Rev. Don Campbell
2 Chronicles 28, 2 Kings 16-17
THOUGHT FOR TODAY, July 15, 2019
“THE CURTAIN FALLS ON ISRAEL”
The inspired historian recounts the same facts as were laid out in Micah 6:1-5 and then says, “Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, ‘Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets’” (v.13). As we know, they did not respond in repentance and we read: “In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria, and he carried the Israelites away to Assyria and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes” (2 Kings 17:6).
Israel had fallen and would not rise again, but the narrative goes one: “Judah also did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the customs that Israel had introduced. And the Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until he had cast them out of his sight” (2 Kings 17:19-20).
It would be a century and a quarter before Judah would be carried away into Babylonian captivity—long enough for them to have repented and be spared. Instead, they leaned upon the arm of flesh. “At that time King Ahaz sent to the king of Assyria for help. For the Edomites had again invaded and defeated Judah and carried away captives. And the Philistines had made raids on the cities in the Shephelah and the Negeb of Judah, and had taken Beth-shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Soco with its villages, Timnah with its villages, and Gimzo with its villages. And they settled there. For the Lord humbled Judah because of Ahaz king of Israel, for he had made Judah act sinfully and had been very unfaithful to the Lord. So Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came against him and afflicted him instead of strengthening him. FOR AHAZ TOOK A PORTION FROM THE HOUSE OF THE LORD AND THE HOUSE OF THE KING AND OF THE PRINCES, AND GAVE TRIBUTE TO THE KING OF ASSYRIA, BUT IT DID NOT HELP HIM” (2 CHRONICLES 28:16-21).
CONNECTIONS
1. Fortunately, another king came to power in Judah, Hezekiah, who cleansed the temple, restored its worship, organized the priests, and sought God with all his heart (2 Chronicles 29-31), preventing for a time the fall of Judah. Upon whose arm did he urge the people to lean? (2 Chronicles 32:7-8).
2. Paul urges believers to put on the armor of God, but where does the strength and might lie? (Ephesians 6:10).
