The Lord was also Israel's angry judge. His instrument was brutal Assyria.
One source puts what happened this way
Assyrian policy was to deport conquered peoples to other lands within the empire, to destroy their sense of nationalism, and break any pride or hope of rebellion, and replace them with strangers from far away. Assyrians were great warriors. Most nations at that time period were looters, building their state by robbing other nations.
Assyrian was the most ferocious of them all. Their very name became a byword for cruelty and atrocity. They sinned their prisoners alive, and cut off various body parts to inspire terror in their enemies. There are records of Assyrian officials pulling out tongues and displaying mounds of human skulls all to bring about stark horror and wealthy tribute from surrounding nations. No where are the pages of history more bloody than in the records of their wars.
Assyrian policy was to deport conquered peoples to other lands within the empire, to destroy their sense of nationalism, and break any pride or hope of rebellion, and replace them with strangers from far away. Assyrians were great warriors. Most nations at that time period were looters, building their state by robbing other nations.
Assyrian was the most ferocious of them all. Their very name became a byword for cruelty and atrocity. They sinned their prisoners alive, and cut off various body parts to inspire terror in their enemies. There are records of Assyrian officials pulling out tongues and displaying mounds of human skulls all to bring about stark horror and wealthy tribute from surrounding nations. No where are the pages of history more bloody than in the records of their wars.
The description has its modern day expression in the brutality of the (so-called) Islamic State, or ISIS.
Hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions, of God's people were violently uprooted from their homes under the permissive judgment of God, never to return home, paying a very difficult price for very wayward hearts.
"This occurred because the people of Israel sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them out of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods and walked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel..." (2 Kings 17).
The New Testament tells us we are to learn from Israel.
Sinning against the Lord...by fearing other gods (not responsible for their nation, land, or blessing)...and walking in the customs of those driven out because of sin.
Interesting lessons...
No comments:
Post a Comment