Ahaz

2 Chronicles 28 – We All Have a Little Something in Us

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Most of us have been taught that if we look hard enough, we will find some good in everyone.

But there’s a person in 2 Chronicles chapter 28 who challenges that. There, King Ahaz is portrayed as someone totally devoid of righteousness.

  • He followed after the false gods of his enemies and burned his own children as a sacrifice to these false gods. (2 Chron. 28:3)
  • He turned to his own resourcefulness and to pagan nations rather than to God.
  • He closed the temple of God and broke all its artifacts hoping to win the favor of pagan gods.
  • He wasn’t even deemed worthy to be buried with the other kings of Judah.
  • His enemies had more compassion and righteousness than Ahaz (2 Chron. 28:6-15)

No matter how hard you look, you cannot find anything good about king Ahaz.

He became this way through a series of refusals.

  • Refusals to hear God.
  • Refusals to humble himself before God.
  • Refusals to obey God.

God brought repeated defeat and hardship on Ahaz, hoping to get his attention and turn him around. But Ahaz became more deaf and disobedient to God. (2 Chron. 28:22)

Ahaz is so bad it’s hard to see what his story has to do with us. But think about it:

  • Have you ever responded to hardship by turning to your own resourcefulness, or looking to someone else for help, rather than God?
  • Though you’ve never sacrificed your children in fire, have you ever pursed your own desires to the point where you sacrificed your children?
  • Have you ever been tempted to turn away from God when it seemed that He was thwarting you more than helping you?

We might not be all bad, but we all have a little Ahaz in us. (Rom. 3:23) And every decision and attitude we entertain will either shape us more like Ahaz or more like God.

2 Kings 16 – Chasing the Next New Thing

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America is a nation of great prosperity. Compared to the majority of the world, the poorest of us would be considered well off.  Yet, we still listen to advertisers who convince us we need something new or different. We take their bait, not because what we have doesn’t work, but because what we have isn’t new.

You see this with king Ahaz, in 2 Kings chapter 16. When his kingdom is threatened by the kings of Israel and Aram, Ahaz doesn’t turn to the One who drowned the Egyptians in the Red Sea, or brought down the walls of Jericho, or drove out the people from the Promised Land. Instead, Ahaz turns to the newest superpower on the world stage…Assyria.

When Ahaz visits the King of Assyria, he sees the alter that the king uses for pagan sacrifices. And like a guy in a new car showroom, Ahaz has to have this new and different alter; despite the fact that the alter in Judah was the original alter. It was designed by God Himself and constructed with the oversight of Moses. But Ahaz wanted something new and different.

How quickly we can turn from God to something “new.”

  • The latest Christian teacher or self-improvement guru.
  • The latest quiet-time or Bible study technique.
  • The latest way of doing church, or the latest wave in worship styles.

We’re all prone to pursue something new and lose our focus and reliance on the One who has been faithful all along. We chase after the latest change and forget the One who never changes. (Malachi 3:6)

We must stay true to the One who has been true to us. We should hold onto what He has clearly and specifically told us to do, and not veer to the right or the left, chasing the next new thing. (Deut. 5:32)