The kingdom of Israel had failed to learn the lesson that God desired to teach it, that He was the giver of all the good they enjoyed. Their great desire had been to get away from the Lord, and now, in a measure, their wish was about to be granted.
Nearly eight hundred years had passed since they came out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, to be to God a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation, a peculiar treasure to Him above all people. He had given them the land of Canaan, casting out the inhabitants thereof, because of the nameless abominations with which they polluted it, but Israel had fallen so low that the same evils were now found among them.
The prophets had testified faithfully against their sins, and called them to return to the worship of the true God; they had declared His forgiving love, but the message fell upon indifferent ears and hardened hearts. "They knew not that I healed them." (Hosea 11:3)
Trust in the Lord
When the king of Assyria began to fasten his yoke upon the kingdom of Israel, exacting tribute from them, instead of seeking the Lord for deliverance, appeal was made to Egypt, the very kingdom from which God had once delivered them with great power and with a stretched out arm. Israel knew well that Jehovah had crushed the pride of Egypt, yet they leaned upon the broken reed. (Isaiah 36:6; Lo, you trust in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt; whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all that trust in him) "Ephraim is like a silly dove, without understanding: they call unto Egypt, they go to Assyria." (Hosea 7:11,RV)
The payment of tribute to Assyria was withheld for awhile in hope of help from Egypt, but the rising was quickly suppressed, and the Assyrian king sent Hoshea, king of Israel, to prison. (2 Kings 17:4)
A Record of Transgression
The scripture which contains the day's lesson is one long list of the iniquities of Israel, telling how they walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out before them, and how they did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord, setting up idols on every high hill and under every green tree. The Lord had spoken to them, "by all the prophets, and by all the seers," (2 Kings 17:13) reminding them of His dealings with their fathers, and exhorting them to turn from their wickedness and live. "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 they followed vanity, and became vain." (2 Kings 17:14-15)
All the abominations of the heathen were reproduced in their history; they worshiped all the host of heaven, with the degrading rites that the heathen taught them. "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." (2 Kings 17:17)
Grey Hairs
To the people it appeared that they were having a good time. Restraints were cast off, and all did what their hearts prompted them to do, but the course of sin was quickly run, and they were about to reap the fruit of their doings. "Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knows it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knows not." (Hosea 7:9)
So men often promise to themselves a long career of sinful pleasure, and say, "Soul, take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry, for you have much goods laid up for many years," (Luke 12:19) when even then the sin has worked its own destruction. The Lord was not pleased to see the evil plight into which Israel's contempt for His counsel had plunged the nation. He said to them, "O Israel, you have destroyed yourself; but in me is your help. I will be your King: where is any other that may save you?" (Hosea 13:9-10) "O Israel, return unto the Lord your God; for you have fallen by your iniquity. Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto Him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously. ... I will hear their backsliding, I will love them freely: for my anger is turned away from him." (Hosea 14:1-2,4)
The mercy of the Lord endures for ever, and even when the dark clouds of doom were about to burst over the guilty nation, the Lord stood by them, as ready as ever to heal their backsliding, and love them freely.
A Final Call
In yet another way the Lord sought to save Israel, and to help them to return. Just at that time the king of Judah was carrying on a thorough reformation in his kingdom, and in calling the people of Judah to return to the Lord with all the heart, he kindly sent messengers throughout all Israel with earnest invitations to them to seek the Lord also. They were assured from the Lord that if they would turn to Him with all the heart, they would not only remain in the land, but those who had been carried captive would find compassion with their captors, and would come again unto their own land.--A.T. Jones, Empires of the Bible, p. 241.
This message from the king of Judah to the people of Israel was carried by the posts throughout all Israel and Judah, "but they laughed them to scorn and mocked them. Nevertheless divers of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulun ["a multitude of the people, even many of Ephraim and Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun"] humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. (2 Chronicles 30:5-11) And all that did so humble themselves and turn to the Lord, escaped captivity or slaughter. For "then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land," destroying the cities; making captives of the people; and leaving the country desolate. At last he came "up to Samaria, and besieged it three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them...in the cities of the Medes."--Empires of the Bible, p. 242
The Lost Ten Tribes
Some claim that the kingdom of Israel, which they refer to as the Lost Ten Tribes, will yet come to light as one or more of the great nations of modern history. It is true that the whole house of Israel will be saved, and will become one nation, under one King, but "they are not all Israel which are of Israel." (Romans 9:6)
All were saved out of the ten tribes that would be saved, and the rest judged themselves unworthy of everlasting life. Full opportunity was given to return to the land of Israel to all who desired to do so, when Judah ended her captivity in Babylon, and all others became in destiny what they had long been in heart, like the heathen round about them. The Israel of God is made up of those who take hold of His covenant (Isaiah 56:4) by faith in Christ, and "If you are Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." (Galatians 3:29)--Present Truth, September 8, 1898--Notes on the International Sunday-School Lessons--2 Kings 17:9-18
E.J. Waggoner