God did not want this, but it was necessary. Sin at this level left unchecked would harm people in ways that most would not even understand. Not only that but these were the people associated with His name. When they sinned and did this much evil, they turned the nations away from desiring God.

They thought their sins didn’t matter. That God didn’t care. That he didn’t see. So they continued.

And they continued until their sins hardened their heart.

It makes me think of a friend of mine. He entered into sin knowing it was wrong and harmful, but willing and choosing to follow that route anyway. Years later, he has hardened his heart and no longer sees his behavior as sin.

“Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. A spirit of prostitution is in their heart; they do not acknowledge the LORD” (v. 4).

I don’t know it’s that they can’t, but that sin has so hardened their hearts that they won’t. Sin is like that. It hardens the heart and brings deceit. I’ve watched it happen.

Now the LORD has to step in. Long patience and endless warnings have finally come to an end. It’s time to act. And God is going to bring about judgment.

He will have to allow the Assyrians to come in and destroy them and carry them off. Why? Because it is to the Assyrians where they turned for help, not God. So God let them have the help they demanded. But it wasn’t like what they thought. They would be like a lion tearing them up. But ultimately this was the punishment of God.

Afterward they felt the pain of their sin, they would see.

Then “they will seek my face; in their misery they will earnestly seek me” (v. 15).

Let’s hope it doesn’t have to happen again. That God gives us over to our sin in such a way that we know suffering like we have never known it before. I would hate for that to happen. To all of us. To me. To those I love.

But sometimes it takes drastic measures to wake people up.

Let our nations wake up before then.