REBELS - HOSHEA KINGOF ISRAEL (2)
(Message by Tanny Keng)
0. Introduction
a) The Bible records many rebellions. Many were against God's chosen leaders. They were doomed for failure. Others were begun by wicked men against wicked men. While these were sometimes successful, the rebel's life usually came to a violent end. Still other rebellions were made by good people against the wicked or unjust actions of others. This kind of rebellion is sometimes good in freeing the common people from oppression and giving them the freedom to turn back to God.
1. Who rebelled?
a) Hoshea king of Israel.
2. Who they rebelled against?
a) Assyria.
3. What happened
a) The city of Samaria was destroyed, the nation of Israel taken into captivity.
4. Text Reference: 2 Kings 17:5-23
5. What is the text all about?
a) The Lord judged the people of Israel because they copies the evil customs of the surrounding nations, worshiping false gods, accommodating heathen customs, and following their own desires. It is not safe to create your own religion because people who do tend to live selfishly. And to live for yourself, as Israel learned, brings serious consequences from God. Sometimes it is difficult and painful to follow God, but consider the alterntive. You can live for God or die for yourself. Determine to be God's person and do what he says, regardless of the cost. What God thinks of you is infinitely more important than what those around you think.
b) Ruin came upon Israel for both their public sins and their secret sins. Not only did they condone wickedness and idolatry in public, but they committed even worse sins in private. Secret sins are the ones we don't want others to know about because they are embarrassing or incriminating. Sins done in private are not secret to God, and secret defiance of him is just as damaging as open rebellion.
c) The people took on the characteristics of the idols and imitated the godless nations around them. Israel had forgotten the importance and benefits of obeying God's word. The king and the people were mired in wickedness. Time and again God had sent prophets to warn them of how far they had turned away from him and to call them to turn back.
d) God's patience and mercy are beyond our ability to understand. He will pursue us until we either respond to him or, by our own choice and hardness of heart, make ourselves unreachable. Then God's judgment is swift and sure. The only safe course is to turn to God before our stubbornness puts us out of his reach.
e) The "host of heaven" refers to the Canaanite practice of worshiping the sun, moon, and constellations. These were Assyrian gods that were being added to their religion.
f) Forms of witchcraft, fortune-telling, and black magic were forbidden by God.
@1. 9 “When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. 10 There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 11 or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. 12 For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you. 13 You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. 14 For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the Lord your God has not appointed such for you. (Deuteronomy 18:9-14 NKJV)
g) They were wrong because they sought power and guidance totally apart from God, his law, and his Word. Isaiah echoed this law and prophesized of the complete destruction these occult practices would bring to those who participated in them.
@1. 19 And when they say to you, “Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,” should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? 20 To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. 21 They will pass through it hard-pressed and hungry; and it shall happen, when they are hungry, that they will be enraged and curse their king and their God, and look upward. 22 Then they will look to the earth, and see trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish; and they will be driven into darkness. (Isaiah 8:19-22 NKJV)
h) Israel was taken into exile, just as God's prophets had warned. Whatever God predicts will come to pass. This, of course, is good news to those who trust and obey him - they can be confident of his promises; but it is bad news to those who ignore or disobey him. Both the promises and warnings God has given in his Word will surely come true. Israel's exile should have taught Judah that God would follow through on his prophecy. We, unlike Judah, should learn from how God works in others and realize that his Word should be taken seriously.
The End ...
0. Introductiona) The Bible records many rebellions. Many were against God's chosen leaders. They were doomed for failure. Others were begun by wicked men against wicked men. While these were sometimes successful, the rebel's life usually came to a violent end. Still other rebellions were made by good people against the wicked or unjust actions of others. This kind of rebellion is sometimes good in freeing the common people from oppression and giving them the freedom to turn back to God.
1. Who rebelled?
a) Hoshea king of Israel.
2. Who they rebelled against?
a) Assyria.
3. What happened
a) The city of Samaria was destroyed, the nation of Israel taken into captivity.
4. Text Reference: 2 Kings 17:5-23
5. What is the text all about?
a) The Lord judged the people of Israel because they copies the evil customs of the surrounding nations, worshiping false gods, accommodating heathen customs, and following their own desires. It is not safe to create your own religion because people who do tend to live selfishly. And to live for yourself, as Israel learned, brings serious consequences from God. Sometimes it is difficult and painful to follow God, but consider the alterntive. You can live for God or die for yourself. Determine to be God's person and do what he says, regardless of the cost. What God thinks of you is infinitely more important than what those around you think.
b) Ruin came upon Israel for both their public sins and their secret sins. Not only did they condone wickedness and idolatry in public, but they committed even worse sins in private. Secret sins are the ones we don't want others to know about because they are embarrassing or incriminating. Sins done in private are not secret to God, and secret defiance of him is just as damaging as open rebellion.
c) The people took on the characteristics of the idols and imitated the godless nations around them. Israel had forgotten the importance and benefits of obeying God's word. The king and the people were mired in wickedness. Time and again God had sent prophets to warn them of how far they had turned away from him and to call them to turn back.
d) God's patience and mercy are beyond our ability to understand. He will pursue us until we either respond to him or, by our own choice and hardness of heart, make ourselves unreachable. Then God's judgment is swift and sure. The only safe course is to turn to God before our stubbornness puts us out of his reach.
e) The "host of heaven" refers to the Canaanite practice of worshiping the sun, moon, and constellations. These were Assyrian gods that were being added to their religion.
f) Forms of witchcraft, fortune-telling, and black magic were forbidden by God.
@1. 9 “When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. 10 There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 11 or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. 12 For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you. 13 You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. 14 For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the Lord your God has not appointed such for you. (Deuteronomy 18:9-14 NKJV)
g) They were wrong because they sought power and guidance totally apart from God, his law, and his Word. Isaiah echoed this law and prophesized of the complete destruction these occult practices would bring to those who participated in them.
@1. 19 And when they say to you, “Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,” should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? 20 To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. 21 They will pass through it hard-pressed and hungry; and it shall happen, when they are hungry, that they will be enraged and curse their king and their God, and look upward. 22 Then they will look to the earth, and see trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish; and they will be driven into darkness. (Isaiah 8:19-22 NKJV)
h) Israel was taken into exile, just as God's prophets had warned. Whatever God predicts will come to pass. This, of course, is good news to those who trust and obey him - they can be confident of his promises; but it is bad news to those who ignore or disobey him. Both the promises and warnings God has given in his Word will surely come true. Israel's exile should have taught Judah that God would follow through on his prophecy. We, unlike Judah, should learn from how God works in others and realize that his Word should be taken seriously.
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