Israel goes into Assyrian captivity during the reign of Hoshea. His reign lasted for some nine years. The Bible in speaking about his leadership simply states, “…did that which was evil…”. Those nine years was the final “straw” which was broken concerning their connection to God. Even today, the casual reader of the scriptures might ask, “how could God allow this to happen?”. A short answer is found in these words. “They did not believe in the Lord their God” (2 Kings 17:14). Beginning in verse 7 there is a specific lists of sin such as idolatry and killing their own children in sacrifice to false gods.
A lesson to be learned from this is that there is a limit to the patience of God as to the conduct of His people. In Noah’s day the time limit set was 120 years (Gen. 6:3). When
God spoke to Abraham He spoke about the sins of the Amorites (Canaan and surrounding areas) would be full up in a 400 year period (Gen. 15:16). The nature of God is such that He does not want anyone to be lost (2 Peter 3:9). Yet in the same scriptures, the message is that God is not bound by time. To Him a day is as with a thousand year and a thousand years as a day (verse 8). Paul addressed a growing error in his day by saying that we do not sin in order to have more grace (Rom. 6:1,2).
Seeing this world will at some point be burned up, time will cease and eternity will begin. Knowing this each of us must be careful as to how we live our lives. As Peter writes, our lives should be lived in all holy conversation (manner of life) (2 Peter 3:11). Becoming a Christian by obeying the truth is no promise involved that we cannot lose our way as did Hymenaeus and Alexander (I Peter 1:22; I Tim. 1:19,20). If Israel who saw the great demonstrations of God’s power, mercy, love and at times rebuke, and they failed, then so can we. They, and we, can fail if we stop hearing God’s Word and harden our hearts (2 Kings 17:14).