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A QUICK AND EASY SURVEY OF HEBREW HISTORY

 The Fall of Israel

 2 Kings 17

 Introduction.  The northern kingdom of Israel had a long and troubled history after the division of the united monarchy.  From the moment Jeroboam son of Nebat led the ten tribes away from the House of David, idolatry and political instability were commonplace.  One king after another, we are told, did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and the prophetic warnings of Amos, Hosea, and many other prophets went largely unheeded.  By the time we get to 2 Kings 17, the end has come.  The fall of the capital of the northern kingdom, Samaria, happened in 722 BC and it wasn’t just a political or military disaster; it was the decisive judgment of God upon the people who had systematically rejected His covenant.

Hoshea – Israel’s last king.

Pressure from Assyria, 2 Kings 17:1 – 4.

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. [4] But the king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea was a traitor, for he had sent envoys to So king of Egypt, and he no longer paid tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. Therefore Shalmaneser seized him and put him in prison.  (2 Kings 17:1 – 4 | TNIV)

Hoshea, son of Elah, came to the throne in a kingdom already under the shadow of Assyria.  The northern kingdom had already been reduced to vassal status under previous rulers.  Tiglath-Pileser III had already carved significant territory and deported many Israelites.  Hoshea 9-year reign was the final chapter.

The text tells us that Hoshea “did evil in the eyes of the Lord, but not like the kings who preceded him.”  That’s pretty faint praise.  He was still an evil king, yet the historian seems to indicate that the open, state-sponsored excesses of earlier rulers such as King Ahab or the later kings of the Jehu dynasty were somewhat restrained.  Whatever the relative degree of wickedness, it made no difference in the end.  Judgment was already determined.

Assyria under Shalmaneser V (and later Sargon II) demanded regular tribute.  Hoshea had paid it for a time, but then he made a fatal political calculation.  He sent messengers to “So, the king of Egypt” (probably Osorkon IV) seeking an alliance that would free him from Assyrian domination.  The move was classic Near Eastern realpolitik:  Play one great power against another.  Well, it failed completely.  Egypt offered no effective help, and the Assyrian king discovered the conspiracy.  Hoshea was arrested and imprisoned.  The last king of Israel never returned to the throne.

This is a recurring pattern in Israel’s history.  Political maneuvering without repentance and trust in the Lord only hastens disaster.  Hoshea tried to secure the nation’s future through foreign alliances rather than through renewed covenant faithfulness.  The result was the opposite of what he intended.

The capital falls, 2 Kings 17:5, 6.

The king of Assyria invaded the entire land, marched against Samaria and laid siege to it for three years. [6] In 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 of the Medes.  (2 Kings 17:5, 6 | TNIV)

With King Hoshea in prison, the Assyrian army moved against the capital itself.  Samaria, the fortified hill city founded by King Omri, withstood a three-year siege.  The duration of the siege testifies both to the strength of the city’s defenses and to the determination of the Assyrians.  In the end, the city fell.

The Assyrian policy of deportation was systematic and brutal.  Large numbers of the surviving population were carried away to various parts of the empire – Halah, Gozon on the Habor River, and the towns of the Medes.  The goal was clear:  Break the national identity of conquered peoples by scattering them and resettling foreign populations in their place.  The northern kingdom of Israel ceased to exist as a political entity.  The 10 tribes as a coherent people disappear from history.

The fall of Samaria marks the end of a 200-year experiment in independent northern monarchy.  What began with rebellion against the House of David ended in exile and national extinction.

Why Israel Fell.

The historian doesn’t leave the reasons for the catastrophe to speculation.  He provides a detailed theological diagnosis.

The catalogue of sins, 2 Kings 17:7 – 12.

Israel’s root problem is stated plainly:  They sinned against the Lord their God, the One who had redeemed them from Egypt.  The Exodus is deliberately recalled.  Israel’s identity and obligation rested on that act of deliverance.  To abandon their Redeemer for other gods was covenant treason of the highest order.

The catalogue painfully comprehensive:  They adopted the religious practices of the Canaanite nations the Lord had driven out of the land before them.  They also followed the innovations of their own kings – especially the golden calves of the Jeroboam and the Baal worship introduced under King Ahab.  High places multiplied all over Israel.  Sacred stones and Asherah poles sprang up on every hill and under every green tree.  Incense was burned to foreign deities.  The people en mass did “wicked things that aroused the Lord’s anger.”

Notice the language:

The Israelites secretly did things against the Lord their God that were not right.  (2 Kings 17:9 | NIV)

Idolatry often begins in private compromise and then becomes public and institutionalized.  What starts as a hidden practice ends as a national way of life.

This catalogue is not merely a list of religious offenses.  It is a description of a people who had lost the fear of the Lord.  The first commandment – “You shall have no other gods before me” – had been systematically violated for generations.  The land that was to be holy to the Lord had been filled with rival altars.

Swept away, 2 Kings 17:13 – 18.

God’s patience is obvious.  He didn’t bring sudden destruction without warning.  Through “all his prophets and seers” God called the people to turn from their evil ways and return to the Law.  The prophetic ministry of the 8^th century BC – Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Micah, and others – stands as evidence of God’s long-suffering nature.

Yet the response was always hardness of heart.  The people simply “would not listen.”  They were “stiff-necked.”  They rejected the covenant, the statutes, and the warnings.  The result is described with devastating clarity:  The people followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless.  Those who pursue emptiness become empty.

The list of specific sins intensifies:  The golden calves of Jeroboam, the Asherah pole, worship of the starry hosts, Baal, child sacrifice, divination, and the deliberate selling of themselves to do evil.  None of this was minor deviations from God’s expectations.  Each sin was part of a comprehensive rejection of everything the Lord had commanded.

The people angered the Lord and as a result, He cast them out of His presence.  The language used is covenant language.  He couldn’t look at them; the people who broke His covenant.  The land was the place of God’s special dwelling with His people.  To be thrust out of the land was to be thrust out of the sphere of covenant blessing.  Only Judah was left, and even Judah was already infected with the same practices.

The fall of Israel was not an accident of history or the inevitable result of Assyrian military superiority.  It was the result of the righteous judgment of a holy God upon a people who had exhausted His patience.

Israel’s ongoing idolatry.

The story doesn’t end with the deportation of the Israelites.  The land itself becomes the stage for a new chapter of religious confusion.

Learning to live in the land, 2 Kings 17:24 – 28.

Assyria’s policy of population transfer brought a mixed group of people into the former territory of Israel.  These newcomers didn’t know the Lord, obviously.  When the lions began to attack them, they interpreted the disaster in typical Near Eastern fashion:  The local deity was angry because they didn’t know to worship properly.

The Assyrian king’s solution was pragmatic.  He ordered that one of the captive Israelite priests be sent back to teach the new settlers what the local god requires of them.  A priest from the northern kingdom, trained in the corrupt, compromised religion of Bethel and Dan, returned to instruct the foreigners in the so-called “worship of Yahweh.”

The result was a syncretistic mixture from the very beginning.  The newcomers learned something of the Lord, but they never abandoned their own gods.  The land that had been given to Abraham’s descendants as a place of exclusive devotion to the one true God now became a religious marketplace.

Halfway in is all the way out, 2 Kings 17:29 – 34.

The final picture is sobering.  Each group brought its own deities and set them up in the high places that Israel had already polluted.  The list of foreign gods is given in detail:  Sukkoth, Benoth, Nergal, Ashima, Nibhaz, Tartak, Adrammelek, and Anammelek.  Worst of the all, child sacrifice continued unabated.

They key statement appears twice so the reader doesn’t miss its importance:  “They worshipped the Lord, but they also served their own gods.”  This is the essence of syncretism.  It’s not open atheism or pure paganism.  It’s the attempt to combine the worship of the true God with loyalty to other gods or powers.

The historian’s verdict is clear and final:

To this day they persist in their former practices. They neither worship the Lord nor adhere to the decrees and regulations, the laws and commands that the Lord gave the descendants of Jacob, whom he named Israel.  (2 Kings 17:34 | TNIV)

In other words, partial worship is no true worship.  Halfway in is all the way out.  The God of Israel will not share His glory with rivals.

This mixed population in the former northern kingdom became the Samaritans of later history.  Their religion was a hybrid that the Jews of Judah rightly regarded as compromised.  When the remnant returned to Jerusalem from their Babylonian exile, the tension between the true faith and this syncretistic faith would surface again and again.

Conclusion.  The fall of Israel stands as a permanent warning in the Biblical narrative.  Several powerful truths come to the surface that are worth noting.

First, God’s patience is real, but not infinite.  Generation after generation of prophets called the northern kingdom to repentance.  The people refused to listen.  There comes a point when the Lord simply removes a people from His presence.  That point arrived for Israel in 722 BC.

Second, idolatry is never just a religious preference.  It is covenant betrayal.  Whether the idols are golden calves, Baal, the stars, or the modern equivalents of power, pleasure, security, and self, the result is always the same:  Those who follow worthless things become worthless themselves.

Third, political solutions without spiritual repentance solve nothing.  Hoshea’s appeal to Egypt couldn’t save a nation under divine judgment.  Military strength and diplomatic cleverness are useless when the fundamental problem is sin against a holy God.

Fourth, syncretism is deadly.  The resettled people worshipped the one true God, but they also remained loyal to and served their own gods.  Many in every age attempt the same arrangement.  They want the comfort and respectability of biblical faith while retaining loyalty to other masters.  Scripture declares that such halfway posture is no worship at all.

Finally, the fall of the northern kingdom highlights the faithfulness of God to His Word.  He had warned through Moses that persistent disobedience would end in exile (Deuteronomy 28).  He had spoken through the prophets.  When judgment came, it was exactly what He said it would be.  The same God who judged Israel is the God who later restored a remnant from Judah and who, in the fullness of time, sent His Son to redeem a people from every nation.

The story of Israel’s fall is tragic, but it isn’t the end of the story.  The God who removed the northern tribes from His presence is also the God who, in Christ, brings near those who were afar off.  The call that went unheeded in Samaria still goes out today:  “Turn from your evil ways.  Observe my commands and decrees.”  Those who hear and obey find life.  Those who don’t will discover that the patience of God, though long, has an end.