28. CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
"The king of Assyria carried away Israel to Assyria, and settled them in Halah and by the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes; because they hearkened not to the voice of Jehovah their God, but transgressed His covenant, all that Moses the servant of Jehovah commanded; and they would not hear nor do it."
While God has no obligation to explain to us why He does what He does, yet in His Word He often does so. As He concludes the story of the ten-tribe kingdom, God gives us a detailed bill of particulars in 2Ki 17:7-23 as to why He brought an end to this kingdom. God has placed it in His Word for our warning and instruction. We do well to examine it. Rom 11:20-21 tells us: "Be not high-minded, but fear: if God indeed has not spared the natural branches; lest it might be He spare not thee either."
God had brought Israel out of their bondage in Egypt. They had turned to idols, both the idolatry of the nations that Jehovah had dispossessed before them, and the idolatry their own kings had introduced. Jeroboam is particularly singled out as having "violently turned Israel from following Jehovah, and made them sin a great sin" (2Ki 17:21). God is a jealous God who cannot brook rivals of any kind for the affections of His people.
God had warned His people over and over again through prophets and seers to turn from their evil ways and keep His commandments and statutes. But the people refused to hear. They had rejected His statutes and covenant and testimonies. They had followed the ways of the nations round about them and had sold themselves to do evil in the sight of Jehovah, to provoke Him to anger.
Finally He removed Israel out of His sight as a nation. Yet His omniscience and love knows exactly where each individual is. Nor will He be frustrated in His purposes which are secure in Christ.