Yesterday we saw the end of the Northern Kingdom in 2 Kings 17, ending with:

In the end, GOD spoke a final No to Israel and turned his back on them. He had given them fair warning, and plenty of time, through the preaching of all his servants the prophets. Then he exiled Israel from her land to Assyria. And that’s where they are now. (2 Kings 17.23, MSG)

But that’s not the end of the story! There are 41 verses in 2 Kings 17. Verse 23 begs a question, if the northern tribes were exiled to Assyria, what happened to the people who were already in Assyria? And who is going to live in Israel?

The king of Assyria brought in people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and relocated them in the towns of Samaria, replacing the exiled Israelites. They moved in as if they owned the place and made themselves at home. (2 Kings 17.24, MSG)

And this relocation created a problem:

When the Assyrians first moved in, GOD was just another god to them; they neither honored nor worshiped him. Then GOD sent lions among them and people were mauled and killed. This message was then sent back to the king of Assyria: “The people you brought in to occupy the towns of Samaria don’t know what’s expected of them from the god of the land, and now he’s sent lions and they’re killing people right and left because nobody knows what the god of the land expects of them.” (2 Kings 17.25, 26, MSG)

Oops! What to do?

The king of Assyria ordered, “Send back some priests who were taken into exile from there. They can go back and live there and instruct the people in what the god of the land expects of them.” One of the priests who had been exiled from Samaria came back and moved into Bethel. He taught them how to honor and worship GOD. (2 Kings 17.27 – 28, MSG, emphasis mine)

Problem solved, yes? Well, no, actually.

But each people that Assyria had settled went ahead anyway making its own gods and setting them up in the neighborhood sex-and-religion shrines that the citizens of Samaria had left behind—a local custom-made god for each people…They honored and worshiped GOD, but they also kept up their devotions to the old gods of the places they had come from. And they’re still doing it, still worshiping any old god that has nostalgic appeal to them. They don’t really worship GOD—they don’t take seriously what he says regarding how to behave and what to believe, what he revealed to the children of Jacob whom he named Israel. (2 Kings 17.29, 33, 34, MSG, emphasis mine)

It’s no wonder the Jews (tribe of Judah) of Jesus’ day had little dealing with the people of Samaria. Good thing we wouldn’t do anything like that: attempt to worship God but “don’t take seriously what he says regarding how to behave and what to believe…”

I have a VERY modern day example. Stay tuned.

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (Deuteronomy 6.4, 5, ESV)

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.  And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.” (Matthew 22.34 – 38, ESV)