King James Version, with Nii Okai's journal notes · 10 notes
1In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah began Hoshea the son of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel nine years.
2And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, but not as the kings of Israel that were before him.
So the evils of Israel were classified and graded.
He did evil 😈, but not as bad as his predecessors.
Is that not the state of our leaders here in Africa 🌍?
Even the seeming good ones are those who do not corrupt themselves so much 🙏 as the others.
3Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, and gave him presents.
4And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and brought no present to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison.
5Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years.
6In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
7For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods,
8And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made.
9And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the LORD their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.
How could one turn from the Lord after seeing all the good benefits the Lord brought them?
Logically this does not make sense. And especially reading the history of their kings, and seeing the patterns of obedience and disobedience yielding good and evil 😈 respectively.
It does not add up, yet Israel 🇮🇱 did evil before the Lord.
The conclusion I make from this is that evil is very deceptive and subtle; before you know it, you end up ensnared by it.
This is why we are admonished to be wary and flee from it.
God told them not to intermarry with them, because they will influence them to do evil 😈, and not the other way around.
Let's be careful as we stand, lest we fall.
10And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree:
11And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the LORD carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger:
Why did God allow all this, and such decadence, to get to this level, until his own people were carried captive?
I believe one of the reasons was to show that all men are prone to sin and the worst of atrocities against God and men.
Who would have thought that Israel would have gone so low, if not that the Lord left them to their ways, to their own detriment?
But he kept a remnant for himself. However, the point was made... There is none righteous, and men, if left to themselves, would self-destruct and reject God, unless the Lord himself intervenes. And he did, in sending a savior, his man, to redeem men from self-bondage and sin.
12For they served idols, whereof the LORD had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing.
13Yet the LORD testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.
14Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the LORD their God.
15And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them.
16And they left all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.
17And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
18Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only.
19Also Judah kept not the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made.
20And the LORD rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight.
21For he rent Israel from the house of David; and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king: and Jeroboam drave Israel from following the LORD, and made them sin a great sin.
22For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them;
23Until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day.
24And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.
25And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not the LORD: therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which slew some of them.
26Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou hast removed, and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God of the land: therefore he hath sent lions among them, and, behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner of the God of the land.
How did they come about this knowledge? Was it their own prophets and heathen priests who deciphered this from the realm of spirits?
Which thing God hid not from their priests, because he wanted them to know it was he, the Almighty God, that punished them.
It is similar to when the Philistines captured the ark of the children of Israel and got punished accordingly, until they sought to appease the LORD and were pardoned after much suffering.
27Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry thither one of the priests whom ye brought from thence; and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land.
28Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Beth-el, and taught them how they should fear the LORD.
29Howbeit every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt.
30And the men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima,
31And the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burnt their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.
32So they feared the LORD, and made unto themselves of the lowest of them priests of the high places, which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places.
33They feared the LORD, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from thence.
Strange 😞 yet interesting. This sounds so much like African traditional religion of today.
We fear 😱 God but serve him through smaller gods.
This again is the state of the church.
Christians serve God but have smaller gods, be it idols or habits, patterns etc., they don't want to give up.
Is this not like African traditional religion and other religions?
They fear and recognize the Lord, but still serve their gods in addition ➕ to fearing the Lord 😱.
While we Christians are monotheists, and fear and serve the one and only true God &
not recognizing the others, for they are no gods but devils and the work of men's hands.
34Unto this day they do after the former manners: they fear not the LORD, neither do they after their statutes, or after their ordinances, or after the law and commandment which the LORD commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel;
35With whom the LORD had made a covenant, and charged them, saying, Ye shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them:
36But the LORD, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretched out arm, him shall ye fear, and him shall ye worship, and to him shall ye do sacrifice.
After such a mighty display of power, God's expectation was that they would serve him and him only.
After all, he had demonstrated outright victory over all the so-called powerful gods.
Yet strangely enough the people, his own people, lusted after strange gods, the very gods who had just been defeated.
What manner of foolishness is that?
Then the Lord introduces his ultimate strategy, for all these issues of man are a heart problem. Hence sending Jesus into our hearts 💕.
37And the statutes, and the ordinances, and the law, and the commandment, which he wrote for you, ye shall observe to do for evermore; and ye shall not fear other gods.
38And the covenant that I have made with you ye shall not forget; neither shall ye fear other gods.
39But the LORD your God ye shall fear; and he shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.
40Howbeit they did not hearken, but they did after their former manner.
41So these nations feared the LORD, and served their graven images, both their children, and their children’s children: as did their fathers, so do they unto this day.
Strange 😞 times, even up to this day. How did we get here?
These people served their own gods, and then the Lord punished them for serving idols in his land.
So they learnt the ways of God and resorted to God worship 🛐.
But they did not stop at that. They resorted to God worship in addition to their other gods.
They saw Yahweh as one of the gods. They called him the god of the Israelites.
In their deception 😞 they combined gods and continued this practice from generation to generation. Hmm
At least the good in all of this is that they recognized the Lord as supreme, the supreme creator of all; at the least they knew he was the most high and the most powerful one.
African traditional religion... we believe in the supreme being and access to Him via the smaller gods.