2 Kings 17:15

2 Kings 17:15 says, 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.  The people of Israel continued to rebel against God and His commandments as they rejected the covenant they made with God.  As followers of Christ, we enter into an everlasting covenant with God, but that doesn't me we that we do not at times still rebel against Him.  We cannot make this our dominant way of life though, as Israel, God's chosen people had done.  Verse sixteen adds, 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.  They once again turned away from God's commandments, the first of which said they were to have no other gods before Him and made two golden calves to use in the worship of Baal.  They also worshipped the trees and the heavens, and people still do this today.  Verse seventeen continues, 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.  This means that they had their children attempt to pass through the fire to see if Baal would protect them, but they simply perished in the fire.  Though God could have allowed them to do this successfully if it had been necessary to in order to prove their faithfulness to Him even if threatened with being thrown in the fire, He would never ask them to do so just to glorify Himself, but they were not following God and as just stated He never wants us to test His power by putting ourselves in dangerous situations.  Verse eighteen declares, 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.  God became angry with the people of Israel, and He removed them from His sight, with only the people of Judah remaining as His people.  Professing to be a Christian while following other gods will never work.  If we do this, we cannot enter into a covenant relationship through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.  Verse nineteen adds, Also Judah kept not the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made.  Then, Judah began to follow the ways of Israel as well, instead of remaining faithful to God.  We cannot follow the ways of anyone who is not following God and be saved.  Verse twenty continues, 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.  After Judah rejected their covenant relationship with God, he rejected all of the people of Israel and gave them up to spoilers.  If we turn away from God, He is going to remove His protective hand from us.  Verse twenty-one states, 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. God then removed the kingship in Israel from the house of David, and Jeroboam was made king and led them into great sin against God.  The kingship promised to David was restored once and for all time through his descendant Jesus Christ.  This did not happen to make David a part of the salvation plan, but to fulfill God's promise to him that his descendant would reign forever in Israel.  Verse twenty-two adds, For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them;  As already stated, the people of Israel had begun to follow the sins of Jeroboam instead of the righteousness of God.  We today can either follow the sins of the world or the righteousness of God by putting our faith in Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord.  Verse twenty-three continues, 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.  God put Israel out of His sight, and this is somewhere we never want to be.  The prophets of God had warned them what would happen if they turned away from God, and they didn't believe them, but they were carried away captive into Assyria because of their unbelief.  God's word tells us clearly that if we reject Jesus Christ that we will be sent away into everlasting punishment, but too many people still refuse to believe this.