An Idolatrous People Receive Judgment

Israel was a nation that had received many beautiful promises from God, but God had also promised that if they forgot Him and went after false gods and became like the other nations, there would be consequences. In accordance with His character and glory, God always keeps His promises, both those of blessing and those of judgment. In this session, we will see the consequences of Israel’s idolatry. Though God had been good to them and warned them about their evil ways, they still persisted in their sin. Israel had seen God’s glory through His blessings, and now they would see it in His judgment.

Session Outline

++Idolatry results when people fail to [look for, or] see God’s goodness (2 Kings 17:6-12).

++Idolatry [inhibits] people from heeding God’s warnings (2 Kings 17:13-17).

++Idolatry leads [God to discipline His people] (2 Kings 17:18-20).

Background Passage: 2 Kings 17

Session in a Sentence

God’s love for His people [COMPELS] Him to warn them of their idolatry and to discipline them [when] they [don’t] repent.

++The only true hope is to put all hope in God.

Christ Connection

The people of Israel sinned against God and worshiped idols. God warned them to turn from their evil ways and obey Him, but they refused and were disciplined by Him. Israel’s rebellion reminds us of our own idolatry and need to repent.

Introduction

DDG (p. 66)

People like to “hedge their bets,” especially in the realm of finances: invest a little bit here, throw some cash into that option, save a few resources for this venture. The idea is to manage and spread the risk. That way if you take a loss in one area, it doesn’t devastate you. There’s an opportunity to stay afloat and possibly recover what you lost. This diversification seems like a wise way to invest your money.

The people of Israel also sought to “hedge their bets,” looking for other sources of security and support rather than throwing all of their faith and trust in with God and believing that He alone could save them. But their spiritual diversification was unwise, resulting in disaster in all areas of life.

They paid tribute to Assyria.

They sent some letters to Egypt in hopes of gaining support there.

They worshiped Yahweh, but also bowed down to Baal and praised Asherah.

The people of Israel didn’t think God alone could save, but maybe if they spread out their faith in every direction they could buy their protection and not take too great of a loss.

Israel was going to learn the hard way that you cannot halfheartedly serve God. He wants all of our hearts and will stop at nothing to show us that everything else is loss.

Israel faced disaster at her own hands so that she could discover that:

The only true hope is to put all hope in God.

Ask:

What are some ways people try to diversify their trust in things other than God?

(participating in other religions and religious practices; doing good works; giving to charity; working hard to look good to others)

Summarize: In this session, we will see the consequences of Israel’s idolatry. Though God had been good to them and warned them about their evil ways, they still persisted in their sin. Israel had seen God’s glory through His blessings, and now they would see it in His judgment.

Point 1: Idolatry results when people fail to [look for, or] see God’s goodness (2 Kings 17:6-12).

Read 2 Kings 17:6-12 (DDG p. 67).

6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria, and he carried the Israelites away to Assyria and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

7 And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods 8 and walked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel, and in the customs that the kings of Israel had practiced. 9 And the people of Israel did secretly against the Lord their God things that were not right. They built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city. 10 They set up for themselves pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree, 11 and there they made offerings on all the high places, as the nations did whom the Lord carried away before them. And they did wicked things, provoking the Lord to anger, 12 and they served idols, of which the Lord had said to them, “You shall not do this.”

DDG (p. 67)

All the commands that God had given His people were good and wise, but the Israelites disobeyed them. Rather than trusting that their greatest joy and fulfillment was found in obedience to God and His law, His people sought out their own ways. Their hearts were set on being satisfied, as are all our hearts, but they pursued idols, nations, and evil that would never satisfy. Only our good God can satisfy the desires of our hearts.

· The Israelites, like us, always sought what they believed was their greatest joy. If they were turning away from the commands of God, it was because they thought His commands were keeping them from more joy, just like Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. So they built places for their false worship everywhere. They sinned with their idolatry because they thought it would satisfy them and bring joy.

If we look at the commands of God in Scripture and think we have to go outside of them to find joy, we are revealing that our hearts are the same as the heart of Adam and the hearts of Israel. “God must be holding out on us,” we think. “There is joy to be had, but He is attempting to keep us from it with all of these burdensome rules.” We thus are willing to work hard and do just about anything to get that joy. But when we believe these lies, we, like Israel, are forgetting the goodness of our God. He will only give us exactly what is best. His Word is a boundary to hedge us in for our joy, not keep us from our joy.

Ask:

How have you seen people disobey God’s good commands in a fruitless attempt to find their greatest joy?

(be prepared to give an answer of your own to jump-start the conversation)

DDG (p. 67)

All the nations of the world, such as Egypt and Assyria, were full of sinners before God and deserving of His wrath, which eventually came. Yet God had never revealed His law to these other nations or made a covenant with them. But Israel? God had blessed them uniquely. They were His people, and He was their God (Ex. 6:7). He had given them His covenant and His law. How much more did they deserve the full wrath of God when they had been shown so much more clearly who He was and yet disobeyed!

· God had made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, their forefathers.

· God had revealed Himself in power when He redeemed Israel out of the hand of Pharaoh in Egypt.

· God had given Israel His law and His requirements for worship.

· God had shown them His goodness and steadfast love in the promised land.

· God had given Israel kings (a few good ones, at least) and prophets to lead and correct them.

This serves as a warning to those to whom God’s gospel has been revealed today. Those who have been told the news of His great gospel, who have enjoyed the fellowship within the body of Christ, who have sat under the teaching of the Word, and who have learned of His grace to sinners in Christ have been blessed by God.

May we hold tight in faith to our good God and rejoice in His blessings, rather than taking things into our own hands and doing them our way.

Ask:

What are some ways God has revealed His goodness to you?

(be prepared to give an answer of your own to jump-start the conversation)

Point 2: Idolatry [inhibits] people from heeding God’s warnings (2 Kings 17:13-17).

Read: Ask a volunteer to read 2 Kings 17:13-17 (DDG p. 68).

13 Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets.”

14 But they would not listen, but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the Lord their God. 15 They despised his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them. They went after false idols and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the Lord had commanded them that they should not do like them. 16 And they abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made for themselves metal images of two calves; and they made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal. 17 And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings and used divination and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.

DDG (p. 68)

Many stories throughout the Old Testament describe the anger of the Israelites when the prophets showed up with their messages of God’s will. Prophets were threatened, imprisoned, and even killed because their words spoke against the hearts and actions of the people to whom they were speaking. But each time they came, it was always grace. In love, God was pointing out the sin of His people so that they could see it and repent.

· God’s call to repent is offensive to the person who has decided for himself what is best. It is difficult for the stubborn heart to hear that there is no hope of saving itself. One reason why idolatry is so dangerous is because it makes grace offensive. The heart of the idolater believes his or her efforts earn the favor of a god, and this is antithetical to the grace of the one true God.

· The gospel is an offensive message to a prideful heart. The message of the cross demands that you give up any hope of finding satisfaction and joy in any other thing. The gospel cries that your sin is great and that all the idols you’ve placed your trust in are worthless. Yet to hear these words is grace. It is always grace to know that you have placed all of your hope in the wrong thing and that there is still an opportunity to turn and trust in Jesus.

Examples of Prophets and their messages from God that were Rejected:

Moses and Joshua were threatened with stoning for their efforts to lead the people into the promised land (Num. 14:10).

Elijah was threatened with death by Jezebel for having slaughtered the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 19:1-2).

Micaiah was imprisoned by King Ahab for prophesying a message of defeat and death to the king (1 Kings 22:17-28).

Ask:

What are some reasons people find it difficult to repent of their sin?

(pride; repentance involves confession to God of your wrongdoing; repentance may involve confession of your sin to others; it would mean giving up your personal sovereignty over the desires of your heart)

Pack Item 9: The Divided Kingdom:P Use the second paragraph in the DDG (p. 68) to show that:

While God may delay judgment for prolonged periods, He will eventually judge sin.

For more than two hundred years, the Lord had allowed His people in the Northern Kingdom of Israel to live in the promised land as their own nation, though nearly the whole time they had been engaged in idol worship. Israel must have thought that the day of reckoning for their sin would never come: “Surely there will be more patience. Perhaps God has forgotten or doesn’t notice.” But Israel was a land of fools. The days of God’s patience would end. Apart from sincere repentance, judgment was coming.

· King Jeroboam, the first king of the Northern Kingdom, set up two golden calves in Israel to keep his people from going to Jerusalem to worship (1 Kings 12:25-33). King Ahab set up Asherah poles and altars to Baal for his wife Jezebel (1 Kings 16:29-33). Through all this, God had patiently held out His hands to a disobedient and contrary people (see Isa. 65:2; Rom. 10:21). But they had not turned from their idolatry. However, both Ahab and Jezebel experienced God’s judgment, eventually.

· The apostle Peter addressed the questions people have about the delay in God’s judgment: God is patient, but sin will be judged (2 Pet. 3:9). Either our sins have already been paid for on the cross of Christ and we honor that in regular repentance of sin or the coming day of judgment will be for us a day of wrath.

Essential Doctrine “Sin as Idolatry”: Sin is not only a physical act of rebellion against God, such as lying or stealing, but it is also a matter of the heart (Col. 3:5-9).

Colossians 3:5–9 NASB

5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.6 For it is on account of these things that the wrath of God will come,7 and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.8 But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.9 Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices,

According to those verses, the physical displays of sin are the fruit of what has been birthed in the heart of a person as acts of idolatry (Matt. 15:10-20).

Fill in the blanks: DDG (p. 68)

Sin as Idolatry: In Scripture, idolatry usually refers to bowing down to a statue made of wood or gold, worshiping created things instead of the Creator. But idolatry can take on more subtle forms: a seeking of approval, security, power, pleasure, etc. (Col 3:5-9).

We can diagnose the idolatry of our heart by examining the areas where the desires of our heart have turned into idolatrous demands (Jas. 4:1-2).

Point 3: Idolatry leads [God to discipline His people] (2 Kings 17:18-20).

Read 2 Kings 17:18-20 (DDG p. 69).

18 Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight. None was left but the tribe of Judah only. 19 Judah also did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the customs that Israel had introduced. 20 And 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.

DDG (p. 69)

The earthly consequence of Israel continuing in sin against God was exile at the hands of the Assyrians. But when their discipline is framed in terms of removal from God’s presence (2 Kings 17:18), we begin to understand the spiritual significance of sin. Sin had built up a wall between Israel and God. Sin had robbed them of the only thing that could truly satisfy the longing of their hearts—God Himself—so the Lord handed them over to what they wanted—separation from Him.

Voices from the Church

“[God] exercises patience and long-suffering toward human sinfulness. The nature of God, however, demands that he respond with holy disapproval to that which is contrary to his very being.” 1 –R. Stanton Norman

· When Adam and Eve sinned against God in the garden of Eden by choosing to obey their desires over God’s commands, they were removed from His intimate presence in the garden (Gen. 3). Sin prevents us from being able to enjoy the fellowship with God that we were created for.

· Jesus went to the cross knowing He would take upon Himself the punishment of sin so we could be reconciled to the Father. He experienced God’s wrath against sin and cried out, “Why have You forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46; Ps. 22:1) so that we would never have to know the eternal desperation of separation from our Creator. Those who are in Christ by faith will never be removed from God’s presence.

Commentary: What are the results of sin for the believer?

There are no eternal consequences for the sins of those who are in Christ (Rom. 8:1). But there are earthly and temporary consequences to our sins, and these are God’s discipline of His children. As a consequence of sin, our experience of the nearness of God is hindered and disrupted so that we would repent and be restored to full fellowship with Him (see Heb. 12:7-11; 1 Pet. 3:7).

DDG (p. 69) ASK:

How would you describe your present experience of the presence of God in your life?

DDG (p. 69)

The people of the Southern Kingdom of Judah were sinning against God in the same way as the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Judah was just as deserving of judgment from the Lord, but God withheld judgment from them at this time. As the people of Judah watched Israel undergo the consequences from the Lord for their idolatry, it should have served as a wake-up call to them, and to some degree, it did. But soon judgment would also come for Judah for their own commitment to rebellion against the Lord.

As we live out our faith within the family of God, we might see up close as our brothers and sisters continue in sin and experience discipline from the Lord. In response to this, we must pray for their repentance (1 John 5:16). And rather than continuing blindly in our own sin, we ought to be awakened to the truth that sin is serious business and we too must repent in light of our own experience of the Lord’s discipline. Our heavenly Father is too just and too loving to let us continue in sin. Plus, if we find ourselves continuing in patterns of sin apart from regular occasions of repentance, then we have grounds to wonder whether or not we are truly among God’s people, those who have been born again and enabled to walk in obedience to God’s statutes (see Deut. 30:6; Heb. 10:26-31).

Ask:

What are some ways God disciplines His people to lead them to repentance?

(God will allow natural consequences to follow from people’s sin; God convicts the hearts of His people through the work of the Holy Spirit; God works through believers in the church to confront and correct His children; God will bring private sins to light)

My Mission

When we look at the disaster that came upon Israel, does it make us thank God for His grace to them? Rather than allow Israel to continue in sin and bow down to idols, God brought His heavy hand of discipline against them. The Israelites lost their land, homes, and many lives. But how much worse would it have been if God had done nothing and allowed His people to continue in their sin without any effort to turn them back?

When we look at our own lives, what do we hope God would be willing to do to keep and preserve us?

Any time God brings discipline into our lives, He is treating us as children; He is loving us with His gracious, refining love so that we will turn away from what is worthless and turn toward the only One who is worthy.

DDG (p. 70)

Because Jesus has revealed Himself to us as our greatest treasure and source of true joy, we seek to identify and put away the various idols in our lives to show others the goodness of God.

What idols are in your life that you need to now put away, so that you might more definitively turn to God in trust?

· Where in your life do you see idolatry preventing you from experiencing the blessings of obedience through faith in Jesus Christ?

· In what ways can your group/church grow in helping each other to turn away from idolatry?

· Whom will you pray for and approach to point out the short-lived satisfaction of idolatry and to share the gospel of Jesus?

Voices from the Church

“Our response to the awesome revelation of God’s character should be to hate sin with complete hatred, with every fiber of our being, and to petition God to commit it to total destruction … Search me. Try me. Expose me. Lead me.” 2 –Jen Wilkin

Session in a Sentence

God’s love for His people [COMPELS] Him to warn them of their idolatry and to discipline them [when] they [don’t] repent.

++The only true hope is to put all hope in God.

Close in prayer:

References

1. R. Stanton Norman, “Human Sinfulness,” in A Theology for the Church, Revised Edition, ed. Daniel L. Akin (Nashville, TN: B&H, 2014), 378.

2. Jen Wilkin, None Like Him (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2016), 158.

3. Andrew C. Bowling, “1, 2 Kings,” in CSB Study Bible (Nashville, TN: B&H, 2017), 580, n. 17:6b; n. 17:7-20.

4. Jill L. Baker, “1 and 2 Kings,” in The IVP Women’s Bible Commentary, eds. Catherine Clark Kroeger, Mary J. Evans, and Elizabeth Kroeger Elliot (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2011) [Wordsearch].

5. Paul R. House, 1, 2 Kings, vol. 8 in The New American Commentary (Nashville, TN: B&H, 2003) [Wordsearch].

6. Havilah Dharamraj, “2 Kings,” in South Asia Bible Commentary, gen. ed. Brian Wintle (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2015), 463.

7. Musa Gotom, “1 and 2 Kings,” in Africa Bible Commentary, gen. ed. Tokunboh Adeyemo (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006), 458.

8. Miles Van Pelt, “1–2 Kings,” in Gospel Transformation Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013), 475-76, n. 17:6-40.

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