Discovering The Mercy Of God

The king of Assyria transported groups of people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim and resettled them in the towns of Samaria, replacing the people of Israel.   2 Kings 17:24

When God was provoked, he drove the people out of his presence, and the land that he had promised to bless lay uninhabited. But it wasn’t long before the king of Assyria repopulated the area with people from all over his empire.

Apparently, while the Promised Land was empty, the number of wild animals increased, so when these immigrants arrived, they were attacked by lions. These people were brought up to believe that the lions were a plague from whichever god was in charge of the area.

Word got back to the king of Assyria, who thought the best way to deal with the problem was to find a priest from among God’s people who used to live there. He assumed a local priest would know what to do to placate whatever god was causing this problem, so he gave orders to find a priest and send him back to Israel.

In God’s mercy, “one of the priests who had been exiled from Samaria returned to Bethel and taught the new residents how to worship the LORD” (2 Kings 17:28). God brought people from the north, south, east, and west into the place he had promised to bless, and while they were there, God sent one of his own people to them so they could discover him too. God’s promise was not to bless just Israel, but God promised that through Israel, all the nations of the earth would be blessed (see Genesis 22:18).

This multiethnic population eventually combined the worship of God with the worship of its own gods (see 2 Kings 17:29). Although they became confused, there was a witness to the truth among them for the first time. The Samaritans, as these people came to be known, built their own temple on Mount Gerizim, where God spoke of his blessings to his people when they first came into the Promised Land. And God sent another witness to them later in the person of his Son (see John 4). Has God sent a witness to the truth to you? Praise him for his wonderful mercy today!

For further reading, see John 4