December 18, 2000
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January 14 Lesson
Sometimes bad things happen to bad people
___2 Kings 17:5-19; 24:1-4, 18-20
___17:5The king of Assyria invaded the entire land, marched against Samaria and laid seige to it for three years. 6In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River and in the towns on the Medes.
___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 Pharoah king of Egypt. They worshipped 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. 9The Israelites secretly did things against the Lord their God that were not right. From watchtower to fortified city they built themselves high places in all their towns. 10They set up sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree. 11At every high place they burned incense, as the nations whom the Lord had driven out before them had done. They did wicked things that provoked the Lord to anger. 12They worshipped idols, though the Lord had said, "You shall not do this." 13The Lord warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and seers: "Turn from your evil ways. Observe my commands and decrees, in accordance with the entire Law that I commanded your fathers to obey and that I delivered to you through my servants the prophets."
___14But they would not listen and were still stiff-necked as their fathers, who did not trust in the Lord their God. 15They rejected his decrees and the covenant he had made with their fathers and the warnings he had given them. They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless. They imitated the nations around them although the Lord had ordered them, "Do not do as they do," and they did the things the Lord had forbidden them to do.
___16They forsook all the commands of the Lord their God and made for themselves two idols cast in the shape of calves, and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the starry hosts, and they worshipped Baal. They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire. 17They practiced divination and sorcery and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, provoking him to anger.
___18So the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them from his presence. Only the tribe of Judah was left, 19and even Judah did not keep the commands of the Lord their God. They followed the practices Israel had introduced. ...
___24:18Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. His mother's name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah. 19He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as Jehoiakim had done. 20It was because of the Lord's anger that all this happened to Jerusalem and Judah, and in the end he thrust them from his presence.
___By Dan Gentry Kent
___It is tragically true that bad things often happen to good people. Take Job--and Jesus--for an example.
___However, it also is true that we often bring our suffering on ourselves. We do so whenever we stray, whenever we disobey, whenever we reject God. It was true in the ancient biblical world, and it is fully as true today.
___The last days: Israel
___We are at the end of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. This important chapter is a theological commentary on the fall of Israel. Some have called 2 Kings 17 the climax to the story of Kings thus far.
___Hoshea had a distinction. He was the last king of Israel. He took over when he assassinated Pekah (15:30), which is the method often used to change administrations in Israel. He lasted nine years, which is remarkable for those days (17:1). He was a wicked person (17:2), but that is old news at this late date. 2 Kings 17:3 tells of his becoming a vassal of Shalmaneser V (727-22 B.C.), the new ruler of Assyria, who followed his famous and powerful father, Tiglath-Pileser III.
___But Hoshea was an unwilling vassal. He was always looking for an opportunity to rebel. John Bright called this "Israel's suicide." Eventually Shalmaneser V caught Hoshea at it. He caught the reluctant vassal flirting with Assyria's archenemy, Egypt. And Hoshea failed to pay his annual tribute (tribute is like taxes, except that you pay it to an enemy). Those were, of course, no-nos.
___Shalmaneser V had Hoshea imprisoned (17:4). This was when Assyria invaded Israel for the last time. Shalmaneser V besieged Samaria for three years before it finally fell. The year was 722-21--200 years after the division of the kingdom at the death of Solomon.
___The lost tribes of Israel
___The people of the Northern Kingdom were carried away into captivity. They were scattered to the four winds of the empire (17:6). They never were heard from again. This is what we mean by the "10 lost tribes." Israel ceased to exist as a nation. Look at 17:20, 23. As far as they were concerned, at least, the covenant was at an end.
___Here is where the prophetic tie-in appears. The prophetic--sometimes called the Deuteronomic--view was that the Lord is the Lord of history. He controls history and directs it for his own purposes, either judgment or blessing. Isn't this what the prophets always preached? Isn't this the basis on which the history books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings were written? It should be obvious that the Lord allowed Samaria to fall as a part of his judgment on serious and protracted sin.
___A prophetic interpretation of Israel's salvation history (17:7-18)
___This section is a summary review and interpretation of 2 Kings up to this point. It is what we call salvation history. It is the story of the Lord's dealings--both positively and negatively--with his people.
___In the case of Israel, however, the story became a history of sin, of apostasy and therefore of judgment. Yes, the Lord is the God of grace and redemption. He did deliver his people from bondage in Egypt. However, they turned from him to other gods (17:7). They walked in the customs of the Canaanites whom Joshua had subdued. Their kings had introduced additional sinful practices (17:8).
___The details of their sin follow in 17:9-12,15-17. The Lord warned them repeatedly through the prophets, 17:13 asserts. The prophets said, "Turn" (the Hebrew verb is also translated "return" or "repent"), but nobody listened. The people were stubborn and unbelieving (17:14). 2 Kings 17:15 says they ignored the covenant relationship and their covenant obligations (see Amos 5:20-24). Instead, they went after false idols and became false themselves. The people of Israel did not fear the Lord. 2 Kings 17:7 says they instead feared other gods. No wonder the Lord was angry with them and removed them from his sight (17:18).
___Notice how long the Lord was faithful to his part of the covenant, even though the people were completely unfaithful to him. He was long-suffering. He never broke the covenant on his side, even though his people repeatedly smashed it on theirs. Once again, as always in the Old and the New Testaments, the story is one of grace.
___The rest of the (unfortunate, unnecessary) story
___In 17:24, we see the origin of the people called Samaritans, who are so prominent in the New Testament. The Assyrian rulers who took the Northern tribes into captivity replaced the upper class deportees with pagan foreigners, captured elsewhere and brought in from the far reaches of the empire (17:24-25).
___2 Kings 17:29 is the only time the word "Samaritans" appears in the Old Testament. 2 Kings 17:29-31 documents the continued idolatry of these new dwellers in Samaria. 2 Kings 17:32-33 adds that they also tried to worship the Lord. Quite an amalgamation.
___And they still do it, the inspired writer said in 17:34. When his work was completed these syncretistic, mongrelized practices still were going on (see also 17:41).
___2 Kings 17:34-40 is much like what we saw earlier in the chapter. There is a clear condition stated in 17:37-39. The word "if" is not present, but the idea seems to be. You be faithful to me, and I will deliver you from your enemies. If you will follow me, I will bless you. The covenant and the covenant promises were much more conditional than we usually think.
___The last days: Judah
___All of the problems were not up in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, of course. Judah did not keep the Lord's commandments either (17:19). She was as bad as her northern sister. In fact, she was worse because she had Israel's example. Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel said this.
___By the time we come to the two final chapters of 2 Kings (24-25), the cruel Assyrian empire had passed off the scene. Powerful Babylon took her place at the center of the stage (24:7). In 24:1, the leading light of Babylon appears for the first time, Nebuchadnezzar.
___The last four kings of Judah have confusing names. A couple of them lasted for about a decade each, but a couple only lasted three months. Can you say "chaotic time"? As a rule, they were continually trying to conspire with Egypt against the Babylonian overlord.
___Most important, however, is the fact that these kings were godless, ignoring the Lord and ignoring his messenger, primarily Jeremiah (see Jeremiah 7:1-11). You can guess what the consequences would be.
___Nebuchadnezzar tried repeatedly to teach the rebellious upstarts a lesson. For example, he captured Jerusalem without destroying it in March 16, 597. He carried the king and the royal family off to Babylon. He took what remained that was valuable in the now less-than-glorious temple. This included the vessels of gold that Solomon had made (24:13). He also exiled the cream of the leadership of the people, as you see detailed in 24:14-16. 2 Kings 24:14 says that 10,000 people were involved in this first deportation.
___The two pitiful kings who followed learned nothing from the tragedy. The last king, Zedekiah, kept looking for a chance to rebel. 2 Kings 24:20 says that he finally did it. He must have had a death wish.
___It is a sad, unnecessary story, but it is almost at its end. When chapter 25 is over, no symbol of religious, civil or military life remained in Judah. They had been either destroyed or taken to Babylon.
___Nebuchadnezzar came back to besiege Jerusalem for the last time (25:1). The second siege was one of the most horrible in history. It lasted about 18 months (24:2). By then the people trying to hold out inside the city were starving to death (25:3). Their misery had to be all the worse when they realized that they had brought it on themselves. The city itself apparently fell in June or July of 587 or 586 B.C.
___Then, as a deliberate, careful policy, Nebuchadnezzar had his men systematically dismantle the city of Jerusalem. 2 Kings 25:9 says that they burned the temple, palace and every house or building of any significance. They broke down the walls of the city (25:10). They carried most of the ragtag remainder of the people into exile (25:11). Only the sub-proletariat was left--the dregs, the poorest of the peasants (25:12).
___The exile undid the Exodus. It was an anti-Exodus. The people went back into foreign bondage. And since 587 B.C., there always have been more Jewish people outside of Palestine than in it. In a sense, the last phrase of 25:21 is the conclusion of the books of Kings. Only some appendices follow.
For thought and discussion
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