GOD DISCIPLINES HIS PEOPLE
Good parents teach responsibility by giving their children tasks to do, holding the kids accountable by making sure the jobs are done correctly. They give their kids several chances to get it right because the learning process requires patience. What happens when a child refuses to do what is expected? What can loving parents do when their young person fails to meet expectations or deliberately does shameful or harmful things to themselves or to others? Some parents have to make the hardest decision of their lives concerning their children. They chose to apply strong discipline in order to save their kids life because previous warnings had gone unheeded. I’m sure you know where this is leading. This was the situation that faced God.
Read 2 Kings 17:7-11 God’s People Sinned
After Solomon’s death around 931 BC, his kingdom divided into two smaller kingdoms: Israel (Northern Kingdom) and Judah (Southern Kingdom). This lesson focuses on Israel, with the pattern of sin, warning, and judgment. Judah outlasted Israel by 136 years, but it too often sinned, heard God’s warning through prophets, and faced God’s discipline. Both kingdoms suffered similar fates. As a loving Father, God submitted His rebellious children to severe discipline in order to correct their ways. In 722 BC, after a three-year siege, the Assyrians overthrew Samaria, capital of Israel (2 Kings 17:6-7). The Northern Kingdom was no more. The same scenario played out 136 years later when Babylon destroyed Jerusalem, capital of Judah. The Jewish people learned the hard way: God disciplines His people. God’s Story is replete with examples of people who brought judgment upon themselves due to sin.
God’s Story also has many examples of people who repented and turned back to God, experiencing His acceptance and rich blessing as a result. These people gave God reasons for wanting to forgive and restore as many of Jewish people as possible. Why do parents discipline their children? (Out of love because they want them to change and live better lives.) Sometimes following God is difficult and painful, but consider the alternative. We can live for God or die for ourselves. Determine to be God’s person and do what He says regardless the cost. What God thinks of us is infinitely more important than what those around us think (Romans 12:1, 2; 1 John 2:15-17). However, the people of Israel got caught up in wanting to be like and blend in with the surrounding nations and their pagan customs and worshipping of false gods. So the Lord had to discipline and judge the people for their actions. Those who create their own religion tend to live selfishly. And to live for one’s self, as Israel learned, brings serious consequences from God.
Ruin came upon Israel for their public sins and their secret sins. Not only did they condone wickedness and idolatry in public, but they committed even worse sins in private. Secret sins are the ones we don’t want others to know about because they are embarrassing or incriminating. Sins done in private are not secret to God, and secret defiance of Him is just as damaging as open rebellion. God’s people “missed the mark” He had set for them for covenant loyalty and obedience. God wants us to live by His principles. When we fall short, we have only to repent and to turn back to God in order for Him to forgive and to restore us.
Read 2 Kings 17:12-15 God’s People Were Warned
Two realities made the Northern Kingdom’s demise particularly tragic. First, God clearly had stated His expectations from the beginning. Second, He often warned His people along the way to repent whenever they had sinned. Thus the writer of 2 Kings (possible Jeremiah) succinctly stated “They served idols, although the Lord had told them, ‘You must not do this” (v.12). The verb “served” is translated as “worship” on some occasions (Ex. 20:5). Clearly God never intended for people, made in His image and likeness, to humble themselves before man-made idols. The Lord did not arbitrarily judge Israel, but rather He exacted upon them the judgment their sin deserved according to the command He had given from the beginning of their covenant together. God would often use prophets to warn the Israelites about appearing godly but lacking depth and devotion- a result of picking and choosing the command they wanted to follow. God’s Word is not a buffet where people can choose meat and desserts and ignore the vegetables (so that is why vegetables are so good for us). God sent His terms for relationship and His warning to repent through His “servants the prophets”. That God referred to them as “my servants” is indicative of their loyalty to His Word and Will. So who were these prophets?
2 Kings was the concluding section of a longer history cataloging God’s people from their entrance into the land under Joshua to the fall of both Israel and Judah. During the course of Israel’s time in the promise land, God had sent many prophets to confront and to guide His people. He used Samuel, who anointed both Saul and David to be kings over God’s people. He used Nathan and Gad to confront David in his sins (2 Sam. 12; 24). He used Ahijah to inform Jeroboam of the intent to divide Solomon’s kingdom (1 Kings 11). When King Baasha sinned, God confronted him through the prophet Jehr Ben Hanani (1 Kings 16). What about the great ministries of the prophets Elijah and Elisha? We need not forget how the shepherd Amos traveled from Judah to confront the sin of Israel at Bethel or how God used Hosea’s broken marriage as an analogy of His relationship with Israel. Additionally God empowered Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and other prophets to confront His people’s sins, warning them to repent. So how do we hear God’s messages and warnings – and who is our “prophet” today? (Read the Bible, Prayer, “Listen” to the Holy Spirit. Listen to the Pastor’s messages, worship together, and studying together.)
God’s patience and mercy are beyond our ability to understand. He will pursue us until we either respond to Him or, by our own choice and hardness of heart, make ourselves unreachable. Then God’s judgment is swift and sure. The only safe course is to turn to God before our stubbornness puts us out of His reach. Think about all of the Jewish people throughout the ages that can’t understand that Jesus is the Messiah. Everything points to Jesus and all of the specific prophecies that have been fulfilled by Jesus exactly as predicted. By the way 2 Kings 25:25 refers to the Israelites, the Hebrews, and the Judeans all a “Jews” (NASB).
Read 2 Kings 17:18-20 God’s People Were Disciplined
Discipline is not pleasant, but it is beneficial and needed. We can even learn from others’ mistakes and turn back to God. However, it seems the Israelites could not learn. In verse 18, the phrase “he removed them from His presence” means God removed His control and protection from their lives. We can remove God’s control from our lives through our attitudes and actions. The people continued to abuse the long-suffering God and to excite His anger with their sins until He finally removed them forever as a nation. Only Judah remained of the twelve tribes of Israel to whom God had given the Promised Land. However, the author of the Books of Kings, who lived after the destruction of Jerusalem, anticipated in verses 190-20 the rejection of all of Israel, including Judah, for their sin. In Dr. David Jeremiah’s book “What in the World is Going On” (10 Prophetic clues you cannot afford to ignore), chapter 5 deals with the Rapture and what occurs to position the event in relation to Tribulation. Dr. Jeremiah also draws a parallel to what happened to Israel and Judah to the United States’ moral decay and loss of dependence on God, in chapter 6. Thus he reasons these are among the thoughts that the Bible is silent on the future of America.
After all of this, we can more clearly see why the remnant of Jews who were finally returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple from Persia by Cyrus was vital. This led directly to establishing the base and set the stage for Jesus. Prior to this small remnant (see Ezra 1-8 for the estimates) being blessed by God, the Israelites engaged in forms of witchcraft, fortune-telling and black-magic – all of which were forbidden by God (Deut. 18:9-14). They were wrong because they sought power and guidance totally apart from God, His law and His Word. Isaiah echoed this law and prophesied of the complete destruction of these occult practices would bring to those who participated in them (Isa. 8:19-22). God is the same today as He has always been and He will preserve His people and His kingdom. We need only to read God’s Story to discover God disciplines His people for the good of His people.