Ahaz, who became king of Judah following the death of Jotham, did not do what was pleasing in the sight of the Lord by:
- Casting metal images for the worship of Baal
- Offering sacrifices in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, even sacrificing his own sons in the fire
- Following the detestable practices of the pagan nations the Lord had driven from the land
- Offering sacrifices and burning incense at the pagan shrines and on the hills and under every green tree
As so often happened in the history of God’s dealings with the Israelites, God allowed the king of Aram to defeat Ahaz (Judah) and to exile his people to Damascus. When Pekah (Israel) and the army of Israel captures 200,000 women and children from Judah and siezes “tremendous amounts” of plunder, a prophet of the Lord in Samaria warns Israel that they have gone too far. Four of the leaders of Israel paid attention and agreed to send the prisoners and the plunder back to Judah.
Ahaz, rather than pleading for help from the Lord, asks the king of Assyria for help. To pay him, he takes all of the valuable items from the Lord’s Temple, the royal palace, and the homes of officials for tribute to the king of Assyria. Instead of turning to the Living God, the God of his fathers, he turns to the gods of Damascus and closes the Temple of God.
Hoshea (Israel) began reigning in Samaria in the twelfth year of King Ahaz’ rule, but he only ruled for nine years. Although he had been paying tribute to the king of Assyria (Shalamaneser), he stopped paying and asked the king of Egypt to help him. When Shalamaneser found out, he put Hoshea in prison and invanded the entire land. After besieging Samaria for three years, he finally captured it and Israel went into exile.
II Kings 17 makes it clear why Israel went into exile:
- They worshiped other gods.
- They sinned against the Lord their God
- They followed the practices of the pagan nations the Lord had driven from the land ahead of them
- They had secretly done many things that were not pleasing to the Lord their God
- They built pagan shrines for themselves in all their towns
- They set up sacred pillars and Asherah poles at the top of every hill and under every green tree
- They offered sacrifices on all the hilltops
- They did many evil thigs, arousing the Lord’s anger
- They worshiped idols, despite the Lord’s specific and repeated warnings
- Again and again the Lord sent his prophets and seers to warn them
- They rejected his decrees and the covenant he made with their ancestors and they despised all his warnings
- They worshiped worthless idols
- They rejected all the commands of the Lord their God and made two calves from metal
- They consulted fortune-tellers and practiced sorcery and sold themselves to evil
Not only did Assyria exile the people of Israel, he also moved foreigners into the land of Israel. Interesting how the Lord sent lions in to attack these foreigners, but more interesting is how the king of Assyria sends one of the exiled priest back to Samaria to teach the new people how to worship the Lord. I guess, though, it’s not too surprising that these foreigners just continued to worship their own false gods in addition to worshiping the Lord. We are given quite a list of these false gods:
- Babylonians worshiped idols of their god Succoth-benoth
- Those from Cuthah worshiped their god Nergal
- Those from Hamath worshiped Ashima
- The Avvites worshiped their gods Nibhaz and Tartak
- The people from Sepharvaim even buried their own children as sacrifices to their gods Adrammelech and Anammelech
Hoshea was the last king of Israel. How sad that Israel seemed to want to worship every false god there was, but not the Lord their God, who brought them out of Egypt.
Tomorrow, we’ll be reading Isaiah 13 – 17.
Until next time…
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