Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: 2 Chronicles 28, and 2 Kings 16-17.
Israel is no more.
Today, in our chronological journey through the Bible, Samaria is sacked, and her inhabitants carried away into exile.
Here is why God chose to destroy the Northern Tribes of Israel.
From the InterVarsity Press New Bible Commentary:
"The city fell in 722 BC, at about the time of Shalmaneser V’s death. In Assyrian sources Sargon II, his brother and successor, claims credit for the city’s capture. Those deported (6) were numbered by Sargon at 27,290. This figure seems too large for Samaria alone and probably includes people from other cities of Israel. The deportees were resettled in distant parts of the Assyrian empire (6), not all of which can be located with confidence."
Interestingly, Sargon II was held for centuries to be a Biblical myth until in 1843 French scholar Paul Emile Botta unearthed Sargon's mighty palace at Dur Sharrukin (Khorsabad), just north of Nineveh near the Tigris river.
Inside these incredible ruins was found this inscription:
"At the beginning of my rule, in the very first year I reigned…I set siege to and conquered Samaria…I carried away into captivity 27,290 persons who lived there; I took fifty fine chariots for my royal equipment."
My head is spinning as I attempt to wrap my mind around:
- God's clear and warned judgment of these apostate tribes.
- Imagining what it must have been like to have been starved for three years (the battle for the city of Samaria), and then carried away into exile.
- These people have now become the 10 lost tribes of Israel, never again to be seen, for it is from Judah God will rebuild Israel.
I grieve for Israel, but I suppose at the end of the day, this really wasn't God's chosen Israel at all. Over the centuries, they had drifted so far from the commandments of God, through idolatry, sacrificing their own children, and significant other heinous sins, that God wiped these usurpers of his name from the face of the earth.
Certainly we must all see and learn what the human nature is capable of.
Our fallen human nature hates God, desires to place ourselves on the throne of life, and then revel in debaucheries of all kinds.
As we stand here in the burning ruins of Israel (Samaria), and can hears the screams of the women and children being carried off into slavery, we must begin to understand that Yahweh reigns, and will judge his creation.
Most sobering to consider.
