Leadership & God Part 2

 

    King Hoshea was Israel's last king.  God had divided Judah from Israel because of the sins of Solomon and his son.  He gave Israel the chance to be a nation to follow him, but they became just as corrupt as Judah.  The thing is when people get a taste of power, they tend to push God out of the picture.  That is when everything begins to go wrong.

    King Hoshea reigned for nine years doing evil in God's eyes, but unlike his predecessors.  He was a traitor to his people by taking their money and paying tribute to the Egyptian King instead of to the Assyrians in whom he had a treaty.  I guess he though he would pay the nation that appeared more powerful and cause the most damage.  

    King Shalmaneser of Assyria captured him and put him in prison.  Then he laid siege on Samaria for three years.  King Hoshea's decisions hurt his people, not just himself.  He got to sit in prison to think about his people suffering.  After three years, King Shalmaneser took the Israelites and moved them to Assyria.  

    God allowed this to happen because His people had forgotten about Him.  No one went to Him for help.  If they had, then maybe things would have been different.  God had given them hundreds of years worth of chances and now it was reaping day.  His people refused to turn to Him, but went to false gods.

    God was not happy about anything that had happened.  Finally He got to the point that He had to make a point because both Judah and Israel had turned from Him.  Once Israel was removed, only Judah remained.  With Hoshea gone, the people elected Jeroboam as king, but he was not king in God's eyes.  He committed immense sins.  so that is why Israel was banished to Assyria as laborers.

    Assyria began to settle into the cities that they had taken over.  They di not fear God or even recognize Him as a god.  God sent lions to live among them and to kill a few people.  The Assyrian king send back an Israelite priest to teach the Assyrians what God expected.  He taught them that they needed to fear God.

    The Assyrians worshipped an assortment of gods, so they just added God to their collection.  The priest warned them about such actions.  He told them that they should give up all their gods and focus on the Living God.  However, people tend to look at religious people like their idiots, so they did not listen.  Today people still look at God as a good luck charm or something that weak people turn to in times of intense distress.  If only people could really understand.

2 Kings 17