2 Kings 17:6-20 New International Version
6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River and in the towns of the Medes.
7 All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of Egypt from under the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped other gods 8 and followed the practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before them, as well as the practices that the kings of Israel had introduced. 9 The Israelites secretly did things against the Lord their God that were not right. From watchtower to fortified city they built themselves high places in all their towns. 10 They set up sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree. 11 At every high place they burned incense, as the nations whom the Lord had driven out before them had done. They did wicked things that aroused the Lord’s anger. 12 They worshiped idols, though the Lord had said, “You shall not do this.”a] 13 The Lord warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and seers: “Turn from your evil ways. Observe my commands and decrees, in accordance with the entire Law that I commanded your ancestors to obey and that I delivered to you through my servants the prophets.”
14 But they would not listen and were as stiff-necked as their ancestors, who did not trust in the Lord their God. 15 They rejected his decrees and the covenant he had made with their ancestors and the statutes he had warned them to keep. They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless. They imitated the nations around them although the Lord had ordered them, “Do not do as they do.”
16 They forsook all the commands of the Lord their God and made for themselves two idols cast in the shape of calves, and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the starry hosts, and they worshiped Baal. 17 They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire. They practiced divination and sought omens and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing his anger.
18 So the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them from his presence. Only the tribe of Judah was left, 19 and even Judah did not keep the commands of the Lord their God. They followed the practices Israel had introduced. 20 Therefore the Lord rejected all the people of Israel; he afflicted them and gave them into the hands of plunderers, until he thrust them from his presence.
For this opportunity, I decided to use my Friday Morning Bible Study method foe the 11th grade Boys Sunday Lesson. Go verse by verse getting input on the mental images brought up by the Biblical words. The group started with one student and only one more joined us, but it made for good interactive discussion. I did also include a few questions from the planned lesson itself, so all the bases were covered.
From verse 6, I asked about captured and deported. I then proceeded to denote how after all these years, God’s patience finally ran out and he removed Israel the people from Israel the land. The people had sinned over and over again and finally their discipline came.
From verse 7, one student defined sin as throwing all God has done for us away and the other described the worshipping of other God’s as being evident in what we value, how we spend our time, and what our hobbies are.
From verse 8, we spoke about how the people followed the leader into sin. It was a simple explanation that helped.
From verse 9, a student described secret sin as something we do that we know we should not and that we try to hide. They are full of wisdom even when they do not know it.
Also from verse 9, we had no feel for high places. I explained to them the difference between the temple and synagogues and high places as simply the difference between a church and a non-Christian worship facility. It was my first time to really use this perspective, but they really latched onto the depth of the sin the Jews committed when turning away from God in this manner.
From verse 10, we continued with discussion of how visible this sin was, as if it were a person putting a cross in their front yard today in Afghanistan. It would be obvious to everyone around you were not following Islam and this was the visibility of the sin represented by sacred stones and Asherah poles.
From verse 11, we discussed evil as praying to idols and other gods. The concept of praying to a little piece of carved wood or stone was foreign to the group and questions about different practices within Christian denominations were also voiced. We spent some time on their detailed questions, but the outcome was the need to focus on ourselves and not try to judge others for motivations we cannot possibly know.
From verse 15, we discussed the worthless to worthless phrase and how obvious it can be to others and yet how easy it can be to see within ourselves. We are all good about looking over our own sin when we want to.
The main question for the lesson became, what distracts us from God? Our hobbies, our friends, our girlfriends? Where can we see the line between a beneficial action and a sinful action? The answer was that we cannot see it. Golf can be a sinful idol or a mission field. A movie can be an escape from our real lives and our relationship to God or it can be a source of connection to others or simply relaxation.
The outcome of the lesson was that God used the discipline of removing Israel from the land in an attempt to restore their relationship with Himself. God does the same thing with us now (as do our parents). He allows the consequences of our actions to cause us problems in order to turn our attention back to Him.
In the past, I led a lesson with this group that lasted about 15 minutes because I got no feedback. Years later, I had two students, skipped about half the questions, and still ran over. It is amazing how the depth of the relationships has grown mainly with just spending time together. In five months, my three years with these boys will officially come to an end, but we each will have grown, matured in our Christianity, and our relationships will only have just been established.
God uses all the options before Him to reach us. Some are wonderful blessings, others are difficult discipline. In these verses, God rejected them, handed them over, and banished them, but all in an attempt to have them return to right relationship with Himself; discipline as a blessing.