Hoshea is captured by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, due to potential alliances with Egypt (an enemy of Assyria) and for a failure to provide the required tribute. This leads to Assyria capturing the capital city of Samaria and deporting the people to various regions in the Assyrian empire. Israel is no longer a nation and the narrator comments as to why this happened:
And they abandoned all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made for themselves metal images of two calves; and they made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal. And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings and used divination and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger. Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight. None was left but the tribe of Judah only. – 2 Kings 17:16-18 (ESV)
While there are dangers of correlating disaster and oppression with particular conduct (like hurricane Katrina, etc), the flip side of the coin is that God does act against sin and wickedness. These two golden calves have been a stumbling block for Israel since their inception as a nation distinct from Judah. This particular abomination, referred to as the sin of Jeroboam son of Nebat, has not been taken care of throughout Israel’s history. As God’s people, we cannot just go on doing what we want and worshiping the Lord in any manner that we see fit. This was demonstrated in the life of Ahaz (2 Kings 16) not to mention all the other kings who overstepped their authority. In our rebelliousness, we want to be king and domesticate God. God will not bow to our whims, our stubbornness, or our selfishness. He is the Lord Almighty.
