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The Decline and Fall of Israel
The closing years of the kingdom of Israel saw violence and
bloodshed beyond even the worst periods under Ahab’s dynasty.
For two centuries the ten tribes had been sowing the wind; now
they were reaping the whirlwind. King after king was assassinated.
“They set up kings, but not by Me,” the Lord declared of the godless
usurpers. “They made princes, but I did not acknowledge them.”
Hosea 8:4
. Those who should have stood before the nations of earth
as the depositaries of divine grace “dealt treacherously with the
Lord” and with one another.
Hosea 5:7
.
Through Hosea and Amos God sent message after message, urg-
ing repentance and threatening disaster. “You have plowed wicked-
ness,” declared Hosea, “you have reaped iniquity. You have eaten
the fruit of lies, because you trusted in your own way, in the mul-
titude of your mighty men.” “At dawn the king of Israel shall be
cut off utterly.”
Hosea 10:13, 15
. Unable to discern the disastrous
results their evil course would bring, the ten tribes were soon to be
“wanderers among the nations.”
Hosea 9:17
.
Some leaders felt keenly their loss of prestige and wanted to get it
back. But they continued in evil, deceiving themselves into thinking
that they would get the political power they desired by alliances with
the heathen—making “a covenant with the Assyrians.”
Hosea 12:1
.
The Lord had repeatedly shown the ten tribes the evils of disobe-
dience. But in spite of reproof and appeals, Israel had sunk still lower
in apostasy. The Lord declared, “My people are bent on backsliding
from Me.”
Hosea 11:7
.
During the last half century before the Assyrian captivity, the
iniquity in Israel was like that of the days of Noah. In their wor-
ship of Baal and Ashtoreth the people broke their connection with
everything uplifting and ennobling and became an easy target for
temptation. The misguided worshipers had no barrier against sin
and yielded themselves to the evil passions of the human heart.
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