The LORD Sent Lions 2 Kings 17

The LORD Sent Lions

INTRODUCTION

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1 ISRAEL FALLS, vv. 1-6

The last chapter of the northern kingdom of Israel begins exactly the way would expect. We’re introduced to a new king - this time his name is Hoshea … we’re told how long he reigns: 9 years. And, we’re given God’s verdict on the character and nature of his rule: Verse 2 tells us that he, ‘did what was evil in the sight of the LORD ...”

Israel has been paying tribute to Assyria since the days of Menahem, two kings before Hoshea. Tribute that’s another word for tax … or extortion. “We will not destroy you as long as you keep forking over your hard earned treasures.” Well, you know what it’s like to look at your paystub and see the difference between what you earned and what you actually get to take home after the taxes are deducted. It’s one thing when you are at least getting some kind of benefit from those deductions - highways, sewage, some kind of healthcare, protection from floods … but Israel is getting none of that. Every single dollar they hand over to Assyria is being carted out of their land to fill the coffers of mighty Assyria. They best they can hope for is that if any other military power comes after Israel - that Assyria will come to the rescue.

Well, that’s a steep price to pay- year after year. If you are an Israelite, just trying to pay your bills - and every time you go online, you are bombarded by ads, showing you all sorts of things you’d love to buy, but you can’t .... you can’t afford it, when you’re handing a chunk of your paycheque over to Assyria.

Speaking of shopping - if you are anything like me - when you’re shopping online, you don’t want to get stuck with the first offer you see. You want to shop around and compare prices.

Hoshea thinks the same way - Assyria is frightening - but it’s not the only team around. Assyria is in the north - and ever expanding. Well, in the south, Egypt is still around. And every though it may not be ‘trending’ right now, Egypt is always a force to be reckoned with.

“Maybe we could get a better deal on protection, if we form an alliance with the Pharaoh.” So, Hoshea sends a negotiating team to Egypt’s king So for exploratory talks.

The Bible doesn’t tell us how the talks went, but it seems that they must have been promising, because, for the first time in years, when the trucks are supposed to head north to Assyria, loaded up with the tribute of Israel … they don’t go.

Shalmaneser doesn’t waste a moment dealing with the missed payment. Nobody’s going to back out of a deal with him. The king organizes military and the Assyrian army invades Israel, streaming across the border and swarming through the land like locusts, devouring everything in their path, until the army marches right up to the capital city of Samaria, where they set up a seige.

Now, before the seigne is laid, Shalmaneser sends a special forces tactical unit, because Hoshea is arrested, chained and thrown into prison before the eyes of his own people. That’s humiliating. The Assyrians are flexing their muscles. Then the army lays it’s seige, surrounding the city with its forces, the soldiers set up camp … and they wait. Samaria is a strongly fortified city. It’s not going to fall overnight .... or even after a few weeks …

For three years, the Assyrians choke the city of Samaria until there is no food, no will to fight and no strength, even if the men of Israel wanted to fight. Verse 6, “In the 9th year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and he carried the Israelites away to Assyria ...”.

Hoshea may have not been as bad as the kings before him, he may even have paid lip service to the worship of the LORD .... but do you see his problem here? When the crisis comes and he wants to make changes in his life and kingdom … he doesn’t turn to the LORD, he turns to his own schemes.

And his best plans - turn to frustration. Assyria takes Samaria. Now it was Assyrian policy to take the best citizens of a captured people to their own land and then to colonize the captive land with foreigners brought from other captured nations. So here we are: it is 722 BC, and after 250 years - the nation of Israel is conquered and left a barren wilderness of shame and defeat.

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2 REASONS FOR THE FALL, vv. 7-17

The fall and dispersal of the majority of the 12 tribes of Israel … well that’s a big deal. But notice that the entire event is described in 6 verses. The question, ‘WHY’ is more important. Six verses are dedicated to telling us HOW Israel fell, but the text takes up verses 7-17, ELEVEN verses in answering the question of ‘WHY?’ Why did this terrible event happen? Sure, you can point to Hoshea and his failed attempt to cut ties with Assyria. But that isn’t the ultimate reason Israel fell. The text gives us a clear answer.

READ vv. 7-13

2 Kings 17:7 “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”

Israel was destroyed because the people sinned against God … and not just any sin. See where the rebellion starts? Verse 7: “(They) 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 ...”.

The people forgot GRATITUDE .... THEY FELL OUT OF LOVE WITH THEIR SAVIOUR.

Don’t you find it interesting that when Hoshea wants rescue from the clutches of Assyria - that the place he turns to for help … of ALL places .... is EGYPT?! Egypt?! That’s not the place of rescue fo God’s people. Egypt is the place of slavery … where Pharaoh tries to commit genocide against God’s chosen line of promse - and then the people cry out for rescue, since they have no place to turn … and the invisible, sovereign God, hears their prayrs, steps in wiht miracle after miracle .... systematically smacking down and showing up all of the fake gods of Egypt - until Pharaoh cries ‘unle’ and let’s the people go.

The very reason Israel is in the land - is because God, in his long-suffering, loving grace - powerfully working on behalf of His people.

The LORD their God is a God of liberation - a God who sets His people free from bondage, but Israel doesn’t seem to notice. End of v. 7:

“They had feared other gods and walked in the customs of the nations, Whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel.” So God’s amazing grace is met with energetic apostasy.

For year after year after generation after generation, the Israelites had ‘sinned against the Lord their God

- BEFORE EVEN ENTERING THE LAND … God warns the people that unluess they completely destroy the Canaanites, their sons and dauughters would turn away to worship the gods that the Canaanites did. So He gave them explicit instructions for how to deal with the pagan neighbours that surrounded them:- Deuteronomy 7:5 “But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire.”

Then, to prove that it was worthwhile - the LORD leads them into that land of promise and overruns every nation living in that land - don’t miss that in v. 8: “… whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel.” The Israelites may have held trumpet and sword in their hands - but GOD brought the walls down - the LORD brought the victory - showing all of the Canaanite gods to be the impotent frauds He said they were.

And yet, after that glorious demonstration by the God Who fights for His people - those very people

Siegmund Weltlinger found out how fleeting gratitude is. He and his wife were taken in by the Möhring family in the Pankow district of Berlin, into their two room flat. The Weltlingers were Jews, hiding in Nazi-ville. In the spring of 1945 Russian troops entered Pankow. One Russian officer who entered the apartment assured the Weltlingers that the Russians would be good to them. Alas, however, when the whole apartment house was searched six revolvers were discovered along with some discarded uniforms. All in the housing complex were ordered outside, lined up against a wall. Things began to look deathly. Siegmund Weltlinger knew that many of these residents would have turned him in to the Nazis had they known he was hiding with the Möhrings. However, he stepped out and told the Russians that he was a Jew, and then: ‘These are good people. All of them have sheltered us in this house. I ask you not to harm them. These weapons were thrown away by the Volkssturm.’ His statement saved the lives of all the tenants. Weltlinger said that the people then became very kind to him and his wife—they were given an empty flat, and food and clothing. They could for the first time stand in the fresh air, walk in the street. But soon afterward the Russians were driven out of the area by an SS attack, and the residents Weltlinger had saved the day before suddenly became hostile again! Weltlinger said it was ‘unbelievable’

Unbelievable. That is the word one must write across Israel’s history. Gratitude vanishes. Redemption finds only rebellion. Is this not one reason why the church celebrates the Lord’s Supper so (hopefully) frequently? It fastens our eyes on our Redeemer and brings us to say:

What language shall I borrow to thank thee, dearest Friend,

for this thy dying sorrow, thy pity without end?

“The ‘nations’ cannot lure us when grace clamps us in the bonds of gratitude.” (Dale Davis)

Take a look at vv. 15-17 again and feel the weight of Israel’s rebellion get heavier and heavier with

2 Kings 17:15-17 “They despised his statutes and his covenant … and the warnings that he gave them. They went after false idols ... and they followed the nations .... And they abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God ... and made for themselves metal images of two calves ....they made an Asherah … (they) worshiped all the host of heaven ....(they) served Baal. ....They burned their sons and their daughters as offerings … (They) used divination and omens … and (they) sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.”