January 13, 2022
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in 2 Kings? Here’s today’s reading:
2 Kings 17 (NIV)
Hoshea Last King of Israel
1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea son of Elah became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned nine years. 2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, but not like the kings of Israel who preceded him.
3 Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up to attack Hoshea, who had been Shalmaneser’s vassal and had paid him tribute..............Continue Reading
What a sad chapter, yet full of explanation why the Northern tribes were driven out of the land and what happen to them and the land after they left. God had made it clear to them the requirements He put before them to follow Him and not worship other gods. He also made clear what happened if they turned from Him and worshipped other gods. From the time Jeroboam set up false worship amongst them, the people allowed that pattern of prioritizing other gods over the true God to define their lives. If only they did it right. May we learn from their bad example to make sure we remain faithful to Him.
Now it is interesting what happens when the king of Assyria does what was typical in that time, he sends his and other people to inhabit the land and control it..naturally while remaining faithful to him. Yet God sends lions to kill some to clearly show they don’t belong. And the people respond in the typical way people respond to trouble, what’s the thing we can do to make the god happy so the trouble stops. It’s not about seeking truth or God Himself, but get rid of the thing that disrupts our lives. So they send a priest to teach them the ways of the God of that land. And so they take elements of the worship of God (to placate Him) and mix it with all the false worship of their own gods. This is actually worse. God’s people have always tried to mix other beliefs into the true faith of God. Let’s make sure we don’t: that our faith and practice comes from the Word and not from tradition or what our families did. Mixing things together like that is called syncretism and it is abhorrent to God. But does this give you a picture of why the Jews of Jesus time had a problem with the Samaritans? This chapter explains a lot of that…..
2 Kings 17
2 kings 17
7All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of Egypt from under the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped other gods 8and followed the practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before them, as well as the practices that the kings of Israel had introduced.
So sad and so far Israel has fallen. Sacrificing their own children to idols and other gods. They heard the warnings and they still turned away. They felt the suffering as a result of their disobedience and still they turned away. Idolatry is anything we put before God and this chapter was a harsh reminder how stubborn we can be in that respect and we need to keep God first in ALL things.
“Yet the Lord testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.
Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the Lord their God.
And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them, that they should not do like them.”
I was thinking of our nation and how it was initially started with a covenant with God.
Freedom of religion is/was a good thing, in as much as it enables the spread of the gospel. Yet, I believe it has lead to syncretism in our nation. Now I see how these false “gods” or should we say, demons, are wreaking havoc in all of our institutions with the freedom we have allowed. It is interesting how the Israelites “feared the Lord AND…..” then it says, “And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God,”. I think this is happening in many Christians/churches today, and maybe not always so secretly. How are we fearing the Lord AND, instead of fearing the Lord ONLY?