The End of Israel (2 Kings 17:1-23)
The End of Israel
2 Kings 17:1-23 (1-6)
This morning we are returning to the book of kings
Again studying the infinite importance of seeking and trusting God.
That is indeed what the books of the kings is all about.
There is just no substitute for God in our lives.
There is infinite value found in Seeking Him
and in Trusting Him and in Obeying Him.
And on the flip side, there is only judgment found
For Ignoring Him, Resisting Him, and Forsaking Him.
And it is the latter of those two truths that rings true to us today.
WE LOOK ONE FINAL TIME AT THE NORTHERN KINGDOM.
• After Solomon died, his son Rehoboam became king of all Israel.
• However, he was a fool and God ripped 10 of the 12 tribes out of his hand and gave them to Solomon’s servant Jeroboam.
• At that point, Israel was split in two.
• We were left with the northern kingdom (10 tribes) called Israel.
• And the southern kingdom (1 tribe) called Judah.
This morning we see the end of the northern kingdom.
A couple of weeks ago we read that prophetic promise from Moses:
Deuteronomy 31:16-18 “The LORD said to Moses, “Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers; and this people will arise and play the harlot with the strange gods of the land, into the midst of which they are going, and will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them. “Then My anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide My face from them, and they will be consumed, and many evils and troubles will come upon them; so that they will say in that day, ‘Is it not because our God is not among us that these evils have come upon us?’ “But I will surely hide My face in that day because of all the evil which they will do, for they will turn to other gods.”
Today the prophecy is being fulfilled.
In addition to revealing the destruction of Israel,
This morning I also want you to understand why they were destroyed.
One could almost title this text, “How to be a destroyed nation”.
And I want you to see why God was angry
That we may also avoid making the same mistakes that Israel made.
But there are two main points to our text this morning.
#1 THE CAPTIVITY
2 Kings 17:1-6
Here we see the final king of the northern kingdom.
We studied him a little about 3 weeks ago, he ascended to the throne
By assassinating king Pekah the son of Remaliah.
(2) “He did evil in the sight of the LORD, only not as the kings of Israel who were before him.”
So that is an interesting appraisal.
“He did evil”
But he did a different kind of evil.
“not as the kings of Israel who were before him.”
Their form of evil was obvious.
“he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat.”
HOSHEA DID NOT SIN LIKE THEM.
In fact some historians note that Hoshea actually allowed
The Israelites to return to Jerusalem to worship in the temple.
BUT HOSHEA WAS STILL EVIL
(3) “Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against him, and Hoshea became his servant and paid him tribute.”
Instead of trusting God, he submitted himself to the king of Assyria.
Beyond that, we see that as a king he did not make good decisions.
(4) “But the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea, who had sent messengers to So king of Egypt and had offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year; so the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in prison.”
So no sooner does he sign a treaty than does he break it
And that renders him in a great deal of trouble with Assyria
For which he gets thrown in prison.
Now we have a kingless Israel and an easy target for Assyria.
(5-6) “Then the king of Assyria invaded the whole land and went up to Samaria and besieged it three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried Israel away into exile to Assyria, and settled them in Halah and Habor, on the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.”
And there you have it.
Just like that the northern kingdom is no more.
They have been defeated and they have been
Exiled out of the land flowing with milk and honey.
AND THE WRITER OF KINGS WANTS YOU TO KNOW WHY
No doubt the press in Israel blamed Hoshea for their captivity.
You can hear the radio talk shows buzzing
About how Hoshea made a dumb alliance
And then even did a dumber thing by breaking that alliance,
And now Israel is defeated.
No doubt they would use Hoshea as the fall guy.
And in a sense we all try to do this at times in our lives.
We try to blame our punishment on others…
We very rarely like to get honest about our consequences…
That is what made Paul’s confession so refreshing.
Romans 7:14-17 “For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.”
“So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.”
And it sounds like the ultimate cop out.
But it isn’t.
What Paul is revealing is that the nature
And the core reason for his problems and consequences in life
Is that he is a sinner.
He doesn’t blame his parents,
He doesn’t blame his environment,
He doesn’t blame the president.
Paul said, my biggest problem is that I have sin inside of me.
We all know that to be true, yet we often times
Still try to blame our consequences on other people.
And that is precisely what the writer of kings does not want Israel doing.
HE WANTS THEM TO KNOW WHY THEY WERE CONQUERED
#2 THE CAUSE
2 Kings 17:7-23
And obviously this is a long section, so let’s just kind of work through it together and then I hope to help you narrow the reasons down.
It begins by the writer stating the true purpose for the exile.
“Now this came about because the sons of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt,”
If you want the overly simple version,
Israel went into captivity because of sin.
Don’t ever let anyone tell you that sin is not a big deal.
Here see families being split apart,
Led off in poverty to an unknown land
Where they would once again be subject to forced labor.
And it all happened because of sin.
Sin is not minor, sin is not insignificant.
Sin brings horrific consequences,
Not the least of which is eternal damnation in hell.
Hoshea is not solely to blame for the captivity, the main culprit is sin.
And namely sin against the God they should have loved.
God delivered them from Egypt with a mighty hand,
You would think there would be some gratitude for such an event,
But obviously Israel had forgotten.
Romans 12:1 “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”
But Israel could care less.
Then begins the specifics.
(7) “and they feared other gods.”
We are all aware that we are not to love other gods,
But I hope you also realize that fearing other gods is also a sin.
When you fear something it controls you,
And Israel allowed themselves to be controlled by false gods.
VERSE 8
There we see their propensity to follow the pattern of the nations.
We’ve seen before how specifically God forbade this type of behavior.
He specifically told them not to worship on the high places,
But they ignored Him.
GOD WANTED HIS PEOPLE SET APART
Leviticus 19:19 “You are to keep My statutes. You shall not breed together two kinds of your cattle; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor wear a garment upon you of two kinds of material mixed together.”
Leviticus 19:26-28 “You shall not eat anything with the blood, nor practice divination or soothsaying. ‘You shall not round off the side-growth of your heads nor harm the edges of your beard. ‘You shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves: I am the LORD.”
The point is that Israel was to be separated from the world.
They were supposed to be different. They were supposed to be unmixed.
But obviously Israel refused that command
Because they chased after the world in every area.
VERSES 9-12
And there comes another issue of idolatry.
First it was secret idolatry.
“The sons of Israel did things secretly which were not right against the LORD their God.”
The penalty for sin kept secret is more extreme
Because the very fact that a person keeps it secret
Reveals that they knew it was wrong.
But Israel did it anyway.
And some sin they did very publicly.
The built high places everywhere and burned incense upon them.
Furthermore they “served idols” in direct violation of God’s command.
Previously they feared false gods, now they are actually serving them.
And you see the utter disdain God’s people had for Him.
But God didn’t immediately annihilate them for it.
VERSES 13-15a
Here we see that God warned but they wouldn’t listen at all.
(14) “However, they did not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in the LORD their God.”
The writer says they actually acted like unbelievers
In their refusal to listen to God.
It didn’t matter if it was commands, warnings, prophecies,
Or whatever, Israel disregarded the word of God.
And again we see why.
Because the nations disregarded God’s word.
(15b) “And they followed vanity and became vain, and went after the nations which surrounded them, concerning which the LORD had commanded them not to do like them.”
They followed the pattern of the world,
And that pattern was an idolatrous pattern
That disregarded the true and living God.
And you even see to what extreme they followed the world.
VERSES 16-17
They followed the world into Baal worship, and into child sacrifice,
And into divination, and into all sorts of evil.
It was full blown, unchecked idolatry all because they wanted to be like the world.
AND NOTICE GOD’S RESPONSE
(18) “So the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them from His sight; none was left except the tribe of Judah.”
It wasn’t because of Hoshea, it was because of the sin of Israel.
God was angry with their sin and that is why He removed them.
But that is not all they did.
VERSE 19
There we learn that not only did Israel sin,
But they were also a stumbling block to those around them.
They actually influenced Judah to follow in their footsteps.
The prophet Hosea ministered to the northern kingdom,
And he told them not to do this.
Hosea 4:15 “Though you, Israel, play the harlot, Do not let Judah become guilty; Also do not go to Gilgal, Or go up to Beth-aven And take the oath: “As the LORD lives!”
COULD YOU IMAGINE GOD TELLING A PEOPLE NOT TO GO ON MISSION?
That is what He told Israel because he did not want them
To influence the nations to live like them.
But Israel didn’t listen, they influenced Judah anyway.
HOW? – Was it not Ahab’s daughter who married Jehoram and brought Baal worship to Judah?
AND SO GOD WAS ANGRY
(20) “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.”
AND STILL THEY SIN
VERSES 21-22
That particular sin they never got over.
It plagued Israel from that time on.
(23) “until the LORD removed Israel from His sight, as He spoke through all His servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away into exile from their own land to Assyria until this day.”
And there it is again.
• Israel was completely removed.
• Israel was exiled.
• The Northern Kingdom was destroyed and the people were carried off into exile and slavery.
WHY?
Because of sin.
Now we worked our way through this text,
But let me see if I can help you narrow down the real problem.
3 main sins immerge from the text
1) IDOLATRY
(7) “they had feared other gods”
(9) “Moreover they built for themselves high places in all their towns”
(10) “They set for themselves sacred pillars and Asherim”
(11) “they burned incense on all the high places”
(12) “They served idols”
(16) “made for themselves molten images…an Asherah…and served Baal”
(17) “they made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire”
(22) “Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam…”
• They feared what should not be feared…
• They loved what should not be loved…
• They served what should not be served…
And God took it personal.
He was very clear on Sinai that “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me”
And Israel disregarded the command.
2) WORLDLINESS
It’s hard to tell if it was love of the world that led them into idolatry,
Or idolatry which led them into love of the world,
But either way both existed and they were linked together.
And time and time again in this section we find the writer mentioning
How Israel did according to the pattern of the world.
(8) “walked in the customs of the nations…and in the customs of the kings”
(11) “burned incense…as the nations which the LORD had carried away”
(15) “they followed vanity and became vain, and went after the nations…”
(22) “walked in all the sins of Jeroboam”
It is obvious that their worldliness and their idolatry are linked.
They loved the world so much that it let them to worship like the world.
They were so infatuated with the world that they began to emulate them.
And this was never God’s intention.
Exodus 19:1-6 “In the third month after the sons of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. When they set out from Rephidim, they came to the wilderness of Sinai and camped in the wilderness; and there Israel camped in front of the mountain. Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself. ‘Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.”
• God wanted a people that were wholly His.
• God wanted a bride that loved only Him.
• God wanted children that were devoted to Him.
And Israel refused God’s desire and instead chose
To chase after the pattern of the world.
And because of that God scattered them throughout the world.
3) DISOBEDIENCE
(12) “They served idols concerning which the LORD had said to them, “You shall not do this thing.”
(14) “However, they did not listen…”
(15) “They rejected His statutes and His covenant…and His warnings”
(16) “They forsook all the commandments of the LORD their God
According to verse 19 they even taught Judah how not to keep the commandments of God.
It was blatant disobedience.
AND NOW WE KNOW WHY ISRAEL WAS DESTROYED
Idolatry
Worldliness
Disobedience
NOW LET’S BRING IT HOME
1 Peter 2:9-10 “But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY.”
After the Exodus God asked His people to be wholly His. (They rejected)
After the cross God asked again (We must answer)
WE MUST AVOID IDOLATRY, WORLDLINESS, & DISOBEDIENCE.
IDOLATRY
It can be money.
Colossians 3:5-6 “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience,”
Certainly the rich young ruler was this type of idolater.
Matthew 19:21-22 “Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property.”
It can be comfort
Philippians 3:17-19 “Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us. For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.”
It can be self-worship
Matthew 23:6-7 “They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues, and respectful greetings in the market places, and being called Rabbi by men.”
WORLDLINESS
1 John 2:15-17 “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.”
James 4:4 “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
This world is fallen and cursed, this world does not glorify God.
And therefore it makes no sense that we would be in love with it.
God did not call us to emulate the world.
God called us to emulate His Son.
And yet it concerns me how much the church today loves the world.
(We copy them at every turn)
From T-shirt slogans to coffee bars
The church in general today is far more concerned
With how pleasing they are to the world
Than they are about how pleasing they are to God.
There are conferences everywhere about how to attract the lost.
How many conferences have you ever seen about how to attract God?
That was Israel’s problem.
The world loved the high places, God didn’t, but they remained.
And Israel was judged for it.
We had better make sure that as a bride
We are only trying to win the affections of our husband.
2 Corinthians 11:2-3 “For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.”
DISOBEDIENCE
Obedience to the word of God is foundational to the Christian life.
John 8:31-32 “So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
Matthew 12:46-50 “While He was still speaking to the crowds, behold, His mother and brothers were standing outside, seeking to speak to Him. Someone said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to You.” But Jesus answered the one who was telling Him and said, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Behold My mother and My brothers! “For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.”
And that is why James warned:
James 1:19-25 “This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.”
It is all about how we handle the word of God.
Israel disobeyed God’s word and disregarded God’s warnings
And it brought judgment upon them.
Idolatry
Worldliness
Disobedience
We must do better.
We are called to learn from Israel’s mistakes.
1 Corinthians 10:6-11 “Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, “THE PEOPLE SAT DOWN TO EAT AND DRINK, AND STOOD UP TO PLAY.” Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents. Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”
Learn from Israel’s mistakes
And don’t follow their path.
DEVOTE YOURSELF WHOLLY TO THE LORD
AND BE THE PEOPLE HE IS EXPECTING YOU TO BE.
2 Kings 17:18 “So the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them from His sight; none was left except the tribe of Judah.”
