Poor Hosheah

This week in class, we learned about the destruction of Shomrom and the exile of the ten lost tribes.  As we learned before, the kingdom of Yisrael was so far gone and needed to be punished much more than the kingdom of Yehuda at the time.  Both kingdoms made foreign alliances and failed to recognize G-d's control over their lives.  The kingdom of Yisrael, however, was sinning beyond help.  They worshiped idols, acted immorally, and did not see G-d in their lives at all.  Last week, some other people and I blogged about how it was the sins of the people that got the people exiled as well as the actions of the king.

The king at the time of the exile by Assyria was Hosheah.  In Malachim, he is described as a bad king, but not to the extent of the other kings of Yisrael.  The difference can be found in Divrei Hayamim.  From the time of Yiravam, guards were posted at Dan and Be'er Sheva to prevent the people from returning to Jerusalem and the Beit Hamikdash.  Hosheah removed the guards and allowed the people to return to Jerusalem to build a relationship with G-d again.  They refused to go back and Yisrael were exiled as a result.

Here's my problem: since the time of Yiravam, approximately two hundred years had passed.  For two hundred years, the people had left the path of G-d.  Their parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and so on had been worshiping G-d in Yiravam's temples and eventually, idols.  How were the children supposed to change everything they knew to be right because a Navi of G-d told them that they were sinning?  This particular generation of Yisrael had absolutely no contact or relationship with G-d because they were not allowed to go to the Beit Hamikdash.  I can totally understand why they didn't believe the Navi.  In this case, I don't understand why the blame falls purely on the people of the time and not on the previous generations who allowed their children to stray so far from G-d.

Finally, I really feel bad for Hosheah.  He was the first king of Yisrael who gave the people the option of worshiping G-d again at the Beit Hamikdash.  He thought he was doing the right thing!  I also feel bad for him because people who don't study Navi know him as the king who allowed his kingdom to fall into ruin.  The online source I used as reference, http://www.vtaide.com/gleanings/Kings-of-Israel/judgment_Hoshea.html, doesn't even mention the good that Hosheah did/tried to do.  They just say that the most significant event in his rule was the fall of the kingdom of Yisrael.  As true as this may be, compared to the other kings of Yisrael, Hosheah was WAY better and more spiritual.  It seems as if he understood the significance of the Beit Hamikdash in maintaining faith in G-d.  If the people had not been so bad in Hosheah's time, maybe he would have been able to influence other kings to follow G-d again.  In reality, the ten lost tribes were, well, lost and G-d focused his attention on the remnant, the tribes of Yehuda and Binyamin.