God’s Judgment on Israel

MEMORY VERSE: “Yet the Lord testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, … saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.” —II Kings 17:13

II KINGS 17:9-18

THE name “Israel” as used in the caption of this lesson applies primarily to the Israelites comprising the ten-tribe kingdom of northern Palestine, a kingdom which was set up by Jeroboam shortly after the death of Solomon. Beginning with Jeroboam, and all the way through to the destruction of this kingdom, its successive kings were unrighteous, and encouraged the people to continue idol worship as instituted by Jeroboam. At the time of the reprimand contained in the lesson, the people of the two-tribe kingdom of Judah were also indulging in idol worship, and were also censured.

The worship of Baal was notoriously corrupt, and in some aspects cruel. Verse 17 of the lesson says that the people “caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire.” This is a reference to the offering of children to the fire god Moloch, or Molech. According to Jewish tradition these children were literally burned to death, the burning being accompanied by the heating of drums loudly enough to keep the parents from hearing the shrieks of their burning children.

No wonder God was displeased with these false and inhuman rites! But for the most part they seemed to be more appealing to the Israelites than did the wholesome worship of Jehovah, the true and living God. Jehovah, who is our Heavenly Father, is a God of love. While he condemned Adam and his race to death because of sin, he made a loving provision through Christ whereby all will receive an opportunity, through faith and obedience, to gain everlasting life and happiness. This will be during the thousand-year reign of Christ.

Because of their sin, the people of the ten-tribe kingdom were removed by the Lord from having any share in the royal promises made to and through David—the promises which, according to the Scriptures, find their ultimate fulfillment through Christ. Additional punishment came upon them in that they were taken captive into Assyria: “The Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day.”—II Kings 17:23

The Lord’s displeasure with Israel was due to their failure to obey his law. But their sin was more than one of omission. It was apparently willful. The Lord said to them, “Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets. Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the Lord their God”—II Kings 17:13,14

They “did not believe in the Lord their God.” Unbelief is the basis of many of the sins that have been committed throughout the ages by the Lord’s professed people. If one does not believe in God he has no incentive to obey him, and no reason to believe that he will be punished if he fails to obey, or rewarded if he does obey.

Using the experiences of the unbelieving Israelites in the wilderness, the Apostle Paul exhorts us, saying, “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end.”—Heb. 3:12-14

Paul also wrote, “Without faith it is impossible to please him [God]: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” (Heb. 11:6) Apparently many of the Israelites did not have this basic faith in the existence of the true and living God, although they were given many examples of his ability to care for them, beginning particularly with their Exodus from Egypt.

QUESTIONS

What was the outstanding manifestation of unrighteousness in the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel?

How important is faith in the hearts of those who desire to please God?

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