Israel is Destroyed

After Jeroboams death, over a period of about 225 years, Israel would have eighteen kings.   Those eighteen kings would follow the customs and practices set by Jeroboam in an effort to retain their power, and the people followed their leaders, despite constantly increasing  problems that resulted, as II Kings 13:6 tells us.  “Nevertheless they departed not from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, who made Israel sin, but walked therein: and there remained the grove also in Samaria.”  Finally god had his fill with their rebellion, As described in II Kings 17:6-

“In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.  For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods, And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made.

And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the LORD their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.  And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree: And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the LORD carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger: For they served idols, whereof the LORD had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing.

Yet the LORD testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, 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 necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the LORD their God.

And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them.  And they left all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, 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 evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.  

Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only.  Also Judah kept not the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made.

And the LORD rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight.  For he rent Israel from the house of David; and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king: and Jeroboam drave Israel from following the LORD, and made them sin a great sin.  For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them; Until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day.

People often forget God created the earth and everything in it.  As the creator, it all belongs to Him.  When He created mankind, God made man responsible for overseeing the earth, according to Genesis 1:26-28.  “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”

After the flood, he divided the earth and scattered mankind over the whole earth, allowing different groups to settle different places and making them responsible for their area.  Unfortunately, most groups forget ti is God’s land, not theirs, and it is to be administered according to his plans.    When they begin to use it in a way that is not satisfactory to Him. He has the right to take it away from the group that occupy the land if they do not use it properly, and place another group as caretakers.    The various ecological groups are right that man is responsible for how he treats the earth.  Unfortunately, they haven’t bothered to find out what God said either. 

God had taken the land of Canaan from the original inhabitants and given it to Israel because the previous inhabitants had used it in ways that were not pleasing to God.  Because Israel had not cared for it properly, using it in accordance whit his commands, he how took the land from them and gave it to the Assyrians to take care of.  In Many ways, Israel under Jeroboam and his successors was like the church at Thyatira, described in Revelation 2:18-29, refusing to obey God even when warned of the dangers.  Sadly, there are many in the church today who are clinging to traditions and false teachings and ignoring what God said, and like Israel, they will face God’s judgment.