From 2 Kings 15-17

Several kings have come and gone since our last chapter readings. Despite numerous warnings the sinful idolatry of Israel persisted until the LORD had to punish them.

This post is part of my bible in a year series.

Passage and Comments

6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria, and he carried the Israelites away to Assyria and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. (2 Ki 17.6)

23 But the LORD was gracious to them and had compassion on them, and he turned toward them, because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them, nor has he cast them from his presence until now. (2 Ki 13.23)

7 And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods 8 and walked in the customs of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel, and in the customs that the kings of Israel had practiced. (2 Ki 17.7-8)

9 And the people of Israel did secretly against the LORD their God things that were not right. They built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city. 10 They set up for themselves pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree, 11 and there they made offerings on all the high places, as the nations did whom the LORD carried away before them. And they did wicked things, provoking the LORD to anger, 12 and they served idols, of which the LORD had said to them, “You shall not do this.” (2 Ki 17.9-12)

13 Yet the LORD warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets.” 14 But they would not listen, but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the LORD their God. (2 Ki 17.13-14)

15 They despised his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them. They went after false idols and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the LORD had commanded them that they should not do like them. 16 And they abandoned all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made for themselves metal images of two calves; and they made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal. 17 And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings and used divination and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger. 18 Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight. None was left but the tribe of Judah only. (2 Ki 17.15-18)

19 Judah also did not keep the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the customs that Israel had introduced. 20 And the LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until he had cast them out of his sight. (2 Ki 17.19-20)

21 When he had torn Israel from the house of David, they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. And Jeroboam drove Israel from following the LORD and made them commit great sin. 22 The people of Israel walked in all the sins that Jeroboam did. They did not depart from them, 23 until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had spoken by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was exiled from their own land to Assyria until this day. (2 Ki 17.21-23)

1. After he delivered them from Egypt (described in Exodus) he;
2. Instructed them to avoid the idolatry of the nations around them.
3. When they rejected his command he did not immediately punish them.
4. Instead he sent prophets to rebuke them and give them opportunity to repent and be forgiven.
5. They rejected these prophets and the LORD continued to warn them by the preliminary covenant curses.
6. After all these attempts by the LORD to turn them back to him over a few hundred years the LORD invoked the final covenant curse – exile. Booting them out of his presence and sight.

He had acted righteously according to the covenant despite their unfaithfulness (Dan 9.7-16, Neh 9.7-8,29-33).

Story of Israel

The sad fact about Israel’s exile is that they never fully recover. They are assimilated into Assyrian culture and are afterwards treated as half breed Jews. The New Testament calls them Samaritans. There is hope. But it is not the same kind return from exile Judah experienced.

Story of Jesus

19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you [Jews-Judeans] say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”

Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You [Samaritans] worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.

But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.”

Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a [Samaritan] woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?”

So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” They went out of the town and were coming to him. (Jn 4.19-31)