Chapter
26: The Sins & Judgments of the Northern Kingdom
Part
2: Post-Ahab
Chapter
26 Contents
26.1
Introduction
26.2
Post Ahab
26.3
The Sins of Israel
26.4
Israel seen in the big picture
26.5
Summary-Conclusion
Appendix
1
Appendix
2
26.1
Introduction
We
paused at the end of the previous chapter at the end of Ahab's
reign. We chose Ahab as the dividing point for considering the
northern kingdom simply because so much space is given to him
in the Old Testament that he provides a useful marker for considering
all the kings of the northern kingdom.
The
path was set by Jeroboam, the first king of the northern kingdom
who made and set up two idols, one at the northern end of the
kingdom and one at the south, the idea being that the people
wouldn't need to go down to Jerusalem to worship the Lord. To
accompany these idols he also set up a complete religion paralleling
that of the south, except it didn't come from the Lord! Furthermore
it seemed to open the door for other religions from other countries
to be brought into the country, complete with their idols. This
situation remained like this throughout the reign of every one
of the following kings of the north, as we shall see in this
chapter.
|
The
Northern Kings
(and
the lengths of their reigns)
1.Jeroboam
(22)
2.Nadab
(2)
3.Baasha
(24)
4.Elah
(2)
5.Zimri
(1 week)
6a.Tibni
(unknown)
6b.Omri
(12)
7.Ahab
(22)
8.Ahaziah
(2)
9.Joram
(12)
10.Jehu
(28)
11.Jehoahaz
(17)
12.Jehoash
(16)
13.Jeroboam
II (41)
14.Zechariah
(6m)
15.Shallum
(1m)
16.Menahem
(10)
17.Pekahiah
(2)
18.Pekah
(20)
19.Hoshea
(9)
|
26.2
Post-Ahab
Ahab
died about 853BC. Bearing in mind Samaria fell in 722BC, we are now
considering roughly a 130 year period. Rather than go through each
reign in detail we instead simply provide the following table showing
the king, how long their reigned (in brackets), where they can be
found in the Old Testament, and what the recording scribes (the author(s)
of 1 & 2 Kings) had to say about them in terms of their standing
before the Lord
The
Remaining Kings of Israel
King
(+reign) |
Ref.
|
Condemnation
|
8.
Ahaziah (2) |
1
Kings 22:51-53 |
He
did evil in the eyes of the LORD , because he walked in the
ways of his father and mother and in the ways of Jeroboam son
of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin. He served and worshiped
Baal and provoked the LORD , the God of Israel , to anger, just
as his father had done. (1
Kings 22:52,53) |
9.
Joram (12) killed by |
2
Kings 3:1- |
He
did evil in the eyes of the LORD, but not as his father and
mother had done. He got rid of the sacred stone of Baal that
his father had made. Nevertheless he clung to the sins of Jeroboam
son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit; he did not
turn away from them (3:2,3)
|
10.
Jehu (28) |
2
Kings 10:36 |
So
Jehu destroyed Baal worship in Israel . However,
he did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat,
which he had caused Israel to commit--the worship of the golden
calves at Bethel and Dan. The LORD said to Jehu, "Because
you have done well in accomplishing what is right in my eyes
and have done to the house of Ahab all I had in mind to do,
your descendants will sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth
generation." Yet Jehu was not careful to keep the law of
the LORD, the God of Israel , with all his heart. He did not
turn away from the sins of Jeroboam, which he had caused Israel
to commit.( 10:29-31) |
11.
Jehoahaz (17) |
2
Kings 13:1-6 |
He
did evil in the eyes of the LORD by following the sins of Jeroboam
son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit, and he did
not turn away from them. (13:1)
|
12.
Jehoash (16) |
2
Kings 13:10- |
He
did evil in the eyes of the LORD and did not turn away from
any of the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused
Israel to commit; he continued in them.
(13:11) |
13.
Jeroboam II (41) |
2
Kings 14:23-29 |
H
e did evil in the eyes of the
LORD and did not turn away from any of the sins of Jeroboam
son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit .
(14:24)
The
LORD had seen how bitterly everyone in Israel , whether slave
or free, was suffering; there was no one to help them. And since
the LORD had not said he would blot out the name of Israel from
under heaven, he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam son of Jehoash.
(14:26,27) |
14.
Zechariah (6m)
assassinated
by |
2
Kings 15:8-12 |
He
did evil in the eyes of the LORD, as his fathers had done. He
did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which
he had caused Israel to commit.
(15:9) |
15.
Shallum (1m)
assassinated
by |
2
Kings 15:13-15 |
|
16.
Menahem (10) who submitted to Assyria |
2
Kings 15:16-22 |
He
did evil in the eyes of the LORD, as his fathers had done. He
did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which
he had caused Israel to commit.
(15:18) |
17.
Pekahiah (2)
assassinated
by |
2
Kings 15:23-26 |
He
did evil in the eyes of the LORD, as his fathers had done. He
did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which
he had caused Israel to commit.
(15:24) |
18.
Pekah (20)
assassinated
by |
2
Kings 15:27-31 |
He
did evil in the eyes of the LORD, as his fathers had done. He
did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which
he had caused Israel to commit.
(15:28) |
19.
Hoshea (9) deported by king of Assyria |
2
Kings 17:1-6 |
He
did evil in the eyes of the LORD, but not like the kings of
Israel who preceded him. (17:2)
|
As
can be seen, most of them have their sin identified with that of Jeroboam.
26.3
The Sins of Israel : 2 Kings 17:7-17
The
Sins Listed
Because
these verses are full of condemnation of Israel and explain the reasons
for the ending of the northern kingdom, the following table may highlight
their failures:
1
|
v.7
|
Worshipped
other gods |
2
|
v.8
|
Followed
practices of Canaanites |
3
|
v.8
|
Followed
the wrong practice introduced by Jeroboam |
4
|
v.9
|
Secretly
built high places of false worship |
5
|
v.10
|
Set
up sacred stones & Asherah poles to worship |
6
|
v.11
|
Burned
incense to idols |
7
|
v.12
|
Worshipped
idols |
8
|
v.13
|
Disregarded
God's Laws |
9
|
v.14
|
Did
not trust in God |
10
|
v.15
|
Rejected
God's covenant |
11
|
v.15
|
Rejected
God's warnings |
12
|
v.15
|
Followed
worthless idols |
13
|
v.15
|
Imitated
pagan nations doing forbidden things |
14
|
v.16
|
Made
two golden calves and worshipped them |
15
|
v.16
|
Made
and worshipped an Asherah pole |
16
|
v.16
|
Worshipped
the stars |
17
|
v.16
|
Worshipped
Baal |
18
|
v.17
|
Sacrificed
their sons and daughters |
19
|
v.17
|
Practised
divination |
20
|
v.17
|
Practised
sorcery |
This
twenty-fold condemnation may be summarised as:
- Turning
away from God
- Rejecting
God, His covenant and His warnings
- Creating
their own false religion
- Making
and worshipping idols to replace God
Verse
17 summarises their activities as setting their hearts to do evil.
26.4
Israel seen in the big picture
The
overall failure started with Jeroboam and continued through every
reign until their ultimate destruction. This is detailed in chapter
17 of 2 Kings by way of a round up of what had happened and why.
The Root Problem
2
Kings 17:21-23 When
he tore Israel away from the house of David, they made Jeroboam son
of Nebat their king. Jeroboam enticed Israel away from following the
LORD and caused them to commit a great sin. The Israelites persisted
in all the sins of Jeroboam and did not turn away from them
until the LORD removed them from his presence, as he had warned
through all his servants the prophets. So the people of Israel were
taken from their homeland into exile in Assyria , and they are still
there.
Requirements
of the Original Covenant
2
Kings 17:35-39 When
the LORD
made a covenant
with the Israelites, he commanded them: "Do not worship any other
gods or bow down to them, serve them or sacrifice to them. But the
LORD , who brought you up out of Egypt with mighty power and outstretched
arm, is the one you must worship. To him you shall bow down and to
him offer sacrifices. You must always be careful to keep the decrees
and ordinances, the laws and commands he wrote for you. Do not worship
other gods. Do not forget the covenant I have made with you, and do
not worship other gods. Rather, worship the LORD your God; it is he
who will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies."
The
following may apply to those in Samaria after others imported, but
it also certainly applied to the people of Israel throughout the time
of the northern kingdom:
2
Kings 17:40,41 They
would not listen, however, but persisted in their former practices.
Even while these people were worshiping the LORD , they were serving
their idols. To this day their children and grandchildren continue
to do as their fathers did
There
was no question about the outcome
2
Kings 18:11,12 The
king of Assyria deported Israel to Assyria and settled them in Halah,
in Gozan on the Habor River and in towns of the Medes. This happened
because they had not obeyed the LORD their God, but had violated his
covenant--all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded. They neither
listened to the commands nor carried them out
An
act of grace and mercy
Roughly
6 years after the fall of Samaria, Hezekiah, king of Judah sent out
a remarkable letter to every Israelite, both those in the land of
Judah and those deported to come and celebrate the Passover at Jerusalem.
See 2 Chron 30:1-11
The
offer of restoration: 2 Chron 30:6-9
Note
particularly “At the king's command,
couriers went throughout Israel and Judah with letters from the king
and from his officials, which read: "People of Israel, return
to the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, that he may return
to you who are left, who have escaped from the hand of the kings of
Assyria. Do not be like your fathers and brothers, who were unfaithful
to the LORD, the God of their fathers, so that he made them an object
of horror, as you see. Do not be stiff-necked, as your fathers were;
submit to the LORD. Come to the sanctuary, which he has consecrated
forever. Serve the LORD your God, so that his fierce anger will turn
away from you. If you return to the LORD, then your brothers and your
children will be shown compassion by their captors and will come back
to this land, for the LORD your God is gracious and compassionate.
He will not turn his face from you if you return to him."
Responses
The
couriers went from town to town in Ephraim and Manasseh, as far as
Zebulun, but the people scorned and ridiculed them. Nevertheless,
some men of Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and went
to Jerusalem .
(v.10,11)
26.5
Summary-Conclusion
The
History Covered & Sins observed
As
noted in the previous chapter, we have sought to outline the whole
of the history of Israel , the northern ten tribes, from the point
of the breaking up of Solomon's kingdom, (about 930BC) to the destruction
of Samaria (722BC),roughly a 208 year period.
In
chapter 25 we covered the kings from Jeroboam to Ahab.
In
this chapter we have continued by looking at the post-Ahab period
by summarizing the kings and their condemnations. We have already
put in table-form their failures and so we will not repeat it here.
Questions
that arise
1.
God's Help
Question:
Did God just abandon the northern
kingdom?.
Answer:
Without doubt the Lord did not just
leave Israel to their own devices but spoke His word through His prophets
into the life of Israel again and again. See Appendix 1 below. It
is interesting to note that after Elisha (2 Kings 13) there is a dearth
of such words and the Lord appears to remain silent in the following
reigns recorded in the following four chapters until the dispersion
of the nation in chapter 17.
During
the ministries of Elijah and Elisha He backed their ministries with
the miraculous. We might say He was doing everything possible to re-establish
and maintain a testimony to His ongoing presence in the land with
the hope that the people would turn back to Him.
In
Appendix 2 below, we also include some verses that indicate the Lord's
grace working for Israel throughout this time. It is clear that He
was there, watching and overseeing Israel .
2.
The Sin of Israel
Question:
What was the sin or sins of the
northern kingdom?
Answer:
The primary sin, of establishing
a copy-cat religion to stop the people going to down Jerusalem , complete
with two golden idols, was at the heart of their sin and although
it was established by their first king, Jeroboam, it was continued
by every single one of the kings of the northern kingdom.
In
26.3 above we have also itemized the list of sins of Israel throughout
this period as noted by the scribe of that day.
3.
Why No Judgment
Question:
The biggest question which hangs
over this whole two hundred year period is why did the Lord tolerate
it? Surely He must have known it would happen when He split the kingdom
after Solomon?
Answers:
We did suggest that splitting the
kingdom was an act designed to give greater opportunity for Israelites
to get it right, but in the case of the northern kingdom it is clearly
a case of giving them greater opportunity to get it wrong!