Day 117 of the podcast, reading 2 Kings 16-18 NET, read along at:
https://netbible.org/bible/2+Kings+16-18/
This is day 117 of our journey.
Today, we see the inevitable consequences of sin and apostasy as the nation of Israel is punished and sent into exile. For generations, Israel's kings have allowed the people to worship other gods and their years on the throne have been marked by wickedness, greed, and bloodshed. Their final king, Hoshea, is no different than his predecessors. During Hoshea's reign, the king of Assyria marches on Israel, captures Samaria, and scatters the people of Israel throughout his kingdom. At the same time, he brings foreigners into Samaria to settle the land. Thus, the nation of Israel is gone. We are given a summary of all the evil they have done and the ways that they have broken the covenant that God laid out before them. The punishment is swift and painful but is, ultimately, just!
While this is happening, Judah has 2 kings, Ahaz and Hezekiah. King Ahaz does evil in the sight of the Lord and follows all the practices of the kings of Israel. But, King Hezekiah is a great king who seeks after the Lord and serves him better than any of the other kings of Judah before him. In faithful obedience, he even removes the high places and reestablishes the practice that atonement and worship would only occur at the temple as God intended. Even so, it is a dark time in Judah as war breaks out with foreign aggressors. The Assyrian king Sennacherib marches, in force, against Judah as he sends men of violence to curse God and discourage the people.
Join me in 2 Kings 16-18 to witness the rise of the Assyrian empire as it brings God's judgement on Israel.
Key verses:
2 Kings 16:3
He followed in the footsteps of the kings of Israel. He passed his son through the fire, a horrible sin practiced by the nations whom the Lord drove out from before the Israelites.
2 Kings 17:23
Finally the Lord rejected Israel just as he had warned he would do through all his servants the prophets. Israel was deported from its land to Assyria and remains there to this very day.
2 Kings 18:13
In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, King Sennacherib of Assyria marched up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.
All Scriptures are from the NET.
