Useful Bible Studies > 2 Kings Commentary > chapter 17
God had warned his people many times that they must not serve false gods. He warned them in the past, in his law, before they even started to pray to false gods. Then he warned them again by his prophets (holy people) after the people had started to do these wrong things. So, he gave them many opportunities to stop this evil behaviour before they suffered their punishment.
God’s ten commands include a command not to make an idol (an image) and not to pray to it (Exodus 20:4-6). In almost all of these wrong religions, people made idols (images) of their false gods. In Jeroboam’s wrong religion (1 Kings 12:26-33), the people seemed to believe that they were praying to the true God (1 Kings 22:10-12). However, they gathered to pray in front of two images of young oxen (farm animals), one at Dan and the other at Bethel (1 Kings 12:29).
At the time when Jeroboam first set up those images, God sent a prophet to warn the people against it (1 Kings chapter 13). After that, the people in northern and central Israel continued to use those idols for 200 years until God’s judgment happened. The Books of 1 and 2 Kings tell us much about how God warned the people through Elijah and Elisha. However, God also spoke to them by other prophets, including Hosea, Amos and Jonah. There were also many other prophets whose names we do not know.
These prophets all declared a similar message, because God’s message to Israel’s people did not change. God promised to forgive their evil deeds if only they would turn from that evil behaviour. He had taught them in his law how they should live. This law is the commands and instructions that God gave to Moses, the first five books of the Bible (Deuteronomy 6:4-9).
Next part: False and evil religions (2 Kings 17:14-17)
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