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.

2 Kings 18:1

2 Kings18:1 says, Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign.  Hoshea had been king in Israel for three years when Hezekiah, Ahaz's son, began to reign in Judah.  Matthew Henry says that by comparing Hezekiah's age with his father's age that Ahaz was only eleven or twelve years old when Hezekiah was born, and that divine providence caused this to happen so that Hezekiah would be ready to reign when Ahaz's iniquity hit its peak.  I can say that God is behind every life, since He alone is the giver and sustainer of the soul, which really determines life in humanity.  Verse two adds, Twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Abi, the daughter of Zachariah.  He was twenty-five when he began to reign, and he reigned for twenty-nine years.  We are given his mother's name, as we are of all the kings, but are not told her age.  I usually have not motioned them, not because they were unimportant, but because we are told so little about them except their name and maybe their father's name, but in this case, since Ahaz was so young when Hezekiah was born, I have to wonder how old she was.  Still, I also have to assume that God was working through her no matter her age.  Even if things don't start out right in life, God can still work through anyone to accomplish His purpose, if they are willing to allow Him to and I believe at times even if they aren't.  Verse three continues, And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father did.  Instead of following the sinful ways of his father, Hezikiah did what was right in the sight of God, as David had done during his life and rule.  It doesn't matter who our parents are nor how sinful they may be, because we are free to choose to follow God, and that is all that really matters.  Verse four states, He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.  He got rid of all the idols and even got rid of the high places of worship that most of the kings, even if they were called good kings, had not done.  He also got rid of the brass serpent that Moses had made, because the people were worshipping it, even though it had been made only for a specific use at a specific time.  We cannot worship anything except God, even if the thing we are worshipping was used by God for a specific purpose at a specific time in history.  Verse five adds, He trusted in the Lord God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him.  We are told that Hezekiah trusted in God and that at no time, before he began to reign or after his reign ended, was a better king in Judah as far as their relationship to God.  We have to remember that David was king of all of Israel and not just Judah, so he would still be the greatest king.  We can also say that Jesus Christ is the King of all believers, and there never was and never will be another ruler as great as He is, not even David.  Verse six continues, For he clave to the Lord, and departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses.  Hezikiah kept the commandments of God as God had commanded His people to do through Moses.  We can say that God's commandments will never be done away with, even though salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ alone.  Verse seven declares, And the Lord was with him; and he prospered whithersoever he went forth: and he rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him not.  God was with Hezekiah in all that he did, and he also rebelled against the king of Assyria and refused to serve him.  God was with him because of his faithfulness to Him.  Once we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord, we must serve God alone and rebel against all sin, and he will always be with us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  Verse eight adds, He smote the Philistines, even unto Gaza, and the borders thereof, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.  Hezekiah also defeated the Philistines, a long-time enemy of God's chosen people.  As Christians, we may defeat our enemies today only to find that we have to defeat them again later on.  Sometimes, a sin that we have thought to have defeated long ago can come back to tempt us again if we aren't careful.  

2 Kings 17:32

 2 Kings 17:32 says, So they feared the Lord, and made unto themselves of the lowest of them priests of the high places, which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places.  The people feared the Lord, not out of acknowledgment of Who He was, but because of the lions, and they made some of the lowest of people priests and not men called by God.  People still go through the motions of serving God today because they fear what He may do to them, but they really don't follow Him because of a love for Him because of His providing the only way to salvation.  Verse thirty-three adds, They feared the Lord, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from thence.  They feared God's punishment, but they still served other gods out of love for and devotion to them.  Matthew Henry says they made a mongrel religion, which tried to appease God and worship other gods out of love for them.  We cannot add any other god to our life and be devoted to God out of love at the same time.  Verse thirty-four continues, Unto this day they do after the former manners: they fear not the Lord, neither do they after their statutes, or after their ordinances, or after the law and commandment which the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel;  Finally, they began to totally ignore the commandments of God, which they as descendants of Jacob, who was named Israel by God and was the one the nation was named for, were commanded to follow.  We cannot really be a Christian and ignore the commandments of God, since as Christians, we are called by the name of Christ.  Verse thirty-five states, With whom the Lord had made a covenant, and charged them, saying, Ye shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them:  They were reminded of their covenant relationship with God, when they promised to worship God alone.  As followers of Christ, we have a covenant relationship with Him, and we must worship Him alone and have no fear, or respect, for other gods.  Verse thirty-six adds, But the Lord, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretched out arm, him shall ye fear, and him shall ye worship, and to him shall ye do sacrifice.  The people of Israel were reminded that God hand brought them out of captivity in Egypt, and they had been commanded to worship Him alone.  As Christians, God has brought us out of captivity to sin, and we should worship Him for His great power in doing so.  It is not something that we can do for ourselves.  Verse thirty-seven continues, And the statutes, and the ordinances, and the law, and the commandment, which he wrote for you, ye shall observe to do for evermore; and ye shall not fear other gods.  The people were reminded that their covenant with God was to be an everlasting covenant, just as ours is with Jesus Christ, once we accept Him as our personal Savior and Lord.  This meant they were to never allow themselves to worship any other god, just as it does us today.  Verse thirty-eight says, And the covenant that I have made with you ye shall not forget; neither shall ye fear other gods.  The people of Israel were reminded that they were never to forget their covenant with God if they were to be His people, but they did.  This is still true for Christians today.  We must forsake all other gods and follow God's commandments.  Verse thirty-nine adds, But the Lord your God ye shall fear; and he shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.  Like the people of Israel, we need to be committed to God and follow Him alone, because He has already delivered us from the power of sin and death.  Of course, unlike Israel, if we have truly accepted Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord, we are forever God's people, whereas the people of Israel sometimes lost their status as His true people.  Verse forty continues, Howbeit they did not hearken, but they did after their former manner.  We need to beware of the how-be-its in the Bible.  They usually imply that the people were not following God's word, and we don't need any in our lives today.   Verse forty-one concludes, So these nations feared the Lord, and served their graven images, both their children, and their children's children: as did their fathers, so do they unto this day.  Though we are told the people feared the Lord, they had no respect for Him.  They served other gods instead.  We can either put our faith in God alone, or we should fear His coming judgment.  

2 Kings 17:24

2 Kings 17:24 says, And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.  The king of Assyria, having taken the people of Israel captive, then brought in other people to replace them.  Sometimes today, those in power will do the same thing, moving people from where they have lived when the are defeated and replacing them with others who are loyal to them.  Verse twenty-five adds, And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not the Lord: therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which slew some of them.  Those who replaced the people of Israel did not fear God, even though they were in His promised land, so He sent lions among them.  We should never be surprised if God sends punishment on those who do not believe in Him, especially if they are trying to possess His promised land.  Verse twenty-six continues, Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou hast removed, and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God of the land: therefore he hath sent lions among them, and, behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner of the God of the land.  People spoke to the king of Assyria, telling him that the people who had replaced the people of Israel with were being destroyed by lions sent by God.  Even if they didn't know God, they recognized His power.  There are still people who profess not to believe in God today who still give Him credit, or blame Him we could say more accurately, when things go bad.  We as Christians should never do the same thing.  Verse twenty-seven states, Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry thither one of the priests whom ye brought from thence; and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land.  The king of Assyria said to send one of God's priests to teach the people there the ways of God.  We as Christians are a part of the priesthood of believers, and He has sent us to the rest of the world to proclaim salvation through Jesus Christ alone, and we need to be doing this wherever we are.  We then need to teach them to follow God's law after they are saved.  Verse twenty-eight adds, Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the Lord.  One of the priests of God, who is not named here, returned lived in Bethel and taught them about how they should fear the Lord.  Still, fearing God and having a personal relationship with Him are not the same thing.  We need to teach people to come to God because of His love and redemption plan and not to just be afraid of Him.  God wants us in a loving relationship with Him and not one based on fear.  Verse twenty-nine continues, Howbeit every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt.  Even though a priest had been sent to teach them about God, the people occupying Israel, God's promised land, brought their own gods with them and placed them throughout Samaria.  We cannot serve God and bring our own gods along with us.  Once we learn about God, we must accept Him as the only God by putting our faith in Jesus Christ His Son.  Verse thirty says, And the men of Babylon made Succothbenoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima,  Verse thirty-one adds, And the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burnt their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.  The gods that the various groups of people worshipped were listed here, and we are even told that some of them burned their children in sacrifice to their gods.  There are still many, many false gods that people worship in the world today, and all we can really do is point them to Jesus Christ. 

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. 

2 Kings 17:7

 2 Kings 17:7 says, For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods,  Though God had delivered the people of Israel from Egypt and their enslavement under Pharaoh, they had turned away from Him and followed other god's.  God has provided deliverance from the power of sin and death for all who put their faith in Jesus Christ, and we who do should never turn to other gods, which do not have to be idols, but can be anything that we make more important than God.  Verse eight adds, And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made.  The people of Israel followed the laws of the heathen, who God had cast out from Israel.  There are many laws today that go against God's word, and as Christians, we cannot follow them, no matter the cost to us in this lifetime.  Verse three continues, And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.  We are told that the people of Israel did sinful things in secret, including building high places for worship in their cities, but it was not secret from God.  We must acknowledge that there are no secret sins.  God always knows all our sins, so there is no need to think we can hide them.  Verse ten states, And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree:  They also set up idols on every high hill and in every grove.  To say that they did this in secret was not consistent with their actions.  It is one thing to secretly defy God, and another to openly sin against Him, though both are wrong.  Verse eleven adds, And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the Lord carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger:  They burned incense in all these high places as the heathen did.  There are people today who not only worship in groves, but they worship the groves themselves and often burn incense as a part of their purifying ritual.  There is nothing that we can do that is going to purify us, except accepting Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord, and once we do, we must put away all other worship of other gods.  Verse twelve continues, For they served idols, whereof the Lord had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing.  They were serving idols, even though God had forbidden them to do so.  There are certain things that God has forbidden us to do as Christians, and we must follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit in not doing them.  Verse thirteen says, Yet the Lord testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets. God testified against both Israel and Judah, all of His chosen people, and called on them to turn away from their evil ways and follow His commandments, just as He calls on us to turn away from our sins today by accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord and following His commandments under the leadership of the Holy Spirit.   Verse fourteen adds, 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.  The people of Israel and Judah would not listen to Him but hardened their necks or refused to turn away from their sins and look to Him. God is going to call everyone to salvation, but many have and will continue to harden their necks and refuse to look to Him for salvation.  

2 Kings 17:1

2 Kings 17:1 says, In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah began Hoshea the son of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel nine years.  Hoshea began to reign over Israel in the twelfth year of Ahaz's rule in Judah.  The reign of these two kings overlapped, but the reign of Jesus Christ has always been the only one to really matter, and it is eternal.  There was never an overlap with any other king or person in power and there never will be.  Verse two adds, And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, but not as the kings of Israel that were before him.  Hoshea continued to do evil in God's sight, even though he wasn't as bad as the kings of Israel who went before him.  Unfortunately, this did not make him okay in God's eyes.  Likewise, we are not going to be judged based on whether we are better than other sinners but are only to be judged on our relationship with Jesus Christ.  Verse three continues, Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, and gave him presents.  Shalmaneser the king of Assyria came against Hoshea, and even though he was the king of the most powerful God there is, Hoshea became the servant of Shalmaneser.  If we don't put our faith in Jesus Christ totally and live by the guidance and under the power of the Holy Spirit, we will find ourselves subjected to the power of sin once more.  Verse four states, And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and brought no present to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison.  At some point, Hoshea attempted to form an alliance with So the king of Egypt and didn't send his normal gifts to Shalmaneser, who found out about this proposed alliance and put Hoshea in prison.  It is strange how many times God's people looked to other rulers, even the king of Egypt, for help instead of repenting and looking to God for help.  As Christians, we should never be guilty of this.  Verse five adds, Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years.  Then, Shalmaneser besieged Samaria for three years.  If we as followers of Christ turn away from Him, we will be besieged by sin once more, and if we have never put our faith in Him, we will always be besieged by sin.  Verse six continues, In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.  In the ninth year of Hoshea's reign, though he had been imprisoned in Assyria for at least three of those years, the people of Israel were taken away captive.  When God's chosen people continued to turn away from Him in sin, they lost His protection and were carried away captive.  If we reject God, and salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, we will be taken away captive to sin, even if we call ourselves Christians.