“The Israelites secretly did things against the Lord their God that were not right” (2 Kings 17:9).

Is that so? So what! On the face of it, this sounds like a goody-goody school girl, telling teacher on her classmates. But it is much more serious than that. In just a few lines we are told some of reality’s bedrock facts: It matters how men and women live; they are accountable to God even though they study to find ways to deceive and subvert him. What fools we are! To think that things said and done are justified by through their concealment. Hidden or secret, defiance of God is never right.