Week 17 II Kings
The words CHAPTER 17 in my bible are underlined in red.
I don’t know when I did that, or why. Probably because chapter 17 maps out a big turning point in Israel’s national history. Maybe not exactly turning point since turning point means changing-direction-but-still-moving. The only place Israel was moving was directly into exile in Assyria, and from there right on into national oblivion.
I might have also underlined CHAPTER 17 because the writer, I’m pretty sure expected the why-did-the-northern-tribes-disappear-from-history question. So he says: now this came about because… and then in the next seventeen verses lists about twenty reasons why Israel failed. All the reasons have to do with the covenant promises that Israel broke – nothing to do with ecological degradation, overpopulation, or bad political decisions. II Kings 17 is concerned with religious beliefs and practices.
Surprisingly, Israel is told twice that one of their problems was that they didn’t listen. When you look at some of the other faults on the list, this one doesn’t seem like such a big thing.
But I don’t think the writer was concerned with inattentiveness. Israel was listening. The concern was who they were listening to. I thought back to the beginning: Eve had two voices to listen to. Her problem wasn’t an attention deficit. It was the choice she made, preferring to listen to one voice and not the other.
Note: quote is from II Kings 17:7 (NASB version). Listen is in verses 14 & 40.