2 Kings 17:18-41 - They worshipped idols

17:18-23

“The Lord was very angry”. Initially Judah was not affected, but she too followed the ways of Israel, so the Lord rejected all of Israel, and they too were “thrust from His presence. When Israel was torn away from the house of David, Jeroboam was made king, but he enticed Israel from following the Lord., and they continued along that road. The writer is making clear why Israel suffered as she did. The people of Israel went into exile in Assyria.

17:24-28

As well as dispersing Israelites, the king of Assyria brought in various people as well. This was part of the reason why Samaritans were regarded with some suspicion by the rest of Israel, they were considered to be “polluted”, and not “pure Jews”. The Assyrian king wanted the enforced “settlers” to assimilate. One could see this as a form of multiculturalism. So he sent a captured priest to teach the new settlers how to worship the Lord.

17:29-41

This experiment was not totally successful, and various groups persisted in worshipping their own gods. Children were still offered as sacrifices. So they “worshipped” the Lord, and their own gods.So they didn’t really worship the Lord. The text makes it clear that the people were not really worshipping the Lord at all, hence the antagonism towards the Samaritans.

2 Kings 17:1-17 - Syncretism

17:1-6

Hoshea, the son of Elah, became king of Israel. He was to be the last king of Israel, and like most of his predecessors “did evil in the eyes of the Lord”, but apparently wasn’t as bad as his immediate predecessor. He had paid tribute to Assyria, even so Assyria then attacked Hoshea. Hoshea had been seeking help from Egypt and stopped paying tribute to Assyria. Shalmaneser seized Hoshea and imprisoned him. In the ninth and last year of Hoshea's reign the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to \ssytis, settling them in Halah.

17:7-17

The text then states quite clearly that all this happened because Israel had sinned against the Lord. The same Lord who had rescued them from Egypt. We get a litany of the sins of Israel, relating mostly to their idol worship. They committed the very sins that the nations God had enabled them to drive out had committed, so they too would be driven out. They had been warned about this, but had not heeded the warnings. They did not trust in the Lord, instead they followed worthless idols, and so became worthless themselves. They followed the ways of the nations, churches today are foolish if they follow the ways of the world. This included sacrificing children in the fire.

2 Kings 16:7-20 - setting up an altar to an idol

16:7-9

Ahaz then prostrated himself before Assyria, seeking his help to fight against Israel, Ahaz used silver and gold to pay Assyria. Assyria did intervene on Israel's behalf.

16:10-20

Ahaz went to Damascus to congratulate Tiglath-pileser. There he saw an altar and got the priest Uriah to copy it. Ahaz then presented offerings at the altar to an idol. This altar to an idol usurped the godly altar in the temple. Uriah went along with the king’s demands. This process continued. Ahaz died and was succeeded by Hezekiah, who would prove to be a much better king.

2 Kings 16:1-6 - King Ahaz

16:1-4

Ahaz was the next king of Judah, he reigned for sixteen years, but “did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord”.He followed the ways of the kings of Israel, not a good example to follow! In fact, he even sacrificed his own son in the fire, following the practices of the nations that had been driven out by the Lord. We need to recognise that some of the nations defeated were utterly evil. Maybe a similar thing applies to the likes of Hamas today, an utterly despicable group. The High Places continued to have their baleful influence.

16:5,6

Rezin, king of Aram, and Pekah, king of Israel marched to fight against Jerusalem. What was Israel doing allying itself with Aram. They failed, though Aram did recover Elath, and the Edomites occupied Elath.

2 Kings 15:10-31 - Kings assassinated

15:10-26

Zechariah was assassinated by Shllum, son of Jabesh. So the word of the Lord was fulfilled. Shallum son of Jabesh became king, but he only reigned for one month. He was assassinated by Menahem who became king, he reigned for ten years. When the king of Assyria invaded, Menahem tried to buy him off, taxing the people in the process. The people paid a price for poor leadership. At least the king of Assyria did withdraw.

15:27-31

Pekahaih was the next king. He was another who “did evil in the eyes of the Lord”, and he too was assassinated. Pekah was next, reigning for twenty two years. During his reign Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria attacked the land, taking Gilead and Galilee. He also deported people to Assyria. Mass movements of people was a common tactic of Assyria. Pekah was assassinated. Godless regimes are inherently unstable.

2 Kings 15:1-9 - The Lord afflicted the king with leprosy

15:1-4

Amaziah became king of Israel and reigned for a long time, fifty two years. He did “what was right in the eyes of the Lord”. However, the high places were still not removed. Idol worship had a very strong hold on the nation.

15:5-7

The king was afflicted with leprosy by the Lord. His son Jotham was the effective ruler, and succeeded him as king after he died.

15:8,9

The next king of Israel was Zechariah, son of Jeroboam, but he only reigned for six months. “He did evil in the eyes of the Lord”, following the sins of his father.

2 Kings 14:26 - The Lord saw their suffering

14:26 

The Lord saw the suffering of his people and had pity on them.  So he gave them some relief. Jeroboam died and was succeeded by his son Zechariah.