2 Kings 17:7

THE REASONS WHY GOD SENT SUCH TERRIBLE DESTRUCTION UPON THE NORTHERN KINGDOM

"And it was so, because the children of Israel had sinned against Jehovah their God, who brought them up from the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and feared other gods, and walked in the statutes of the nations, whom Jehovah cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel which they made. And the children of Israel did secretly things that were not right against Jehovah their God: and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchman to the fortified city; and they set them up pillars and the Asherim upon every high hill, and under every green tree; and there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the nations whom Jehovah carried away before them; and they wrought wicked things to provoke Jehovah to anger; and they served idols, whereof Jehovah had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing. Yet Jehovah testified unto Israel, and unto Judah, by every prophet, and every seer, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets. Notwithstanding, they would not hear, but hardened their neck, like to the neck of their fathers, who believed not in Jehovah their God. And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified unto them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the nations that were round about them. And they forsook all the commandments of Jehovah their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made an Asherim, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, to provoke him to anger. Therefore Jehovah was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only."

Such was the shameful record of the Northern Kingdom. There can be no wonder that God removed them. The eternal justice of God demanded it. It was the licentious idolatry of the ancient Canaanites that led to God's replacing them with Israel; and at this juncture Israel itself had become just as evil as the old Canaanites. (See Hosea 12:7, margin).

"From the tower of the watchman to the fortified city" (2 Kings 17:9). This is an idiomatic expression with the meaning, "from shack to mansion," "from cottage to palace," or "from hamlet to city."[9]

"They burnt incense in all the high places, as did the nations whom Jehovah carried away before them" (2 Kings 17:11). The alleged innocence, in a relative sense, which some writers find in that worship in the high places was simply not there. This verse states that what the Israelites did was the same as that which the ancient Canaanites did, meaning, that they went all out in their sensual indulgence of their passions in the vulgar and immoral rites of the fertility cults, which, of course, constituted the principal business of those high places.

"They rejected ... his covenant" (2 Kings 17:15). The notion that any part of God's ancient covenant with racial Israel still exists is false. A covenant can exist only so long as both parties are willing to keep it. Here Israel rejected it; and in the next paragraph, it is clear that Judah also rejected it.

"They worshipped all the host of heaven" (2 Kings 17:16). We may discount the opinions of some critics who doubt, "Whether astral worship was known in the Northern Kingdom."[10] As a matter of fact, Israel had given themselves over to the worship of the host of heaven even in the times of the wilderness wanderings. (Acts 7:42).