ASSYRIA INVADES THE NORTHERN KINGDOM

2 KINGS 17

The victory of the Lord at Mount Carmel over the prophets of Baal did little if anything to persuade the Northern Kingdom of Israel to return to the God of Abraham. Instability continued to rock the region until its defeat and exile at the hand of the Assyrians in 722 BC under Tiglath-Pileser III (745–727 BC).

During the history of the Northern Kingdom, there had been nine dynasties that ruled the country. Eight were violently overthrown when the kings and royal families were assassinated. The revolving door of leaders in the north had one thing in common: they had remained unfaithful to the Lord. Not one king of the north escaped the designation “evil”—a reality that infected king and citizen alike.17 In connection with the historical, political, and religious realities, we will see that the geography of the Northern Kingdom also was a reason why it was invaded and fell many years before the Southern Kingdom.

Years earlier when the United Monarchy split, the largest amount of land and the greatest number of people went to the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Included among those citizens were many of the land’s original occupants—Canaanites. Accommodation to their various religious beliefs became the norm. Adapting to Baal worship started with Jeroboam’s calf idols at Dan and Bethel (1 Kings 12:25–33) and escalated into a broader acceptance and participation in idol worship. This included the use of Asherah poles, astrology, sorcery, and human sacrifice (2 Kings 17:16–17).

We also find Canaanite influence occurring within a government that found itself increasingly isolated from the influence of the Lord’s priests and the Temple that Solomon had built at Jerusalem (1 Kings 6). Representatives of each family were to travel to the Temple three times a year where sacrifice, festivals, and readings from God’s law would remind them of the Lord’s love, faithfulness, and power and of the mission that encompassed all the Hebrew people. But from the start, the leaders in the Northern Kingdom schemed to isolate its citizens from the Temple in Jerusalem (1 Kings 12:25–33). When this happened, legitimate and believing priests who had been strategically placed by God in Levitical cities throughout the northern part of the Promised Land fled to the Southern Kingdom of Judah, taking their influence with them (2 Chron. 11:13–15).

Assyrian relief of Tiglath-Pileser III’s campaigns, depicting captives being deported into exile.
© Dr. James C. Martin. The British Museum.

The Black Obelisk of the Assyrian ruler Shalmaneser III (858–824 BC) is thought to depict Jehu, king of Israel, paying tribute to the Assyrian ruler.
© Dr. James C. Martin. The British Museum.

Moreover, the Northern Kingdom of Israel controlled portions of the Promised Land that could generate much wealth. Compared to the Southern Kingdom of Judah, the north enjoyed the best agricultural land that supported its citizens and provided crops to be sold to others.18 The Northern Kingdom also inherited geographic regions open to the two international trading routes—the International Highway and the King’s Highway—with their tax and trade revenues. As a result, the northern tribes developed a wealthy upper class.19 But the blessings of wealth became used for social injustice and self-reliance rather than for God’s ways (1 Kings 21; Amos 2:6–8).

Finally, the same international trade routes that promised a wealth of tax revenue also attracted the attention and interest of power-hungry invaders. Assyria needed money to make its empire function, and there was no better place to generate revenue than the land bridge of the Promised Land that connected Africa, Asia, and Europe. Thus the very transportation routes that provided the Northern Kingdom with lucrative income also provided Assyrian armies, which were eager for revenue, with motivation to seize the land of Canaan.

Assyria invaded the Northern Kingdom of Israel for a reason. The people of this kingdom would go into exile because they had spurned the Lord and plunged into horribly evil practices. Its own demise was facilitated by its proximity to Assyria and its topographically open access to invaders. Mutiny, wickedness, rejection of the opportunity to hear God’s teaching in Jerusalem, and invasion vulnerability all contributed to the assault and destruction of the Northern Kingdom by the Assyrians.

The annals of Tiglath-Pileser III (744–727 BC) include his Assyrian military campaigns during the reign of King Ahaz.
© Dr. James C. Martin. The British Museum.