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Context No. 4285 of 4322 · 2 Kings

Context · Reflection

2 Kings 17:1-6: in context

1In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah began to reign in Samaria over Israel for nine years. 2He did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight, yet not as the kings of Israel who were before him. 3Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against him; and Hoshea became his servant, and brought him tribute. 4The king of Assyria discovered a conspiracy in Hoshea; for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. Therefore the king of Assyria seized him, and bound him in prison. 5Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years. 6In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away to Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

This passage records the end of the northern kingdom of Israel: after a long history of turning from God, Samaria falls to Assyria, and the people are carried away into exile. A small note stands out about the last king, Hoshea: he did evil in the LORD's sight, yet not as the kings of Israel who were before him. Even a king who was somewhat less wicked than his predecessors could not reverse the momentum of generations toward ruin.

What stands out is that a marginal improvement, too little and too late, could not avert the consequences of long, accumulated unfaithfulness. Israel had refused to return to God through many warnings and many years; by Hoshea's time, even a somewhat better king was not enough to turn back the tide. The disaster that finally came was the harvest of a long-sown drift that had never been decisively reversed.

It is dangerous to postpone returning to God, to assume there will always be time, to settle for being a little less wayward while never truly turning back. Delayed and half-hearted reform may prove too little, too late. The lesson of Samaria's fall is not to presume on time but to return to God wholeheartedly now, while the returning can still make a difference.

Am I postponing a wholehearted return to God, settling for being a little less wayward while assuming there will always be time, and will I heed the sober lesson of Samaria's fall by returning to him decisively now rather than drifting until it is too late?

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