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Decline and Fall of Israel
135
invaded Israel and carried away a multitude of captives living in
Galilee and east of the Jordan. These he scattered among the heathen
in lands far removed from Palestine. The northern kingdom never
recovered from this terrible blow. Only one more ruler, Hoshea, was
to follow Pekah. Soon the kingdom was to be swept away forever.
In that time of sorrow and distress God still remembered mercy.
In the third year of Hoshea’s reign, good King Hezekiah began to
rule in Judah and instituted important reforms in the temple service
at Jerusalem. He arranged for a Passover celebration and invited not
only Judah and Benjamin but the northern tribes as well.
“Then the runners went throughout all Israel and Judah” with
the pressing invitation, “Children of Israel, return to the Lord God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Israel; then He will return to the remnant of you
who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria. ... Now do
not be stiff-necked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the
Lord; and enter His sanctuary. ... For if you return to the Lord, your
brethren and your children will be treated with compassion by those
who lead them captive, so that they may come back to this land; for
the Lord your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn His
face from you if you return to Him.”
2 Chronicles 30:6-9
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From city to city Hezekiah’s couriers carried the message.
But the remnant of the ten tribes who still lived within the once-
flourishing northern kingdom treated the royal messengers with
indifference and even contempt. “They laughed at them and mocked
them.” A few, however, “from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun hum-
bled themselves and came to Jerusalem ... to keep the Feast of
[108]
Unleavened Bread.”
Verses 10, 11-13
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Swiftly the End Came
About two years later, the Assyrian armies besieged Samaria,
and multitudes perished miserably of hunger and disease, as well as
by the sword. The city and nation fell, and the broken remnants of
the ten tribes were scattered in the provinces of the Assyrian realm.
The destruction of the northern kingdom was a direct judgment
from Heaven. Through Isaiah the Lord referred to the Assyrian
armies as “the rod of My anger and the staff in whose hand,” He
said, “is My indignation.”
Isaiah 10:5
.