Introduction
The focus of the chapter we studied last week was on the southern kingdom of Judah and its wicked king, Ahaz, who did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord, because he was an idolater, worshipping false gods and idols alongside his worship of the Lord. He even sacrificed one of his children to a pagan god, which was a wicked thing to do. And he set up a new altar in the temple of the Lord, an altar which was modelled on the altar he saw in Damascus. And so, he set aside the Lord’s altar and replace it with this new, pagan altar. And he remodelled other parts of the temple ‘in deference to the king of Assyria’.
He was a wicked king. But in the midst of his wicked reign, the Lord came to him through the prophet Isaiah and announced that one day a virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son whose name will be Immanuel. Yes, in the midst of Ahaz’s wicked reign, the Lord announced the coming of the Saviour of the world, who would give up his life on the cross to set us free from the punishment we deserve for all that we have done wrong in the eyes of the Lord; and to set us free from the power of sin as well so that, with his help, we’re able to do what is right and good in the eyes of the Lord and to serve him all the days of our life.
That was last week. The focus of today’s chapter is once again on the northern kingdom of Israel. And today’s chapter can be divided into two main parts, because verses 1 to 23 are about how and why the Lord sent the Israelites into exile; and verses 24 to 41 are about what happened after they were taken away into exile.
Verses 1 to 23
The chapter begins like many of the previous ones with our narrator recording the reign of Hoshea. As he normally does, the narrator tells us when Hoshea began to reign and for how long. And then there’s the brief summary of his reign and, according to verse 2, Hoshea did evil in the eyes of the Lord. However, while he did evil in the eyes of the Lord, he was not like the kings of Israel who preceded him. So, he was bad, but not as bad as the rest.
And then, as he normally does, our narrator tells us about one incident from the reign of the king and it’s that Shalmaneser, the new king of Assyria, came up to attack him. Why did the king of Assyria attack him? Our narrator explains for us that Hoshea has been his vassal. That is, he was subject to the king of Assyria and was obliged to pay the Assyrian king a regular tribute. This arrangement probably began under one of the previous kings. But the king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea had turned to Egypt for help against Assyria. With Egypt’s backing, Hoshea was no longer willing to pay tribute to Assyria. The king of Assyria wasn’t prepared to put up with that; and so, he came up to attack Hoshea, as we read in verse 1; and he managed to capture Hoshea, as we read in verse 4. He then invaded the whole of the land and put Samaria, the capital city, under siege for three years. At the end of the tree years, he captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria. In other words, he took them away into exile to a far off land. This was a reversal of the exodus. At the time of the exodus, the Lord rescued his people from their slavery in Egypt and brought them up into the Promised Land and enabled them to settle there. Now, the people are being taken from the Promised Land and they’re being taken as slaves to another land. For years and years and years, the Lord let them live in the Promised Land. But now the king of Assyria had taken them away.
And so, why did this happen? What was the reason for their exile? Our narrator explains it for us from verse 7 onwards. He tells us in verse 7 that all this — the imprisonment of Hoshea; the invasion of the land; the exile of the people — all this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God. Do we ever think that sin doesn’t matter? Do you ever say to yourself: ‘What does it matter if I sin? What does it matter if I do wrong?’ Well, sin matters. How do we know sin matters? Because all of this happened to the Israelites because of their sin. Because they kept sinning against the Lord, without confessing it or turning from it, they went into exile. They were sent away from the presence of the Lord in the Promised Land of Israel and they were sent away into exile.
And against whom did they sin? Our narrator tells us in verse 7 that they sinned against ‘the LORD their God’. You’ll notice that he’s using God’s special covenant name, which appears in our English Bibles as LORD in capital letters. It speaks to us of God’s commitment to his people and how he bound himself with a promise to be their God and to deliver them from their sin and misery by his Son who was coming into the world. And the narrator goes on to describe the Lord as the one who brought them out of Egypt from under the power of Pharaoh. So, against whom did they sin? They sinned against the God who was committed to them and who had saved them. That’s how bad their sin was. That’s how evil it was. If they had sinned against an evil god, then it wouldn’t have been so bad. If they had disobeyed a tyrannical god, who neither loved them nor cared for them, it would be understandable. But that’s not whom they sinned against. They sinned against this kind and good God who had promised to love them with an everlasting love and to take care of them and who had been good to them. They turned away from him.
And how did they sin against him? Our narrator tells us at the end of verse 7 that they worshipped other gods and they followed the practices of the pagan nations who once lived in the land and they also followed the practices that the kings of Israel had introduced. So, the people were led astray by the pagan nations and by their own kings who taught them to sin against the Lord and to worship idols. The narrator says they did things in secret that were not right. And they built high places for themselves. In the early days of the kingdom, they used these high places for the worship of the Lord. But according to verse 10, they eventually set up sacred stones and Asherah poles at these high places. In other words, they began to worship false gods at these high places and burned incense as the pagans did. And so, according to verse 12, they worshipped idols even though the Lord their God had told them not to worship idols.
And, I wonder, are we meant to see an escalation in these verses? First they sinned in secret. That’s bad. Then they worshipped the Lord at the high places. That’s worse, because it’s in public. And then they set up idols and burned incense at the high places. That’s even worse. And then it says they worshipped idols without specifying where they did it. And so, perhaps they did it everywhere. So, is there an escalation from sinning in secret to sinning out in the open and in public?
And the narrator tells us in verse 13 that the Lord warned them through all his prophets and seers. So, he sent them preachers to tell them to turn from their evil ways and to return to the Lord and to obey him. He sent them preachers to tell them to repent and to warn them of what would happen to them if they refused to repent. But they would not listen. Do you see that in verse 14? They would not listen. They were as stiff-necked as their fathers. He’s thinking of the ancestors who rebelled against the Lord in the wilderness in the time of Moses. They too were stiff-necked. In other words, they were liked a stubborn animal which does not want to go in the right way. Those of you with dogs will know how they stiffen their necks when you pull the lead, because they want to go their own way. And the people were like that, because they did not want to go the Lord’s way, but their own way. They rejected God’s decrees and his covenant and they did not pay attention to his warnings. They followed worthless idols and they themselves became worthless. Do you see that in verse 15? They were made in the image of God and were to reflect his glory and goodness on the earth. But instead of reflecting God’s glory and goodness, they had become worthless or good for nothing, like their idols. Even though the Lord warned them not to become like the pagan nations around them, they became like them. And so, they did what the Lord had forbidden.
And our narrator is still not finished. It’s as if he’s underlining their sins for us in thick red marker. So, they forsook all the commands of the Lord their God. They made for themselves two calf-shaped idols. He’s referring to the idols which Jeroboam created many years previously. They made for themselves as Asherah pole. And they bowed down to the stars above and they worshipped Baal. They also sacrificed their children in the fire and practiced divinisation and sorcery and sold themselves as slaves into the service of evil. And so, they provoked the Lord to anger.
And because the Lord was angry with them, he removed them from his people from his presence. I wonder do you remember the three Ps? People, place and presence What’s the Bible about? It’s about what God has done to bring all of God’s people to live in the place which he has prepared for them where they can enjoy the presence of God in their midst. When the Lord brought the Israelites into the Promised Land of Israel, you had God’s people in the place he prepared for them where they enjoyed his presence in their midst. But because of their persistent sin and rebellion, he sent them out of the land and away from his presence. Only the tribe of Judah, the southern kingdom, was left. But even they did not keep his commands and it won’t be long before the people of Judah are exiled as well. And because of the sins of his people, the Lord rejected them and he afflicted them and, when they did not return to him, he thrust them from his presence and sent them into exile.
And when did it start to go wrong? When did the rot set in? According to verse 21, it began when Israel and Judah separated and Jeroboam became king of Israel in the north, because he enticed the people away from the Lord and he caused them to commit a great sin which was to worship those two golden calves. And the Israelites persisted in all his sins and did not turn away from them. And so, the Lord removed them from the land and sent them into exile in Assyria.
Application
Why did the exile take place? Because the Israelites sinned against the Lord their God.
Do we ever think that sin doesn’t matter? Do you ever think: ‘What does it matter if I sin? What does it matter if I do wrong?’ Well, sin matters. How do we know sin matters? Because look what happened to the Israelites because of their sin.
Sin matters to God. Our disobedience matters to him. It provokes him to anger. And what’s why we must all believe in his Son Jesus Christ, because his Son came into the world as one of us and he was prepared to take the blame for all that we have done wrong and to give up his life on the cross to pay for our sins and shortcomings. He endured the wrath of God in the place of sinners, so that whoever trusts in him — whoever is united to Christ by faith — is justified. That is to say, we are pardoned by God; and God accepts us as right in his sight even though we may have done everything wrong. He accepts us in Christ. And instead of casting us from his presence for ever, he promises to give us life and peace and joy and happiness in his presence for ever.
Casting the Israelites into exile was a kind of foretaste, or a foreshadowing, of the judgment to come and of eternal punishment away from the presence of the Lord for ever. If the Israelites had listened to the prophets, if they have turned from their sins, if they have returned to the Lord, then he would have pardoned them. But because they persisted in their life of sin and rebellion, he sent them away. And God will send away into hell all who persist in their sin and rebellion in this life, but pardons all who confess their sins and who trust in Christ for salvation. He pardons them and accepts them and gives them the hope of everlasting peace and joy in the life to come.
And if Jesus Christ is your Saviour, if you’re trusting in him for peace with God, then rejoice and be glad because of God’s kindness to you, because God has rescued you from the exile you deserve in hell and he has given you the sure and sure hope of everlasting life in his presence for ever where there is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore.
Verses 24 to 41
But let’s move on now to the second part of today’s chapter which is about what happened after they were taken away into exile.
According to verse 24, the king of Assyria brought people he had taken captive from other nations and he settled them throughout the towns of Samaria in the northern kingdom of Israel. They took over Samaria and lived in the towns. But since they were foreigners who did not know the Lord, then they did not worship him. And so, the Lord sent lions against them. Do you see that in verse 25? The Lord sent a plague of lions to destroy them.
Someone reported this to the king and explained that it happened because the people living in the land did not know what the god of the land requires. They assumed that the Lord our God was like the gods of the pagans. So, the pagans believed that one god ruled over one place and another god ruled over another place and so on. And so they believed that the god of the region of Samaria ruled over what happened in Samaria. And they needed to know what to do to placate him so that he’ll send the lions away.
The king sent one of the captive priests back to Israel to teach the people what the god of Samaria requires. And according to verse 28, the priest taught them how to worship the Lord. But did he really? If he really taught them how to worship the Lord, then he would have taught them that we are to worship the Lord and him alone, because what the Lord requires from his people is that we should have no other gods before him and that we should worship him alone. That’s what the Lord requires. But according to verse 29, each national group living in the northern kingdom made its own gods and set them up in shrines on the high places. And in verses 30 and 31 the narrator names the gods they worshipped, because each group had its own god. And so, while they may have worshipped the Lord, they did not worship him exclusively. As far as they were concerned, the Lord was just one among many gods which they were required to honour. As it says in verse 33, they worshipped the Lord, but they also served their own gods.
According to verse 34, to this day — that is, to the day the narrator wrote this — they persist in their former practices. Our narrator then says that they neither worship the Lord nor adhere to his decrees and ordinances and laws and commands. Isn’t that interesting? In verse 33 the narrator said that they worshipped the Lord as well as the other gods. In verse 34 he said that they did not worship the Lord. So, they worshipped the Lord and they didn’t worship the Lord. Is that narrator contradicting himself? No, because their worship of the Lord was not genuine because it was not exclusive. If they really worshipped the Lord, they would not worship others gods, because the Lord demands exclusive worship. We’re to worship him alone. We’re not to have other gods before him or beside him. A man cannot tell his wife that he loves her while he’s having affairs with other women. The fact that he’s having affairs with other women means that he doesn’t love his wife. If he loved her, he would have no other women in his life. And since these people had many gods, then that tells you that they didn’t really love or fear or worship the true God. As our narrator tells us in verse 35, when the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites, he commanded them not to worship any other gods. Instead, they were to worship only one God: the one who rescued them from Egypt. To him and to him alone were they to bow down. And they were to worship him, because he’s the one who rescues his people.
Application
And I’ve said before that while we may not make for ourselves idols of silver and gold to bow down before, we still have idols. We still have idols, because an idol is anything which is more important to us than the Lord is. It’s something that we can’t bear to be without; and we think that life is not worth living without this thing or this person in my life. We think that if I have this thing, whatever it is, then I’ll be happy or then I’ll be fulfilled, or then I’ll be significant, or then I’ll be safe. And so, it might be something we can buy and own. If only I get this thing that I want, then I’ll be happy. Or it might be something like power or success or wealth. If I have enough power, if I have enough success, then I’ll be someone. Or it might be a person. If I have a boyfriend, if I have a girlfriend, if I’m married, if I have children, then I’ll be truly happy. An idol is what we rely on in order to get what only God can give us. But only God can make us truly happy and fulfilled and significant and safe.
So, we take something good, which God has made, and we turn it into a god by treating it as the most important thing in our life. And instead of trusting in God for what we need, we rely on our idols.
Perhaps we come to church to worship the Lord, but while we’re here, we’re thinking about that other thing or person which is more important to us than God is. Or think of the Lord’s parable of the man who found a treasure in a field. And so, he sold everything he had so that he could buy the field and take possession of the treasure. Our true treasure is God. But perhaps we replace him with other treasures and we’re willing to give up everything in order to have that other thing or person which we treasure most of all.
But what does the Lord say? He says that we’re not to worship any other gods or bow down to them or serve them or sacrifice to them. We’re not to have any other gods. And we’re to worship the Lord who brought you up out of your sin and misery by his Son who laid down his life for you. He is the one you’re to worship and serve. And why wouldn’t you worship and serve him when he is the Almighty God who made the heavens and the earth and who gives life to all things; and who sustains and directs all things according to his most holy and perfect will; and who sent his only begotten Son into the world to save us from our sin and misery and to give us the free gift of eternal life? Why wouldn’t we worship and serve him? Is there anyone or anything greater than him? Is there anyone or anything better than him?
C.S. Lewis says that we’re far too easily satisfied. We’re far too easily satisfied. He says that we’re half-hearted creatures, fooling about with earthly things and earthly pleasures when infinite joy is offered to us by the true God. So, we’re satisfied with the things of this life only. We’re satisfied with created things. Now, since God created them, then those things are good and he made them for our benefit. But they’re for this life only. And God offers us something which is altogether better and more fulfilling and more rewarding. He offers us himself. And he offers us everlasting life in his presence. And if we get distracted by the other things, and turn from the Lord, then we’ll never have the best thing. But if we keep our focus on God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, if we worship and serve him only, if we love, trust and worship him above all others, then we’ll have the best thing, because we’ll have God. We’ll have him with us in this life to help us and to protect us and to provide us with what we need. And we’ll have him with us for ever in the life to come. And so, we’re to keep our focus on him at all times. And we come to him through his Son who died to bring us to God.
Sermons and Stuff 