2 Kings Chapter 17

The Collapse of a Nation

 

People have often wondered where America fits into Bible Prophecy.

A) There are some vague passages that could possibly be America – {which not going to get into tonight}

 

B) But really the Bible is really vague about our nation.

 

C) But as we come to 2 Kings 17 we are going to see the end of Israel- the Nation is NO MORE

1) The text gives us some insight into the reasons for their collapse –

 

D) What we are going to see tonight in this passage bears a remarkable resemblance to where America is headed today.

 

Set the scene: RD V.1, 2

 

Move back to the North – Israel – another bad King

Hoshea will be the final king – Assyrians invade to take them captive and POSSESS THEIR LAND

 

RDV.3-5

When Shalmaneser takes over for Tiglath Pileser – Hoshea is thinking that maybe Assyria has been weakened

 

Hoshea turns to SO – the King of Egypt in an attempt to revolt / stop paying the tribute money.

What transpires is that God is going to tell us now that Israel is going to be carried away captive.
A) 724 yrs after they were released from Egypt – They are now going back into Captivity.

 

B) Here is the irony in all of this – Israel has become like the nations that they drove out of Canaan

1) And they are turning for help to the nation that God had delivered them from

 

C) What they needed to do is turn to the Lord. Humble themselves and pray and seek his face

2 Chronicles 7:14  if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

 

That is what we need to do! -

A) I get aggravated when I hear Christians says – Well that was a promise for them doesn’t apply to us. –

 

B) God is the same yesterday today and forever= you don’t think that if we as a nation did that – God would respond in the same way

 

C) The person who would make such a statement obviously has no idea of the History of Revival –

 

How they always Start} Small pockets of Prayer

 

D) I am in one – I encourage you to get into one as well. {God would be merciful} Revival starts in you.

1) Hoshea should have turned to the Lord – instead he turned to Egypt or the world.

 

RD V.6-7

 

So here we see that the nation of Israel was carried away captive – they ceased to exist as a nation – completely displaced.

A)What happened to Israel I think is a warning of what can happen to America if we are not careful.

 

B) Consider the Characteristics of their decline:

 

1. They forgot their origins V.7

A) They forgot that God had brought them out of Egypt

 

B) SO they turned to other gods!

 

C) America has the same problem: She has forgotten her origins.

1) forgot The Great prayers that were prayed. Lincoln Washington / Adams /

 

D) Forgot that George Whitefield was here preaching.

1) He was one of the Preachers of the Great awakening that took place between 1730’s & the 1770’s/ 30 plus

 

E) At Harvard they said that 97-out 100 students were converted.

Some of those men were the very one’s that shaped our constitution Godly beginnings

A) Tour Washington the Lord is everywhere. – Buildings, plaques, scriptures - What happened!

 

B) Forgotten our Origins:

1) Forgotten the fact that we have -Always been a leader in support for Israel {Blessed by God because of it

 

C) Nations that Blessed Israel – God said I will bless

 

Sent out more missionaries

A) More religious literature than any nation

 

B) These are the things that have made America great.

1) These are the reasons God has blessed this country, it is not our technology not our ingenuity

 

C) When we stop doing these things we are in trouble the day that stops. What purpose does this nation have in God's design?

1) Interesting that other countries are now sending missionaries here.

 

Israel forgot their origins and strayed from the Lord and so have we.

 

2) There was a growing increase in Sexual immorality connected to idolatry   RD V.8-12

 

This is describing the Worship of Asheram this is some of the most Idolatrous Immoral pornographic sexual worship imaginable

A) It was Glorifying of Sexual sin and Pornography Very immoral Worship Temple Prostitutes

 

B) We struggle today because that is freedom of speech and freedom of expression

1) the artistic World gets mad

 

C) If we talk about what is Decent they don't went to hear those things

 

D) Did you know that Back- in the 1950’s 1960’s Hollywood consulted with a team of Priests, Rabbis, Pastors to view the content of movies and TV Shows

 

E) They wanted to know if the content was going to be morally offensive 

1) There was a time when Hollywood carried about that.

 

 

Now that they have so much Money. They don’t Care at all

A) Now they would rather push the envelope with the most illicit sex possible.

 

B) They are more concerned about being respected amongst their peers.

1) Because they have more Money than they know what to do with

Stats on Sexual content on TV – USA Today Kaiser Foundation study

In sampling more than 1,000 hours of programming including all genres from the major net works.

Here is what they found:

• 70% of all shows have sexual content, up from 56% in 1998 and 64% in 2002.

• The number of sex scenes per hour is up compared with 1998, with an average of 5.0 scenes an hour now, up from 3.2 in 1998 and 4.4 in 2002. In top teen shows, including The O.C. and Desperate Housewives, there are 6.7 scenes an hour.

The total number of sexual scenes in the program sample rose to 3,783 scenes from 1,930 scenes in 1998.

• During prime-time hours, sex is even more common; 77% of shows include sexual content, averaging 5.9 sexual scenes an hour.

3) There was a disregard for Children. V.17

In Israel this worship of Asheram led to the worship of Ashteroth and then to the worship of Molech V.17

 

And they caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire,

 

They placed their children on the arms of Molech

A) Whenever a nation is preoccupied with sexual immorality the result is going to be that of unwanted pregnancies {Molech was one way they dealt w/ that

 

B) Archeologist have also found proof that in this region another practice that took place was placing live babies in Jars

1) Burying them alive in the walls of their homes in these Jar – Plaster over it

 

C) A way to appease the gods – Skeletons in the Jars

 

 It was old fashioned abortion: Today – we do it before they are born

A) The greatest danger to kids in the womb today is from their own parents

 

B) Most dangerous time to be a child in America today is from conception to birth

 

D) In the last 30 yrs there have been over 43 million abortions performed in the US.

 

Abortion in contrast to casualties of war.

 

Let me put that in perspective for you:

Revolutionary war ………. 25,324 American casualties

Civil War ………………….498,332  American casualties

WWI ……………………… 116,708 American casualties

WWII……………………..  407,316 American casualties

Korea ………………….....   54,246  American casualties

Vietnam …………………..  58,655 American casualties

Desert Storm …………….        292 American casualties

Desert Shield ……………….  2,318 American casualties

 

Total ………………………  1 million 163,191 American casualties

 

Now the number of abortions in the last 30 yrs is 36 times the number of casualties from all the American wars combined.

 

                That is 1 million 163,191 X 36 

 

That is shocking – I hope it is shocking

 

If you have had an abortion not trying to condemn you –   Forgiveness in Jesus –

 

A) But as a nation – we must wake up. This was one of the things that led God to say concerning Israel she is not going to exist anymore!

 

B) I think that because of the Church – God is being merciful to us.

 

4) There was a deafness to the word of God. RD V. 13-14a

 

Think of the Prophets that God sent to Israel during this time

A) Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Abijah, Micah, Jeremiah, Joel, Amos, Ezekiel

B) But they would not listen.

1) Amos said there was a famine for the hearing of the Word of God in that day.

 

C) There wasn’t as famine of the Word – but a famine concerning the hearing of it.

 

They forced God and His word out of their lives

A) America – Take the 10 commandments out of our Schools / court rooms

 

B) Take out God – {No praying in Schools –

1) Don’t mention God or Jesus in graduations ceremonies –

2) One School – God Bless You!!!!!

 

C) Age of Tolerance there is deafness to the word of God

1) Don’t lay your religious trips on me

 

D) People who preach tolerance will tolerate anything but Christians

1) Some Christians – embracing – it – Bible literally – you are narrow

 

5) Their unwillingness to hear led to an all out rejection of the Word of God. RDV. 14-18

 

Hosea declared My people are destroyed for lack of Knowledge because they have rejected Knowledge.

 

Guys could this happen to us?

 

What the writer reveals next is how Israel became displaced and their lands were given over to others               RD V. 19- 27

 

 

 Zechariah 2:12 tells us that the land of Israel is the Holy Land. God regards it as something special, and will hold accountable those who live there and do not fear Him.

 

 

These Assyrian officials seemed to know what the recently-conquered kingdom of Israel did not know – that they had to honor the God of Israel.

 

Yet, any faith in God among these resettled people was founded in simple fear of the lions – leading to an inadequate relationship with God.

 

RDV.28-41