Deliberate DISOBEDIENCE will lead to ‘FAILURE’ and ‘CAPTIVITY’!
April 19 Bible
Reading: 2 Kings Chapters 16-18
Deliberate DISOBEDIENCE will lead to ‘FAILURE’ and ‘CAPTIVITY’!
"And the Lord rejected all the
descendants of Israel, afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of
plunderers, until He had cast them from His sight. For He tore Israel from the
house of David, and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. Then Jeroboam
drove Israel from following the Lord, and made them commit a great sin. For the
children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did
not depart from them, until the Lord removed Israel out of His sight, as He had
said by all His servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away from their
own land to Assyria, as it is to this day" (2 Kings 17:20-23).
The book of
2nd Kings assesses the history of Israel and elaborates their
eventual demise in terms of non-adherence to the covenant principles laid out
in the book of Deuteronomy (vv. 7–41). The Assyrian deportation of Israel
occurred due to the fact that they deliberately disobeyed Jehovah God during their
entire 300-year history by worshiping other gods (vv. 7–12). The kings and the
people of Israel had ignored the repeated warnings of the prophets and had rejected
God’s covenant completely (vv. 13–18).
The
Israelites committed two forms of idolatry,
first by worshiping gods other than
the God of Israel (Exodus 20:3), and second
by bowing before images that they had fashioned for themselves (Exodus 20:4). From
the time the Israelites had settled in Canaan until their exile to Assyria, they
were influenced by their idolatrous neighbors, and these influences were aided
by mixed marriages, like those of Solomon (1 Kings 11:1–13) and Ahab (1 Kings
16:30–33). They had feared other gods, walked in the customs of other nations,
built for themselves high places, sacred pillars and wooden images everywhere,
and multiplied their idolatry. They turned their backs on God’s commandments
and adopted the man-made religion of their neighbors.
The reason
for the fall of Samaria and the end of the northern kingdom is clearly stated
to be its spiritual failure, in turning from the living God to worship other
gods that exist only in people’s depraved imagination. So, God gave them their
ultimate punishment: captivity and
deportation to a foreign country. The king of Assyria carried the ten
northern tribes of Israel away to Mesopotamia and Media in 722 B.C. This was
the judgment of God prophesied long ago through Moses in Deut. 28:47–68.
The history
of any nation (not just Israel) must ultimately be judged according to its
faithfulness to the Lord. “Righteousness
exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people” (Prov. 14:34).
Israel’s demise as a nation was a direct consequence of her sin. The same is
true of any individual who persists
in rebellion and deliberate disobedience
against God. When we examine 2 Kings 17 closely, we come across four sins that were committed by
Israelites that we should avoid in our lives:
- They forgot God’s mercy (v. 7) in saving them from Egyptian bondage. We need to remind ourselves
daily what God has done for us (read Psalms 103).
- They imitated the ungodly (v. 8) and corrupted their true worship of Jehovah by worldly practices.
We should avoid any forms of dilution in our worship to God, who should be
worshiped in “spirit and truth” (John
4:23-24).
- They refused to listen to the
prophets of God (vv.
13–18) and rejected the law of the Lord.
We need to always pay close attention to what God is telling us through His
servants and His Word.
- They feared the Lord (vv. 25, 28, 32–34, 41) but manufactured their own religion. Let
us note that Jesus is “the way, the truth
and the life” and no one can go to God except through Jesus Christ alone (John
14:6).
God’s patience ran out with Israel and He allowed them to be captured by Assyria. Let us not test God’s patience in our lives by sinning constantly through deliberate disobedience to God’s word. This will only lead to spiritual and moral failure in our lives as well.
