2 Kings 17 (Part 2) Bible Study (Assyria Resettles Samaria) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

Second King 17 verse 24. The dominant theme of this section in second Kings is not difficult to pinpoint. Even a plain reading of the rest of this text will reveal a truth that is not unfamiliar to us here at Maranatha Bible Church, something that we hear quite often. What you'll discover in these verses is the recurring phrase, the fear of the Lord. You can't miss it.

It's everywhere. In fact, if you count the phrase both in the positive and the negative, meaning to fear the Lord or to not fear the Lord, it appears a total of eight times in this portion of God's word. And so upon discovering this, I was initially thinking to approach the study with you by taking all the observations that we make and relating it back to that theme, the what, who, when, how of fearing God. But we're not going to limit our study to that narrow framework. Instead, we're gonna approach these verses with a wider lens while still acknowledging the unavoidable insights regarding this God ward awe.

But it's worth making a note for yourself that if you ever want to learn more about the fear of the Lord, or if you are teaching somebody about that glorious truth, this is a wonderful passage to use. There is great insight regarding that. And this text is rich for many reasons. Beyond that, as we will discover now, we won't be reading a large portion right away. Let's just look at verse 24 and continue with that pace until we complete this chapter together.

Second Kings seventeen twenty four. And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Katha, Ava, Hamath and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the people of Israel. And they took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities. Hopefully you remember that the Assyrians have finally taken, removed, displaced the Northern kingdom of Israel. Does anybody remember the last king of Israel named here in our study?

Well, if you just look down, it's right there in the beginning of chapter 17, Hoshea. He was the last king of this kingdom before Syria invaded and removed the entire population, at least most of the population, from their homeland. And what we discover in this verse is a policy of the Assyrian Kingdom. And one of the things that they would do when they would conquest, when they would take over a place, is that they would repopulate that vacant land. And so this is was this was an imperial strategy.

It was when a dominating nation would come, remove a people and take other subjects that they have dominated and replace those that have left an area desolate. And there are many advantages to this. One of them would be that it would hinder any unified attempt to cause an uprising or overthrow those that were conquering them. Besides that you also had the exploitation of goods and and bringing these foreign groups, this mixed people, and forcing them to labor to extract goods for again the dominant power. And we can imagine how much psychological warfare is included in this, but the one thing that we're supposed to be gripped by is the fact that this land, this holy land, the Bible calls it, this promised land is now desolate.

I mean, you gotta imagine this now. The very same land that was promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the very same country that God helped Joshua and a particular generation of Israelites conquer is now empty. This is staggering. This is almost surreal. It's so difficult to imagine, But it happened.

And sadly, some erroneously believe and reference this imperative moment in Israel's history to make wild claim about the Israelites. Say, what do you mean? Well, there are some who would claim that since the Assyrian exile, 10 out of the 12 tribes virtually disappeared into history. You probably heard this term, the the 10 lost tribes of Israel. Maybe not.

But the implication as some assert is that the exile served as a catalyst for these 10 tribes, a major portion of the descendants of Abraham to essentially be dispersed and assimilate to the point of being irrelevant. And there are others who are confident about strange conspiracies, ideas, and legends, including cults that attempt to gain authority for the false teachings by claiming descent from the scattered tribes of Israel. Here's what they will argue that since the Jews were removed from their land, many migrated to Europe, Africa, The Americas. And since they are of those particular regions or ethnicities, they also come from the same stock of Abraham and the patriarchs and therefore claim the same covenantal blessings. There are groups who base their doctrine on that false assumption.

And it's possible that you might be, at some point in your life, faced with such claims. So what do you do? What do you do with movements that would even come to a text like this, the one that we're studying, to try to defend a certain system of belief that is clearly in error? It's very simple. You know your Bible well.

You know your Bible well. And the way to silence those who might come from cults and strange ideas, is to remind them that though these 10 tribes were displaced, they were never ever lost. They were never lost. And a common argument is well, you never read in the Bible how these 10 tribes returned to the land. True.

To which I would respond, but you also read that not every single member of these tribes were removed completely to begin with. We have to remember that almost immediately after Israel's schism, after it becoming two kingdoms, you had a righteous remnant. A righteous remnant who really wanted to worship the true and living God in the Northern Kingdom Of Israel that migrated to the Southern Kingdom where the temple was so that they could honor God the way he prescribed. And one of the earliest accounts of this is found in the book of second Chronicles. So let's turn to second Chronicles.

In chapter 11 verse 16. You may not recognize the need for this information now, but you never know, so be equipped tonight. Second Chronicles 11 verse 16. This is when Jeroboam was ruling in the northern parts and Rehoboam was still in charge in the southern parts. And what do we find in second Chronicles eleven sixteen, and those who had set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel came after them from which tribes?

All the tribes of Israel to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the Lord, the God of their fathers. They strengthened the kingdom of Judah and for three years they made Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, secure for they walked for three years in the way of David and Solomon. That should settle the matter. You have a remnant from all the tribes that made their way to the Southern Kingdom to worship the true and living God. And if that doesn't settle the matter, let's consider what we find after the Assyrian exile.

When Hezekiah becomes the king in Judah, which we're gonna study next week, and how he invited and he he sent a message to all the peoples of the land to join him in his efforts to reinstate the Passover. So we're still in second Chronicles. Go to chapter 30 and look at verse six. Second Chronicles 30 verse six. So couriers went throughout all Israel and Judah with letters from the king and his princes as the king had commanded saying, oh, people of Israel, return to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel that he may turn again to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria.

So not only is Hezekiah reaching out to all of Israel, but he is addressing the remnant of Israel. Remember, he's the king of the Southern Kingdom Of Judah, and he's reaching out to the northern parts, and he's specifically calling for those who survive the conquest that we're studying here in second Kings 17. Which means what? That even though most of the tribes were removed, you still had those representing every tribe who were left behind, who have escaped. So you have tribes that early on came to Jerusalem and even after the exile in the northern parts, you have people who remained.

And if there's any confusion of the confirmation of this remnant, go to verse 10 of second Chronicles 30. So the couriers went from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, and as far as Zebulun, but they laughed them to scorn and mock them. However, some men of Asher, of Manasseh, and of Zebulun, humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. So they're lost? How can you say they're lost?

Yes. A majority of them were removed but not completely erased. And even if this conversation were to continue, there is evidence in the New Testament that confirms the preservation of these tribes. Any ideas come to mind? Any references?

Any occurrence of the in the New Testament that would help us make this case? You can actually answer if you know. Paul? Tribe of what? Sure.

Tribe of Benjamin, but Benjamin was a part of the Kingdom Of The South with Judah. Correct? But that's still a good answer. I'm talking more about the northern tribes that were removed by the Assyrians. Anything that we find in the New Testament?

The day of Pentecost. The day of Pentecost. That's a good answer as well. Any references to the tribes specifically though? Let me ask you a question.

When the Lord Jesus, as a child, was brought into the temple by his earthly parents, there was a prophetess by the name of? Where was she from? Let's go to Luke chapter two. I think I've held you in suspense long enough. Luke two verse 36, and we'll look at another answer in the book of Luke.

Luke two thirty six reads, and there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of? Asher. Asher, one of the tribes from the Northern Kingdom. She was advanced in years having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin. Let's look at another answer in Luke that we can go to other places.

Go to Luke 22. Let's consider the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. You are those who have stayed with me in my trials. He is speaking to the disciples. And I assigned to you as my father assigned to me a kingdom that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging who?

The two tribes of Israel? Which tribes? The 12. The 12 tribes of Israel. Now some try to spiritualize this passage, but the way we should honor it is he is speaking about a time when he will rule and reign and he will dispatch his apostles to also give judgment to a specific jurisdiction and that is the 12 tribes of Israel.

This is about the millennial reign of Christ. So again, there are people out there that really want to argue, especially in the new covenant, that the Jewish people have no relevance anymore. And they would backtrack it even to the exiles that we see, namely the Assyrian one, but I'm here to tell you that God hasn't lost any of them. In fact, as we study Revelation on Sundays, we're gonna realize that, many of those tribes will be there even in the final days of history. Put that in your pocket for another time.

Let's come back to our main text and let's continue reading. In verse 25, we read, and at the beginning of their dwelling there, they did not fear the Lord. Therefore, the Lord sent lions among them which killed some of them. So you have this entire group of people known as the Northern Kingdom Of Israel removed from their homes, removed from the boundaries of Israel, and they are now replaced with gentiles who clearly worship different gods. And though we have new settlers now in this area, they're quickly going to learn who really owns this land.

God. Now some here would try to explain this simply as a natural overpopulation of animals resulting from an unregulated region due to the absence of humans present. That misses the point. What do we read here? That it was the Lord, it was the Lord who sent lions among them.

So this is how God welcomes these new people in a sense. They arrive in this place and he wants to introduce these newcomers to his awesome and terrifying power, his presence. Now think about this. The Lord did not need any king, any army, any walls, any chariots to defend what was his. He could recruit animals to do his bidding.

And there's so many things that we can say about this but this teaches at least one main thing. That when darkness spreads and evil invades, God is still in control. That's the beauty of this verse. He is still in power. Israel might have been conquered but the promises and the purposes of God were not.

Right at the beginning, he is proving to us that things are still in operation. His plans and his purposes are still in motion and he's letting these foreigners know the same. And this serves as a wonderful reminder for you and I, when we look out into the world and we are witnessing a weakening Christendom. And perhaps the temptation is to be discouraged as we see professing Christians and churches and ministries faltering and being overcome by deception and evil. You can never afford to forget this truth.

Christ is never defeated. Never. And we see here in the Old Testament and surely it is just as true in the New Testament. It is true in this covenant as well. And so, we find here that the Lord introduces himself in a particular way.

Matthew Henry said something wonderful about this passage. He said the Lord of hosts can serve his own purposes by which he pleases, small or great, lice or lions. I love that. He doesn't need us. He delights to use us and we should be delighted to be used, but he can call a lice or he can recruit lions.

He can do whatever he pleases. I'm meditating on this and I'm thinking there's more to learn from that one verse. I find it interesting that the Lord held these pagans responsible to relate and to respond to God, the true God appropriately. Look back again at the verse, it says that they did not fear the Lord. Therefore, it wasn't just because they moved in, it's because they didn't recognize him the way they should have.

Therefore, the Lord sent lions among them. So how do we make sense of this? Well, it's quite simple. The scriptures tell us over and over and over again that God has many ways of awakening man in his sin. Awakening man in his falsehood in order for them to be placed on the path of truth.

And in this particular account, we find that the Lord unleashes an unusual series of tragedies. Right? People died because of these lions in order to alarm them. And the question that we should have as we read this is, how are these people going to respond? How are they going to interpret these events?

And our answer comes in the next verse. So let's read it together. So the king of Assyria was told, the nations that you have carried away and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the law of the God of the land. Therefore, he has sent lions among them and behold they are killing them because they do not know the law of the God of the land. Then the king of Assyria commanded, send there one of the priests whom you carried away from there and let him go and dwell there and teach them the law of the God of the land.

So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel and taught them how they should fear the Lord. There is both a positive aspect and a clear negative one in these verses. The positive one is that these foreigners reacted to the warnings of God much better than Israel did in the past. Don't you think? We we can applaud them.

Why? Because they responded to this divinely orchestrated suffering by looking up. Yes. Yes. By looking for answers.

By inquiring. They didn't just dismiss it as coincidence. They didn't try to manage their own pain. They were on a quest now to look for answers, to try to reconcile themselves to, in their limited understanding, the God of this region. And that's something that we can compare with these children of Jacob and how stubborn they were even in their suffering.

That being said, there is a downside to this. And the downside is that Israel. Israel had failed yet again to fulfill the purposes of God in the particular area of shining the light of the truth to their neighbors. How can we make that claim from these verses? Well, we just learned that even after the exile, there was a remnant who remained in the land.

So here's my question. If there were people who understood who the true God was, what he asked of them, then why didn't they seize the moment and reach out to their bewildered confused neighbors and guide them to the truth? That's a question, right? A worthy question to ask? The the plain answer is that they clearly were not in right relationship with God for themselves, which is extremely sad.

Because God from the days of Exodus delivered this people from Egypt for many reasons including this wonderful truth that they would be a holy nation. That they would be a priesthood to mediate to some degree and to guide people, namely their neighbors, to understanding who the true God is, and they failed. They failed over and over even when these neighbors came to their front step. And this is something for us to consider because we can't just criticize these Israelites. We gotta examine our own hearts.

As followers of Jesus Christ, we need to take heed to instructions like what we find in Colossians four five. As an example, which says, walk in wisdom toward outsiders. Walk in wisdom toward outsiders. And one of the ways that you and I walk in wisdom in the presence of unbelievers is that we are continually mindful and alert of their needs, of the opportunities for us to be able to give them the hope of the gospel. One of my favorite examples of this is with Joseph.

Joseph's story is a fascinating one, and the script of his life really changed when he was in prison. Because as you know, he interpreted the dreams of two individuals. One was the cup bearer pharaoh, the other was chief baker, and that would essentially be the means for him to be delivered and promoted to be second command in Egypt. But did it just start with him interpreting dreams spontaneously? Now you have to read your bibles carefully.

One day, because Joseph was promoted to be the supervisor in that prison, he's walking through the halls, he's making his rounds, he's checking off his to do list, and he notices something. Why don't we turn there anyway? I wasn't planning to, but let's go there. Go to Genesis chapter 40. Hopefully, this will inspire us afresh to read our bibles carefully and to draw practical wisdom from stories like what we find here.

Genesis 40, let's look at verse five. And one night, they both dreamed. That is the chief baker and the cup bearer. They both dreamed, the cup bearer and the baker of the king of Egypt who are confined in the prison, each his own dream and each dream with its own interpretation. When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were troubled.

I have different colors underlining that specific part of the verse. He saw that they were troubled. He was aware of the distress on their faces. But he he didn't just make a mental note about it. Look what happens in verse seven.

So he asked. He asked Pharaoh's officers who are with him in custody in his master's house, why are your faces downcast today? You know what I asked myself reading this? Many years ago when it first came to me, what if he had just ignored it? What if he had just went on with his day because he had so many responsibilities?

What would he have missed if he failed to seize the opportunity here? To realize disillusionment, despair, and then to see it as a way, not realizing the full potential at the moment, but at least to be caring enough to inquire and that being the means for him to knowing a greater testimony. This is something for you and I to consider. Because if you and I are not prepared to sacrifice, to step in the lives of people who are hurting, who have questions, who don't know how to make sense of life, their own lives, what we're seeing in the world, if we neglect that, if we ignore that, if we don't feel the responsibility to give clarity, they will look to another source. And in this case, instead of the remnants stepping in, they turn to the king of Assyria.

Now we might be excited because we read there in verse 27 of second king 17 that the ruler of the Assyrians decides to send back a priest that was carried away in exile to teach these new dwellers of how to honor the God of the land. But whatever excitement we might have, even though we seem to be initially excited, he taught them how they should fear the Lord. One little detail will pop the balloon of any excitement that you might have enjoyed quite quickly. What do I mean by that? Revisit 28.

So one of the priests whom they had carried away some from Samaria came and lived in where? Bethel. And taught them how they should fear the Lord. Should, Bethel remind you of anything in our study of the book of Kings, both first and second Kings? What was special about the area called Bethel?

Any ideas? It was a designated place of worship for the golden calf since the days of Jeroboam. So we should remember, this should in a sense trigger us, uh-oh, Bethel priest teaching trouble. How so? Well, since the days of Jeroboam when he instituted golden calf worship in the land, there was no true priesthood.

Only counterfeit priests. And so we have every right to question the legitimacy of this priest who returned to Israel, Because he must be one of the false ones that was removed from the land. And this is the one who's gonna come back now and teach these people how they should fear God? So we should be concerned. We should be worried.

What is he going to tell them? And this got me thinking. What's just as spiritually lethal as someone ignoring an opportunity to guide unbelievers is someone who misrepresents the truth in the name of God. Be very careful where you seek spiritual answers. Listen.

Be careful. And thankfully, God has graciously given us his word so we have the ability to examine everything that we hear. Because this is the book by which he will hold every man accountable. That's why I believe in scripture alone because over and over in the Bible we're told that he's going to judge us by the content of this book. So what excuse do people have especially here in the West of being deceived when God has given us his complete revelation?

And so on one side, you have a remnant of Israelites who fail to reach out to these darkened Gentiles. And on the other side, we have now a priest who's teaching them who knows what. Because he comes from the questionable priest that Jeroboam promoted. Unfortunately, we are about to witness the fruit of this nameless priest's distorted compromised teaching, and it's heartbreaking. Let's read in verse 29.

But every nation still made gods of its own and put them in the shrines of the high places that the Samaritans had made, every nation in the cities in which they lived. Before we explain this further, I wanna highlight a word that appears for the first time in the Old Testament and the only time in the Old Testament. Did you see the word in the verse that we just read? If you know it, say it out loud. Samaritans.

Right? It appears only here in the Hebrew scriptures, and we know that it appears a handful of times in the gospels. And we should be persuaded that there's something about this account that explains something of the history of the Samaritans and the animosity that the they had towards the Jews and the Jews had towards them during the days of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there are answers here. Who are these Samaritans?

Well, the best explanation is that they originated from the Israelites of the Northern Kingdom, but they developed a new identity, especially after this moment. Because these Samaritans now intermarried with these pagans. And over time, they became a new breed. And this consistent intermingling eventually caused the Hebrews of the Southern Kingdom to deem these Samaritans as illegitimate Jews in regards to their religion and their race. And we see this hostility developing as we continue in our study of redemptive history.

And there's one place where it becomes incredibly clear. It's in the book of Ezra. When the Southern Kingdom will eventually be removed from the land by who? Not the Assyrians, but the Babylonians. But later, they are permitted to return to the land to restore the temple and their homes.

Something occurs when those Jews of the Southern Kingdom return and they are greeted by a people who remain in the land. Let's turn there to Ezra chapter four, beginning in verse one. Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the Lord, the God of Israel pause. So right there in verse one, we have to ask ourselves, who are these adversaries? Well one thing we know about them is what we find in verse two.

They approached Zerubbabel. So whoever these adversaries were, they abided in the land, in the promised land. They were there. They were waiting in a sense. And so, the people of Judah and Benjamin, they returned.

They represent the Southern Kingdom. They come back to their homeland and they are approached by what the scripture says, adversaries. They approach verse two Zerubbabel and the heads of father's houses and said to them, let us build with you for we worship your God as you do. Again, we're thinking, who are you? And we know what the remaining part of this verse.

And we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria who brought us here. Do we know who they are now? Yes. These are the Samaritans. And they trace their roots back to the time when the king of Assyria dropped off these pagans in the northern parts of Israel and over time they intermarried and they developed their own people group.

And they're claiming the right to be able to join them in this effort to reestablish the worship of the temple. We worship your gods. We worship your God, namely. And what's the response of the Jews who returned in verse three, but Zerubbabel, Jeshua and the rest of the heads of the father's houses in Israel said to them, you have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God. But we alone will build to the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia has commanded us.

Verse four, then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build. And this tension only builds over the years, over the centuries and it peaks at the time of Christ. But here's what's so fascinating. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Jewish Messiah, does not interact or reference these Samaritans in the way that the average Jew did of his time. In fact, when we consider the interaction that we just read, you can say that there is a thematic reversal in this exchange in one of the gospel accounts.

Hopefully, this makes sense. Let's turn to John chapter four. We know this chapter very well. It's when Jesus visits the woman at the well and she's from Samaria as we know. But look at John four verse seven.

A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

Now think back to what we just read in Ezra chapter four. In Ezra chapter four, you had the Samaritans who approached the Jews and asked to participate in an effort for something good. Right? And what happens? The Jews led by Zerubbabel, among other leaders, denied their request.

And the response of the people of the land then was to harass them, and to annoy them, and to stifle, and to try to hinder their efforts. It just made them even more embittered. But hundreds of years pass now and we stumble upon a Jewish man, and he approaches and makes a request to who? A Samaritan. And initially his appeal was denied as well.

What did she say? She said, how how are you, a Jew, asking a drink from me, a woman of Samaria? Now here's where this gets even more brilliant. I don't wanna overwhelm you with these references, so let me try to speak slowly because when I get excited I tend to speak fast. In Matthew one twelve, you can turn there if you want, we learn that Jesus is a descendant of Zerubbabel.

Isn't that interesting? The same Zerubbabel that we read of in Ezra. So you have the descendant of Zerubbabel now engaging with a Samaritan. She rejects his appeal. But what does he do in response to her stiff armed response?

Does he insult her? Does he rebuke her? Does he denounce her? No. He patiently leads her to the truth, and he grants her one of the clearest confessions in all of the gospels that he was the Messiah.

Who would have thought that you can make a connection with the Lord Jesus Christ in Ezra chapter four and second Kings chapter 17? And we see it here. The Lord draws this woman, not just to himself, but to the truth. And she goes back to the Samaritans of her village and preaches her testimony with the limited knowledge that she had and it brought revival to her town. That warmed my heart.

I hope it did something to yours. Let's come back to our main text. In verse thirty second king 17, forgive me if I mispronounce these names. I will try my best. The men of Babylon made Succoth Benoth.

The men of Koth made Nergal. The men of Hamath made Ashema, and the Avites made Nebaz and Tartak. And the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire of Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. They also fear the Lord and appointed from among all among themselves all sorts of people as priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places. So they fear the Lord, but also serve their own gods after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.

At first glance, these verses seem very troubling. How can you say that they fear the Lord and in the same breath say that they serve their own gods? Seems like a contradiction. Well, it's clarified with context. All you have to do is keep reading and it begins to make a little bit more sense.

So look briefly at verse 34. To this day, they do according to the former manner, they do not fear the Lord. And they do not follow the statutes or the rules or the law or the commandment that the Lord commanded the children of Jacob. So this helps us understand what's really going on here, that whatever allegiance that these people group showed to the Lord, it was not the way God designed it to be. It was a measure of respect.

It was a partial recognition. It was a diluted devotion. But in reality, they simply added Yahweh to their pantheon. To them, he was just the God of this land. Not the God of all things.

And so they thought what was demanded of them was just to add Yahweh to their other list of idols. And surely this inept priest from Bethel didn't make things easier for them to decipher. Did he? Now if anything, he probably encouraged them to worship all these false gods. And here's what we can make of this for ourselves.

Like any truth that's found in the word of God, our sinful inclinations and tendencies can warp what God asks of us all the while thinking we're really honoring him. Let me give you an example. Are there people out there who misinterpret and misapply the grace of God? Absolutely. Are there many who attempt to justify even reference scripture to defend their sin.

Yes. Which means that there is a right and wrong understanding of the grace of God and that's a distinction that the New Testament even makes. And where my mind went to when meditating on this earlier today, is how Peter ends his initial epistle. What does he say in first Peter five? He says this in verse 12.

I have written briefly to you exhorting and declaring that this is Oh, I wish we had it on the screen. It's in your Bibles though. He says, let me say it again. I have written briefly to you exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God. Stand for a minute.

So as he's wrapping things up with his letter, he wants to confirm that everything that he explained to them is the true grace of God, which implies what? That there's a false grace of God. In like manner, can we not say that there is a true fear of God and there is a false form of fear of God? What we're seeing here with this this people group is the embracing and the deception of a false fear of God. An acknowledgment of him, but not the way God intended it to be.

And so, the Holy Spirit wants to confirm in verse 34 that they did not really fear the Lord. They added the Lord. They had some concept of the Lord. They did things for the Lord, but the true fear of the Lord is total devotion to the Lord. And so what do we find?

Let's revisit verse 34. To this day, they do according to the former manner. They do not fear the Lord and they do not follow the statutes or the rules or the law or the commandment that the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel. The Lord made a covenant with them and commanded them, you shall not fear other gods or bow yourselves to them or serve them or sacrifice to them, but you shall fear the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm. You shall bow yourselves to him and to him you shall sacrifice.

And the statutes and the rules and the law and the commandment that he wrote for you, you shall always be careful to do. You shall not fear other gods and you shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you. You shall not fear other gods, but you shall fear the Lord, your God, and he will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies. However, they would not listen, but they did according to their former manner. So these nations fear the Lord and also serve their carved images.

Their children did likewise. And their children's children, as their fathers did, so they do to this day. You wanna know how this continued, how far it continued? To days of the Samaritan woman. This chapter closes with an important flashback of the covenant of the Lord made with the children of Jacob.

Moreover, it highlights that this new syncretistic religion that has permeated Samaria is something that violated the expectations that God had with this covenant, with this people. You know, you have some people who, in our day, are trying to achieve what happened in Samaria here. They're fighting for the erasure of the exclusivity of truth claims. They praise and they're trying to promote the the merging of different religious paths. Oh, there's just different expressions, different ways to the same God.

But what man applauds, what man exalts, God condemns. And he sees as an abomination. And that's what I want to try to convey by reading this to you in one reading, to understand that as the Lord reviews this, he wants to ensure that he does not want this. It's a violation to what he expected from his people. And just in case that there is anyone under the false assumption who believed for some reason that God's passion for the truth somehow evolves and it evolves in the New Testament.

Let me remind you what Jesus Christ said to somebody who belonged to this group of people. The very same woman that Christ had compassion toward is the very same Jesus who said the following in John four twenty two. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know. For what?

For salvation is from the Jews. I have read and I even heard preachers appeal to John chapter four to try to make a case for racial justice, overcoming social barriers, the reconciliation of our differences, how to achieve harmony with different backgrounds. And I believe they missed the point. Yes, there's an element here, of the Lord doing something outside of the norms of his culture. But what's the goal?

To bring this woman to saving faith. And he was willing to do what? To tell her in the process, you don't know what worship is about. You're in error. The way you think you relate to God is wrong.

So he was willing to, this woman, yes, who had a very shattered history with men, a very sinful past, very ashamed and yet he had to say, you are not in the right. But I'm here to tell you the truth. And so, the same heartbeat that we find here in second king 17 as the Lord now gives commentary what's taking place here among the Samaritans, continues in Christ. He is still passionate about the truth. He's still inviting people in error to come to the light.

You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know for salvation is from the Jews. And he leads her step by step, all the patience of Christ even in his evangelism. She wasn't getting it right away, but he was willing to bring her through this process until she arrived at the knowledge that would change her life forever. But there's another thing that stands out from these verses.

I mean, you heard it over and over. Do not fear other gods, you shall fear the Lord. It's everywhere. It's just it's peppered all over these verses. But something stood out to me and we'll close with this observation in verse 40.

After mentioning the fear of God in different ways so many times, the author writes, however, they would not listen. Those four words, they would not listen, But they did according to their former manner. One way we can be certain that we fear the Lord is that we listen. We listen to God's word, not just with our ears, but with our hearts. We are eager to obey.

In other words, the extent to which this book has authority over your life is a key indicator of the strength of your awe of God. You fear God? I fear God? Okay. What does this book mean to you?

Does this book have the final say no matter what it challenges with your predispositions? And what you hold too dearly, what's rooted in you, what's been passed down generationally, what you've heard in your own church background, what does the Bible have to say and do you agree with it? That tells you and I so much about a person's fear of God. They would not listen. I love to make these claims because they're biblical and then just compact it with more Bible.

And so as I'm reading second king 17 earlier in this week, I'm revisiting the book of Exodus. And what I found in Exodus, what I was reminded of in a particular place, just makes the point that I'm ending with that much more strong. So we come to a particular plague in Exodus nine. Why don't we turn there and we'll finish with it? In Exodus chapter nine, Moses confronts Pharaoh yet again with the seventh plague, which was the threat of unusual hail crashing on everything.

And notice what he says here in verse 19. Now therefore, send. Get your livestock and all that you have in the field into safe shelter, for every man and beast that is in the field and is not brought home will die when the hail falls on them. Notice what happens in the next verse. Then whoever feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh hurried.

They hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses. But whoever did not pay attention to the word of the Lord left his slaves and his livestock in the field. Connect fearing the Lord with paying attention to the word of the Lord. And connect not fearing the Lord with not paying attention to the word of the Lord. Does that not confirm what we read in second Kings 17?

They would not listen. And every word matters here. Right? Once they heard what Moses said in verse 20, it says that the servants of Pharaoh, they hurried. They didn't drag their feet.

I argue that they echoed what we find there in Genesis 22 when the Lord visits Abraham and he says, Abraham, I want you to give up your son. Yes, the son whom you love. And read there in the introduction of that chapter that he rose early. He didn't delay. He didn't toss back and forth in bed.

Oh, was that a dream? Was that really the Lord? He got up. He packed his bags. He brought his son.

He brought company and they made their way towards the Mountains Of Moriah. They hurried. How does your heart respond when you hear something that confirms or convicts you? To the degree that the word of the Lord has that kind of force in your soul is the measure of the pulse of your absolute reverence and awe towards God. Isn't it wonderful?

It's not necessarily a feeling, though feeling is included. It's about response. It's about conviction. It's about what's authoritative in your life. And so let me end the way we ended last week, that everything went wrong for this people because they failed to fear God.

It's no different for people today. You can trace everything back to that. A refusal, denial, or a weakening in this place of your heart, seeing God for who he truly is. May the Lord inspire fresh fear of him as we close this chapter. We thank you, Lord, that you have led us through this wonderful text, instrumental in our understanding of the history of your works in this world.

Help us be able to retain it, not forget it. Help us walk away with ears that are open and remaining open. Lord, we love you because even in this, we can see your son, the Lord Jesus. Even in this we can see principles that apply to us in the new covenant. And for this, Lord, we wanna worship you.

We wanna rejoice. We want to give you our awe. You are gracious to us, oh God. And Lord, we pray that you would even give us a fresh zeal to reach out to those around us. Help us overcome fear and the things that we try to convince ourselves with to not be bold and not be clear and not be caring enough to look at people that we know, even strangers, and be willing to step in so that they can be delivered.

Help us love the truth. Help us hold on to this word with absolute delight and treasure. And Lord, help us live for you. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.