2 Kings 17:34-41 – Be consistent in our relationship with God

Second Kings 17:34-41 is a description of what Israel had become. There was a great contrast from the one that God had intended for her to be. With the split of the divided kingdom, the land had now been invaded and overtaken by foreigners. The new inhabitant had brought in their idolatrous worship. What they did was a departure from what God wanted from Israel. So verse 34 says that “they do not fear the Lord, nor do they follow their statutes or their ordinances or the law, or the commandments which the Lord commanded the sons of Jacob, whom He named Israel.”

The phrase that they do not fear the  Lord seems to contradict what was said of then in 2 Kings 17:33. This verse expressly noted that “They feared the Lord and served their own gods according to the custom of the nations from among whom they had been carried away into exile.” How do we reconcile this apparent contradiction? It was apparent that the people acted incongruently. They did not act according to their heart. They did it out of convenience. This is by way of saying they professed one thing and acted another way. They lived lives that were not consistent with what they professed. Isn’t this very like many people today? They profess to love God, yet their conducts and behaviors are so insistent with what they say they believe. As Christians, we must seek be live our lives in alignment with what we believe. Our confession and the way we conduct ourselves must be congruous.

The verses of 2 Kings 17:35-39 were included as a warning and reminder to the people of Israel. They were God’s covenant people who were obliged to live like it. They were told not to venerate or fear other gods but only the God who had miraculously delivered them out of Egypt and made them His covenant people. They must fear only Him and obediently keep the stipulated covenant agreement. If they would be faithful to God, He would deliver them from the hands of all their enemies. However, what we see here is a very mixed group of people, the Samaritans. They were people who continued to be syncretic in practice. So verses 40 and 41 say, “However, they did not listen, but they did according to their earlier custom. So while these nations feared the Lord, they also served their idols; their children and their grandchildren, as their fathers did, so they do to this day.”

This passage calls us to be true and uncompromising believers of God. We must not profess one way but act and live another. We must show congruency in our beliefs and our conduct. Don’t claim to love God but live a contradictory lifestyle.  There must be consistency in our faith and practice.