By the time you reach Chapter 17 of 2nd Kings you have come to the climax of the entire story of 1st and 2nd Kings. Dilday puts it this way, “Everything the inspired writer has written so far has been leading up to these next verses, which tell the climactic conclusion of God’s judgment. The ultimate purpose of 1 and 2 Kings is to show that disobeying God’s law inevitably brings punishment. ”

Thus we read in verses 5 and 6, “Then the king of Assyria invaded all the land and came to Samaria, and for three years he besieged it. In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria, ?and he carried the Israelites away to Assyria…”

God’s judgment on sin is often expressed with metaphors of fire: His “Wrath burned,” The “fire of his anger” burned against them.  Many preachers have told the story of the fire sweeping across the plains towards the prairie home. Nothing can stop it. The father sets his fields on fire himself and when the flames die out, he takes his family and stands in the middle of the burned out field.  As the flames roared on toward them from the west, a little girl cried out in terror, “?Are you sure we shall not all be burned up??”  Her father replied, “?My child, the flames cannot reach us here, for we are standing where the fire has been!?”

This is where every believer in Jesus stands today. On Jesus, the fire of God’s wrath has burned out. On him Almighty vengeance fell.  Jesus says, “come to me,” because he can protect us. He is the only safe place now. He is thus our hiding place. All who are in Christ are safe from God’s wrath.

Chuck
“Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loves us and by his grace gave us eternal comfort and a wonderful hope, comfort you and strengthen you in every good thing you do and say.” 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17