2 Kings 18:9

2 Kings 18:9 says, And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria, and besieged it.  Four years into Hezekiah's reign in Judah and seven years into Hoshea's reign in Israel, Shalmaneser the king of Assyria besieged Samaria.  Sometimes, the rulers of other countries were for Judah or Israel, though not necessarily at the same time, and sometimes they were openly their enemies.  I say openly, because as people who worship other gods, they could never really be committed to seeing Judah and Israel in a place of power.  People of the world may support Christians at times today, but we should never believe that they want what is best for us.  This doesn't mean that we shouldn't be friendly toward them, though.  We just need to realize that even if we are, they may turn against us if it benefits them.  Verse ten adds, And at the end of three years they took it: even in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is in the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken.  Three years after besieging Samaria, the Assyrians took it.  I believe that had the people of Samaria used this time to repent and turn to God that this would never have happened.  If we are besieged by sinful thoughts or actions today as followers of Christ, we just need to turn to Him in faith.  As long as we are faithful to God, we will never be defeated spiritually.  Verse eleven continues, And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria, and put them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes:  The people of Israel were once again taken away in captivity.  God had freed them, giving them a land flowing with milk and honey, and they had rejected Him and found themselves captive once more.  God offers us salvation and freedom from the power of sin and death today, and if we accept His gift of salvation, we should never be held captive to sin anymore, but sometimes we allow ourselves to be.  Verse twelve states, Because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed his covenant, and all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded, and would not hear them, nor do them.  It is stated very plainly that they were taken away captive because of their failure to keep their covenant with God and not following His commandments that were given by God to Moses.  We will never be saved by simply going through the motions of being a Christian but can only be saved by entering into a covenant relationship with God by putting our faith in Jesus Christ and then we should live by the leadership of the Holy Spirit.  Though we are forever saved by putting our faith in Jesus Christ, we can still give in to the power of sin at times.  Verse thirteen adds, Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them.  A few years later, Sennacherib took the fenced cities of Judah as well.  I believe there were two reasons the cities of God's chosen people were falling captive.  The first is their failure to live up to their covenant relationship with God, and the second was that they had become a divided people.  As followers of Christ, we should never quit following the leadership of the Holy Spirit, and we should never allow ourselves to become a divided people.  Verse fourteen continues, And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, I have offended; return from me: that which thou puttest on me will I bear. And the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.  Hezekiah sent word to the king of Assyria saying that he had offended him.  As Matthew Henry points out, he should have put his faith in God instead of allowing himself to become subject to the king of Assyria and attempting to buy his good will.  As Christians, if we find ourselves at war with the world today, we should never attempt to just appease those who are opposing us, but we need to draw closer to God instead.  Verse fifteen says, And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasures of the king's house.  Hezekiah gave Sennacherib all the silver found in the house of the Lord, or the temple, as well as all the treasures in his own house.  We should never surrender anything that we have given to God to anyone but Him, and we certainly should not do so out of fear.  Verse sixteen adds, At that time did Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.  Hezekiah began to strip the temple of its gold and give it to Sennacherib, but it really wasn't his to give.  It belonged to God.  Whatever we give to the church today belongs to God and should never be used for our own selfish desires, and I personally believe that as Christians, everything we have belongs to God, and we need to be careful that we don't begin to use it for our own selfish desires.  Verse seventeen continues, And the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great host against Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they were come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the fuller's field.  Still, Sennacherib sent forces to besiege Jerusalem.  All the gifts Hezekiah gave him did no good.  We can never buy safety in the world by turning away from God's will and attempting to buy security by giving the things that belong to Him to the people of the world who oppose Him.