The Review and Herald
February 12, 1914
Destroyed for Lack of Knowledge
(Concluded.)
During the long reign of Jeroboam II, the armies of Israel gained signal victories; but this time of apparent prosperity wrought no change in the hearts of the impenitent; and it was finally decreed: “Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land.” Amos 7:11. RH February 12, 1914, par. 1
So far had Israel gone in impenitence that even this terrible sentence left them unmoved. Amaziah, a leader among the idolatrous priests at Bethel, said to Amos: “O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there: but prophesy not again any more at Beth-el: for it is the king's chapel, and it is the king's court.” Amos 7:12, 13. RH February 12, 1914, par. 2
But the prophet's answer was, “Thus saith the Lord, ... Israel shall surely go into captivity.” RH February 12, 1914, par. 3
The destruction of the northern kingdom came gradually. In judgment the Lord remembered mercy, and at first, when “Pul the king of Assyria came against the land,” Menahem, then king of Israel, was not taken captive, but was permitted to remain on the throne as a vassal of the Assyrian realm. “Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver, that his hand might be with him to confirm the kingdom in his hand. And Menahem exacted the money of Israel, even of all the mighty men of wealth, of each man fifty shekels of silver, to give to the king of Assyria.” Having humbled Israel by making it tributary to his empire, “the king of Assyria turned back, and stayed not there in the land.” 2 Kings 15:19, 20. RH February 12, 1914, par. 4
But Menahem, far from repenting of the evil that had wrought ruin in his kingdom, continued throughout the ten years of his reign in “the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.” 2 Kings 15:18. Pekahiah and Pekah, his successors, also “did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord.” 2 Kings 15:24, 28. “In the days of Pekah,” who reigned twenty years, “Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria” invaded Israel, and carried away with him a multitude of captives from among the tribes living in Galilee and east of the Jordan. “The Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh,” with others of the inhabitants of “Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali,” were scattered among the heathen in lands far removed from Palestine. From this terrible blow, the kingdom never recovered. RH February 12, 1914, par. 5
The feeble remnant of Israel continued the forms of government, though no longer possessed of power. Only one more ruler, Hoshea, was to follow Pekah. The throne was tottering; soon the entire kingdom was to be swept away. But God in mercy gave the people another chance to turn from idolatry. In the third year of Hoshea's reign, Hezekiah came to the throne of Judah, and soon afterward important reforms were instituted in the temple service at Jerusalem. As speedily as possible, Hezekiah arranged for the celebration of the Passover, and to this feast he invited not only his Judean subjects, but all Israel as well. He “sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, to keep the Passover unto the Lord God of Israel.” A proclamation was sounded “throughout all Israel, from Beer-sheba even unto Dan, that they should come to keep the Passover unto the Lord God of Israel at Jerusalem: for they had not done it of a long time in such sort as it was written. RH February 12, 1914, par. 6
“So the posts went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the king, saying, Ye children of Israel, turn again unto the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and he will return to the remnant of you, that are escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria. And be not ye like your fathers, and like your brethren, which trespassed against the Lord God of their fathers, who therefore gave them up to desolation, as ye see. Now be ye not stiffnecked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto the Lord, and enter into his sanctuary, which he hath sanctified forever: and serve the Lord your God, that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you. For if ye turn again unto the Lord, your brethren and your children shall find compassion before them that lead them captive, so that they shall come again into this land: for the Lord your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if ye return unto him.” 2 Chronicles 30:1-9. RH February 12, 1914, par. 7
“From city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh even unto Zebulun,” the couriers sent out by Hezekiah carried the message. Israel should have seen in this invitation an appeal to repent and turn to God. But nearly all treated the royal messengers with indifference or with contempt. “They laughed them to scorn, and mocked them.” 2 Chronicles 30:10. But there were a few who gladly responded. “Divers of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem, ... to keep the feast of unleavened bread.” RH February 12, 1914, par. 8
About two years later, “in the seventh year of Hoshea,” “Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria, and besieged it. And at the end of three years they took it: even in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken. 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: 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.” 2 Kings 18:9-12. RH February 12, 1914, par. 9
The destruction that came upon the northern kingdom was directly from God himself. The Assyrians were merely the instruments that he used to carry out his purpose. Through Isaiah, who began to prophesy before the fall of Samaria, the Lord referred to the Assyrian hosts as the “rod of mine anger.” “The staff in their hand,” he said, “is mine indignation.” Isaiah 10:5. RH February 12, 1914, par. 10
“The children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, ... and wrought wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger; for they served idols, whereof the Lord had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing.... RH February 12, 1914, par. 11
“Notwithstanding they would not hear, but ... rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he had made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; ... and they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. 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. RH February 12, 1914, par. 12
“Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and ... afflicted them, and delivered them unto the hands of spoilers, until he had cast them 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.” 2 Kings 17:7-23. RH February 12, 1914, par. 13