II KINGS 17

After hearing an excellent Sunday school class on a portion of this chapter, I was prompted to look at how the whole chapter is organized to see if any additional insights could be obtained from it. This is what I came up with:

The Structure of II Kings 17

    A. Political Events (1-4)

        B. King of Assyria deports Israelites (5-6)

            C. The Sins of Israel Against God (7-18)

                1. disobedience (7-12)

                    2. God's commands (13)

                1'. disobedience (14-18a)

                        The Kingdom of Judah (18b-19)

    A'. Political Events (20-25)

        B'. King of Assyria imports Gentiles (24-34a)

            C'. The Sins of Israel Against God (34b-41)

                1''. disobedience (34b)

                    2'. God's commands (35-39)

                1'''. disobedience (40-41)

I am always amazed at the way a whole passage takes on new meanings when viewed as a symmetrical structure which brings additional insights into clearer focus.

A and A': A strictly secular view of history attributes all world events to political causes. But this chapter, read as a whole, makes it abundantly clear that the political trends we observe are usually due to hidden spiritual factors. Thus, although parts of Section A seem to indicate that Israel's downfall was due to a dispute between the kings Hoshea and Shalmaneser over Hoshea's offer of alliance with Egypt (vv. 3-4), that event is preceded by Hoshea's sins against God (v. 2). This spiritual cause is made even clearer in Section A'.

B and B': As our teacher mentioned in his lesson, the Assyrians used two effective techniques to neutralize the nationalistic feelings of a conquered nation. In the first place, they took some of the populace out of its native land and resettled them among other nations (Section B). Then they brought into the country a contingent of people from those other nations (Section B'). Both methods were effective in this case in causing syncretism to become the religion of Israel. As it says in II Kings 17: “So they worshiped the LORD but also served their own gods.”

C and C': If you compare the various sins listed in these two sections, you will see that there is a great deal of overlap. In other words, the same sins in C that caused the downfall of Israel in the first place were also the same ones that they continued to practice after their conquest by the Assyrians (C'). Also note the threefold 1-2-1 pattern in both C and C'. The author embeds the actual commands from God in the center units 2 and 2' so as to stress the fact that the disobedience in the “2” sections is actually defined by departures of behavior from God's express will. In a way, this points to what the Christian writer Dostoevsky (The Brother Karamazov) said centuries ago, approximately paraphrased as: “If there is no God, all things are permitted.”

Some final insights can be obtained from considering the final words of each major section outlined above. In the first cycle ABC, each section ends with a punishment stemming ultimately from God, and they increase in intensity:

    Section A concludes with the King of Israel being imprisoned.

    Section B concludes with a number of Israelites being deported.

    Section C concludes with Israel being removed from God's sight entirely.

So we can see that continued disobedience to God's commands only leads to greater and greater condemnation from Him, right up to the Final Judgment.

Turning to the next cycle, it is instructive to note that each of its three sections ends with the telling phrase “to this day.” It points to the sad truth that patterns of disobedience tend to be perpetuated from generation to generation. But, fortunately, the reverse is possible also. By our own godly actions, we can help influence the generations that follow us.

II Kings 17:18b-19 is a small passage usually overlooked since it deals with Judah instead of the Northern Kingdom. However, the literary structure actually works to highlight these 1½ verses as the main point of the chapter. To me, the message is that we always face the temptation to focus on the horrible sins of those “other people” like the Israelites, gloat over their inevitable judgment, and congratulate ourselves on our morally superior behavior. But the author purposefully places this short note regarding the equal disobedience of the “godly” Southern Kingdom at the literary center to remind us that, along with Paul, we are “the chief of sinners.”