Israel’s Sins & God’s Judgment in Exile

Transcript

GRS 2-112
5/25/2008
Israel’s Sins and God’s Judgment in Exile
2 Kings 17
Gil Rugh

We are at Second Kings 17. Remember the perspective from which the Books of the Kings had been written. They were written during the time of the Babylonian captivity, about 50 years into the Babylonian captivity. They are not only recording the history of Israel but showing why the nation Israel has gone into captivity. The northern kingdom into captivity in 722 B.C, we will talk about it in Chapter 17 of Second Kings. The southern kingdom will go into captivity at the end of Second Kings that will be 586. Then 50 years into that Babylonian captivity this was written. So those Jews sitting in the Babylonian captivity basically have explained to them why God hasn’t failed. This is God’s judgment on the nation for their rejection of him.

Second Kings Chapter 17, probably the most important Chapter in history of the kings. It begins by recording a brief history of Hoshea the last king of the northern ten tribes, the first six verses. Then it is followed by a lengthy presentation of why it was necessary for Israel and later Judah to go into captivity that will go from Chapter 17 verse 7 down through verse 23. Now remember Kings is focusing on the northern kingdom but even in Chapter 17 is to record the captivity of the northern ten tribes there will be a couple of statements inserted reminding us that Judah was doing the same things. So they are on the same road to punishment and judgment as the northern kingdom is about to experience.

The last part of the Chapter verses 24 to 41 tell of the situation in the region of the northern ten tribes as a result of the Assyrian captivity where the Jews are deported out of the land and foreigners, gentile peoples are imported into the land. Now you have a mixture that will have ongoing ramifications and implications. The last king of Israel number 20 on your list if you have your list of Israel’s kings is Hoshea 732 to 722 B.C. The Chapter opens up in the twelfth years of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah became king over Israel in Samaria and he reigned nine years. He did evil in the sight of the Lord only not as the kings of Israel who were before him.

He was a wicked king, but not to the same degree of wickedness as some of his predecessors. It may be he did not involve himself in the calf worship at Bethel and Dan that had plagued the northern kingdom because it is not mentioned here that he continued in the sins of Jeroboam. But don’t take from that that he is a godly king in anyway. He is an evil king, but just not as evil as some of those who had ruled in Israel.

Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against him and Hoshea became his servant and paid him tribute. Remember Hoshea had come to power as a result of a pro-Assyrian coup, palace coup if you will, where the anti-Assyrian king Pekah had been deposed back in Chapter 15. Verse 29, in the days of Pekah king of Israel Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came and captured, and it goes through the cities that he captured. Then verse 30, and Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah and struck him and put him to death and became king in his place.

So part of the Assyrian involvement in this part of the world, there were those who did not support Pekah’s anti-Assyrian stance so he is overthrown, killed and Hoshea who is pro-Assyrian, and as we talked about, that keeps the Assyrian pressure off a little bit because he becomes a willing vassal of the Assyrians. Someone they can trust who will pay them tribute and so on. So that’s the setting as we are in Chapter 17 now.

Shalmaneser was the son of Tiglath-pileser the third and he has succeeded his father as king of Assyria, he will rather briefly 727 to 722. So the kingdom will fall in 722 and it is not clear who gets the credit among the Assyrian kings because the successor of Shalmaneser who is mentioned here takes the credit for the conquering of the southern kingdom and you can read in the annals of the Assyrian kings and the annals of Sargon that he takes credit but there is some question about that among historians. They think really Shalmaneser may have been the one who ought to take the credit because the Assyrians of course the king is writing for their glory. They think that it might have been Shalmaneser. It doesn’t make any difference to us which one did.

But right around the time of the fall there is going to be a change in kings in Assyria as well. We are told at the end of verse 3 Hoshea became his servant and paid tribute. So that’s the setting. The Assyrians are the dominant power. They are the dominant power at this time in this part of the world. But the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea who had sent messengers to 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. Hoshea evidently thought that there was an opportunity here in alliance with Egypt and other lesser powers that they might stand against the Assyrians and the Assyrians are rather far off as well as where their capital is.

And so you know when they have withdrawn and they leave soldiers in the region, it seems like why should we continue to pay this heavy tribute and impoverished ourselves by taking all our resources and sending them off to Assyria. So you have this alliance formed against Assyria but it wouldn’t stand because with that rebellion Shalmaneser comes back. The end of this is that it takes a three-year siege against Samaria. Samaria was a well fortified city and so the Assyrians just laid siege to the city.

Basically you surround it; you cut it off from anything coming in, anything going in. You starve them into submission. At the same time you are using whatever weapons of war you have in laying siege to make those in the city that much more miserable. You can rain arrows down in the city. You can catapult stones into the city. You can do certain things that make life there unbearable till you have finally perhaps found a way to break into the wall you get somebody who comes over to your side, those kinds of things that went on in those days. In 722 Shalmaneser died which I referred to. His brother Sargon II becomes his successor. As I mentioned, he in his annals takes credit though he is a Shalmaneser or his brother who succeeded him Sargon II who brought an end to the northern ten tribes.

So we are told in verse 6, in the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried Israel away into exile to Assyria, settled them in and it tells the city where they are settled. It was the Assyrian practice when they conquered an area to deport significant numbers of people out of the land particularly important people, people of power and influence. It didn’t mean every person was, they could leave the poor and those kind of people in the land there but there were a significant number removed from the land, taken to other parts of their empire and resettled. They would bring people who had been conquered in other areas and resettled them in this region.

That kept down the possibility of rebellion because now these are people who don’t have any connection to this land. They are new here. So they are just getting adjusted so there is much less chance of more rebellion because the Assyrians have an extensive kingdom now to oversee. This can’t be constantly coming back like they had to come back here. Now they had if you will the northern kingdom all ready under their authority receiving tribute from them. But now you have rebellion. That means the king of Assyria has to bring his armies over here. Well, how many times you do that and how many places do you go. So you just deport the significant people out of the land, bring people from other parts of your empire and settle it there and that way you keep the peace if you will in your empire.

Rather a simple verse 6, that’s it. The northern ten tribes have gone into exile. That’s why they are sometimes referred to as the ten lost tribes because they are carried away into, they are not only conquered but now by and large they are carried away into other places and there is not a formal return to the land of these ten tribes. It doesn’t mean that there weren’t people from the ten tribes who ultimately made their way back to the land of Israel. But there is no formal return like there will be after the Babylonian captivity when you have some of the Jews returning to Jerusalem, the southern kingdom.

Now obviously the ten tribes aren’t lost to God. Sometimes you hear people say well you couldn’t have Israel restored in the way that Bible talks about because nobody knows who the ten tribes are. I used to keep the records but with the burning of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and so on all of those records were lost and so the Jews don’t know which tribe they belong to. They don’t have to, one person does, that's God. So we find in The Book of Revelation when you get into the seven-year tribulation there will be 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes preserved by God through the tribulation. He hasn’t lost track of anybody and knows their ancestry and so on.

The date here is 722 B.C. Really all of the history of the Kings, First Kings and Second Kings have been building to this point which will be followed by the captivity of the southern kingdom. This is somewhat of a climatic point because now it is just a matter of time until the southern kingdom goes the same way. So now you have beginning with verse 7 the reasons for Israel’s exile and this gives you the theological explanation for the fall and exile of the northern kingdom. And the summary of it is in it verse 7. Now this came about because the sons of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God. As I mentioned we will just be reading through this you will note also Judah brought into this we are reminded they are doing the same things. Even though we are talking about the reasons the northern king is going into exile we are reminded the southern kings are doing the same thing. They are just not as far along. They are not right for judgment. Not just yet.

But this chapter in that sense is climactic. The northern kingdom is gone and from what we are told the southern kingdom is doing the same thing you know that the handwriting is on the wall. We will take from Daniel. These are people in covenant relationship with God. They violated the covenant of their God. They provoked him to anger. And so one writer listed 20 reasons so I will use his guideline of 20. We are just going through the verses it won’t follow the verses by count so don’t get confused but your note repeat but I thought it was helpful to see these individually set out.

Number one they were guilty of spiritual forgetfulness and ingratitude. 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 the hand of Pharaoh King of Egypt. They forgot but he takes them back to their beginning as a nation. Remember when they went down into Egypt they were just a family of 70 people. 400 hundred years later when they come out of Egypt they are a great nation numbering millions. So that’s where we go back to as they forgot that God redeemed them out of Egypt and thus brought them to the land. So they were guilty of spiritual forgetfulness and ingratitude.

They feared other gods secondly, still at the end of verse 7. They feared other gods which is another way of saying they worshipped other gods, that reverential fear, respect to worship given to other gods. Thirdly, they adopted the custom of the pagan Canaanites. Verse 8, they walked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord had driven out before the sons of Israel. The customs of the kings of Israel which they had introduced, the very thing that God had warned them about. We won’t take time to turn to these verses. Just listen, Leviticus Chapter 20 verse 23, God telling Israel before they ever went into the land. Moreover you shall not follow the customs of the nation which I shall drive out before you for they did all these things and therefore I have abhorred them.

Deuteronomy 18 verse 9, when you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations. All 20 kings of the northern ten tribes were wicked men and the nation followed them in their wickedness. So they adopt the practices of those that God warned them. Don’t you adopt their practices? A fourth thing they did, verse 9, they tried to keep their wrongdoings secret. The sons of Israel did things secretly which were not right against the Lord their God.

It seems the point here in light of what is going to be elaborated through the rest of the chapter is it was an attempt to disguise their idolatry by pretending to worship God. They have this thin veneer as we have seen of worshiping God and thinks that that sort of hides their idolatry. Remember the northern ten tribes never totally just reject God openly. Then you find this mixture going on. That seems to be idea and they did secretly these things which were not right against the Lord their God. They are cheating on him if you will.

A fifth thing they did they covered the land with high places, still in verse 9. Moreover they build for themselves high places in all their towns from watchtower to fortified city, everywhere. Remember that repeated expressions we have the high places were not taken away. They multiplied them. High places being centers of pagan worship because remember the only place the God of Israel could be worship was at his temple in Jerusalem. But they multiplied these places of worship but they also mixed that by claiming to be worshipping the God of Israel and so that ties to what they were doing secretly. They cover the land with high places.

A sixth thing they did they set up idolatrous pillars and wooden images everywhere. In verse 10, they set up for themselves sacred pillars Asherah on every high hill, under every green tree. I mean it wasn’t the high places, every place. As you travel in some foreign lands and you know where you go they got these little shrines and altar. People can stop at and worship along the road. We had travelled in some places and you stop at these places because the tour guide wants to show this is a place where they have set up for worship and this is what they are doing and it just, that is what is really done. Wherever you travelled in the land you could stop here and there and everywhere to worship the gods, small ‘g’ plural of the land instead of the God of Israel.

A seventh thing they did they burnt incense on the high places. In this, verse 11, they burned incense on all the high places as the nation did which the Lord had carried away in exile before them they did evil things provoking the Lord. And you note there is overlap in this. It is like he comes, he already told you about the high places. They built high places in verse 9. Now we are back and he tells you in verse 11 they burnt incense in all the high places. It is like God comes back and builds on what he is saying. You understand the awfulness of all of these. And what they were doing in this at the end of verse 11, they did evil things provoking the Lord.

I have a list of the places in the Kings that this expression is used that they provoked the Lord and I went back through those again re-reading them this afternoon. When I don’t have time to go back through that this you could trace them down the cross references in your Bible. Repeatedly in First Kings and Second Kings we are told they are provoking the Lord to anger, they are provoking the Lord to anger, they are provoking the Lord to anger. You know it’s like your kids, you may tell them don’t provoke me. They came back and do it, you say don’t provoke me. You are going to provoke me and they think they are getting away with it because nothing happened that time but it is Israel is building up judgment.

They haven’t escaped it because it says they provoked the Lord to anger but it doesn’t seem anything happened. So I guess they got by with that one, no; it is added to the account and it is added to the account and it is added to the account and it is added to the account. Now comes judgment. But this expression provoking the Lord to anger has been used numerous times and will be used yet a number of times through the rest of Second Kings because Judah will continue to do that till their account is full and they are prepared for judgment. They served idols and ate things they did which just builds on it.

Verse 12, they served idols and this is the very thing the Lord told them not to do. Now the repetition that God has reasons for unfolding it this way. He is building his case here to show how terrible their sin is. He says in summarize and say they serve other gods. He could have said in that one statement. But you see he is breaking it down. He has kept track of everything and even within things they not only build high places everywhere then they went and offered incense on those high places. They just multiplied their sin.

Then they are serving idols verse 12, and we are reminded he told them don’t do that. Then he was gracious he sent the prophets the ninth thing of their sin. They wouldn’t listen to the prophets when he sent them. Verse 13, yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah. See now Judah is included in this. We are talking about Israel but we are reminded Judah’s guilt is building in this as well. 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 which I sent to you through my servants the prophets. However they would not listen.

Both kingdoms were warned again and again by God’s prophets. He tried to call them back but to no avail. That expression my servants, the prophets at the end of verse 13 first used in Amos Chapter 3 verse 7, the prophet Amos. It is used one, two, three, four times in Second Kings. It is used numerous times by Jeremiah. Calling these prophets my servants a reminder they are acting on my behalf. They are representing me. They are bringing my message. In rejecting the prophets and the message of the prophets they are rejecting the God whom the prophets represent. It is not the prophet’s word, its God’s word through the prophets. My servants the prophets.

They wouldn’t listen. How gracious God has been. Through Israel’s history try to call them back to warn them but Israel would not listen. They became stiff-necked and rebellious a tenth thing. Verse 14, however they did not listen but stiffen their neck like their fathers who did not believe in the Lord their God. Sad state of affairs stiff necked and rebellious. They acted like their fathers, their ancestors. They rejected God’s statutes and covenant warning that eleventh thing.

In verse 15, they rejected his statutes his covenant which he made with their fathers his warnings which he had warned them. They became vain, empty, worthless went after the nation which surrounded them concerning which the Lord had commanded them not to do. They followed after worthless idols. They became worthless to God. You know as the people rejected God and followed the worthless idols they end up empty and worthless. It reminds you Romans 1, that’s always the pattern. They became feudal and empty in their reasoning, Romans 1 tells us.

As they rejected God they suppress the truth and righteousness. They worship the creation not the creator. What’s their condition? They became empty, feudal same thing always happens as a result of rejecting God and worshipping others. They forsake all his commandments the thirteenth thing in verse 6, they forsake all the commandments of the Lord their God. A fourteen thing they made two calves for worship. They made for themselves molten images, even two calves. Remember that was the very first king. First Kings 12 Jeroboam established the calf worship in Bethel and the southern part of the northern kingdom and at Dan in the northern part of the northern ten tribes.

The fifteenth thing they made an Asherah, worship the sun, moon, and stars in verse 16. They served Baal. Verse 17 and the seventeenth thing in my list they burnt their children in sacrifices. I mean you think there is no stopping. You know that proverbial slippery slope. I mean it is going to the point they are so serious about their paganism now their false worship they are even willing to take their own children, their own flesh and blood and make them human sacrifices to these gods which are not gods.

Think of how repulsive that is to God. You take this child and you offer it as a burnt offering to a piece of wood, to a piece of stone. You are talking about a heart so hardened and so callous. No wonder God says they became worthless to him. An eighteenth thing they did is they practiced divination and enchantments in verse 17. The nineteenth thing they did they sold themselves to do evil. Sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord provoking him. To conclude on that note as we said has been repeated they provoked the Lord.

So the Lord was angry with Israel, removed them from his sight. None was left except the tribe of Judah. So the northern ten tribes are swept away. So you see you have that list starting in verse 7 and coming down culminating in verse 18 and you have to say they deserved it. Now the southern kingdom Judah is sitting in the Babylonian captivity as they are now hearing this message. As they get to this point they might say yes they deserved it. Then you read verse 19, also Judah did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God but walked in the customs which Israel had introduced.

Now that prepared Judah. You know you hear that and you say what choice that God have. They wouldn’t turn. Remember he sent my servants the prophets to call them back, they wouldn’t turn, they kept getting worse and worse. And then you are told, and also Judah did not keep not his commandments but walked in the custom which Israel had introduced. They followed the pattern of Israel. They are just behind them. They are learning evil ways from their northern brethren. So they are picking up the pattern of the northern ten tribes and no wonder they are going to end up in the same kind of judgment.

The Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel. Israel here refers to Jacob and the twelve sons of Jacob comprised the 12 tribes because it ends up in all of these, all 12 tribes will come under judgment. So the Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel, the descendants of Jacob whose name was changed to Israel here. He afflicted them, gave them into the hand of the plunderers until he had cast them out of his sight. Obviously that is not the last word and we have the prophets speaking to this. And coming prophets like Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Isaiah, Zachariah about there will be a coming restoration but this time of rejection is God’s judgment on the nation.

When he had torn Israel from the house of David they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king, verse 21, then Jeroboam drove Israel away from following the Lord and made them commit a great sin. He established calf worship for the northern ten tribes. The sons of Israel walked on all the sins of Jeroboam which he did and 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 land to Assyria until this day. So when this was written 50 years into the Babylonian captivity, the northern 10 tribes had never come back from their time of captivity.

All right you pick up with verse 24, and the rest of the chapter tells you the result of the resettlement process of the Assyrians for the Jews a devastating impact. And in one sense the ten lost tribes humanly speaking does describe them. God’s judgment on them was devastating. What happens is with Israel being carried to foreign lands the northern ten tribes and foreign peoples being imported into the land that had belonged to the northern tribes you have a mixture occurring and a corrupting mixture of worship and then ultimately marriage and out of this comes the Samaritans of the New Testament. Remember the Jews and the Samaritans had no dealings.

Jesus’ visit with the Samaritan woman at the well at John 4 and she couldn’t understand why he as a Jew would talk her a Samaritan. Where does the Samaritans come from? These foreign peoples, non-Jews, that had been imported into Samaria and the surrounding region over time ended up intermarrying with the Jews that had been left in the land. The Samaritans are these mixed blood. Jews who had married these foreign people they become outcasts because the Jews could not accept such a corruption, such intermarrying. And with that came the corruption of worship as well.

So that’s what we told here verse 24 in the following. The king of Assyria brought me from Babylon and these other regions and settled them in Samaria in the cities of Israel. We are told in verse 25, at the beginning of their living there they did not fear the Lord. These new people come in, they don’t have any knowledge of the Lord, they don’t have any recognition of the Lord, therefore the Lord sent lions among them which killed some of them. They spoke to the king of Assyria saying the nations whom you have carried away into exile into the cities of Samaria don’t know the custom of the God of the land.

So he sent lions among them and behold they killed them because they do not know the custom of the God of the land. They don’t know the God of Israel but their superstition, every land, every area, every nation has their own God. So we have offended the God of Israel because we have come into his territory. You know their gods are territorial in that sense and the God of Israel is, this is his land for his people. So we need to know what to do to placate him. So the king of Assyria commanded, verse 27, take there one of the priests whom you have carried away into exile. Let him go and live there. Let him teach them the custom of the God of the land. King of Assyria doesn’t care about the God of Israel. He just cares about having an empire that is prosperous, that is successful, that is at peace.

So send one of those priests that you have taken into captivity back into the land. So you can see how completely the land has been depleted of anybody of importance and influence. Those who are priestly class they are gone but we will send one back. So verse 28, one of the priests whom they had carried away into exile from Samaria came and lived at Bethel and taught them how they should fear the Lord. You may say well isn’t this a strange mixture. Does that mean God stops the lions? Evidently, we don’t hear anymore about the lions. But why would he do that? That is to encourage misunderstanding.

You see what God has done. He has brought a light back into the land. Yet you are going to have all this pagan worship. It doesn’t matter. The judgment on Israel is the presence of these pagans. But with that God is not willing to leave himself without a light in the land. There is a priest that tells people about the true and living God. They wouldn’t listen. They wouldn’t pay attention. Jew and gentile alike will just use that to corrupt but the fact is no one will say there is not a light in the midst of this darkness here. So it’s an act of God’s grace to provide for a priest to come back and teach them about the worship of the God of Israel.

However, you note the next verse, but every nation still makes gods of its own. So here what you have now is this mixture, this compromised religion, this syncretism of well we will take the worship of the god of this land and mix it with the gods that we worship in our land and so every nation still makes gods of its own. They just added the God of Israel to their grouping if you will. They tell you some of these gods. They burned their children in the fire in verse 31. We are told in verse 32, they also feared the Lord. And then the next statement, and appointed from among themselves priests of the high places.

Verse 33, they feared the Lord and served their own gods according to the custom of the nations from 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 to their ordinances, their law, their commandments with the Lord. God commanded the sons of Jacob who he named Israel. So remember back in verse 20, the Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel. Then we talked about all the descendents of Jacob through the 12 sons of Jacob the 12 tribes down here and it refers to what he commanded the sons of Jacob whom he named Israel with whom the Lord made a covenant and commanded them saying you now shall not fear other gods nor bow 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 with an outstretched arm, him you shall fear, to him you shall bow yourselves down, to him you shall sacrifice, the statutes, the ordinances, the law, the commandments which he wrote to you, you shall observe and do forever.

You shall not fear other gods. The covenant that I have made you shall not forget. You shall never show fear other gods but the Lord your God you shall fear. He shall deliver you from the hand of your enemies. However they did not listen. They did according to their earlier customs. So while these nations fear the Lord they also serve their idols, their children likewise, their grandchildren, their fathers. So you have the Samaritan religion if you will. When you hit the New Testament you have this mixture of Samaritans, they worship and their religion was an amalgamation of Jewish worship and worship that had been brought in from other places. Now the longer it goes on the more it just mingles together into a single worship system with their own center of worship.

The northern kingdom is over. The amazing thing is not that God had to bring judgment on them; the amazing thing is that God delayed judgment so long when you read what was going on. And even under judgment they don’t change. They joined in, mixing in the religions that of the people who had been moved into their land with the worship of Jehovah. They haven’t learnt a thing. When sin blinds you it blinds you completely, the foolish of it.

All right let me just make a few observations with you on things that come out this and we wrap it up. First, there is no greater tragedy than turning from the redeeming God to the ways of the world, verse 7. This came about because the sons of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God. Think about it. What more awful thing is there than for the people that God has called to himself to turn from their God? Sad, tragic and is there people who have the word of God who know the word of God who have been taught the word of God and yet they have continued in their unbelief.

Secondly, beware of secretly corrupting the worship of the living God. Verse 9, the sons of Israel did things secretly which were not right against the Lord their God. In other words, they thought that they could cover up what they were really doing by keeping a veneer of the worship of Jehovah going. You know we say we wouldn’t do that but often is the church corrupted by we bring in practices of the world, the teaching of the world. Oh we are not denying the Lord, no, no, no. We just want a more effective ministry for him. And we think what are we doing, something secret?

I mean you know God has told us what to do but we think that like our children. You know, they think they are covering something up and you see through it. But they are going through this like you know they have got some big secret done here because they are acting like they are doing what you wanted them to, but they are not doing it. And you see right through, you know it. They are only fooling themselves. Do you think there are any secrets from God? I mean he searches the heart. He tries the motives. There is nothing hidden. Remember we think well as long as we are doing you know we have church we sing the songs. We at least refer to Scripture but we bring in these other things. We have corrupted the worship of God.

Comprised worship only deteriorates and becomes more corrupt. Verses 9 to 12 emphasized that as you develop this it just gets worse and worse. So understand what happened to Israel happened to the church. We talked about how liberalism entered the church because we can look in history and see how it started with you know move and then this move and then this move. But we think it wouldn’t happen to us but once you depart from faithfulness to the word in the little things you will eventually end up unfaithful in the big things. There is no other way to go.

A fourth observation, we shouldn’t expect great response to a correcting message. Down in verse 13, the Lord warned Israel and Judah through all their prophets. Verse 14, however they didn’t listen. We need to be careful. We somehow get the idea that well if we do it in the proper way, we handle it properly, we are not overly offensive article in the weekend paper, people are going to have a ministry. They are going to helping people. But they wouldn’t bring up Jesus unless they bring it up. What does that mean? I am never going to witness for Christ unless somebody comes up and asks me would you tell me how to get to heaven please. Would you mind telling me a little more Jesus? They don’t even know they need to know about.

You know turn over to Matthew 5 verse 10, “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heave. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kind of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad for your reward in heaven great for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” We don’t want to develop a martyr’s complex. We don’t try to irritate people so they will persecute so we can bask in our godliness but at the same token the prophets were faithful with the word that did not make them popular. That’s what Jesus is saying. When you are faithful with my, when you are faithful to me you wouldn’t be popular.

This idea that the church can do something to be popular, we can’t even be popular with the professing people of God. You understand the prophets were ministering to Israel, northern and southern kingdom. But they were persecuted for it. We are not just talking about ministry to unbelievers out there. We are talking about ministry that goes on within and among the people of God. The more they turn from the word of God the more offended they are by the word of God. We need to be careful that we stay true to the word.

Back in Kings verses 15 to 17 of Chapter 17 reminds you that people become more hardened when they reject the word of God. Verse 15, they rejected his statutes and his covenants, his warnings so they became vain and they forsake his commandments and then they become even more corrupt, their worship becomes more corrupt, they end up sacrificing their own child in the fire. You know the word of God is a savior of life to life and death to death, Second Corinthians 2 says. And it is a terrible thing to reject the word of God because the word of God rejected result in your heart becoming more hardened to the word of God and more hardened to the word of God. It is a terrible state to be in. That’s why even as believers we need to be careful to maintain a heart that is soft and open to the word and when the word convicts our hearts instead of steeling ourselves against the word we need to submit ourselves quickly to the word because the word of God either softens or hardens, and that what happened to Israel.

We are to learn from Israel’s history. Verse 19, also Judah did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God but walked in the customs of Israel. We are to learn from those who went before. Lessons to be learnt. Verses 29 to 41, comprised syncretism are relentless enemies, greatest enemy of the church of Jesus Christ today is compromised to allow things in that are not biblical. Well, are they totally completely that bad, I can’t tell you how many times people had said to me. Are those things really that bad? They are not biblical so they are that bad for the church. When you start out with big compromises you know you start out with little compromises. And the little compromise, the little compromise, pretty soon we are compromising on big things. That’s the greatest danger was the corrupting influence in Israel.

Note they never totally abandoned Jehovah. They feared the Lord and appointed among themselves priests of the high places, verse 32. Verse 33, they feared the Lord and served their own gods. Verse 41, so as these nations feared the Lord, they also serve their idols. You understand right up to the end they never totally said we would have nothing to do with the God of Israel. He is our God. He is just not everything to us. That’s the danger and even under judgment they are blind to what is happening. Tragedy in this, it impacts the next generation and the next generation. Verse 41, their children likewise and their grandchildren as their fathers did so they do to this day. It is just passed on. We have established the pattern.

The song we have sung on occasion here. O may those who come behind us find us faithful. We can’t guarantee the salvation of the next generation but we can do everything we can to establish a pattern of godliness, a testimony of truth for that coming generation modeling that which the next generation should follow, the tragedy is these people became blinded by their sin and set up a pattern for the next generation that the next generation followed and the next generation followed. And it just led further and further away from the Lord.

Turn to Romans Chapter 15, a couple of passages in the New Testament. We don't want to be like Judah who saw what was happening to Israel and just followed the same pattern. Now we have the testimony not only of the northern ten tribes, we have the testimony of the southern tribe and we have thousands of years of history we don't want to be blind to that. Romans Chapter 15 verse 4, “For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scripture we might have learnt the lessons from what was written earlier.”

Turn over to First Corinthians Chapter 10 just after Romans verse 11, talking about what happened to Israel in the Old Testament, “Now these things happen to them as an example. They were written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the ages have come therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.” One more verse and we are done. Second Corinthians Chapter 6 verse 14, “Do not be bound together with unbelievers for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness or what fellowship has light with darkness or what harmony has Christ with Belial or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever or what agreement has the temple of God with idols for we are the temple of the living God just as God said I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God and they shall be my people. Therefore come out from their midst and be separate says the Lord and do not touch what is unclean and I will welcome you and I will be a father to you and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty. Therefore having these promises beloved let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and Spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”

You see God’s standard, God’s call to his people is the same, Old Testament, New Testament. When he is your God he demands complete allegiance, complete devotion, complete separation; we have been talking about the biblical doctrine of sanctification. In the study of Romans 6 to 8, that’s what we are talking about separation, come out from among them. Touch not the unclean thing. We are going to learn from Israel. We have a great God. He promises his protection, his care, why would we go anywhere else? Why would we seek counsel and advice from the world? Why should we seek the wisdom of the world when we have Christ who is the wisdom of God to be our wisdom?

Let’s pray together. Thank you Lord for your grace. Your grace has bestowed on the nation Israel. The Lord in judgment there is even grace. As you have preserved that nation even as they have lived under judgment for so long. Now you brought them back to the land of Israel in preparation for the final time of judgment which will indeed bring them to their knees. How tragic to read the history of the people that you called for yourself, a history of rebellion, of stubbornness, of hardness of heart continually rejecting your gracious invitation to return. Lord we may take the lessons to heart. You are a great and gracious God. You have loved us. You have redeemed us. You have called us to yourself. May we find our delight in obedience to you and walking faithfully with you. Not be allured and called aside by the enticements of the world and thinking there is something else, something more to be offered than the delights and the sufficiencies we find in our God and savior. Thank you for your gracious work in our lives. May our walk this week testify that we are a people faithful to the God who is at work in our lives. We pray in Christ’s name, amen.