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Day 183: Israel Falls the Assyria
2 Kings 17
Chapter 17: The Fall of the Northern Kingdom and the Origin of the Samaritans
Remember Yahweh your God; he was the one who gave you the strength to act effectively like this, thus keeping then, as today, the covenant which he swore to your ancestors. Be sure: if you forget Yahweh your God, if you follow other gods, if you serve them and bow down to them, I testify to you today, you will perish. Like the nations Yahweh is to destroy before you, so you yourselves will perish, for not having listened to the voice of Yahweh your God."
Deuteronomy 8:18-20
2 Kings 17:1-4 ~ The reign of Hoshea in Israel
Sais was the residence of Pharaoh Tefnakht in the Delta region of Egypt. Hoshea had apparently made an alliance with the Egyptians against the Assyrians and was captured as he either attempted to march against King Shalmaneser of Assyria or as he tried to flee Samaria for Egypt. The imprisonment of King Hoshea by the Assyrians took place at the beginning of the siege of Samaria and was the end of Hoshea's reign.
The Fall of the Northern Kingdom
Listen, Israelites, to this prophecy which Yahweh pronounces against you, against the whole family which I brought up from Egypt: You alone have I intimately known of all the families of earth, that is why I shall punish you for all your wrong-doings ... From the palace roofs of Assyria and from the palace roofs of Egypt, proclaim aloud, "Assemble on the hills of Samaria and observe the grave disorders inside her and the acts of oppression there!" Little they know of right conduct, declares Yahweh, who cram their places with violence and extortion. This is why, Lord Yahweh says this, an enemy will soon besiege the land, he will bring down your strength and your palaces will be looted.
Isaiah 3:1-2, 9-11
2 Kings 17:5-6 ~ The fall of Samaria and the end of the Northern Kingdom
King Shalmaneser V (726-722), the successor of Tiglath-Pileser III, laid siege to Samaria in 724 but the city held out against the siege until the beginning of the reign of Shalmaneser's successor, Sargon II, in 722 BC. The people of the ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom of Israel were deported into northern Mesopotamia and replaced the native populations that Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III had previously deported. Gozan was an Assyrian provincial capital located on a tributary of the Euphrates River. The "towns of the Medes" were situated in an area south of the Caspian Sea and northeast of the Tigris River. These displaced Israelite communities are the setting for the events in the Book of Tobit.
2 Kings 17:7-19 ~ The sins of the Northern Kingdom
Question: List the sins against Yahweh and His covenant for which the Northern tribes were condemned.
Answer:
- They acknowledged other gods.
- They did not show Yahweh reverence.
- They offered illicit worship at sites other than the Temple in Jerusalem.
- They made idols and established worship sites for false gods.
- They would not listen to God's prophets.
- They despised God's laws and His covenant.
- They offered human sacrifice.
- They practiced divination and sorcery.
- They behaved like the Canaanites and Amorites that God had allowed them to cast out of the land.
The Promised Land belonged to Yahweh. Israelites were commanded to be obedient to the covenant with Yahweh and to worship no other Gods and to offer no other forms of worship except those spelled out in the covenant. If the Israelites disobeyed God's commands and behaved in the same way as the pagans who were cast out of the Promised Land, they would lose possession of the land that God gave them.
2 Kings 17:19-23 ~ Yahweh's divine judgment
Yahweh had allowed the northern tribes to elect their own king to humble the Davidic heirs who were taking God's eternal covenant with David for granted and using it as an excuse for bad behavior. Yet, they did not learn from the punishments God inflicted on the northern kings of Israel in withdrawing His protection and in allowing natural disasters and political upheavals to plague their people. God persevered longer with Judah for the sake of David, but His patience was coming to an end.
There will be no announced historical restoration of the Northern tribes to their homelands, and they will be referred to as the ten "lost tribes" of Israel.
2 Kings 17:24-28 ~ The pagan peoples brought in to settle the Assyrian province of Samaria
Question: Was the priest the Assyrian officials sent back to Samaria to teach the immigrant population how to worship Yahweh a legitimate priest of the Sinai Covenant? See 1 Kng 12:28-31; 2 Chr 11:14-15.
Answer: No, he was not. The only legitimate priests resided in Judah. The Israelite priests who were sent back was an apostate priesthood and none of them were legitimate descendants of Aaron from whom all legitimate priests must be descendants. Therefore, the worship they taught the people concerning Yahweh was a heretical form of worship.
2 Kings 17:29-41 ~ How the Samaritans adopted the worshiped of Yahweh
The different people who were conquered and displaced by the Assyrians from their own territories and forced to immigrate to Samaria are listed.
Over the succeeding centuries, the Samaritans became more exclusively devoted to Yahweh but they continued to practice their own unique form of worship at their own Temple and they only accepted the five books of Moses into their canon, rejecting all the other historical books and the books of the prophets.
CHALLENGE: “How can you believe the Bible is the true word of God? It contains numerous accounts of people saying and doing horrible things.”
DEFENSE: So does a typical newspaper.
A newspaper’s job is to report significant things that happened. That doesn’t mean it approves. Newspapers report rapes, murders, and crimes the paper does not approve of. They also report people saying things that the paper’s reporters and editors completely disagree with.
Similarly, just because Scripture records something doesn’t mean it endorses it. It does mean the biblical author thought the event was significant for his audience to know, but it doesn’t mean that he—or God—approved. Scripture records the words and actions of the devil, but the devil’s activities are strongly disapproved of.
Similarly, when Jephthah makes a rash vow that apparently leads to his daughter being sacrificed as a burnt offering (Judg. 11:30–40), the audience is meant to understand his action was barbarous and horrific. Jephthah is only one example of Scripture’s brutal honesty about the leaders of Israel, who were often deeply flawed. Even respected figures like David and Solomon have their blackest sins reported (cf. 2 Sam. 11, 1 Kings 11:1–13).
Consequently, one cannot simply note that Scripture reports someone saying or doing something abominable and conclude that it teaches something abominable. When evaluating such charges, one must ask whether the proposed evil is condemned.
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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