2 Chronicles 28 and 2 Kings 16-17

• THIS IS A GREAT (but sad) READ
• Click here to read
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• DO NOT SKIM 2 Kings 17

Look closely at the King’s names for the Kingdom of Israel.  Today is the day we read about Hosea.  The last king In Israel.  

On the Judah side, we are still at Ahaz.

Ahaz (KIng od Judah)–😢

He’s awful! Let’s list a few things: Think about this for a minute.  He lived in the Southern nation, in Jerusalem- where the TEMPLE was located yet he…

• offered pagan sacrifices including sacrificing his own son to foreign gods
  • 2 Chronicles the first 9 verses read like a ‘Cause/Effect’ document in my social studies class.
  • effect-⁵ Therefore the Lord his God delivered him into the hands of the king of Aram. The Arameans defeated him and took many of his people as prisoners and brought them to Damascus. He was also given into the hands of the king of Israel, who inflicted heavy casualties on him.
• when the king of Aram came to fight Jerusalem who did Ahaz cry out to for help?  The Lord?  NO!!!  To the King of Assyria!
• when Ahaz went to Damascus to pay the king of Aram (with the gold he took from the Temple) he told his priest to sketch their altar of worship so he could build a replica of it and make sacrifices to it
• When he went back to Jerusalem he deconstructed the Temple to look like their temple! Removing parts and rebuilding other parts.  What??

“Listen Linda”, If I were a preacher…I would make a series out of this!  SO MUCH APPLICATION here…and I am guilty of all of it…so let’s move on 😕

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Now let’s look at the Northern Tribe (Israel)

Chapter 17…HERE IT IS!  The last king of Israel.  The Israelites are taken captive and removed from the Promised Land!

 ⁵ The king of Assyria invaded the entire land, marched against Samaria and laid siege to it for three years. ⁶ In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria.

(Follow the purple lines)

In Deuteronomy 28 God told them if you obey me….if you disobey me.  HE WARNED THEM.  (over and over and over again)  So what did they do? (Basically, I am copying the whole chapter)

⁷ All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of Egypt from under the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

• They worshiped other gods ⁸ and followed the practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before them, as well as the practices that the kings of Israel had introduced.
• ⁹ The Israelites secretly did things against the Lord their God that were not right.
• ¹⁰ They set up sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree.  
• ¹² They worshiped idols, though the Lord had said, “You shall not do this.”

¹³ The Lord warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and seers: “Turn from your evil ways. Observe my commands and decrees, in accordance with the entire Law that I commanded your ancestors to obey and that I delivered to you through my servants the prophets.”

• ¹⁴ But they would not listen and were as stiff-necked as their ancestors, who did not trust in the Lord their God.
• ¹⁵ They rejected his decrees and the covenant he had made with their ancestors and the statutes he had warned them to keep.
• They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless. They imitated the nations around them although the Lord had ordered them, “Do not do as they do.”
• ¹⁶ They forsook all the commands of the Lord their God and made for themselves two idols cast in the shape of calves, and an Asherah pole.
• ¹⁷ They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire. They practiced divination and sought omens and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing his anger.

(they would put the baby on the statue.  There was a hole in the center that had a fire in it)

¹⁸ So the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them from his presence. Only the tribe of Judah was left…… So the people of Israel were taken from their homeland into exile in Assyria, and they are still there.

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To make matters worse:

• ²⁴ The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Kuthah, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites.

But they did not know how to worship our God….so Lions ate them.  Ha!  Well, that was freaking them out so they came up with a plan…have one of the captured priests go back and teach them how to worship God.

• ³³ They worshiped the Lord, but they also served their own gods in accordance with the customs of the nations from which they had been brought.
• ⁴⁰ They would not listen, however, but persisted in their former practices. ⁴¹ 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 ancestors did.
  • Hashtag True Story!  Assyria is modern-day Iraq!!

If that post was confusing please let me know.