The closing years of the kingdom of Israel were marked with violence and bloodshed not witnessed even in the worst periods under the house of Ahab. For two centuries the ten tribes had been sowing the wind; now they were reaping the whirlwind. King after king was assassinated. “They made kings, but not through Me,” the Lord declared of the godless usurpers. “They set up princes, but without My knowledge.” Hosea 8:4, RSV. Those who should have stood before the nations of earth as the depositaries of divine grace “dealt treacherously against the Lord” and with one another. Hosea 5:7.
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Through Hosea and Amos God sent message after message, urging repentance and threatening disaster. “Ye have plowed wickedness,” declared Hosea, “ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men.”“In a morning shall the king of Israel utterly be cut off.” Hosea 10:13, 15. Unable to discern the disastrous outcome of their evil course, the ten tribes were soon to be “wanderers among the nations.” Hosea 9:17.
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Some leaders felt keenly their loss of prestige and wished that this might be regained. But they continued in iniquity, flattering themselves that they would attain the political power they desired by allying themselves with the heathen—making “a covenant with the Assyrians.” Hosea 12:1.
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The Lord had repeatedly set before the ten tribes the evils of disobedience. But notwithstanding reproof and entreaty, Israel had sunk still lower in apostasy. The Lord declared, “My people are bent on turning away from Me.” Hosea 11:7, RSV.
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The iniquity in Israel during the last half century before the Assyrian captivity was like that of the days of Noah. In their worship of Baal and Ashtoreth the people severed their connection with all that is uplifting and ennobling and fell an easy prey to temptation. The misguided worshipers had no barrier against sin and yielded themselves to the evil passions of the human heart.
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The prophets lifted their voices against the marked oppression, flagrant injustice, luxury and extravagance, the shameless feasting and drunkenness, and the gross licentiousness. But in vain were their protests. “Him that rebuketh in the gate,” declared Amos, “they hate ... and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.” Amos 5:10. Finally nearly all the inhabitants of the land had given themselves over to the alluring practices of nature worship. Forgetting their Maker, Israel “deeply corrupted themselves.” Hosea 9:9.
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The transgressors were given many opportunities to repent. In their hour of deepest apostasy God’s message was one of forgiveness and hope. “O Israel,” He declared, “thou hast destroyed thyself; but in Me is thine help. I will be thy King: where is any other that may save thee?” Hosea 13:9, 10. “Come, and let us return unto the Lord,” the prophet entreated, “for He hath torn, and He will heal us ... . Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: His going forth is prepared as the morning; and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.” Hosea 6:1-3.
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“I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely,” the Lord declared. “I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily ... . They that dwell under His shadow shall return ... . For the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.” Hosea 14:4-9.
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“Seek ye Me,” the Lord invited, “and ye shall live.”“And so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken. Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.” Amos 5:4, 14, 15.
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So contrary to the evil desires of the impenitent were the words of God’s messengers, that the idolatrous priest at Bethel sent to the ruler in Israel, saying, “Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words.” Amos 7:10.
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The evils that overspread the land had become incurable, and on Israel was pronounced the dread sentence: “Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.”“The days of visitation are come, the days of recompense are come; Israel shall know it.” Hosea 4:17; 9:7. The ten tribes of Israel were now to reap the fruitage of the apostasy that had taken form with the setting up of the strange altars at Bethel and at Dan. God’s message was: “All the sinners of My people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.” Amos 9:10.
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“The houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end.”“Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land.”“Because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.” Amos 3:15; 7:17; 4:12.
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For a season these predicted judgments were stayed, and during the long reign of Jeroboam II the armies of Israel gained signal victories. But this time of apparent prosperity wrought no change in the hearts of the impenitent, and it was finally decreed, “Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land.” Amos 7:11.
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The boldness of this utterance was lost on king and people. Amaziah, a leader among the idolatrous priests at Bethel, stirred by the plain words spoken against the nation and their king, said to Amos, “O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there: but prophesy not again any more at Bethel: for it is the king’s chapel, and it is the king’s court.” Verses 12, 13.
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To this the prophet firmly responded: “Israel shall surely go into captivity.” Verse 17.
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The words spoken against the apostate tribes were literally fulfilled, yet the destruction of the kingdom came gradually. In judgment the Lord remembered mercy. When “the king of Assyria came against the land” (2 Kings 15:19), Menahem, then king of Israel, was permitted to remain on the throne as a vassal of the Assyrian realm. The Assyrians, having humbled the ten tribes, returned for a season to their own land.
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Menahem, far from repenting of the evil that had wrought ruin in his kingdom, continued in “the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.” Verse 18. In the days of Pekah (Verse 29), his successor, Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, invaded Israel and carried away a multitude of captives living in Galilee and east of the Jordan. These were scattered among the heathen in lands far removed from Palestine. From this terrible blow the northern kingdom never recovered. Only one more ruler, Hoshea, was to follow Pekah. Soon the kingdom was to be swept away forever.
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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. A Passover celebration was arranged for, and to this feast were invited not only Judah and Benjamin, but the northern tribes as well.
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“So couriers went throughout all Israel and Judah,” with the pressing invitation, “O people of Israel, return to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that He may turn again to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria ... . Do not now be stiffnecked as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the Lord, and come to His sanctuary ... . For if you return to the Lord, your brethren and your children will find compassion with their captors, and return to this land. For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away His face from you, if you return to Him.” 2 Chronicles 30:6-9, RSV.
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From city to city the couriers sent by Hezekiah carried the message. But the remnant of the ten tribes still dwelling within the once-flourishing northern kingdom treated the royal messengers with indifference, even with contempt. “They laughed them to scorn, and mocked them.” A few, however, “of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem ... to keep the feast of unleavened bread.” Verses 10, 11-13.
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About two years later, Samaria was besieged by the hosts of Assyria, and multitudes perished miserably of hunger and disease, as well as by the sword. The city and nation fell, and the broken remnant of the ten tribes were scattered in the provinces of the Assyrian realm.
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The destruction that befell the northern kingdom was a direct judgment from Heaven. Through Isaiah the Lord referred to the Assyrian hosts as “the rod of Mine anger.”“The staff in their hand,” He said, “is Mine indignation.” Isaiah 10:5.
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Because the children of Israel refused steadfastly to repent, the Lord “afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until He had cast them out of His sight,” in harmony with the plain warnings He had sent them “by all His servants the prophets.”
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“So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria,”“because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed His covenant.” 2 Kings 17:20, 23; 18:12.
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In the terrible judgments on the ten tribes the Lord had a wise and merciful purpose. That which He could no longer do through them in the land of their fathers He would seek to accomplish by scattering them among the heathen. Not all who were carried captive were impenitent. Some had remained true to God, and others had humbled themselves before Him. Through these, He would bring multitudes in Assyria to a knowledge of the attributes of His character and the beneficence of His law.
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