The Lord promised the people if they would remain faithful to Him that He would "grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you". (Deuteronomy 28:7a) He didn't promise that no enemies would ever trouble the Israelites; He promised that if and when they did, He would defend them from their enemies. But He also said that if the people turned away from Him and began serving other gods He would "cause you to be defeated before your enemies" and that He would "drive you and the king you set over you to a nation unknown to you or your ancestors". (Deuteronomy 28:25a, 36a) This is exactly what we saw happening in the text we studied yesterday. The Lord allowed the Assyrian invasion to be successful and He allowed the king, Hoshea, to be taken into custody by the Assyrians and He allowed the people of the capital city of Samaria to be deported to Assyria. When the Lord warned the Israelites back in Deuteronomy about a "nation unknown" to them and their ancestors, Assyria was not a major world power. But now, at the pinnacle of widespread idolatry in Israel, Assyria is so powerful that it has already defeated Babylon and will go on to militarily subdue other prosperous kingdoms such as Phoenicia and Egypt.
The author of 2 Kings clearly makes a connection between the people's idolatry and their fall to Assyria. We studied the first portion of this yesterday and will look at the second portion of it today.
"They forsook all the commands of the Lord their God and made for themselves two idols cast in the shape of calves, and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the starry hosts, and they worshiped Baal. They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire. They practiced divination and sought omens and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing His anger." (2 Kings 17:16-17)
Their first step toward idolatry occurred when the first leader of the northern kingdom, Jeroboam I, feared that the people would turn against him if he allowed them to travel into the southern kingdom of Judah to worship the Lord at the temple in Jerusalem. He set up a golden calf at Dan and a golden calf at Bethel to serve as "representations" of the Lord, in disobedience to the Lord's command not to make any images to represent Him. The people of the northern kingdom were to bring their offerings and sacrifices to the altars at these locations, contrary to the Lord's command not to bow to an image of any kind.
They were on a slippery slope and kept sliding down it, soon mixing the religious rituals of the ancient Canaanites in with their already-perverted worship of the Lord. Then King Ahab married Jezebel of Sidon and converted to her religion of Baal worship (and the worship of Baal's consort, Asherah), making it the state-sponsored religion of Israel. A later king, Jehu, rid the land of the temple of Baal and the prophets of Baal but he didn't revert back to the proper worship of the Lord. Instead he pointed the people back to the golden calves. Another king, Ahaz, adopted the detestable god Molek along with many other foreign gods and sacrificed a son and several daughters in the fire to this abominable deity. Apparently he was not the only person in the northern kingdom participating in such an unspeakable deed, for in verse 17 above we saw that "they" sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire, meaning more people than just the king committed this act.
"So the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them from His presence. Only the tribe of Judah was left, and even Judah did not keep the commands of the Lord their God. They followed the practices Israel had introduced. Therefore the Lord rejected all the people of Israel; He afflicted them and gave them into the hands of plunderers, until He thrust them from His presence." (2 Kings 17:18-20) Here we find a warning of Moses coming true: "You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will be left but few in number, because you did not obey the Lord your God." (Deuteronomy 28:62)
The southern kingdom of Judah will also fall to an enemy but it won't be until a hundred or so years later. I believe the people of Judah took longer to give in to idolatry because they had the temple and the priests among them, for the priests deserted the northern kingdom in droves when Jeroboam I set up the golden calves and began appointing men not of the tribe of Levi as priests. The people of the northern kingdom began going astray when they adopted their own practices of religion and when they began listening to priests who were not accurately teaching them the laws and commandments of the Lord.
King David ruled over a united kingdom but in the days of his grandson Rehoboam the kingdom split in two because Rehoboam would not give the people any relief from heavy taxation and from conscription into his labor forces. Indeed, when appealed to for relief, he oppressed them even worse in retaliation. The majority of the people of the ten northern tribes decided to follow Jeroboam by seceding from a united nation, by renouncing God's chosen royal line (the house of David) as the royal line of Israel, and by declaring Jeroboam their king. The Lord makes mention of that here: "When He tore Israel away from the house of David, they made Jeroboam son of Nebat their king. Jeroboam enticed Israel away from following the Lord and caused them to commit a great sin. The Israelites persisted in all the sins of Jeroboam and did not turn away from them until the Lord removed them from His presence, as He had warned through all His servants the prophets. So the people of Israel were taken from their homeland into exile in Assyria, and they are still there." (2 Kings 17:21-23)
The Lord "tore Israel away" from the house of David because Solomon took many foreign wives and built altars for their pagan gods. Solomon himself even attended religious ceremonies at these locations, so the Lord told him that because he had not been fully faithful to Him, "I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David My servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen." (1 Kings 11:11b-13) We were told in 1 Kings 11 that Jeroboam son of Nebat was one of Solomon's officials. He is the man referred to by the Lord as Solomon's "subordinate".
We can clearly see that as long as the majority of the people of the nation remained faithful to the Lord, the Lord blessed the nation. But Solomon dabbled in idolatry because he had a fetish for pagan women. Then Rehoboam, whose mother was one of those pagan women, also followed idolatrous religious practices. The Bible tells us that he abandoned the law of the Lord. (2 Chronicles 12:1) So the Lord rent the nation in two and the ten northern tribes retained the name of Israel with Jeroboam I as their king and the two southern tribes, the very large tribe of Judah and the small tribe of Benjamin, became collectively known as the kingdom of Judah with Rehoboam as the king. This fulfills what the Lord said to Solomon, that He would tear the kingdom away from Solomon's son with the exception of "one tribe for the sake of David and for the sake of Jerusalem". The area that became Jerusalem was part of the allotment for the tribe of Benjamin but David (of the tribe of Judah) is the one who conquered the area and took it away from the Jebusites. Because of these things it would be correct to say that Jerusalem belonged to Benjamin and it would also be correct to say it belonged to Judah.
The first time any idolatrous practices began taking place, the downfall of the nation as a whole actually began. Over the centuries between then and where we are now in our Bible study, the Lord sent many prophets with many warnings to the people, but because He was repeatedly rejected in favor of the false gods of the heathen nations, He eventually allowed the northern kingdom to be conquered by a heathen nation. It will take a while longer before idolatry reaches its zenith in Judah but at that time the Lord will allow Judah to be conquered by a heathen nation as well.
Nothing good ever comes of rejecting the Lord---the only God---who called all things into existence and who loves us and who wants to have a relationship with us. There is no help to be found in any other god, for there is no other god. There is no salvation to be found in anyone but Him.
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