“And now you plan to resist the kingdom of the Lord, which is in the hands of
David’s descendants. You are indeed a vast army and have with you the golden calves
that Jeroboam made to be your gods. But didn’t you drive out the
priests of the Lord, the sons
of Aaron, and the Levites, and make priests of your own as the peoples of other
lands do? Whoever comes to consecrate himself with a young bull and seven rams
may become a priest of what are not gods.
2 Chronicles 13:8-9
Yes
because they rebelled against God’s promise to create a nation going back to
Abraham in Genesis 12 and to David in 2 Samuel 7. This was supposed to be a “forever” kingdom
and now it was a splintered kingdom.
The
prophecy in 2 Samuel 7:16 said only a descendant of David’s will sit on the
throne. Israel, the northern nation, put
non-David descendants on their throne.
The
temple they created in Samaria was not the temple God told the Israelites to
build in Jerusalem. It was the only
sanctioned temple. Any other temple did
not contain the presence (or approval) or God.
Finally,
the Israelites in the other nation quickly turned to other gods and made it a
practice. They knew they failed their own
God, so they sought replacement gods.
The
destruction of Israel by Assyria was the ultimate judgment on the nation.