Useful Bible Studies > 2 Kings Commentary > chapter 17
Israel’s people knew the true God when the people in other nations did not. God had rescued Israel’s people when they were slaves in Egypt. He established his covenant (special relationship) with them, and he gave them his commands. He showed them how to serve him, and he promised to look after them.
God did these wonderful things for Israel’s people, and he wanted them to teach people in the other nations about him. In the other nations, the people were serving false gods and often, their religions were very wicked. They needed to know about the true God, who would free them from their false religions.
However, most of the people in northern and central Israel would not serve the true God. When they did obey him, he could use them to teach the people in other nations about him (for example, see the Book of Jonah). When they refused to obey him, then God had to act against their evil deeds. That was why the people in northern and central Israel had to leave their country. Instead, Assyria’s kings sent people from foreign nations to live there.
Even when Assyria’s kings sent one of Israel’s priests to teach those people about God, that priest did not carry out his task properly. The result was that the foreigners in Samaria prayed both to the real God and to their false gods. They continued in their wrong religions. So, their religion did not please God.
After several centuries, the families of those foreigners, then called Samaritans, turned from their false gods. They began to serve the true God only. However, they did not join Israel’s people and they refused to pray at the temple, God’s house in Jerusalem (John 4:4-19).
Next part: King Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:1-3)
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