[2KG:17:1-41].
Lesson 332 - Senior
Memory Verse
"Therefore was the wrath of the LORD kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance. And he gave them into the hand of the heathen; and they that hated them ruled over them" (Psalm 106:40,41).
Cross References
I Sin in Israel
1. Hoshea was an evil king, and he reigned over Israel nine years, [2KG:17:1-2]. 2. Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, came up against Hoshea, and Hoshea became his servant, [2KG:17:3]. 3. Hoshea was shut up in prison because of conspiracy against Shalmaneser, [2KG:17:4]. 4. Israel was besieged and all the people taken captive by the Assyrians, [2KG:17:5-6].II Judgement of God
1. Israel had forsaken the worship of God and become idol worshipers, [2KG:17:7-12]. 2. God sent His prophets and seers to Israel to plead with them and warn them against their idolatry, [2KG:17:13-17]; [JER:7:25]; [JER:25:4]; [JER:11:7]. 3. God rejected the ten tribes of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hands of the spoilers, until he had cast them out of His sight, [2KG:17:18-24]. 4. God sent lions into the land to slay many of the people that they might learn to fear the Lord, [2KG:17:25-28]. 5. The inhabitants of the land had a fear of the Lord, yet they served their own gods and idols, [2KG:17:29-41].Notes
Wrath Against Israel
Hoshea, king of Israel, reigned nine years and his reign was evil. Such was the testimony Hoshea left of his rule. He was the last king of Israel, and during his reign, Israel as a nation and as a government was destroyed by the Assyrians. Sin had run its course in the history of the ten tribes of Israel, and the terrible seed that had been sown through the years had been brought to the time of reaping. (See [JAM:1:15].) God had tolerated the rebellion and the idolatrous, licentious heathen worship of Israel long enough. They had for some two hundred years, since the division of Israel and Judah, determinedly gone their own way, led by ungodly kings who followed their own evil desires and ambitions. But the judgement of God was near at hand. Hoshea staved off the inevitable, temporarily, by becoming Shalmaneser's servant. It was not long, however, before Shalmaneser, the Assyrian king, learned that Hoshea was conspiring against him; so Hoshea was shut up in prison, and Samaria was besieged. There was no return from the captivity of Israel under the cruel administrations of the Assyrians. God's tolerance of the sin in Israel was at an end, and the Assyrian was the instrument God used to make His wrath felt. Isaiah's prophecies bring out this startling truth: that God used heathen nations to punish and chastise the Israelites. It is written: "O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets" [ISA:10:5-6]). That was exactly what happened on several occasions to both Israel and Judah. They were trodden down like the mire in the streets; and whereas they might have, by the grace of God, gloriously beaten back the Assyrians, they went down to defeat and disaster instead. From the time of Moses they had the solemn warning that God's curse would be upon them if they turned from the true worship of God to serve idols. That warning was: "The LORD shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand; a nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young" [DEU:28:49];[DEU:28:50]). It might be said that the Assyrians were typical of Satan. The Assyrians were known in ancient history as a most cruel and heartless people. This, of course, is typical of Satan, the archenemy of all mankind. Satan will, at any time that God in His infinite wisdom permits, attack the people of God with cruel persecution. Job's case was a notable example of such an attack by Satan. God also permits Satan to bring about some evil as a righteous judgement for sin. Such was the case with Israel. It was in the Assyrians' hearts to destroy the nation of Israel, and God permitted them to do it because of Israel's long rebellion and defiance of Him. The powers that be are ordained of God. (Read [ROM:13:1-6].) The Lord has said in His Word: "Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy" [ISA:54:16]). This verse of Scripture no doubt includes within its meaning the fact that Satan, the greatest destroyer and waster of all beings, is subjected to whatever restraint God sees fit to impose upon him. Likewise God is able to use the perverted and evil schemes of Satan to carry out His own plans and judgements, such as permitting the Assyrians to conquer Israel. Even at the hour of imminent judgement God would have spared Israel from the horrors of the Assyrian invasion and consequent captivity if they had repented of their sins and sought the face of God for mercy. They did not, even though the Lord sent His prophets to warn them. "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." God's warnings were unheeded, and judgement fell. "Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only" [2KG:17:13], [2KG:17:18]).Secret Sin
Much of the reason for God's anger against Israel is revealed in the text: "The children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the LORD their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city." Surely Israel's conception of the omnipresence of their God was dulled by their sins. God's eye sees all the doings of men, and He knows what is in the hearts of men. Sin cannot be hidden from God; and if it be done in secret, God knows of it as if it were done openly. The Psalmist said: "If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god; shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart" [PS:44:20-21]). Jesus told the people of Israel: "There is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither was any thing kept secret, but that it should come abroad" [MAK:4:22]). The world loves darkness, and Jesus said of the world: "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil" [JHN:3:19]). Men think that because their sins are hidden from their fellow men, they are perhaps, in the same manner, hidden from God. If the judgement of Israel seems severe, let it be remembered that Israel with Judah had been blessed above all other peoples of the world, in that they were chosen by God to be His own peculiar people. They were illuminated by divine Truth, they knew the worship of the true and living God, and they were destined by the providence of God to be blessed above all others, that they might in turn be a blessing. They forsook all that was right, good, and decent, and sought the evil and wickedness of the customs of the heathen nations around them. Their great wickedness was that having once known God, the source of all life and righteousness, they turned away from Him. The words of Peter accurately describe the attitude of the ten tribes of Israel upon whom the wrath of God fell: "For if after they have escaped the pollution of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire" [2PE:2:20-22]). Let us who know the truth of God follow the words of John the beloved: "Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward" ([2JN:1:8]).