2 Kings 17:24 - Meaning and Application

No land is ever lost, people say, for lack of an heir. When Israel was driven out of Canaan, the king of Assyria quickly brought in people from his own kingdom who could be spared. They were meant to serve him and to replace the Israelites who were still left there. This passage tells us about those new settlers, and it helps us say goodbye to Samaria and to the Israelites who had been carried away to Assyria.

About the Assyrians brought into Israel, we are told first that they took Samaria and lived in its cities (2 Kings 17:24). Lands often change owners, but it was sad that the holy land should become a heathen land again. Sin does terrible work.

We are also told that when they first arrived, God sent lions among them. They were probably too few to fill the country, so wild animals increased against them (Exodus 23:29). Still, beyond that natural cause, God was clearly at work. He rules over all creatures, great and small, and can use any of them for his purposes, even lice or lions. He gave them a rough welcome to check their pride and let them know that, though they had conquered Israel, the God of Israel was still powerful enough to deal with them.

God could have stopped them from settling there by sending lions against them while Israel still lived in the land. And if he allowed it, it was not because Israel deserved it, but because of Israel’s own wickedness. Now these newcomers were under God’s judgment too. They had lived without God in their own land and had no trouble from lions there. If they ignored him in this land too, they did so at their own risk.

The people then sent a complaint to their king. They likely reported the losses their new colony had suffered and the fear they lived with because of the lions. They also said they believed this was a judgment on them because they had not worshiped the God of the land, though they did not know how to do that (2 Kings 17:26). They spoke of him as the God of the land, though he is really the God of the whole world. Even so, their ignorance still showed some sense of danger and duty.

In this, they put Israel to shame. The Israelites had been much slower to listen to God’s warnings than these foreigners were. Israel had not served the God of that land, though he was the God of their fathers and their great benefactor, and though they knew very well how he should be worshiped. The Assyrians asked to be taught what the Israelites hated to learn.

So the king of Assyria arranged for them to be taught the way to fear the God of the land (2 Kings 17:27, 2 Kings 17:28). He did this, not because he cared about that God, but to keep his subjects safe from the lions. He sent back one of the priests he had taken captive. A prophet would have helped them more, because this was only one of the priests of the calves, and he likely kept living at Bethel out of habit and old attachment. He might have taught them to do better than they were doing, but he was not likely to teach them true worship unless he had first taught his own people better. Still, he came and lived among them to show them how they should fear the Lord. It is not certain whether he taught them from the law book or only by spoken instruction.

Once they were taught, they made a mixed and confused religion. They worshiped the God of Israel out of fear, and their own idols out of affection (2 Kings 17:33). They claimed to fear the Lord, but they also served their own gods. They all agreed to honor the God of the land in the Jewish way, keeping the festivals and sacrifices, but each nation kept its own gods as well, not only for private family worship, but also for the shrines in their high places (2 Kings 17:9). The idols of each nation are named in 2 Kings 17:30, 2 Kings 17:31.

Scholars are unsure what several of these names mean, and they do not agree on what forms these gods were worshiped under. Jewish teachers say Succoth-Benoth was worshiped in the form of a hen with chicks, Nergal as a cock, Ashima as a smooth goat, Nibhaz as a dog, Tartak as an ass, Adrammelech as a peacock, and Anammelech as a pheasant. More likely, Succoth-Benoth, meaning “tents of the daughters,” was Venus. Nergal, worshiped by the Cuthites, or Persians, was the fire. Adrammelech and Anammelech were only names or forms of Moloch. This shows how empty idol worship was, and how foolish people can become in their imaginations.

Even our ignorance about these idols teaches us something: God has said that these false gods will all perish (Jeremiah 10:11). They are buried in forgetfulness, while the name of the true God will last forever. This mixed-up religion continued for a long time, even until the writing of this book and long after, for more than 300 years in all, until the time of Alexander the Great. Then Manasse, the brother of Jaddus the high priest, married the daughter of Sanballat, the governor of the Samaritans. He went over to them, obtained permission from Alexander to build a temple on Mount Gerizim, drew many Jews after him, and persuaded the Samaritans to throw away their idols and worship the God of Israel alone. Even so, their worship remained so mixed with error that our Savior said to them, “You do not know what you worship” (John 4:22).

The historian then turns to the Israelites who had been carried into Assyria. He has reason to mention them because their descendants in the land followed the same pattern, worshiping the God of Israel along with other gods. But what became of the captives in their place of suffering? Did their troubles reform them and lead them to repent? No. They continued as before (2 Kings 17:34). When the two tribes were later carried into Babylon, their idolatry was cured by that exile, and after seventy years they returned with joy. But the ten tribes hardened themselves in the furnace, and so they were justly lost in it and left to perish.

Their stubbornness is made worse when we remember the honor God had given them. They were the descendants of Jacob, whom God named Israel, and they carried that noble name. Yet they brought shame on the very name by which they were called.

This reminds us of the covenant God made with them, and of the charge he gave with it. The command is stated very fully here: they were to fear and serve the Lord Jehovah alone, the one who brought them up out of Egypt (Kg2 17:36). Since they had received his statutes and laws in writing, they were to keep them forever (Kg2 17:37), and never forget the covenant God had made with them, along with its promises and conditions.

One command is repeated three times because it had been taught so often and mattered so much: they were not to fear other gods. God had told them that if they stayed close to him, he would rescue them from every enemy (Kg2 17:39). Yet when they were actually in their enemies’ hands and needed help, they were so dull and so blind to their own good that they went on as before (Kg2 17:40). They worshiped the true God and false gods together, as if there were no difference at all.

“Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone.” That was their path, and it was also the path of the nations that came after them. So the apostle’s question is fitting: “Are we better than they?” No, not at all, for both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin (Rom 3:9).