Thought from today’s Bible reading from 2 Chronicles 28; 2 Kings 16-17.
“In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried Israel away into exile to Assyria, and settled them in Halah and Habor, on the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes” (2 Kings 17:6).
After a long period of trouble and instability in Israel, the people were finally taken away from their homeland, the land that God had promised their fathers, and relocated by force to Assyria. Why would God bring this upon them? The text goes on to list the reasons why they were punished in this way.
- They sinned against the Lord (v. 7).
- They feared other gods (v. 7).
- They walked in the customs of the nations that had previously inhabited the land (v. 8), and went after the nations that surrounded them (v. 15).
- They walked in the customs of the wicked kings who ruled over them (v. 8).
- They secretly did things against God (v. 9).
- They built high places and altars to false gods (v. 9-12, 16).
- They refused to listen to God’s prophets (v. 13-14).
- They rejected the statutes and the covenant which God made with their fathers (v. 15).
- They made their sons and daughters pass through the fire (v. 17).
- They practiced divination and enchantments (v. 17).
- They sold themselves to do evil (v. 17).
God was certainly patient with them, but His patience had a limit. So they were punished for their sins.
Let us learn from the sins and shortcomings of the Israelites and not follow their wicked example to our own destruction.
Tomorrow’s reading: Isaiah 13-17
[I’m using the Chronological reading plan on the Bible Gateway website if you’d like to follow along, too.]
Daily Notes & Observations contains all 365 articles from this series and is available in paperback from Gospel Armory.
