Israel Chooses to Sink Lower into Apostasy

The closing years of the ill-fated kingdom of Israel were marked with violence and bloodshed such as had never been witnessed even in the worst periods of strife and unrest under the house of Ahab. For two centuries and more the rulers of the ten tribes had been sowing the wind; now they were reaping the whirlwind. King after king was assassinated to make way for others ambitious to rule. “They have set up kings,” the Lord declared of these godless usurpers, “but not by Me: they have made princes, and I knew it not.” Hosea 8:4. Every principle of justice was set aside; those who should have stood before the nations of earth as the depositaries of divine grace, “dealt treacherously against the Lord” and with one another. Hosea 5:7.

With the severest reproofs, God sought to arouse the impenitent nation to a realization of its imminent danger of utter destruction. Through Hosea and Amos He sent the ten tribes message after message, urging full and complete repentance, and threatening disaster as the result of continued transgression. ...

Of Ephraim ....The prophet Hosea often referred to Ephraim, a leader in apostasy among the tribes of Israel, as a symbol of the apostate nation.] ...

Some of the leaders in Israel felt keenly their loss of prestige and wished that this might be regained. ... they continued in iniquity... they would attain to the political power they desired by allying themselves with the heathen. ...they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.” “They do make a covenant with the Assyrians.” Hosea 5:13; 7:11; Hosea 12:1.

Through... Elijah and Elisha, through Amos and Hosea, the Lord had repeatedly set before the ten tribes the evils of disobedience. But ... Israel had sunk lower and still lower in apostasy. ...

— Prophets and Kings 279.1-281, Chapter 23—The Assyrian Captivity