2 Kings 17:1–23. Warning + Hoshea
Some warnings are easy to ignore. Don’t leave your assignment until the night before. Don’t click on that suspicious link. Don’t keep poking your brother when your parents have already told you to stop.
We’re especially likely to ignore a warning when nothing happens straight away. We assume everything will probably be fine—or that we can change before the consequences arrive.
Long before 2 Kings 17, when Israel was still travelling towards the Promised Land, God warned them about what would happen once they were settled there. If they ditched his law and turned away from him, they would eventually lose the land he had given them.
Leviticus 26 warned:
“I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins.”
(Leviticus 26:33)
Deuteronomy 28 gives the same warning. Another nation would attack Israel, besiege its cities and carry its people away:
“The LORD will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other.” (Deuteronomy 28:64)
Israel couldn’t claim that God had never warned them. Even before they entered the land, he told them what would happen if they rejected him. He then sent prophet after prophet to call them back.
By the time we reach 2 Kings 17, the northern kingdom of Israel has been rejecting God for hundreds of years. It has been that way basically ever since the kingdom split in two during the days of Rehoboam and Jeroboam. Jeroboam led the northern kingdom into idolatry, and Israel then had one bad king after another. Some were worse than others, but none led the kingdom back to faithful worship of the LORD.
In 2 Kings 17, the consequences finally arrive.
1. Warning + Hoshea
Here’s the overall point of 2 Kings 17:
When we ignore God’s warnings, the consequences are serious.
Hoshea is the final king of the northern kingdom of Israel. He reigns for nine years and does evil in the eyes of the LORD, although apparently not as badly as some of the kings before him.
Israel is now caught between two powerful empires. The king of Assyria, Shalmaneser, invades and forces Hoshea to pay tribute (think, a forced annual tax or “shakedown”). It was basically Israel admitting: “You’re more powerful than us, and we’re under your control.”
Hoshea later stops paying and secretly asks the king of Egypt for help. When the Assyrians discover the conspiracy, they capture Hoshea and chuck him in prison.
The Assyrian army then invades Israel and besieges its capital, Samaria, for three years. Eventually, the city falls and the Israelites are deported to different parts of the Assyrian Empire. Hoshea loses his throne, Israel loses its land and the northern kingdom comes to an end.
Why does this happen?
Hoshea’s rebellion against Assyria certainly wasn’t clever. But 2 Kings 17 tells us that the real problem goes much deeper:
“All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the LORD their God.” (2 Kings 17:7)
Thats the key explanation. Israel’s exile is ultimately because of sin. It doesn’t happen because God is too weak to protect them, or simply because Assyria is stronger than Israel. It happens because the Israelites have continually rejected the LORD, the God who rescued them from slavery in Egypt.
The chapter gives us (at least) fourteen reasons why Israel’s exile happened:
They worshipped other gods and copied the practices of the nations around them (vv. 7–8).
They secretly did things against the LORD that were not right, even though they knew they were accountable to him (v. 9).
They built pagan high places throughout the land, instead of worshipping God as he commanded (v. 9).
They set up sacred stones as part of pagan worship (v. 10).
They set up Asherah poles, embracing the worship of false gods (v. 10).
They burned incense at pagan shrines, joining in the worship of idols (v. 11).
They worshipped idols, even though the LORD had commanded them not to do so (vv. 11–12).
They refused to listen to God’s prophets, whom he sent to warn them and call them back (vv. 13–14).
They rejected God’s commands and decrees, refusing to live under his word (v. 15).
They broke God’s covenant, treating their relationship with him as though it meant nothing (v. 15).
They made two golden calves, repeating Jeroboam’s false worship at Bethel and Dan (v. 16).
They worshipped the stars and Baal, turning to created things and false gods instead of the Creator (v. 16).
They sacrificed their children, committing horrifying acts of idolatry (v. 17).
They practised divination, sought omens and followed Jeroboam’s sinful example, refusing to turn away from the pattern of rebellion that had shaped the northern kingdom from its beginning (vv. 17, 21–22).
All of these reasons are different expressions of the same basic problem: Israel had sinned against the LORD. They had rejected him, rejected his word and given their worship to other gods.
The golden calves go all the way back to Jeroboam, the first king of the northern kingdom. Jeroboam worried that his people might return their loyalty to the southern kingdom if they travelled to Jerusalem to worship. So he set up golden calves in Bethel and Dan and told Israel:
“Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”
(1 Kings 12:28)
The kings who came after Jeroboam continued leading Israel in the same direction.
God didn’t leave them without a warning. Through his prophets, he told Israel and Judah:
“Turn from your evil ways. Observe my commands and decrees.”
(2 Kings 17:13)
But they wouldn’t listen. They didn’t trust the LORD, they wanted to live like the nations around them and they worshipped gods they could see and control. Perhaps they also assumed that God’s judgment would never really come. After all, Israel had continued along the same path for hundreds of years.
Then Samaria fell:
“So the people of Israel were taken from their homeland into exile in Assyria, and they are still there.”
(2 Kings 17:23)
What God had warned about in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 happened. Israel was defeated, removed from the Promised Land and scattered among the nations.
God had been enormously patient. But his warning was real. And the ultimate reason for Israel’s exile was sin: persistent, deliberate rejection of the LORD.
2. Warning + Jesus
King Jesus brings the warning to its sharpest point
Exile was terrible, but it wasn’t necessarily the end of Israel’s story.
God had also spoken about what could happen after his people were scattered. In Deuteronomy 30, he promised that if they returned to him, he would have compassion on them:
“Then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you.”
(Deuteronomy 30:3)
There was still hope for scattered Israelites who returned to God. But John 3:36 gives us a warning with even higher stakes:
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.”
(John 3:36)
Israel faced defeat, deportation and removal from the land. John 3:36 warns about missing out on eternal life and remaining under God’s wrath. Jesus' warning is even sharper.
For us, the stakes are higher and the warning is sharper because of who Jesus is. He isn’t simply another prophet telling people to return to God. He is God’s Son and God’s chosen King. To reject the Son is to reject the God who sent him.
At the same time, the verse makes an amazing promise: whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. We don’t earn that life by becoming good enough. Jesus gives it to everyone who trusts him.
He can offer us life because he came to bear God’s judgment for us. At the cross, Jesus took the wrath that sinners deserve. He rose from death and now offers forgiveness and eternal life.
John 3:36 puts two ways before us. We can believe in the Son and have eternal life, or reject the Son and remain under God’s wrath.
3. Warning + Us
So how do we respond to our warning? Knowing what we know from Hoshea’s story, and having heard Jesus’ words, it seems pretty obvious:
Hear the warning while there’s time.
People ignore Jesus for many of the same reasons Israel ignored God. We can be stubborn. We want to rule our own lives and don’t want Jesus telling us what to do. We may care more about fitting in with the people around us than listening to God.
Some people don’t believe judgment is real. Others think they’re already good enough. Some intend to respond to Jesus eventually, but keep putting it off. There always seems to be more time.
Israel probably thought there was more time too. They had ignored God for generations and were still living in the land. But eventually, Assyria arrived and Samaria fell.
God’s message to Israel had been clear:
“Turn from your evil ways.”
(2 Kings 17:13)
That is how we should respond to the warning in John 3:36. Turn away from rejecting God and trying to rule your own life. Believe in Jesus. Trust that his death is enough to save you and follow him as your King.
God’s warning should also shape how we speak to other people about Jesus. We’re not better than them, and we don’t warn them to make ourselves feel superior. We warn them because sin is real, God’s judgment is real, Jesus offers eternal life and there is still time to respond.
Don’t assume you can deal with Jesus later. Hear the warning while there’s time. Turn from your evil ways and believe in the Son.
Whoever rejects the Son won’t see life. Whoever believes in him has eternal life.
Discussion Questions
Pray and Get Going
Q1. When someone warns you not to do something, are you more likely to listen to the warning or ignore it?
Look at 2 Kings 17:1–23
Q2. What happens to Hoshea and the northern kingdom of Israel in verses 1–6?
Q3. Why does this happen, according to verses 7–23? See if you can find at least ten reasons.
Q4. What warnings had God given Israel? See verses 12, 13 and 15, as well as Leviticus 26:27–33.
Q5. Why do you think Israel ignored God’s warnings?
In Leviticus 26, God warned his people that there would be serious consequences if they refused to listen to him. He would remove them from the land he had given them and scatter them among the nations. That is exactly what happens in 2 Kings 17.
But exile wasn’t necessarily the end of the story. In Deuteronomy 30:2–3, God promised that if his scattered people returned to him, he would have compassion on them and gather them back from the nations. Exile was terrible, but it wasn’t final. When we come to John 3:36, however, we hear an even more serious warning—one that raises the stakes far beyond Israel’s exile.
Look at John 3:36
Q6. How is the warning in John 3:36 even more serious than the warnings given to Israel?
Q7. Why do you think people ignore this warning about rejecting Jesus?
Q8. How should we respond to this warning?
