Answers Bible Curriculum Year 2 Quarter 3 Lesson 4
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all right well let’s get started good morning welcome to Sunday school we’re looking this week at the Fulfillment of God’s word as declared By His prophets to Israel God warned that if Israel persisted and it’s sinful Rebellion against him Israel would be conquered and then removed from her land and that’s what came to pass that’s what we’re looking at today title of our lesson is God judges Israel last week we heard from the prophet Hosea it’s a God command Hosea to do that’s right Mary Mary a wife of adultery and have children of adultery or where marry a wife of harlotry and have children of harletree God also commanded to name his children certain prophetic names Isaiah’s wife and children actually served as symbols of what what they were prophecies but prophecies about what yeah they were symbols and Prophecies of Israel they were a symbol just as Gomer was adulterous toward Hosea so Israel was adulterous toward God and this is the theme of the book of Hosea this idea of adultery or spiritual adultery again and again the prophet declares Israel you have been an adulteress to God you are a spiritual Harlot you profess faithfulness to your husband but in reality you are constantly defiling yourself with idols and looking to other powers other than God for deliverance from trouble you are Unfaithful Israel even though God has been faithful to you kind and loving to you he brought you up from Egypt he gave you the land in which you live he gave you his word but you have ignored his law and you have used His blessings for your own idolatrous ends God sent you prophets to turn you back he chastened you in limited ways he gave you Prosperity when you didn’t deserve it but you would not return even though he did all these things you are a stubborn Shameless adulteress that’s the message of Hosea and therefore God premised or God promised through Hosea to bring judgment on Israel he would Cast Away Israel his Unfaithful wife and he would disown her children but God promised something else what else did God promise that’s right a restoration that included what not just I’ll bring you back and I’ll bless you again but what was the most significant part that’s right I will change your heart I will cause you to genuinely repent and then love me always says I’ll betrothed you to myself in faithfulness you will come trembling to the Lord in the last day and as a symbol of this what did God command Hosea to do that’s right so somehow Gomer had departed from Hosea but God said go love again a woman who was loved by her husband and yet an adulterous and so Hosea went after his wife bought her um bought her back and brought her back into his home and said you’re not gonna have any other lovers I’m going to be your man Israel like Gomer would be similarly removed from her lovers she would not have a king or a temple a temple worship system until in the last days Israel looked upon the one whom she had pierced and in Repentance embraced her Messiah now it doesn’t give the specifics about the Messiah but we’re uniting that with the rest of the scripture the Kingdom of Israel will one day be established on the earth with the promise seed of David on the throne and he will be ruling the world in righteousness from Jerusalem and though Gentiles and I said this at the end of last week’s lesson we can have a part in this Kingdom if we also stop adulterating ourselves with idols and stop ignoring God’s kindness just as God showed love to Israel so God has shown us love by giving us good things by sustaining us each day and by making his word of Salvation available to us and though we have sinned incessantly against God and blaspheme his worth He has been patient with us giving us time to repent but have we been pretending to be devoted to God when he really isn’t our treasure let us behold the kindness of God and his patience and repent while there’s still time let us come to Jesus before his before his judgment comes and we are Swept Away but if we are already saved let us thank God for not only loving us when we didn’t deserve it but by doing everything necessary for us to be saved including changing our heart he provided his son but he also provided the faith in us so that we could see the son for whom he is for who he is and actually believe in him questions about what we talked about last week okay so let me just uh resay your comment hopefully hopefully I get it all correct but you’re saying that the change of heart that God promised um in Hosea we see actually what that specifically means in um in the revelation of the New Testament and God providing the sacrifice of Jesus but also doing the work of regeneration that comes when the gospel is declared and God causes a person to believe now we are all experienced or we who are Christians are experiencing that or have experienced that but because of the promises that we’ve seen in the Old Testament towards Israel that is something that’s also going to happen to them as a nation in the future so they’ve been you know they are resisting their King they are they are that wife that does not want to love her husband but God will draw her to himself but we will have been added in will be brought into that Kingdom Where the wild branch that is put into the to the Olive Tree of Israel the the tree of Abraham but yeah what we’re seeing already in the church is what’s going to happen one day in Israel other questions or comments okay well Industrials of redemption is coming it did not come during hosea’s generation the stubborn adulteress did not repent and therefore the prom the promised Judgment of God came to pass and we’re going to see how today here’s our outline we’re going to be spending time in Second Kings 17 just that one chapter today we’re going to look at how Israel was judged also the explanation of why Israel was judged well then examine what happened to the land of Israel after the inhabitants were removed and then we’ll consider what this judgment means for us today let’s ask the Lord’s blessing on this time our great God you aren’t Mighty and Majestic and there we thank you for this Revelation and yet we also recognize that you are not fathomable not fully fallible we can’t understand all your works or the extent of your mightiness or the extent of your Holiness but we thank you for what you have revealed because this is necessary for us this is beneficial for us this is lovely for us Our God I pray that you would help us to understand you in a better way and that we would apply the word that you wrote through your prophets in the scriptures and even here in Kings in Jesus name amen please open your Bibles and turn to Second Kings chapter 17.
second king 17 we’re going to be as I said just focusing on this one chapter today we’ll break it in half we’ll look at it in two parts let’s first read verses 1 to 23 and here the description of Israel’s judgment please follow along as I read this is Page 401 in the Pew Bible if you’re using that chapter 17 verse 1 of Second Kings down to verse 23.
in the 12th year of ahaz king of Judah Hosea the son of ela became king of Israel in Samaria and reigned nine years he did evil in the sight of the Lord only known as the king’s visual who were before him shamanese or king of Assyria came up against him and Hosea became a servant and paid him tribute but the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hosea who had sent Messengers to sow 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 then the king of Assyria invaded the whole land and went up to Samaria and besieged it three years in the ninth year of Hosea the king of his and the ninth year of Isaiah the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried Israel away into exile to Assyria and settled them in Hala and haywor on the River of gozan and in the cities of the medes 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 from under the hand of pharaoh king of Egypt and they had feared other gods and walked in the customs of the Nations whom the Lord had driven out before the sons of Israel and in the customs of the Kings of Israel which they had introduced the sun’s visual did things sick ly which were not right against the Lord their God moreover they built for themselves high places in all their towns from Watchtower to fortified City they set for themselves sacred pillars and ashram on every high hill and under every Green Tree and there they burned incense and all the high places as the Nations did which the Lord had carried away to Exile before them and they did Evil things provoking the Lord they served Idols concerning which the Lord had said to them you shall not do this thing if the Lord warned Israel and Judah through All His prophets and every Seer saying turn from your evil ways and keep my Commandments my statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers and which I sent you through my servants the prophets however they did not listen but stiffen their neck like their fathers who did not believe in the Lord their God they rejected his statutes and his Covenant which he made with their fathers and his warnings with which he warned them 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 forsook all the Commandments of the Lord their God and made for themselves molten images even two calves and made an Ashura and worshiped all the hosts of heaven and served Baal then they made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire and practiced divination and enchantments and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord provoking him so the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them from his sight none was left except the tribe of Judah also Judah did not keep the Commandments of the Lord their God but walked in the Customs which Israel had introduced 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 when he had torn Israel from the House of David they made jeroboam the son of nibak King then jeroboam drove Israel away from following the Lord and made them commit a great sin the sun’s Israel walked in all the sins of jeroboam which he did which he did they did not depart from them 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 all right let’s observe seen this guy before but was Hosea a good or an evil King he was an evil King not as bad as some before him but he was an evil King what brought about the war between Assyria and Israel to the king of Assyria but at some point he went to Egypt to help you that’s right so he basically a Serial had been in submission to Assyria but decided to Rebel he reached out to Egypt for support and the king of Assyria learned of it so that meant War just to give you a bit of historical background place this um in the timeline of history the Assyrian Empire had been growing stronger and stronger since about 750 BC uh it had times of strength before that but it was again becoming strong Syrian Empire was based in Upper Mesopotamia this area particularly around the cities of Asher and Nineveh so Asher right here Nineveh is just a little bit above it right there in 744 BC Assyria had ended a period of Civil War it reorganized its government and Military and became a successful conquering machine began to subjugate many of its neighbors a Syria subjugated Babylon to the southeast it subjugated the medes and the Persians over in the East and the Northeast it then defeated the Hittites in the northwest and then it set at sights on the Southwest conquering phenicia tire and sidon in this area and Gaza near the coast to avoid being invaded the king of Israel menahem paid tribute to Assyria and we see that mentioned in the scriptures in Second Kings 15.
however the Assyrian King tiglath pleaser III later attacked Israel nonetheless this time under King Pika and he also attacked Syria Israel and Syria had actually been fighting a war as I remember Syria is about right here they had been fighting a war against Judah and the king of Judah ahaz send a message to Assyria and promise to pay him if he would actually declare war on Syria and Israel so Judah said if you fight these guys for me I will pay you Assyria said sure okay we’ll do that and they conquered Syria and they invaded Israel let’s see they under King pika Assyria captured Gilead Galilee and naphthali from Israel so that would be the North and Northeast sections of Israel they actually captured this territory and of the survivors in that area they were taken to Assyria so even before the passage we read here Syria has invaded and partially taken captives from Israel but Assyria was not done with Israel Israel was invaded a third time under tiglas pleaser’s successor chamonizer V but Hosea who became king after overthrowing Pika the previous sufferer of assyria’s Wrath he submitted to a Syria right away and he said I’ll pay you tribute that’s what’s mentioned in verse 3 of our chapter but in 725 BC Jose Rebels against Syria just as we read which meant that Israel was now going to be invaded by Syria for a fourth time this isn’t the first time a series come against Judith but it’s going to be the last Samaria itself falls under Jose’s I mean under a serious attack but why wasn’t Hosea leading the defense in Samaria where’s Isaiah he’s he’s in prison he’s been captured by the Assyrians so even though he’s captured a Syria is going to invade the land and the people try and do their best to defend while their King is captive how long does it take Samaria to fall three years that’s a pretty long time but somewhat normal for the time period while the Assyrians were renowned for their War engines and Siege Warfare sometimes it was just more profitable to starve out a well-fortified city or wait for someone in the city to betray it than to try and assault the city especially if you already control the surrounding area which Assyria did they invaded the whole land of Judah I mean the whole land of Israel and then besieged Samaria and even if the people didn’t surrender eventually they would be so weakened by the seeds that an assault would overwhelm the city’s defenses so Assyria dug in and besieged the city just waiting it out even with extra supplies and preparations Samaria could not last forever it would eventually fall but this is just as God prophesied remember Amos 3 11 therefore thus says the Lord God an enemy even one surrounding the land will pull down your strength from you and your citadels will be looted Hosea said something similar and Hosea 11 5 6 specifically identifying Assyria is said of Israel they will not return to the land of Egypt but Assyria he will be their King because they refuse to return to me the sword will against their cities and will demolish their gate bars and consume them because of their councils so Syria besieges Samaria the Bible doesn’t describe conditions inside Samaria during the Seas but what was it probably like based on what we see in other sieges in the Bible yeah Ron right the price of food gradually increases it becomes super expensive what else eventually there’s a shortage of food that’s the reason that prices are going up so if people don’t have food to eat what do they start doing yeah that’s something that whilst we see in the scripture is cannibalism eating people who have already died or actually killing children and eating them people eating their own excrements people starving to death there’s sure desperation and um a despair in the city is it’s a place full of fear probably people calling out to various gods or looking for some kind of Hope in various places but none comes this is a very tragic scene though that’s not describe to you that’s usually how sieges go took three years but Samaria capitulated in 722 BC what happened to the Israelites just as God promised taken into Exile Israelites are removed and it tells you it tells you in attacks where exactly they were removed too now there’s some debate about where these cities are and where the river goes in is but it appears that the surviving Israelites were taken far to the Northeast into Assyria and into the cities and the medes so we’re talking exactly as God promised in His prophets beyond the Euphrates River that’s this one here and so this area and this area over here they were taken into modern day Iraq and Iran but from other scriptures we can say that not all Israel was taken into exile Second Chronicles 34 9 mentions that Hezekiah who’s the king at this time in Judah he collects money to repair the temple in Jerusalem and he collects money from Judah from Benjamin and it says the remnant of Israel so there was still a Remnant during hezekiah’s Reign so what does that refer to well it may be and this is likely that the Assyrians took most the people into captivity but left some some poor people to work the land and to serve the newcomers into the land they would basically function as servants and slaves it’s possible also or alternatively that the remnants discussed in that passage are actually people who fled from Israel into Judah so they’re actually not um from the tribe of Judah or Benjamin but they flee to Israel and they lived there they flee to Judah and lived there until Judah Falls both of these might be true but not everyone was taken into exile but definitely most of them those that survived now while the book of Kings is mostly a recounting in Israel’s two kingdoms of what happened and there’s very limited commentary from the author there’s a shift here in the text starting in verse seven it goes down in verse 23. what’s the shift exactly we get an explanation of why these things happen and as we’ve gone through Kings and maybe in your own reading of Kings you notice that this is this is rare the author doesn’t usually make an extended commentary like this it might say oh he was an evil king or he was a he was a good King but we got a full explanation here of why Israel was judged in this way what phrase is repeated in verse in verses 7 and 9 describing Israel’s actions what phrase is repeated Sun’s visual is repeated but what did they do there’s something that they did that has a repeated phrase uh let’s see weird other gods it does say for you to the gods verse seven uh it doesn’t mention that in verse 9 though it does say that they did things secretly the phrase against the Lord appears in both those patches they did these things against the Lord and we see another repeated phrase in verses 18 20 and 23 describing God’s actions towards Israel look down at Verse 18 20 and 23 what phrase is repeated describing what God did that’s right removed him from his presence or removed them from his sight three times he says that God removed them he determined to remove them from his sight out of his sight and the author makes clear that this came upon Israel and would come upon Judah and just keep going on in Kings it came as a judgment for sin and he describes just how sinful Israel was what were some of the evil practices in Israel mentioned by the authors what was one of them worshiping Idols that’s right they um and they served Idols verse 12.
they feared other gods verse seven what else um made images I along the same lines of a worshiping Idols yes what else they do yeah they burn incest in an unauthorized way only the priests were to do that and in the temple and on a specific altar but they burned incense everywhere under on all the high places and they set up a number of worship sites they built high places everywhere they put Sacred pillars and ashram everywhere they were burning incense everywhere it just widespread idolatrous worship there and other things besides they walked in the customs of the Nations a number of times in the passage says they did as their neighbors did they looked to the nation they walked in the pattern of the nation they walked in the pattern of the evil Kings of Israel they didn’t depart from that I didn’t listen to God’s prophets they rejected God’s law they followed vanity and became vain they forsook all of God’s Commandments they made two golden calves for themselves they made ashra they worshiped all the hosts of Heaven they served Veil they sacrificed their children to false gods they practiced divination and enchantments they sold themselves to do evil provoking God I remember listening to a teacher one time say I can’t remember if this was from the Seminary course or from someone in a sermon but you’re saying that the Old Testament has a lot of different ways to describe sin a lot of different phrases that are not exactly the same but they give another image of what sin is and you see a number of those In this passage they forsook the commands they would not listen a lot to God’s law they ignored God it’s they were a people Rife with sin and so the Judgment Came Upon him a very great evil worship the host of Heaven what is meant by that just answering um quickly I believe that refers to the practice of looking at the heavens and believing the the bodies in the Heavens to be gods or to be representations of the gods they worship the sun god or they worshiped uh they worshiped the moon or they worshiped uh the stars as manifestations of the Gods certainly we see that in some other passages of scripture I think there’s one in Ezekiel maybe it’s Jeremiah where people in the temple and his vision are actually worshiping the Sun so that’s probably what’s meant there yeah Dwayne so uh it’s not just about uh worship it’s also looking looking at horoscopes you find horoscopes you stop doing it right there’s no wisdom right yeah thanks for missing that Twain so wish being the host of Heaven also involved astrology that is actually looking for wisdom or looking for divine guidance by observing observing the heavens observing the stars and certainly that was that’s something that’s still around today and it was certainly or it was also something around at that time so great great evil in Israel and these were God’s people but at this point this list of Israel’s sin should not surprise us because we’ve already been hearing the prophets denouncing Israel for doing these exact same things they’ve been warning Israel repent you’ve got to turn away from these things God’s judgment will come well they didn’t listen so God’s judgment came because of these things yeah really intermarrying with those decisions male worship abomination yeah that’s a great Point Roy just reminding ourselves how did Israel get to this point well we know that ultimately it came down to their hearts their hearts didn’t really love God they were uncircumcised and heart but they were already moving down this path early on when they intermarried with the Nations when they were not careful to destroy the Nations when they inherited the land destroy the the um idolatrous inhabitants as God commanded when they made alliances with the other nations when they intermarried the the Kings intermarried with the other nations even in the the passage right before this in Second Kings 16 you hear how the king of Judah ahaz that makes an alliance with Assyria and then he wants to impress the king of Assyria or maybe he’s just so impressed by the king of Assyria he brings in all these idolatrous practices into Judah it says I I like the altar I saw in Damascus that the king of Assyria made so let’s put that in in front of the temple and let’s move the other altar let’s put all our sacrifices on this new altar and let’s get rid of these other things that have been part of our worship so it’s exactly as you were saying Roy they were not careful to see where evil was going to come in and avoid it but the reason they were not careful is they they were uncircumcised in heart they didn’t really care to keep following after the Lord so it was inevitable that they were going to make these small compromises and keep moving down that path of idolatry so the as the prophets foretold God violently removed the ten and a half tribes of Israel by the hand of Assyria in 722 this was a judgment for sin by the way 722 or 721 two different dates given for some areas fall what does the as it is to this day indicate to us in verse 23 regarding Israel how permanent was this change that God brought about yeah really that’s right by the time that this book ends I know you can say that this phrase can sometimes be used not necessarily in in terms of the office Zone time but of the source that he’s citing but we go through the rest of kings and Israel’s not in the land anymore they never come back they they are judged by God or moved and that’s it as it is to this day Israel’s no longer in the land they’re still where Assyria dropped them off this was God’s judgment now the book of Kings could stop right here and just move back to Judah here’s what happened to the king of Israel but let’s go talk about Jude and see what happened to them but no the author wants his audience to see one more thing about the land and which Israel had formerly lived and that’s what the rest of the chapter talks about and that’s what we’re going to read next so look now at verse 24 and we’re going to read down to verse 41.
follow along with me the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon and from kutha and from Ava and from Hamas and sephor Vain and settled them in the cities of Samaria in place of the sons of Israel so they possessed Samaria and lived in its cities at the beginning of their living there they did not fear the lord therefore the Lord sent Lions among them which killed some of them so they spoke to the king of Assyria saying the Nations whom you have carried away in Exile in the cities of Samaria do not know the custom of the god of land so he has sent Lions among them and behold they kill them because they do not know the custom of the god of the land then the king of Assyria commanded saying take there one of the priests whom you carried away in Exile and let him go and live there and let him teach them the custom of the god of the Lamb so one of the priests whom they had carried away and Exile from Samaria came and lived at Bethel they taught them and taught them how they should fear the lord but every nation still made gods of its own and put them in the houses of the high places which the people of Samaria had made every nation in their cities in which they lived the men of Babylon made suck off benoth the men of kuth made nergal the men of moth made ashma and the avvites made nibhas and tartak and the sempervites burned their children in the fire to a dramalac and anomalac the gods of sephir vain they also feared the Lord and appointed from among themselves priests at the high places who acted for them in the houses of the high places they feared the Lord and served their own Gods according to the custom of the nations from among whom they had been carried away into exile to this day they do according to the earlier Customs they do not fear the lord nor do they follow their statutes or their ordinances or the law or the Commandments which the Lord commanded the sons of Jacob whom he named Israel with whom the Lord had made a covenant and commanded them saying you shall not fear other gods nor down yourselves to them nor serve them nor sacrifice to them but the Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm him you shall fear and to him you shall bow yourselves down into him you shall sacrifice the statutes and the ordinances and the law and the Commandment which he wrote for you you shall observe to do forever and you shall not fear other gods the Covenant that I have made with you you shall not forget nor shall you fear other gods but the Lord your God you shall fear and he will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies however they did not listen but they did according to their earlier Customs so while these nations feared the Lord they also served their Idols their children likewise and their grandchildren as their fathers did so they do to this day all right another big section but let’s observe after the Israelites were taken away how was the land repopulated yes Steve those others that they um that they conquered exactly so Assyria brought captives from other places where people from other places and move them into the land of Israel this was a serious common practice this was actually a technique that later Empires would imitate whenever you conquer people remove them from the land and disperse them in the other lands in your Empire and then repopulate the land with your own why do this you’re welcome yeah it’s a way to lessen or to eliminate Rebellion when people are gathered together there’s a greater chance that they will Rebel especially if they don’t like the ruling Empire and when people are on their own land they are zealous to control that land and defend that land but you remove them from the land you split them up now they’re not going to have as easy of a Time raising up and fighting against the or rising up and fighting against the power that is you move your own people into the land or people who don’t have this same kind of ties in the land and you can get the profit from the land without worrying about rebellion in the land so this is a Savvy move as an Empire by the way I want to share with you an Assyrian inscription that describes what we’ve just seen in our text this comes from the Nimrod prison of Sargon II so this is one of the Assyrian prisms Sargon with shamanese’s General it came to the throne in 722 BC perhaps before the siege of Samaria ended or maybe after the season he’s just claiming the credit for what the previous King had done but here’s what he writes and this gives us Comfort or this gives extra confirmation and a little bit more information about what the Bible tells us he says on the prison the inhabitants of Samaria who agreed and plotted with the King hostile to me not to do service and not to bring tribute to Asher and who did battle I fought against them with the power of the great Gods my Lord I counted as spoil 27 280 people together with their chariots and gods in which they trusted I formed a unit with 200 of their chariots from our Royal Force I settled the rest of them in the midst of Assyria I repopulated Samaria more than before I brought into a people from countries conquered by my hands I appointed my eunuch as Governor over them and I counted them as Assyrians very interesting especially this gives us some data or at least gives us a number for the captives taken by Syria twenty seven thousand in some ways that sounds like a lot in some ways that doesn’t sound like a lot only twenty seven thousand that that few coming from Israel now you could say well maybe that number’s not accurate that’s possible but if it wasn’t d27000 that means that many people in Israel did not survive the attacks by Syria where they fled into Judah because there were not many left to be taken captive but that’s exactly his name is prophesied right it will just be pieces of an ear and a couple of legs that the shepherd is able to take away from the lion that comes to consume the people who moved into Israel’s land did not fear Yahweh what did God do to these people in response he sent lines among them they attacked and they killed some of them these foreign settlers concluded that these lines were attacking because they prop they did not know how to properly serve the god of the land of course that Pagan understanding that various lands have particular Gods they’re saying the same thing about Yahweh and they asked the king of Assyria for help the king grabs an exiled priest from Israel sends them back into the land and he says teach the people the custom of the god of the land this priest sets up in Bethel what is significant about the city of Bethel Edwin right so this is this is not painting a good picture who this priest is what kind of priest He is we don’t get specific commentary on what kind of priesthood was but he sets up in Bethel and that’s a side of idolatry in Israel Bethlehem um about one other city were the sights of the golden calf Bethel was also significant in Israel’s history but in recent history it was the site of idolatry but that’s where this priest sets up and he teaches the people and what’s the result of his teaching say that again that’s right the people do start to serve God but along with all the other gods they serve Yahweh along with the gods that they already had and this is what we call syncretism this is where you take elements from one religion and you add them into another or you take one God and you just add them into your Pantheon they set up a syncretistic religion in Israel how long do the syncretistic religion last according to the author to this day and he says Generations went by their children did it their grandchildren did it they all served God and other gods at the same time and the author recalls to mind when describing these people in verses 35 to 39 the promises that God made to Israel regarding worshiping him versus worshiping other gods Exodus and Deuteronomy Don’t Fear the other gods fear me obeying me I will deliver you but the people the land even though they heard some of these same words they did not obey them how does the behavior of the new inhabitants of Israel compare to the behavior of the old inhabitants of Israel say that again yes basically the same though perhaps you could say maybe the second group was actually a little bit better because when the Lions came among them they actually cared to do something about it but Israel no matter what God did they just persisted perhaps we could say that they perhaps some of them really would have trusted and and served Yahweh but maybe they’re teaching that they got from this priest wasn’t that great and so they just went back into a syncretistic religion just like Israel did because Israel did the same right Israel was not someone who served the other gods with no attention Yahweh they just served Yahweh alongside the other gods but that’s of course not really serving Yahweh yeah Dwayne right so we’ll talk about that more in just a second but there’s a definite mixture that takes place in Samaria but looking now at the whole chapter let’s ask some more interpretive questions first one aspect of God’s character is most evident in this passage it’s Justice right his Holiness and Justice we saw this already in this prophecies but now we’re seeing it come to pass God is just God hates sin he is patient but he will judge sin and when he does it will be fierce and that’s what we see heaven Israel sin is a big deal to God yeah the reason why um so you see that that God loves the world right so even with what the lines as you were saying even as bringing the Lions into the land after the new people came in they weren’t paying any attention to God’s law and God made sure that they noticed that he um that he’s serious about Islam the book of Kings was probably written by a prophet in Exile to Israelites in Exile why would this chapter chapter 17 be significant to his audience Mr Wayne if it would show how they what happened iterations that would occur that never were in Israel foreign land right so as you point out a couple of things Dwayne we know that this book goes all the way into the Babylonian captivity of Judah so we’re not simply talking about the Exile brought about by Syria but actually the Babylonian exile because the kingdom of Babylon the Empire Babylon is actually going to overtake the Assyrian Empire and so those taken into captivity in Judah they’re going to be needing to know the same information the whole book of Kings really it’s an explanation of how what happened to Israel came to pass and how Israel ended up in Exile how Judah ended up in Exile and the clearest explanation the most direct explanation appears right here in this book it’s because they turned away from God it’s because they serve the idols because they paid no attention to God’s law in light of this and in light of the the way this book ends it actually ends with kind of a note of Hope where the king of Judah is brought out of imprisonment and brought to the king of babylon’s table this is the king in the line of David what is the expected response of the audience based on what they read in Kings you’re in Exile because your forefathers did not serve the Lord therefore yeah it’s the cost of people to turn back to God it’s the cost people to do all the things that Israel would not do pay attention to God’s law heed God’s prophets be careful not to serve any other gods and God will bless you he will even return you to the land you’ll be faithful to his covenants that which he declared to Israel through Moses that which he declared to David he would bring them back so serve God his judgment is serious against sin but he is a God who is faithful in all aspects not just his judgment on sin but also his promises of restoration so turn to the Lord are you gonna say boy you that did come back and could look at this later on because one of the things that this exercise forever cured them of idolatry ever again in the same way as we see it here in the Old Testament and so from that standpoint forever is this lesson forever yeah um you said a number of things um Roy I’ll just repeat some of them not certainly not all the people who go in Exile return and people commonly say that the 10 tribes or the 10 lost tribes and it’s only the tribe of Judah and Benjamin that returned but remember that God said that in his prophecies that all Israel would be restored and there were some like we said some that fled to Judah from these other tribes and there were some perhaps also some from these other tribes that were taken into Exile that would eventually also come back with the people of Judah but as a whole these other tribes these tribes from Israel yeah they don’t they don’t come back they don’t return to the lord they’re not restored to the land but it is interesting that after this Exile we don’t see the same movement toward idolatry in Israel now that doesn’t mean that they are circumcised in heart and start falling after the Lord totally because as we’ll see when we get to Ezra and Nehemiah um instantly these these men these righteous men have to keep exhorting the Israelites and rebuking them say what are you doing you’re engineering with the people again what are you doing these priests are not actually clean and they’re trying to do the Lord’s work in the temple and I mentioned it before but I think it’s a Nehemiah starts pulling out the hair of some of the people because he’s so frustrated so it’s not that Israel is going to totally be righteous but at least idolatry their their attitude towards idolatry obvious Idols is changed and that seems to fit with what we saw in Hosea right it says Israel is going to be for a time without King and without um uh household idols and without public worship and and so that’s what we see happening but they didn’t mean that they had returned it was just like an interim State and when they would one day fully return but that’s what we see happening another question we kind of touched on this a little bit before was the priest who returned into the land of Israel a true priest of Yahweh or an idolatrous priest promoting syncretistic worship we can’t say for sure but there are some reasons for us to think that this was not a good priest and Dwayne mentioned one of them or we’ve mentioned two of them he went to Bethel that’s not a good sign he’s from Israel that’s not a good thing because Israel was always it was problematic in its worship and its priests were not not true priests you’d think that there are any true priests in Israel they would have gone into Judah because you can’t serve the Lord as a priest outside of his Temple and the result we don’t see the people turn back to the Lord they just add Yahweh to their other gods so this is probably not a faithful priest not someone who’s Faithfully going to declare the law of the Lord why does the author take time to tell us about the new inhabitants of the land because this isn’t Israel so why tell us about them yeah boy and you see a picture of that in the Gospel of John chapter 4 when Jesus walked through right so perhaps the explanation is really to just explain what happened to the remnant of Israel that was left in the land that intermarried and they um they continued in the tradition that Israel had already started which was to have a syncretistic worship now let’s understand about the Samaritans and the New Testament that we know there’s a lot of hatred between the Samaritans and the Jews but it’s not simply based on their ethnicity it’s not like oh you’re impure because you you married with Gentiles because we’re going to see when we get to or when we get to the New Testament some things have taken place where Israel actually had a kingdom again and the inter-testamental period that maccabean Revolt resulted in a New Kingdom of Israel which actually conquered a lot of the original land including Southern Judah or which was called idumia where the Edom where Edom used to be or where the live and those people became Jews there’s like a mass conversion they said or we want you all to be circumcised and we want you all to follow the law as as we have it revealed and the people agreed and they were in a sense considered Jews that’s why having Herod as as the king in the beginning of the gospels was not so bad to the Jews because they considered him to be Jewish he was a doomian after all he gave tacit recognition of Yahweh but when they conquered Samaria and they asked the Samaritans to do the same thing they would not they said you are not going to force your religion on us you may conquer us but we are not going to do your religion and so that was a real source of hatred between the two peoples the political animosity and also the religious differences so we do see this is the origin of the Samaritans and perhaps that is why the author gives us this passage but perhaps there’s another reason why else might the author have put this here what do you mean also going to talk about a little bit more there are certainly am I bringing up the idea of just adding Yahweh into the other gods that that is a this is an example to not be followed even today we have to be aware of syncretism and we’ll talk about that more in just a second but it’s not as if this was the The First Time Israel was syncretistic because as I said this is what Israel had been doing the whole time I don’t know if I can come to a a final answer on why this passage is brought up but it is an explanation of where the Samaritans came from it is a way to tie off the narrative with Israel it is perhaps another emphasis of God’s power in delivering up Israel they Assyrians take over the land but then God sends lines among them he says that’s just like a little reminder don’t think that you can just do whatever you want and it doesn’t matter it was all by your power and your gods that you accomplished this look I’m gonna go send lines among you I’m going to remind you that I’m the one who has the power I could have sent these lines to drive you off I could have totally saved Israel and not allowed you to conquer the land but it was my purpose for this to happen so maybe there’s that emphasis or perhaps it’s to emphasize Israel’s wickedness mention that the pagans when the Lions came they actually reacted they said oh we need to get right with the god of the land Israel didn’t have that kind of reaction but also there’s a sad symmetry to Israel’s experience in Canaan the idol just people were exterminated and removed from the land and God gave the land of Canaan to Israel but now idolatrous Israel is exterminated and removed from the land and the land is given to another people and other people who also idolatrous so there’s perhaps a number of things going on there so even though ultimately we don’t hear of any further judgment on the new syncretistic inhabitants does that mean that God doesn’t really care that much about syncretism obviously not what is God’s attitude towards syncretistic worship it’s spiritual adultery it’s Abomination to him and say well you know you’re kind of there no he says that’s evil if you serve me alongside other gods you’re not serving me at all right Jesus said the same thing in the New Testament no man can serve two masters if you have another God alongside God and God is not your God he will not give his glory to another Bill brought up that we have the same issue of syncretism or serving God alongside other gods even today and let’s talk about the a couple of those things when we consider application with our last four minutes or so but first how can we relate God’s patience and bringing judgment to Israel to sharing the gospel with unrepentant people today yeah Steve you know I mean realistically I mean you look at adultery in the Old Testament it’s supposed to be taken care of by stoning and sexual immorality thinking the fact that God just doesn’t definitely the same patience that God has played with Israel he’s displaying to all people today and we commit some of the same sins or even worse sins than Israel who was judged but while God is patient what does this passage also show us that is part of the Gospel that we need to share that’s right patience doesn’t last forever God is long-suffering but he does have an end point his Holiness and Justice demands that eventually he will judge and there’s a judgment coming for all people today just as God was patient and bringing Israel’s judgment sending prophets and trials to warn them so God is patient today but his final judgment is simply on hold it’s not been um absolved one day Jesus Will judge the Earth and righteousness and this is exactly what Paul declared to the Athenians in Acts 17 therefore having Overlook the times of ignorance God is now declaring to mend that all people everywhere should repent because he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world and righteousness through a man whom he has appointed having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead so we need to call people to repentance for they are rebelling against God as well just as Israel did God has warned of his just judgment and it will come his patience is great but it will not last forever and we can point to Israel and say here’s an example of that his patience is great but it will run out for the world and for individuals God will say I’ve given you enough time now I demand your soul but of course we can proclaim the way of escape the way of covering Jesus Christ son of God ISM a blending of one religion or worldview I think we should have world view in there a problem for Christianity Today I’ve already answered that question yeah it is what are some examples of syncretism with Christianity say that again new wage new wage ideas not super familiar with those I can’t talk about that at length but I I know that that’s true what else Steve it’s like Oprah Jesus said he was the only way and yet over who claims and says well Jesus can’t be the only one he’s certainly a way maybe in one of the better ways but you know it’s it’s a it’s an assuming that all religions are equal yeah yeah the idea that Universalist idea or really a postmodernist idea that everyone everyone can have their own way or all right in the end that’s an idea of man that gets blended into Christianity really it’s not that much different from what the Samaritans did you’ve got your oh you’ve got Yahweh but you can have all the other gods too because we’ll all be fine in the end and we can point to a number of other things praying to Saints that’s just praying to God’s syncretized into Christianity venerating icons it’s just wish me Idols brought into Christianity various superstitions Works righteousness that is just um Pagan religion brought into Christianity placate the gods earn favor with the gods offer sacrifices to the gods and you’ll be fine mysticism and meditation from gnosticism and other Eastern religions find their way in Christianity materialism worshiping the god of wealth Finds Its way into Christianity and the Prosperity Gospel we could point to a number of other things easy beliefism seek any God that you want or if as long as you just pray a prayer for Jesus you can seek any God you want theological liberalism the idea that that science is the authority that man’s Wisdom is is the greatest bring that into Christianity oh yeah we can’t believe everything in the Bible but that’s okay it’s just the feeling that you get from the Bible lots of things just come into Christianity these ideas of man’s Wisdom or these ideas from other religions they find their way in Christianity and we need to be aware of them and I think particularly we need to be aware of the most prevailing ideas in our society which are going to be towards materialism towards science towards um inclusivity those are the things that are going to find most pressure against Christianity um I have one other thought regarding just because something comes from a false religion or is has a connection to something that is idolatrous does not make it automatically evil if you sell me celebrate Christmas that doesn’t mean you’re a pagan idolaterer if you sing A Hymn that was written by a Catholic that doesn’t mean you believe in work salvation so we need to recognize that but we also want to be careful against allowing syncretistic ideas to or practices to come into coming to our own lives last question in light of what God shows us about syncretism you gotta ask are you a syncretistic Whisperer do you worship God alongside other gods maybe not obviously Jews after the time in Exile they did not obviously worship other gods but they did and that’s why they rejected the Messiah when he came they they worship them themselves they worship wealth they worship the favor of men do you do that at the same time that you profess to worship God because God will not accept that worship we’re out of time we’ve seen how God raised up Assyria to judge Israel but if Syria was itself Wicked and God prophesied judgment against Assyria we’re going to see that next week with the prophet Mayhem let’s go some prayer God you were who are Mighty you are the holy judge you will judge all men you will not accept worship alongside something else and God we know how deceitful our hearts can be and we know that the evilness that is in the world and in our own flesh so please deliver us from syncretism please Deliver Us from thinking that we can serve you along sir alongside serving something else that is not possible that is not beautiful to you you hate that and you will judge it Deliver Us from Evil but thank you that you have revealed yourself to us you have called us out from the first generation I pray that you would use this as Witnesses and that you would redeem more people for yourself that they would be free from serving these vain Gods becoming vain like the people of Israel and they would be saved and get to enjoy you in Jesus name amen