the Lord
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commanded the children of Jacob, whom He named Israel.
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The Lord made a covenant with them and commanded them.
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You shall not fear other gods, or bow yourselves to them, or
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serve them, or sacrifice to them, but you shall fear the
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Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt with great power
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and with an outstretched arm. You shall bow yourselves to him,
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and to Him you shall sacrifice, and the statutes and the rules
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and the law and the commandment that He wrote for you, you shall
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always be careful to do. You shall not fear other gods,
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and you shall not forget the covenant that I've made with
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you. You shall not fear other gods,
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but you shall fear the Lord your God, and He will deliver you out
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of the hand of all your enemies. However, they would not listen,
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but they did according to their former manner.
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So these nations fear the Lord and also serve their carved
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images. Their children did likewise, and
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their children's children as their fathers did so they do to
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this day. You want to know how this
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continued, how far it continued? Today's of the Samaritan woman.
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This chapter closes with an important flashback of the
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covenant of the Lord made with the children of Jacob.
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Moreover, it highlights that this new synchronistic religion
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that has permeated Samaria, something that violated the
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expectations that God had with this covenant, with this people.
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You know, you have some people who in our day are trying to
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achieve what happened in Samaria.
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Here they're fighting for the erasure of the exclusivity of
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truth claims they praise, and they're trying to promote the
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the merging of different religious paths.
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Well, they're just different expressions, different ways to
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the same God. But what man applauds, what man
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exalts, God condemns and he sees as an abomination.
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And that's what I want to try to convey by reading this to you in
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one reading, to understand that as the Lord reviews this, he
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wants to ensure that he does not want this.
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It's a violation to what he expected from his people.
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And just in case that there is anyone under the false
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assumption who believed for some reason that God's passion for
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the truth somehow evolves, and it evolves in the New Testament,
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let me remind you what Jesus Christ said to somebody who
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belonged to this group of people.
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The very same woman that Christ had compassion toward is the
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very same Jesus who said the following in John 422.
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You worship what you do not know.
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We worship what we know for what?
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For salvation is from the Jews. I have read and I've even heard
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preachers appeal to John chapter 4 to try to make a case for
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racial justice, overcoming social barriers, the
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reconciliation of our differences, how to achieve
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harmony with different backgrounds.
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And I believe they missed the point.
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Yes, there is an element here of the Lord doing something outside
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of the norms of his culture. But what's the goal?
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To bring this woman to saving faith?
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And he was willing to do what? To tell her in the process.
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You don't know what worship is about.
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You're in error. The way you think you relate to
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God is wrong. So he was willing to this woman,
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yes, who had a very shattered history with men, a very sinful
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past, very ashamed, and yet he had to say you are not in the
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right, but I'm here to tell you the truth.
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And so the same heartbeat that we find here in 2nd 17, as the
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Lord now gives commentary, what's taking place here among
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the Samaritans continues in Christ.
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He is still passionate about the truth.
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He's still inviting people in air to come to the light.
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You worship what you do not know.
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We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.
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And He leads her step by step. All the patience of Christ, even
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in His evangelism. She wasn't getting it right
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away, but He was willing to bring her through this process
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until she arrived at the knowledge that would change her
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life forever. But there's another thing that
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stands out from these verses. I mean, you heard it over and
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over. Do not fear other gods.
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You shall fear the Lord. It's everywhere.
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It's just it's peppered all over these verses.
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But something stood out to me and we'll close with this
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observation in verse 40. After mentioning the fear of God
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in different ways so many times, the author writes, however, they
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would not listen those 4 words. They would not listen, but they
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did according to their former manner.
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One way we can be certain that we fear the Lord is that we
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listen. We listen to God's Word not just
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with our ears, but with our hearts.
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We are eager to obey. In other words, the extent to
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which this book has authority over your life is a key
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indicator of the strength of your awe of God.
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You fear God. I fear God.
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OK, what does this book mean to you?
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Does this book have the final say, no matter what it
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challenges with your predispositions and what you
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hold too dearly? What's rooted in you?
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What's been passed down generationally, what you've
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heard in your own church background?
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What does the Bible have to say, and do you agree with it?
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That tells you and I so much about a person's fear of God.
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They would not listen. I love to make these claims
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because they're biblical and then just compact it with more
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Bible. And so as I'm reading 2nd 17,
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earlier in this week, I'm revisiting the book of Exodus.
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And what I found in Exodus, what I was reminded of in a
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particular place, just makes the point that I'm ending with that
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much more strong. So we come to a particular
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plague in Exodus 9. Why don't we turn there and
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we'll finish with it? In Exodus Chapter 9, Moses
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confronts Pharaoh yet again with the 7th plague, which was the
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threat of unusual hail crashing on everything.
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And notice what he says here in verse 19.
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Now therefore send get your livestock and all that you have
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in the field and to safe shelter.
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For every man and beast that is in the field and is not brought
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home will die when the hail falls on them.
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Notice what happens in the next verse.
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Then whoever feared the word of the Lord among the servants of
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Pharaoh, hurried. They hurried his slaves and his
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livestock into the houses, but whoever did not pay attention to
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the word of the Lord left his slaves and his livestock in the
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field. Connect fearing the Lord with
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paying attention to the word of the Lord, and connect not
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fearing the Lord with not paying attention to the word of the
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Lord. Does that not confirm what we
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read in Second Kings 17? They would not listen and every
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word matters here, right? Once they heard what Moses said
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in verse 20, it says that the servants of Pharaoh, they
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hurried, they didn't drag their feet.
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I argue that they echoed what we find there in Genesis 22 when
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the Lord visits Abraham and he says, Abraham, I want you to
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give up your son. Yes, the son whom you love.
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And read there in the introduction of that chapter
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that he rose early. He didn't delay, he didn't toss
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back and forth in bed. What was that a dream?
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Was that really the Lord? He got up, he packed his bags,
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he brought his son, he brought company, and they made their way
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towards the mountains of Moriah. They hurried.
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How does your heart respond when you hear something that confirms
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or convicts you to the degree that the word of the Lord has?
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That kind of force in your soul is the measure of the pulse of
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your absolute reverence and awe towards God.
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Isn't it wonderful? It's not necessarily a feeling,
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though feeling is included. It's about response.
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It's about conviction. It's about what's authoritative
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in your life. And so let me end the way we
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ended last week that everything went wrong for this people
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because they fail to fear God. It's no different for people
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today. You can trace everything back to
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that. A refusal, denial, or a
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weakening in this place of your heart, seeing God for who He
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truly is. May the Lord inspire fresh fear
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of Him. As we close this chapter, we
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thank you, Lord, that you've led us through this wonderful text,
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instrumental in our understanding of the history of
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your works in this world. Help us be able to retain it,
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not forget it. Help us walk away with ears that
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are open and remaining open. Lord, we love you because even
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in this we can see your Son, the Lord Jesus.
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Even in this we can see principles that apply to us in
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the New covenant. And for this, Lord, we want to
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worship you. We want to rejoice, we want to
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give you our awe. You are gracious to us.
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O God and Lord, we pray that you would even give us a fresh seal
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to reach out to those around us. Help us overcome fear and the
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things that we try to convince ourselves with.
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To not be bold and not be clear and not be caring enough to look
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at people that we know, even strangers.
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Be willing to step in so that they can be delivered.
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Help us love the truth. Help us hold on to this word
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with absolute delight and treasure.
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And Lord, help us live for you. We ask these things in Jesus
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name, Amen.