5/29/2011 7:54:22 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Israel lost its leader
Bible Reading
& Meditation Reference: 2Kings 17:1-5
Message of the verses: “1 ¶
In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah became
king over Israel in Samaria, and reigned nine years. 2 He did evil in the sight of the
LORD, only not as the
kings of Israel who were before him. 3 Shalmaneser king of Assyria came
up against him, and Hoshea became his servant and paid him tribute. 4 But the king of Assyria found conspiracy in
Hoshea, who had sent messengers to So king of Egypt and had offered no tribute
to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year; so the king of Assyria
shut him up and bound him in prison. 5 Then the king of Assyria invaded the
whole land and went up to Samaria and besieged it three years.”
This
SD is the first sub-point of the second main point, “Israel, a captive nation,”
in Warren Wiersbe’s commentary on 2Kings and parts of 2Chronicles. In these five verses we pretty much read of
the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel.
Assyria had already taken the tribes East of the Jordan River as
recorded in 1Chronicles 5:24-26, so all that was left was the tribes West of
the Jordan River. The Assyrian leader
had changed and would change again as Assyria besieged the capital of Northern
Israel, Samaria, a name that would identify the northern part of Israel for
years to come.
It
is interesting that it is written of Hoshea that even though he did evil in the
sight of the Lord he was not as evil as the other kings of Israel, and was not
compared to Jeroboam the first king of Israel.
He was defeated by the king of Assyria and was to pay tribute to him,
but decided to seek the help of the king of Egypt to help defeat Assyria, but
was found out and put in prison and then Assyria began to attack Israel and by
722 B.C. the northern tribes of Israel were defeated and a mixed people were
put into the land. As stated before
there were representatives of all the twelve tribes of Israel in Judah so there
are no lost tribes. The book of
Revelations states that there will be representatives of all twelve tribes in
the tribulation period (See Rev. 7).
Dr.
Wiersbe states that there was many times that Israel went down to Egypt to seek
help, and the first time was when Abraham did this. This is a picture of going to the world for
help instead of going to the Lord for help and I am sure that I am guilty of
this in my life too.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I would suppose that “going to Egypt” for
help is a sign that I have not learned contentment, for it surely shows a lack
of patience on my part and learning contentment is also learning patience of
which I need both in order to fully trust in the Lord.
My Steps of
Faith for Today:
1.
I give myself to the Lord for worship and for
service and do not want to seek help from other sources other than the Lord.
2.
Continue to learn contentment.
3.
Put on the spiritual armor.
5/29/2011 8:23:05 AM
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