2 Kings 17:13 – June 20, 2022

The LORD warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and seer: Give up your evil ways and keep my commandments and statutes, in accordance with the entire law which I enjoined on your ancestors and which I sent you by my servants the prophets. 2 Kings 17:13 NABRE                

This chapter of the Hebrew Scriptures captures the turning away of Israel and its defeat and absorption into the Assyrian Kingdom. It is a summary of the creation of the Samaritans, Jews who marry non-Jews becoming part of their inhabited nation, while also holding on to certain Jewish covenants and laws. We read the Samaritans in the Scriptures are hated by the Jews and return hatred to the Jews. Israel is defeated because the people do not follow the commands of the Lord, turning to false idols, and doing evil the Lord has told them to avoid. Eventually, the Lord no longer treats Israel as a special race of people, as they were when the Lord brought them out of Egypt. Israel is the Northern Kingdom consisting of ten tribes of the nation, only Judah in the Southern Kingdom, with two tribes remains under the watchfulness of the Lord, though even they commit unlawful acts. God sends prophets to turn the people back toward Him, but they do not listen and so the Lord eventually becomes a God of history for these people, that is until Christ comes for all people.

The separation of the tribes into two kingdoms and the eventual loss of the Northern Kingdom happened over years with evil acts and infidelity to the Lord as blame. The scriptures read the Lord removed Israel from His presence, but this is human behavior not God’s. God is always ready to accept a Prodigal as Jesus tells us. No matter how far we walk away from God the trip back only entails turning around.

Are you a prodigal? Do you desire return to the embrace of God?

God is always ready to accept a Prodigal as Jesus tells us. No matter how far we walk away from God the trip back only entails turning around. Click To Tweet

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