The Mirage
One Year Bible (June 30)
2 Kings 17:1-18:12
“The Mirage”
A mirage appears before the eyes like a beautiful oasis in the desert. It calls your name and promises to fill your eyes, your soul, and your body with clean, fresh, beautiful, crystal water.
A Mirage is so promising, until you die of thirst!
The nation of Israel had chased after “The Mirage” but they are about to be handed over by the Lord to their own demise.
“For my people have done two evil things: They have abandoned me--the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!” (Jeremiah 2:13)
Jeremiah was known as the weeping prophet and now you know why he was weeping...
Today’s passage is the low point of 1 and 2 Kings. Besides telling us WHAT happened, it also provides us with information on WHY Israel’s citizens are being carried away into exile to Assyria.
The cause of Israel’s fall to Assyria was due to spiritual failure, not military or political failure. This passage tells us of Hoshea’s demise. He will be the final king over Northern Israel.
The passage tells three reasons why the people’s time of warning is up… (2 Kings 17:7-41)
1) Israel’s sinful choices: The sons of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God… and they had feared (revered) other gods. They embraced the customs of the nations whom the Lord had driven out… and the customs of the kings of Israel which they introduced. The sons of Israel did things SECRETLY.
2) The Lord’s responses to their evil choices: “They served idols concerning which the LORD had said to them, ‘You shall not do this thing’. The Lord warned Israel and Judah to turn from their evil ways or face the consequences. He sent them prophets, miracles, discipline, and redirection.
3) The ongoing sins that corrupted their land: They refused to listen and turn away from idols. Instead they “stiffened their neck LIKE THEIR FATHERS”.
Perhaps as you have been reading through I and 11 Kings you have noticed this phrase frequently. There is one name that is repeated over and over again in regards to Israel’s sin. That is the name of Jeroboam. He had led the nation of Israel into evil practices.
Here are just a few examples:
“He followed the example of Jeroboam in all the sins he had committed and led Israel to commit.” (I Kings 16:19)
“I am going to destroy your family as I did the family of Jeroboam son of Nebat…” (I Kings 21: 22)
“But he did what was evil in the LORD”s sight. He refused to turn from the sins that Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel to commit.” (2 Kings 13:11)
We could go on with more verses just like these!
Let me put it this way, “No Israelite would want to name their son JEROBOAM and receive God’s blessing”!
Let’s look at who he was and how he led all of Israel down a huge cliff in search of an endless MIRAGE…
Jeroboam was one of the young laborers for King Solomon. He was a valiant warrior and distinguished himself as being “industrious”.
Solomon appointed him as an overseer “over all the forced labor of the house of Joseph”. (I Kings 11: 28)
The prophet Ahijah met him on the road outside Jerusalem and gave him the prophecy of him being the king over the northern ten tribes.
He would be KIng of Israel and would have “an enduring house” or dynasty. “I will be with you” was the promise IF Jeroboam walked with God and obeyed his commandments and worshipped ONLY HIM.
The problem was that Jeroboam WASN’T walking with God.
Instead, he was leading the Israelites farther away from God than they had ever been before.
Here are the footprints left by his legacy...
False gods, False altars, False praise, False worship, False priests, False incense, False prayer, and False feasts.
Perhaps you have heard the phrase, “Fake it til you make it!”
Well, he FAKED it alright, but he didn’t make it, and neither did they!
They “ASCRIBED” things to the Lord that simply were not true.
They “Altered” everything connected to God's laws.
They “PERVERTED” worship from good to evil.
They “ORGIED” and sacrificed their children, which was detestable to God. The Israelites followed Jeroboam’s footprints in the sand and that led to destruction!!!
They made their WORSHIP FIT THEM... their needs, their wants, their illicit passion, their greed, their desires for power, and wealth.
Rather than following God's ordained worship, they became their own gods and called it, acceptable. In fact, it was now "politically correct"!
Does any of this sound familiar to the world we live in today?
Where do we stand in regards to IDOLS in our nation?
Do we ASCRIBE, ALTER, and PERVERT the Word of God?
“Having a form of godliness but denying its power…” (2 Timothy 3:5)
This is NOT TRUE WORSHIP ....
Not THEN. Not NOW. Not EVER. It’s a MIRAGE!
