Commentary - 2 Kings 17:24-41

Bird's-eye view

God's judgment on the Northern Kingdom is complete. The land, having vomited out its covenant-breaking inhabitants, is now occupied by a menagerie of pagans transplanted by the Assyrian king. But the God of Israel is the God of the land of Israel, and He makes His presence known with lions. What follows is a case study in the folly of syncretism. The new inhabitants attempt to add Yahweh to their pantheon of idols, creating a grotesque religious hybrid that is an abomination to God. This passage is not just ancient history; it is a stark warning against all attempts to worship the one true God on our own terms, mixing His pure religion with the idols of our age. It reveals the difference between a superstitious fear meant to appease a local deity and the true fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom.

Outline

Verse by Verse Commentary

2 Kings 17:24

The judgment of exile is a two-sided coin. One side is the removal of the covenant people. The other side, which we see here, is the replacement of them with pagans. The king of Assyria, an unwitting instrument in the hand of a sovereign God, brings in a mixed multitude from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim. The land is now filled with idolaters. This is a direct outworking of the covenant curses God promised for disobedience. The stranger among you shall mount up above you higher and higher, and you shall come down lower and lower. Israel has come down, and the stranger is now possessing the cities of Samaria.

2 Kings 17:25

These new residents begin their lives in the Promised Land, but they do so without any reference to the God of that land. They did not fear Yahweh. Their paganism was practical atheism with regard to the true God. And God does not let this lie. He sends lions. This is not random bad luck with the local wildlife. This is a divine sign, a territorial claim. Yahweh is saying, "This is My land. You may have been settled here by the king of Assyria, but I am the great King, and you will answer to Me." God is jealous for His land and for His name.

2 Kings 17:26

The pagans, to their credit, connect the dots. Their theology is all wrong, but their diagnosis of the immediate problem is correct. They tell the king of Assyria that the "god of the land" is angry because they do not know his "custom" or his rules. In their polytheistic framework, every region had its local deity with his own peculiar preferences. You travel to a new place, you have to learn the local ordinances to keep the local god happy. They see Yahweh as a powerful but provincial god who needs to be appeased.

2 Kings 17:27-28

The Assyrian king's solution is entirely pragmatic. If they need to learn the local religious customs, then let's find someone to teach them. He commands that one of the exiled priests of Israel be sent back. So a priest, who had been part of the apostate worship of the Northern Kingdom, is sent to Bethel. Remember Bethel? That was one of the centers of Jeroboam's golden calf cult. This is not a return to the pristine worship of Moses. This is sending a corrupt teacher to teach a corrupt form of worship to pagans. The foundation for Samaritan syncretism is being laid with rotten timber.

2 Kings 17:29-33

And the result is exactly what you would expect. A religious mess. A spiritual stew. They learn how to fear Yahweh from this compromised priest, but they do not abandon their old gods. They simply add Yahweh to the shelf. Each nation makes its own gods. We get a list of these pathetic deities: Succoth-benoth, Nergal, Ashima, and so on. It culminates in the horrific practice of the Sepharvites, who burned their children in the fire to their gods. This is the "diversity" they brought to the land. And alongside all this, "they were also fearing Yahweh" (v. 32). They set up their own priests, not from the line of Aaron, but from among themselves. The summary in verse 33 is the central point of the whole chapter: "They were fearing Yahweh and serving their own gods." This is the definition of syncretism. It is an attempt to have it both ways, to serve God and mammon. And it is an abomination.

2 Kings 17:34-39

The writer then steps back and delivers a stinging theological commentary. He says that "to this day" they are still practicing this mixed religion. And then he clarifies what true fear of the Lord looks like by contrasting it with their counterfeit. He says flatly, "they are not fearing Yahweh." Why? Because true fear of Yahweh is exclusive. It operates according to His statutes, His judgments, His law. The author reminds his readers of the covenant God made with Israel. He is the God who brought them out of Egypt with a great power and an outstretched arm. Him you shall fear. To Him you shall worship. To Him you shall sacrifice. The covenant demand is total and exclusive. You shall not fear other gods. You shall not forget the covenant. The true fear of God drives out the fear of all other things.

2 Kings 17:40

But Israel, the original recipient of this covenant, "did not listen." They acted according to their "earlier custom," which was the custom of idolatry they picked up from the nations around them. The syncretism of the new Samaritans was simply a more exotic version of the syncretism that the Northern Kingdom had been practicing for centuries.

2 Kings 17:41

The chapter concludes with a final summary. These nations were "fearing Yahweh" and at the same time "serving their graven images." This polluted worship was not a one-generation affair. It was passed down to their children and their grandchildren. A legacy of compromise is a legacy of corruption.

Application

This is not just a dusty record of an ancient people. This is a mirror. The temptation to syncretism is perennial. We are not tempted to set up an idol to Nergal in the sanctuary, but we are tempted to fear God and public opinion. We are tempted to fear God and financial insecurity. We are tempted to worship God on Sunday morning and serve the god of self-promotion the rest of the week. The American church is shot through with this kind of Samaritanism. We have mixed the pure worship of God with the therapeutic gospel, the prosperity gospel, the social gospel, and the nationalist gospel. We have appointed priests from among ourselves, men who will tickle our ears with what we want to hear, rather than proclaiming the exclusive and totalizing claims of King Jesus.

The message of this text is that God will not be trifled with. He will not share His glory with another. He sent lions to Samaria to teach them this lesson. He sent His Son into the world to teach us this lesson. True worship is not about adding Jesus to our collection of priorities. It is about Christ having the preeminence in all things. We must fear God alone, and serve Him alone, according to His Word alone.