Day 196 (2 Chronicles 28, 2 Kings 16-17) - Year 4
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Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap.

Okay, Bible readers, it's time for our weekly check-in. We've read a lot of new names, new places, and strangely worded prophecies this week. So I just want to remind you, there will not be a quiz. If you were to tell me the name of a king and ask me which kingdom he ruled over, there'd be a good chance I'd have to guess. So this is just your weekly reminder that understanding all these details on your first or 50th pass through scripture isn't the point. The point is,

What are you learning about God and his character? Are you seeing more of him? Are you delighting in him more? If so, thank him. And if not, ask him for help. He can open your eyes and he can change your heart. But Jehoahaz, not so much. Whoever that is. Today we're back in the narrative section of scripture in a time that overlaps with the prophecies we're reading. These prophecies are being delivered during this time frame and many, but not all, of them are being fulfilled during this time frame as well.

Another portion of the prophecies were fulfilled after this time period, like the birth of the Messiah, for instance. And some have yet to be fulfilled, like the Messiah coming back to reign in peace on the new earth. For today, though, we're stuck in the final days of the kingdom of Judah.

They have a new king, Ahaz, and he's horrible, honestly. He's acted more like a northern king than a southern king, building idols of his own and even initiating child sacrifices, which is exactly what the Canaanites who were in the Promised Land before the Israelites were doing. And that's why God used the Israelites to drive them out. So this is a bit of foreshadowing here.

Because of Judah's sins, God allows them to suffer defeat at the hands of both Syria and Israel. But when the people of Israel try to enslave them, a prophet named Obed shows up and rebukes them, as do a few of their own leaders. So they put clothes on the captives and take them back home to Judah. Meanwhile, Judah gets attacked again, this time by the Edomites. And Ahaz is super stressed out about it all. I would be too.

But instead of going to the king of the universe for help, Ahaz goes to the king of Assyria. He tries to bribe him into helping Judah using money he stole from the temple. Ahaz even rearranges the temple according to the specifications of the king of Assyria instead of God's specifications. Talk about walking in the fear of man, not of God. It seems like the king of Assyria pretends like he's going to help, but then doesn't fulfill his end of the deal.

You'd think this would be where Ahaz hits rock bottom, but it isn't. They're still rock bottom-er. He sacrifices to more foreign gods. Then he destroys the holy vessels of the temple and locks the temple. This scent chills down my spine. He commissions the priest Uriah to make a replica of a foreign altar for him, and the priest did it. The priest.

You can see what Micah meant yesterday when he said all the leaders of the land, the kings, prophets, and priests, were wicked. King Ahaz goes all over town setting up altars of his own like they're Starbucks franchises or something, one on every corner. And 2823 says they were the ruin of him and of all Israel. Meanwhile, in the northern kingdom, we're still heading toward their complete downfall.

And here's what you need to know for the next several days. This is a really challenging timeline to splice up chronologically without cutting chapters and whole prophetic books in half. So just know we have a little back and forth here with Israel's demise. Hopefully it won't be confusing. Today we met Hoshea, another evil king in the north. And it's during his reign that 2 Kings records the captivity of Israel. Here's how it finally happens.

I'm not super familiar with how the mob works, but from what I understand, the mob might collect money from someone routinely as a price for protecting them. But the person the mobster is protecting them from is themselves, because if they don't pay, there's trouble. So it's basically like paying the bully an annual fee not to beat you up. In ancient times, they called this paying tribute.

This is where a weaker or smaller country acts as a vassal to a larger country. And it plays an important role in how things unfold with Israel. The king of Assyria slash mob boss has been collecting regular payments from Hosea, king of Israel. But one year, Hosea skips out on that payment. And the king of Assyria finds out that Hosea has been texting the king of Egypt behind his back. And the king of Assyria is not having it.

He goes to Samaria, Israel's capital, and besieges it for three years until he finally captures it. Then he exiles all the Israelites to Assyria. Just as the prophets have been saying, the Israelites wouldn't turn from their idolatry no matter how many warning flares were fired. 1717 says, they went after false idols and became false. Eventually, we become like what we worship. Whatever we fix our eyes on begins to capture our hearts and our minds and it gradually shapes us.

That's why I'm so glad you're here in the scriptures today. This is having a formative effect on us all, and I truly believe we're being conformed to the beautiful image of Christ as we fix our eyes on him every day. Meanwhile, back in Samaria, the vacant capital of the newly captured Israel, the king of Assyria decides to repopulate the city with a bunch of other people he's captured.

These people all worship the false gods of their own countries, but Yahweh is still working out his plan to sanctify the promised land. So he sends some lions to kill the new inhabitants. Word gets back to the king of Assyria that things aren't going so well, and he's like, okay, plan B. We'll send one of the Israelite priests back there to teach them how to serve the god of that land.

But if you remember anything about those captured Israelite priests, they weren't exactly walking in righteousness and honoring Yahweh, so they probably weren't leading by example very well. And while the people do pick up some reverence for Yahweh, they try to fuse worship of Yahweh with worship of their other gods. We've talked about this before. It's called syncretism, and it's an idea that's compatible with pretty much every other religion because their perspective is the more the merrier when it comes to gods, but not Yahweh.

Today, my God shot was in our final chapter as we read the long, sad narrative of Israel's demise. I saw God's immense patience with his people. Here's what verses 13 through 14 say about it. And we've already seen a lot of this as we've started digging into the books of the prophets.

Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes in accordance with all the law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets. But they would not listen, but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the Lord their God.

God not only established his covenant with them and showed them how to live in a relationship with himself, but he also sent them multiple warnings over the centuries when they continued to rebel against him. In our current spot in the storyline, he has brought captivity in order to reveal captivity. They're held captive to their idols, and only in exile do they realize that. This may feel like punishment for Israel, but it's an act of great mercy.

He's patient, He's merciful, and He's where the joy is. The Bible Recap is brought to you by DGroup, discipleship and Bible study groups that meet in homes and churches around the world each week. For more information on DGroup, visit mydgroup.org.