Hoshea is the final king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel before it was taken by Assyria and completely scattered among the nations. Hoshea is not the cause of the complete conquering; he just happened to have the bag when the time came. Hoshea assassinated Pekah shortly after God humiliated him in his near taking of Judah during Ahaz’s reign, and Hoshea ruled for nine years. During those nine years, Hoshea rebelled against Assyria who made Israel a vassal during Menahem’s reign. That was the last straw, and Assyria came to flatten Israel and finish the job.
Hoshea was not a godly king, but he had a unique moniker to describe him. He did not do evil as those who went before him did. He is the only king that lasted more than a month who was not identified as following the idols of Jeroboam. Shallum is the other one who did not have that charge against him, and he didn’t reign long enough to do so even if he wanted to. Hoshea never followed God, but he was not as evil as those who went before him. The non-mention of the idols of Jeroboam indicates that he did not bow before those golden calves, he just didn’t follow God.
Israel fell under Hoshea. The bulk of 2 Kings 17 describes Israel falling to idolatry after idolatry after idolatry, and God had enough. His patience ran out, and He cast Israel out of their homeland until they learned not only to cease the idolatry but also to receive their Messiah. That day has not yet come, but Paul makes it clear in Romans 11 that God is not done with Israel yet.
Hoshea’s background is very simple: 32 years of political turmoil from Zechariah until the end of Pekah’s reign and Assyria had taken control over Israel, allowing them to exist as a mere servant or vassal state. They were allowed to exist and rule their own people, but they were subservient to Assyria. Hoshea made a final attempt to break free from Assyria and because he did not seek the Lord, he was doomed to failure. God had chosen to judge Israel – cast them out and scatter them because for too long they had blasphemed His name and His land by professing to be His people but serving every idol and not God Himself. Not one of the kings of Israel ever walked in the ways of the Lord; only Jehu and Hoshea came remotely close.
As I noticed in this study, the reigns of Jeroboam II through Hoshea spam a total of 83 years, ¾ of which were Jeroboam II’s and Pekah’s reigns alone. But the Scriptures spend very little time describing these kings and their reigns. It was like the Chronicler gave up saying the same thing over and over and over again. Each king was evil, they did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, they followed such and such idols, and there are a few political and military maneuvers, but that is about it. They did not follow or seek after God, even in name only, and you can only write the same sins enough times before you get tired of it. God is mostly concerned about the spiritual status of the king and then of the nation. While God has indeed saved and preserved people despite wicked times, when the ruler and nation as a whole are turned towards idols, God’s mercy is the only thing keeping that nation intact.
When the Holy Spirit-inspired author of Scripture gives up describing the sins of the kings, either showing the progressing away from them or further decline into sin, for multiple generations and multiple kings, there isn’t much to say other than there were no kings in Israel who wanted God as their ruler.
This goes all the way back to 1 Samuel 8 when Israel asked for a king. They got Saul, the man who looked the part but never did the part. And they got king after king after king who wanted to do things his own way instead of God’s. All the kings of the Northern Kingdom were ungodly men, and Israel got precisely what they asked for; it was a curse upon them. They did not want God ruling over them. God had chosen them; He saved them from Egypt, He did all sorts of miracles for them, and He protected them and guided them, and they spat in His face for it. The amazing thing is how God was so merciful that He let them live that long.
Hoshea was simply the last king carrying the bag when Israel fell. He is not to blame for it. The judgment was decided long ago. Had he chosen to walk with the Lord, God may have spared them as He did with Josiah in Judah, whom we will look at in a few weeks. But we can never know what would have happened. As bad as Israel’s sins were with non-stop idolatry, what Judah did was far worse. There are 8 kings left to discuss in Judah’s history, and only two of them were good. Next week, we’ll look at Hezekiah, the king who got the most attention in Scripture among the split kingdoms with only Ahab rivaling him for space.
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