Isaiah 58:1, "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins."

God’s covenant with the Israelites promised great blessings for obedience, but also judgment should the covenant be broken.  God kept his promises of blessing and of judgment.  When they forsook God and broke His covenant, Israel was conquered by Assyria, and Judah was defeated by Babylon.

The book of II Kings brings us through the final days of the kingdom years of Israel. A nation divided, not only geographically, but, in their beliefs and allegiance to the God of their fathers. Time and again God sent His prophets to Samaria to chastise and warn His people until their transgressions became unbearable.

Eighteen kings reigned after Jeroboam became king of Israel. All had one thing in common they all followed in the footsteps of Jeroboam who taught Israel to sin. They continued to worship and serve the golden calves that Jeroboam erected in Bethel and Dan. They all did evil in the eyes of the Lord.

Jeremiah 6:17, "Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken."

The LORD testified against Israel and against Judah by all the prophets saying, "Turn from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets." But they would not hear, but hardened their hearts like their fathers that did not believe in the LORD their God.

They rejected his statutes, his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them. They followed vanity and went after the heathen that were around them. They left all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made molten images, even two calves, a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. They made their sons and daughters pass through the fire of sacrifice. They used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD to provoke him to anger. Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight into the land of Assyria.

Then Judah, like her sister Israel, began to serve other gods who their fathers never knew. Gods of the nations that they allowed to continue in the land. Nations that the Lord told them to utterly destroy or they would become a snare and cause them to backslide. This they did time and again, and time and time again God sent His servants the prophets to Judah and to Israel until they totally refused to hear. Until they totally closed their eyes and covered their ears and killed all the Lord's servants. They chose to listen only to the prophets that cried "peace, peace" when there was no peace.

After the reign of Hezekiah God brought the nation of Babylon against the defenses of Jerusalem. Refusing to listen to the prophets, God sent the nation of Judah into captivity to the land of Babylon where they remained for seventy years. A year for each day they refused to hallow the Lord's 'year of jubilee.'

Leviticus 25:11-18, "A jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed. For it is the jubile; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.In the year of this jubile ye shall return every man unto his possession. And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or buyest ought of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not oppress one another: According to the number of years after the jubile thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, and according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee: According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it: for according to the number of the years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee. Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God:for I am the LORD your God. Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety."

The book of II Kings reveals a God, Who is not only a covenant keeping God, but a God Who watches over us and sees all that we do in secret. As long as Israel followed His commandments they dwelled in their land safely, but they became a backsliding nation and went into captivity. May each of us learn from their mistakes and observe to do all that God commands us.