{"id":35752,"date":"2025-05-05T22:00:26","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T05:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=35752"},"modified":"2025-04-29T16:01:27","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T23:01:27","slug":"2-kings-17_24-33","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/2-kings-17_24-33\/","title":{"rendered":"Keep It Simple"},"content":{"rendered":"

2 Kings\u00a0 17:24-33 <\/b>\u00a0 (CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 2 Kings 17:24-33.\u00a0 As usual,\u00a0I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.\u00a0 See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

2 Kings 17:24-26 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n24\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites. They took over Samaria and lived in its towns.
\n25\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When they first lived there, they did not worship the\u00a0LORD; so he sent lions among them and they killed some of the people.
\n26\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0It was reported to the king of Assyria: “The people you deported and resettled in the towns of Samaria do not know what the god of that country requires. He has sent lions among them, which are killing them off, because the people do not know what he requires.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses\u00a024-26:\u00a0 Shalmaneser king of Assyria has deported the Israelites from Samaria (Israel’s capital city) and replaces them with people from foreign lands.\u00a0 These foreigners do not worship the Lord in Samaria and are attacked, and in some cases killed, by lions.\u00a0 This is the third case in 1\u00a0Kings\u00a0and\u00a02\u00a0Kings\u00a0where someone is killed by a lion.<\/p>\n

What can we learn in this case?\u00a0\u00a0When we do not worship the Lord but instead focus on other things, we become vulnerable to the attacks of the enemy, who is described as a lion looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

2 Kings 17:27-33 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n27\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then the king of Assyria gave this order: “Have one of the priests you took captive from Samaria go back to live there and teach the people what the god of the land requires.”
\n28\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So one of the priests who had been exiled from Samaria came to live in Bethel and taught them how to worship the\u00a0LORD.
\n29\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Nevertheless, each national group made its own gods in the several towns where they settled, and set them up in the shrines the people of Samaria had made at the high places.
\n30\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The men from Babylon made Succoth Benoth, the men from Cuthah made Nergal, and the men from Hamath made Ashima;
\n31\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire as sacrifices to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.
\n32\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They worshiped the\u00a0LORD, but they also appointed all sorts of their own people to officiate for them as priests in the shrines at the high places.
\n33\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They worshiped the\u00a0LORD, but they also served their own gods in accordance with the customs of the nations from which they had been brought.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 27-33:\u00a0 Hoping to end the lion attacks, the king of Assyria orders that an Israelite priest be sent back to Samaria to teach the people how to worship the Lord (v27-28).\u00a0 After receiving this teaching, the foreigners living in Samaria worship the Lord but they also continue to worship the gods from their own national groups and set up shrines in the names of those gods.\u00a0 In addition to worshiping the God who made them, they also worship gods that they have made.\u00a0 In addition to worshiping the God who would give up later give up His Son for us, they themselves would sacrifice their children in the fire to worship the idols they had made.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0Are you trying to worship God while worshiping other things at the same time?\u00a0 You were made to “worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.” (Matthew\u00a04:10).<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0As Jesus says, no one can serve two masters.\u00a0 Otherwise you will hate the one and be devoted to the other.\u00a0 Keep it simple and seek to please God alone.<\/p>\n

Lord, no matter where I am, may I be committed to worshiping You alone.\u00a0 In my life may You have no rival or competitor.\u00a0 May You alone take the throne.\u00a0 In Jesus’ name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

copyright \u00a9 2022 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 2 Kings 17:24-33.\u00a0 As usual,\u00a0I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.\u00a0 See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!\u00a0<\/p>\n

2 Kings 17:24-26 (NIV)
\n24\u00a0\u00a0The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites. They took over Samaria and lived in its towns.
\n25\u00a0\u00a0When they first lived there, they did not worship the\u00a0LORD; so he sent lions among them and they killed some of the people.
\n26\u00a0\u00a0It was reported to the king of Assyria: “The people you deported and resettled in the towns of Samaria do not know what the god of that country requires. He has sent lions among them, which are killing them off, because the people do not know what he requires.”
\n\u00a0
\nOn verses\u00a024-26:\u00a0 Shalmaneser king of Assyria has deported the Israelites from Samaria (Israel’s capital city) and replaces them with people from foreign lands.\u00a0 These foreigners do not worship the Lord in Samaria and are attacked, and in some cases killed, by lions.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35754,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35752"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35755,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35752\/revisions\/35755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}