Year of Prophecy: © 765 BC ,  (Book of Amos)

Year of Fulfillment: ©722 BC  (2 Kings 17:3-6)

Time until fulfillment: ~43 years

The prophecy of the captivity of Israel by Assyria is an example of fulfilled Biblical Prophecy. To show how the amount of time passing between prophecy and fulfillment doesn’t matter, we will cover ten of such prophecies. This is the fourth of ten.

Although Amos was the first prophet to prophecy of the capture of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, he was not the last. The prophet Hosea picked up where Amos left off. Other prophets like Isaiah and Micah also prophesied against Israel. The fall of Israel to Assyria occurred during the lifetime of these later three prophets.

Also, approximately 70 years before Amos, the prophet Joel prophesied against the Southern Kingdom of Judah similarly and compared the Assyrians to locusts. Joel first reminded Judah of the invasion of locusts they had encountered and how it occurred in four phases with each more destructive than the previous (Jl 1:4). Joel then calls the people to repentance (1:13-20) where he is probably thinking back to Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 11 where Moses stated that this type of punishment would come because of sins of disobedience. Joel then informed Judah that an army was coming “such as never was of old nor ever will be” (2:2). Joel contrasted this army with the locusts that had devastated the land earlier. The locusts left nothing; neither would this army (2:3). The number of the army would be just as vast as the locusts; one would be able to hear them coming from a far distance (2:5). As they came, all obstacles would seem futile to them: they would appear to leap over mountains (2:5), scale walls, and enter houses without resistance (2:9). The invasion would be relentless; it would keep coming, not swerving from their course (2:7). As the locusts blotted out the sun by their numbers, so would this army (2:10). Joel then again asked Judah to repent (2:12-17) so that the Lord would have pity on them and reclaim His land (2:18). Then the Lord would make food plentiful (2:19), drive away enemies (2:20), send the needed rain showers (2:23), and they would have plenty (2:24). But first, they must repent. This description that Joel gave shows just how relentless and cruel the Assyrians could be to those deemed enemies.

From the time of Jonah’s ministry (785-772 BC) when the king of Nineveh repented (Jh 3:6-9) until approximately 40 years later, Israel received no confrontation with Assyria. However, in 745 BC, when Tiglath-pileser III came to the throne, all that changed. King Menahem of Israel was able to buy off Tiglath-pileser with 50 shekels of silver for each man: 60,000 men for a total of 37 tons of silver! (2Ki 15:19-20). Less than a decade later, Pekah, a later king of Israel, tried to force Ahaz, the king of Judah, into an alliance against Assyria (2Ki 16). Tiglath-pileser then took more of Israel’s cities and people captive and set Hoshea up as a puppet king over Israel (2Ki 15:29-30). Five years later, Shalmaneser V, the king of Assyria after Tiglath-pileser, besieged the capital city of Samaria because Hoshea had failed to pay the customary tribute to Assyria and had tried to gain the help of Egypt (2Ki 17:3-6). The siege lasted for 3 years (2Ki 17:5) during which time Shalmaneser V died and Sargon II completed the conquest in 722 BC. Sargon then intermixed the remaining people of Israel with the people of several conquered countries (2Ki 17:24) thereby destroying national resistance and the people’s national identity. This resulted in the people of Samaria losing their Jewish identity and forever being classified as Gentiles by the people of Judah (Ne 2:20, Jn 4).

Although the Kingdom of Israel had time to heed prophetic warning, they did not. They were considered troublemakers and asked to leave the country (Am 7:12-13). However, just because the people did not want to hear the message or the prophets were considered unpatriotic did not change the truth of the matter. It occurred as prophesied and probably occurred more harshly than anyone would have predicted. Scripture is clear in that Israel fell because “they had not obeyed the Lord their God, but had violated His covenant” (2Ki 18:12).

This fulfillment should be a sober reminder to us that we also need to heed what scripture tells us is part of our future. Our God has made a way of escape from impending apocalypse. The solution is simple, but requires a leap of faith. The Israelites here, did not do that. Don’t follow their example. Heed the words of the prophets and obey the Lord your God.

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens