Why Israel Was Carried Into Exile by Assyria
The consequences of the northern kingdom's idolatry.
We come to the fall of Israel, a people we have followed and studied for some time now.
Their fall should not come as a surprise to us - the Lord Himself had been warning them this would happen for many years.
Israel Falls to Assyria.
At the end of three years, Samaria fell to the king of Assyria (2 Kings 17:5). In Hoshea’s ninth year as king of Israel, the nation was carried away into captivity and dispersed throughout the Assyrian Empire (2 Kings 17:6).
The areas the people of Israel were carried off to included cities near modern-day Syria, Turkey, and Iran. The cities of the Medes would have included parts of the Assyrian Empire that were the furthest away from Israel.
Their fall and exile to faraway lands were prophesied about 200 years earlier during Jeroboam’s reign.
For the LORD will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water. He will uproot Israel from this good land which He gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the River, because they have made their wooden images, provoking the LORD to anger. And He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who sinned and who made Israel sin. (1 Kings 14:15-16)
The Reason for Israel’s Fall.
The Scriptures make it very clear why Israel fell to Assyria. They sinned against the Lord their God, who brought them out of Egypt from the control of Pharaoh by fearing other gods and walking according to the ways of the nations of Canaan whom God had defeated and cast out of the land before them (2 Kings 17:7-8).
They also practiced “secret” sins: they built high places (for worship) in all their cities, built idolatrous pillars and images on every high hill, and under every green tree, and burned incense in these places just like the idolatrous nations the Lord had destroyed (2 Kings 17:9-11).
Israel’s wickedness and idolatry stirred up the Lord’s anger. He had told them, “Don’t do this!” But they did it anyway (2 Kings 17:12). The Lord continued to send prophets to Israel, telling them, “Turn 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” (2 Kings 17:13).
But they refused to listen. They “stiffened their necks” or “were stubborn,” just like their ancestors who did not believe in the Lord their God (2 Kings 17:14). They rejected the covenant God made with them and the testimonies God made against them. They became an idol-worshipping people, just like all the nations around them. They became what God warned them not to become (2 Kings 17:15).
They left God’s commandments, made themselves two molded calves, wooden images, worshipped the sun, moon, and stars, as well as served Baal (2 Kings 17:16). They offered their children as sacrifices to these idol gods, practiced witchcraft and soothsaying, and completely sold themselves to do evil in God’s sight - provoking His anger (2 Kings 17:17).
And so, the Lord was “very angry” with them, and “removed” the nation of Israel from His sight. Only the southern kingdom of Judah remained - but not even Judah was faithful to the Lord, even they walked after the ways of Israel (2 Kings 17:19).
And the LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel, afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of plunderers, until He had cast them from His sight. For He tore Israel from the house of David, and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. Then Jeroboam drove Israel from following the LORD, and made them commit a great sin. For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did not depart from them, until the LORD removed Israel out of His sight, as He had said by all His servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away from their own land to Assyria, as it is to this day. (2 Kings 17:20-23)
While Judah would eventually return and resettle as a nation - because they were “the house of David,” and God had made an important promise with David’s house (2 Samuel 7:12-16) - the nation of Israel never returned as the nation of Judah did.
Some of the people from Israel would return - for example, Anna was of the tribe of Asher, which was a northern tribe (Luke 2:36) - but the nation as a whole never returned to the land.
The Assyrians Resettle Israel.
After the Israelites are removed from the northern kingdom’s territory, Assyria brought in people from other nations - likely captives as well. These people lived in Samaria, and the land became theirs (2 Kings 17:24).
They did not fear the Lord, so the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them (2 Kings 17:25). These people from other nations went before the king of Assyria, saying, “The nations whom you have removed and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the rituals of the God of the land; therefore He has sent lions among them, and indeed, they are killing them because they do not know the rituals of the God of the land” (2 Kings 17:26).
So the king of Assyria ordered that one of the priests of Israel be brought back to the land to teach the new inhabitants how to fear the Lord (2 Kings 17:27-28). However, they kept worshipping their own gods as well (2 Kings 17:29-31).
They feared the Lord, but it was a corrupted worship - they made priests for themselves, sacrificed in the shrines of the high places, and continued serving their own gods (2 Kings 17:32-33). This practice continued to the day the book of Kings was written (2 Kings 17:34).
It’s no surprise that the religious practices of Israel were perpetuated by the priests from Israel among the foreign nations brought into the land. The covenant with the Lord continued to be ignored (2 Kings 17:35-39).
A group of people was established in Samaria who feared the Lord, yet served idols - a practice that continued in Samaria for many generations, even during Jesus Christ’s ministry (2 Kings 17:40-41; John 4:20-24).
Crowning Principles.
Israel was doomed from the start.
The northern tribes of Israel were torn from the house of David because of Solomon’s idolatry (1 Kings 11:9-13). When Solomon’s son Rehoboam came to the throne, the northern tribes rebelled and said, "What share have we in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel! Now, see to your own house, O David!" (1 Kings 12:16).
These words would haunt the northern tribes.
The reason God dealt mercifully with Judah and not with Israel was because of His promise to David - to bring the Messiah into the world through his house (2 Samuel 7:12-16). When the northern kingdom refused to have anything to do with David’s house, they also rejected God’s mercy that He would show to David’s house. So when they faced the Lord’s judgment upon their sin, they did not receive the mercy that the southern kingdom was given.
To those in Christ Jesus - the “Son of David” (Matthew 1:1) - there is mercy, salvation from God’s wrath upon our sin, and reconciliation (Romans 5:6-10). These blessings are not found outside of “the house of David” - outside of Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12; Ephesians 1:3).
God’s wrath is eventually poured out upon sin.
The Lord sent warning after warning to the northern kingdom through His prophets. But they stubbornly refused to hear the warning, and eventually faced God’s judgment upon their sin.
Sections like this continue to provide clear evidence that “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men…knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them” (Romans 1:18, 32).
People may scoff that the Lord will never come, that God’s judgment upon sin upon a “fairy tale” Christians have come up with.
But the Scriptures teach this “Day” is very real. God’s reason for the “delay” is that He “is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
