2 Kings 17:1-6: a reflection

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 generations of kings who did evil in God's sight, the Assyrian empire besieges Samaria, and after three years the city falls. Its people are carried away into exile, scattered across distant lands, and the kingdom that had persisted in unfaithfulness for so long simply ceases to exist. It is the tragic culmination of a long story of turning away from God, the harvest finally coming in.

The fall did not come suddenly or without warning. For generations, Israel's kings had led the people into idolatry, and God had sent prophet after prophet pleading with them to turn back. His patience had been immense, spanning many reigns and many warnings. But persistent, generational rejection of God, though it met with long patience, finally reached its limit. The exile was not an arbitrary disaster but the sober end of a road the nation had chosen and refused to leave.

This sobering history carries a warning and a mercy. The warning: persistent turning from God, especially when it hardens across a whole way of life, has real and grave consequences; God's patience, though vast, is not to be presumed upon endlessly. The mercy: for generations God sent warnings, pleading for his people to turn before it was too late. Do not read this history as merely ancient; let it move you to heed God's word now, while there is time, and not to travel the long road of drift to its bitter end. Turn to him today.

Lord, the northern kingdom fell after generations of turning from you, despite your long patience and many warnings. This is a sobering history, and I take it to heart. Keep me from presuming on your patience or hardening into a life of drift. Thank you that for so long you pleaded with your people to turn. Help me to heed your word now, while there is time, and not to travel the road of drift to its bitter end. Amen.