Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20040425.htm

1 AND 2 KINGS: ENJOYING GOD'S BLESSINGS IN AN APOSTATE ERA
Part LII: Blessing By Heeding God's Way Above Our Nagging Fears
(2 Kings 15:8-31; 17:1-6, 7-23)
  1. Introduction
    1. Every believer in Christ naturally wants to enjoy a fulfilled, happy life.
    2. However, the path to God's blessing comes in heeding God, not taking some other road simply because going GOD'S way looks HUMANLY TOO RISKY!
    3. That lesson is seen in viewing the lives of the final kings of the Northern Kingdom of Israel as follows:
  2. Blessing By Heeding God's Way Above Our Nagging Fears, 2 Kings 15:8-31; 17:1-6, 7-23.
    1. When God set up Israel's kings, He promised to bless them if they heeded His Word, Deut. 17:14-20.
    2. Yet, when the monarchy split, all of the northern kings failed to heed God out of human fear, but went their own way, and that with a loss of God's blessing (1 Kings 12:26-33 with 2 Kings 15:8-31; 17:1-6):
      1. Jeroboam I whom God had established to rule the ten tribes worried his subjects would become disloyal to his rule were they allowed to return to Jerusalem to worship the Lord, 1 Kings 12:26-27.
      2. So, instead of heeding God's Word by letting his subjects return to Jerusalem to worship God and so to trust Him to preserve his reign regardless of this worrisome move of his subjects, Jeroboam made a false idol located within his land's borders and told his subjects to worship it and not God, 12:28-29.
      3. This idolatry was used by all the kings of Israel that followed who were continually afraid their subjects might cease to be loyal to them were they to let them leave to worship God in Jerusalem, a fact that hindered God's blessing, 1 Kings 12:30. We can trace the effects of this in Israel's final kings:
        1. Zachariah who ruled Israel after Jeroboam II was the 4th king in the line of Jehu, and he came to Israel's throne to fulfill God's prophecy that Jehu would have four generations of kings in his line for ending Baal worship in Israel, 2 Kings 15:8, 12 with 2 Kings 10:30 and 10:24-28.
        2. However, since Zachariah like Jehu still followed Jeroboam I's false golden calf idolatry for fear that doing otherwise might cause him to lose his subjects, God allowed Shallum, the son of Jabesh to kill him in front of his subjects and rule in his place, 2 Kings 15:9-11 with 2 Kings 10:29, 31-33.
        3. God let Shallum be slain by Menahem, Jeroboam II's commander who ruled in Shallum's place, and that likely for his murder of Jehu's son, Zachariah, 2 Kings 15:12-15; B.K.C., O.T., p. 567.
        4. Menahem was not of royal lineage, so Israel's town of Tiphsah refused to open its gates to him, 15:16b; to secure his hold over his subjects, Menahem tried intimidation by destroying Tiphsah and butchering its pregnant women instead of trusting God for a following, 2 Kings 15:16-17.
        5. Menahem also upheld Jeroboam I's golden calf worship out of fear he might lose his subjects to Judah's king; God then let Menahem become subject to the Assyrians so as to pay a heavy tribute to them, 2 Kings 15:18, 19-22.
        6. After Menahem died, his son, Pekahiah ruled for two years, continuing in Jeroboam I's idolatry to keep his subjects loyal, 2 Kings 15:23-24; thus, Pekahiah was assassinated by Pekah after only two years of reign: though he was a son of a military commander, he was killed in his own palace citadel, the humanly safest place he could be, 2 Kings 15:25-26 NIV; Ibid.
        7. Pekah also promoted the idolatry of Jeroboam I out of fear his subjects might not otherwise remain loyal, 2 Kings 15:27-28; accordingly, God let Assyria take some of his subjects into captivity, and let Hoshea conspire against him to assassinate him, 2 Kings 15:29-30.
        8. When Hoshea also upheld Jeroboam I's idolatry for fear his subjects might leave for Judah, God finally let Assyria invade Samaria and carry the people of Israel off into captivity, 2 Kings 17:1-6.
      4. The author of 2 Kings 17:7-23 then gives us an extensive explanation on why Israel went into captivity: her failing to heed God about her sin of idolatry led to God's judging her with national captivity!
Lesson: Though Israel's kings tried to SECURE their REIGNS out of FEAR they might otherwise lose their subjects to Judah, since they DID so by EVIL MEANS, they lost GOD'S blessing.

Application: Regardless how FEARFUL it may SEEM for us to TRUST and HEED God's Word versus performing SINFUL ideas in SINFUL ways, we must recall the plight of Israel's kings and TRUST and HEED Scripture instead of SINNING! God is to be feared above all other things we fear!