2 Kings 17:13-15
13 Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah through all His prophets and every seer, saying, “Turn back from your evil ways and keep My commandments and My statutes in accordance with all the Law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you through My servants the prophets.” 14 However, they did not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God. 15 They rejected His statutes and His covenant which He made with their fathers, and His warnings which He gave them. And they followed idols and became empty, and followed the nations that surrounded them, about which the Lord had commanded them not to do as they did.
It seems like many moons ago, now. I guess, for the most part, it has been many moons. It was a time when I felt at my lowest. I spent twelve years ministering to a church I adored but felt like I had done all I could as their pastor, and the Lord wanted me to go somewhere else. Lisa and I prayed, and the Lord opened a door, and we were confident that what was on the other side of the door was where He wanted us. Of course, that is true in God’s providence, or He would not allow it to happen.
During that ministry, I had the most anxiety I ever felt in my life. There were spirit-crushing (2 Cor. 4) pressures that, to this day, are inexplicable. Sin was all around us, inside and outside the church, and I, myself, was not impervious to my own sinful thoughts and actions. However, I can identify with the prophets and seers in this passage.
When we read the context of the account, Hoshea begins his reign in Israel, and it is the same period that Ahaz is the king of Judah. Hoshea is not a good king, but he is not the worst king, either. Nonetheless, he does not follow the Lord, and in turn, the rest of the nation follows his lead not to follow Yahweh.
Israel is a mess. She continues down this long spiral of wickedness. God sends the prophets and seers to warn them. They will not listen. They like their sin. They love their sin. They transgress the covenant so much that they worship anything but Yahweh. Verse sixteen says, So they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, made for themselves a molded image and two calves, made a wooden image and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. Do you see what they are doing? It is not that they reject Yahweh and do not believe in Him. No, they find any and everything in all of creation to worship besides Him.
Notice that they make idols. The verse emphasizes they make two calves, as opposed to the one that their stiff-necked fathers had Aaron make when Moses would not come down from Mt. Sinai in a timely fashion. One idol-calf to sin over is not enough for these people. They double it up. And what is interesting is that they worship the heavenly hosts. It is as if they are flat out telling Yahweh, “We know what you said, but we reject it. We reject You, and we reject everything You tell us in the covenant. We hate You so much that we are going to worship the stars and the angels to make sure You know our hatred of You.”
In the end, God fulfills His warning, and Assyria comes in and takes Israel captive, and she falls and finds herself in His Judgement-exile. However, that is not what catches our attention, at least not in today’s blog lesson. It is the statement in verse 15b, And they followed idols and became empty…. We miss this in the English Standard version that reads, And they followed idols and became idolaters….
Of course, both translations are correct and have the same basic meaning, but I love how the New American Standard Version gives us the picture of becoming empty. That is what an idol is. If it is the wooden image or the two calves, they are nothing more than empty vessels. And idols cannot give us anything. As wonderful and glorious as we might imagine God created angels to be, they cannot fulfill us. As beautiful as the Hubble telescope shows stars and galaxies, they are void of love and life. So, when we worship anything other than Yahweh, we are as empty as the idols we worship. We are vessels that will never be filled.
However, when the Holy Spirit saves us in Jesus Christ, we become something new. God chooses to use us for Himself to bring Him glory. Paul puts it this way in 2 Timothy 2:20-21, In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument [vessel] for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.
We all have our sin, the sin we hate, and the sin we love. There is a struggle within and temptations without our lives. Some things crush our spirit. However, we either will believe and live out the truth of God’s Word, or we will not. CH Spurgeon says, “Every truth leads towards holiness, every error of doctrine, directly or indirectly, leads to sin.”[i] Israel chooses to believe error. She decides to break the covenant and live wickedly. In the process, she becomes empty.
God expects more from His children. He desires more for His children. That is why Jesus Christ came to this earth to die on the cross and rise from the dead. It is so we, as God’s collective people, may live lives of holiness and goodness—that we bring glory to His name.
What is more extraordinary is that He uses our messed-up lives, too. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:8-10, 8 Concerning this I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might leave me. 9 And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 Therefore I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in distresses, in persecutions, in difficulties, in behalf of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.
Does that sound like an empty vessel to you? No. Even in our weakness, in our lowest state of mind, when we continue to place our complete trust in Yahweh, He continues to fill us with His power by grace. Herman Bavinck states:
“Knowing God in Christ brings with it eternal life, imperturbable joy, and heavenly blessedness. These are not merely effects, but the knowing of God is itself immediately a new, eternal, and blessed life.”[ii]
May we not become empty vessels, but holy vessels filled with blessedness.
[i] CH Spurgeon, https://archive.spurgeon.org/sermons/1890.php, accessed on 10/21/2021 at 10:09 AM.
[ii] Herman Bavinck, The Wonderful Works of God, https://apilgrimscoffer.com/library/the-wonderful-works-of-god-by-herman-bavinck/, accessed on 10/21/2021 at 10:28 AM.
Andrews PCA 