I am going to have to fast forward a little in our story today to get to the end of Kings and Chronicles by the 21st day. Today we will be dealing with the Northern Kingdom mostly. The Last king we knew to be on the throne there was Jehoash, who like many before did evil in the sight of the Lord. In 2nd Kings 15 we get a nice rundown of Kings in Israel beginning with Uzziah’s reign in the southern kingdom up until the reign of Ahaz in the North. Here’s a quick list of those Kings:

8 Zechariah son of Jeroboam II began to rule over Israel in the thirty-eighth year of King Uzziah’s reign in Judah. He reigned in Samaria six months. 9 Zechariah did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, as his ancestors had done

13 Shallum son of Jabesh began to rule over Israel in the thirty-ninth year of King Uzziah’s reign in Judah. Shallum reigned in Samaria only one month. 14 Then Menahem son of Gadi went to Samaria from Tirzah and assassinated him, and he became the next king.

17 Menahem son of Gadi began to rule over Israel in the thirty-ninth year of King Uzziah’s reign in Judah. He reigned in Samaria ten years. 18 But Menahem did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. During his entire reign, he refused to turn from the sins that Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel to commit.

23 Pekahiah son of Menahem began to rule over Israel in the fiftieth year of King Uzziah’s reign in Judah. He reigned in Samaria two years. 24 But Pekahiah 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.

27 Pekah son of Remaliah began to rule over Israel in the fifty-second year of King Uzziah’s reign in Judah. He reigned in Samaria twenty years. 28 But Pekah 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.

Then at the end of 2nd Kings 15 you meet Uzziah’s son Jotham, who was a good king, even though he didn’t purge the land of the pagan shrines, he was as good as Uzziah without the incident in the temple!

Then there is a king in Judah so evil and sinful that he gets his own chapter in both 2nd Kings 16 and 2ndChronicles 28, Ahaz. This man was vile. He built idols, altars, and shrines to false gods. He even sacrificed his child. And that was in Judah! He shut the temple down and stripped the valuables for his own riches. Man, he was lost. But I don’t have time to cover that evil man. You should take a look at those chapters, though!

Throughout these stories of the Kings and Prophets, we have seen some of the consequences of their sins, but today we will see the full wages of the sins of the Northern Kingdom come to pass. This is a big-time event in world history. In 2nd Kings 17 we meet the last king of Israel as it was then constructed, Hoshea. Don’t get him confused with the Prophet Hosea, Hosea was awesome… Hoshea was awful, but now as bad as the other kings of Israel. We are in and around the year 721 BC.

2nd Kings 17:1 Hoshea son of Elah began to rule over Israel in the twelfth year of King Ahaz’s reign in Judah. He reigned in Samaria nine years. 2 He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, but not to the same extent as the kings of Israel who ruled before him.

3 King Shalmaneser of Assyria attacked King Hoshea, so Hoshea was forced to pay heavy tribute to Assyria.4 But Hoshea stopped paying the annual tribute and conspired against the king of Assyria by asking King So of Egypt to help him shake free of Assyria’s power. When the king of Assyria discovered this treachery, he seized Hoshea and put him in prison.

5 Then the king of Assyria invaded the entire land, and for three years he besieged the city of Samaria.6 Finally, in the ninth year of King Hoshea’s reign, Samaria fell, and the people of Israel were exiled to Assyria. They were settled in colonies in Halah, along the banks of the Habor River in Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

I do not want you to miss the magnitude of what just happened. The Northern tribes known as Israel were no longer inhabiting the promised land of God. They were pulled away by the Assyrians and settled in other parts of the far east in Assyrian controlled areas.  Why did this happen? Well as you can guess, because God had finally had enough of their sin, faithlessness, and idolatry.

7 This disaster came upon the people of Israel because they worshiped other gods. They sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them safely out of Egypt and had rescued them from the power of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. 8 They had followed the practices of the pagan nations the Lord had driven from the land ahead of them, as well as the practices the kings of Israel had introduced. 9 The people of Israel had also secretly done many things that were not pleasing to the Lord their God. They built pagan shrines for themselves in all their towns, from the smallest outpost to the largest walled city.10 They set up sacred pillars and Asherah poles at the top of every hill and under every green tree. 11 They offered sacrifices on all the hilltops, just like the nations the Lord had driven from the land ahead of them. So the people of Israel had done many evil things, arousing the Lord’s anger. 12 Yes, they worshiped idols, despite the Lord’s specific and repeated warnings.

13 Again and again the Lord had sent his prophets and seers to warn both Israel and Judah: “Turn from all your evil ways. Obey my commands and decrees—the entire law that I commanded your ancestors to obey, and that I gave you through my servants the prophets.”

14 But the Israelites would not listen. They were as stubborn as their ancestors who had refused to believe in the Lord their God. 15 They rejected his decrees and the covenant he had made with their ancestors, and they despised all his warnings. They worshiped worthless idols, so they became worthless themselves. They followed the example of the nations around them, disobeying the Lord’s command not to imitate them.

16 They rejected all the commands of the Lord their God and made two calves from metal. They set up an Asherah pole and worshiped Baal and all the forces of heaven. 17 They even sacrificed their own sons and daughters in the fire. They consulted fortune-tellers and practiced sorcery and sold themselves to evil, arousing the Lord’s anger.

18 Because the Lord was very angry with Israel, he swept them away from his presence. Only the tribe of Judah remained in the land. 19 But even the people of Judah refused to obey the commands of the Lord their God, for they followed the evil practices that Israel had introduced. 20 The Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel. He punished them by handing them over to their attackers until he had banished Israel from his presence.

21 For when the Lord tore Israel away from the kingdom of David, they chose Jeroboam son of Nebat as their king. But Jeroboam drew Israel away from following the Lord and made them commit a great sin.22 And the people of Israel persisted in all the evil ways of Jeroboam. They did not turn from these sins23 until the Lord finally swept them away from his presence, just as all his prophets had warned. So Israel was exiled from their land to Assyria, where they remain to this day.

I love the reminder in verse 13, “Again and again the Lord sent His prophets…” Over and over and over again, God was calling His people to repentance, offering forgiveness and love until finally they had fallen so far into sin the age of grace had ended.

Folks, much like Israel and Judah, God is calling whosoever will believe in Him to repentance and salvation through the Blood of Jesus Christ. We are living in an age of grace! How many times have we heard the Word of the Lord from preacher after preacher, scripture after scripture, and remained in the state we were? I guess, since you’ve made it this far in our devotionals, which admittedly are not introduction level material, then I am preaching to the choir. But hear this, one day God’s age of grace will end and the consequences and wages of sin will begin. What does that look like for New Testament people?!

20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. 21 And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom…

23 For the wages of sin is death…

The wages of sin are death, and the lifestyle of sin leads to eternal doom, but let me put the whole context of that paragraph together for you by adding verse 22 and the second half of 23:

22 But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

The God of the Old Testament who called His children to repentance again and again is doing the same for us and our loved ones today! The free gift of God is eternal life, we do not have to pay the price of sin because Jesus paid that debt! We can live in that forgiveness and victory through our faith in Jesus!

Why and I telling you this, you’re on day 15 of a fast!? You have people in your life that God is calling to repentance and relationship. He is calling them out of a lifestyle that will lead to doom. And you know what? He’s calling you to be His prophet. He is calling you to be an agent of His grace. Let’s be a Hanani, Nathan, or even a Zechariah. Let’s be the voice of grace to our lost friends and family. It is the most important conversation that you will ever have with them!

In our prayer time today, I want you to pray these simple things:

1. God, show me who.

2. God, show me how.

3. God show me when.

If you are faithful to pray and faithful to listen, God will be faithful to speak and to work.  Their eternity is too important to hope that your salvation will wear off on them. It is time to share with them the grace that you have received, the peace you have gained, and the future that no man can take away! Be God’s mouthpiece today!