Teach Them the Manner 2Ki 17:24-33 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO
The king of Assyria conquered Israel and took the inhabitants of the cities of Samaria captive. He removed them from the land and replaced them with men from other countries [2 Ki 17:24]. These emigrants didn’t know God and they didn’t know the law of God. Soon they found themselves being attacked by lions. So, the king of Assyria asked for a priest from Samaria to teach them the manner of the God of the land [2 Ki 17:27].
All they did was teach them the manner of the God of the land. They didn’t help them to know the God of the land. This is the problem in many of our churches today. The young people are being taught the manner of God but they aren’t being taught to know God. Because they are only being taught the “manner” of the God and being taught “how” they should fear the Lord not “to” fear the Lord:
They are living by the manner of the world – 2 Ki 17:24, 33 – the manner of the nations has crept into the churches with the men from other cities of the world not New Jerusalem. It is easy to trade the manner of God for the manner of the world when you don’t know God.
They are being taught by worldly preachers –2 Ki 17:27-28, 32 – these are not men with the power of God on them. These are men chosen by men and preaching man’s wisdom not the wisdom of God [1 Cor 2:4-6]. Thus there is no power of God in their preaching because these are not God’s men.
They don’t fear the Lord – 2 Ki 17:25, 32-34 – the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the beginning of knowledge. They do not have the knowledge of God and the wisdom of God because they don’t really fear the Lord [2 Ki 17:34]. I feared the Lord in the Roman Catholic Church but that was not a fear taught by God and the Bible. Rather it was a fear taught by men of the cloth.
They are being devoured by the devil – 2 Ki 17:25 – in 1 Pet 5:8 the devil walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. It is much easier for the devil to devour a man who only knows the manner of the God of the land than it is to devour a man who knows God.
They serve their own gods – 2 Ki 17:33 – these are the gods of their own making and their own choosing. They idolize the men, the performers, the scholars, the authors, the speakers, and the works that they have built. But they do not fear God and they do not know God.
Conclusion: they will never get to know God until they get beyond the manner and the “how they should fear.” We lose our young people because they can’t grow and abound in the love of God when all we do is teach them the manner of God. They need to know God. Parents and pastors teach your young people to know God!!