Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father David had done, 2 but he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. He even made metal images for the Baals, 3 and he made offerings in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom and burned his sons as an offering,[a] according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. 4 And he sacrificed and made offerings on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.
Judah Defeated
5 Therefore the Lord his God gave him into the hand of the king of Syria, who defeated him and took captive a great number of his people and brought them to Damascus. He was also given into the hand of the king of Israel, who struck him with great force. 6 For Pekah the son of Remaliah killed 120,000 from Judah in one day, all of them men of valor, because they had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers. 7 And Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim, killed Maaseiah the king's son and Azrikam the commander of the palace and Elkanah the next in authority to the king.
8 The men of Israel took captive 200,000 of their relatives, women, sons, and daughters. They also took much spoil from them and brought the spoil to Samaria. 9 But a prophet of the Lord was there, whose name was Oded, and he went out to meet the army that came to Samaria and said to them, “Behold, because the Lord, the God of your fathers, was angry with Judah, he gave them into your hand, but you have killed them in a rage that has reached up to heaven. 10 And now you intend to subjugate the people of Judah and Jerusalem, male and female, as your slaves. Have you not sins of your own against the Lord your God? 11 Now hear me, and send back the captives from your relatives whom you have taken, for the fierce wrath of the Lord is upon you.”
12 Certain chiefs also of the men of Ephraim, Azariah the son of Johanan, Berechiah the son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah the son of Shallum, and Amasa the son of Hadlai, stood up against those who were coming from the war 13 and said to them, “You shall not bring the captives in here, for you propose to bring upon us guilt against the Lord in addition to our present sins and guilt. For our guilt is already great, and there is fierce wrath against Israel.” 14 So the armed men left the captives and the spoil before the princes and all the assembly. 15 And the men who have been mentioned by name rose and took the captives, and with the spoil they clothed all who were naked among them. They clothed them, gave them sandals, provided them with food and drink, and anointed them, and carrying all the feeble among them on donkeys, they brought them to their kinsfolk at Jericho, the city of palm trees. Then they returned to Samaria.
16 At that time King Ahaz sent to the king[b] of Assyria for help. 17 For the Edomites had again invaded and defeated Judah and carried away captives. 18 And the Philistines had made raids on the cities in the Shephelah and the Negeb of Judah, and had taken Beth-shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Soco with its villages, Timnah with its villages, and Gimzo with its villages. And they settled there. 19 For the Lord humbled Judah because of Ahaz king of Israel, for he had made Judah act sinfully[c] and had been very unfaithful to the Lord. 20 So Tiglath-pileser[d] king of Assyria came against him and afflicted him instead of strengthening him. 21 For Ahaz took a portion from the house of the Lord and the house of the king and of the princes, and gave tribute to the king of Assyria, but it did not help him.
Ahaz's Idolatry
22 In the time of his distress he became yet more faithless to the Lord—this same King Ahaz. 23 For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus that had defeated him and said, “Because the gods of the kings of Syria helped them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me.” But they were the ruin of him and of all Israel. 24 And Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God, and he shut up the doors of the house of the Lord, and he made himself altars in every corner of Jerusalem. 25 In every city of Judah he made high places to make offerings to other gods, provoking to anger the Lord, the God of his fathers. 26 Now the rest of his acts and all his ways, from first to last, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. 27 And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, in Jerusalem, for they did not bring him into the tombs of the kings of Israel. And Hezekiah his son reigned in his place. 2 Chronicles 28 ESV
Godly parents are not a guarantee of Godly children. We, who have the means of grace, must bestow it to our children in the form of Bible reading, prayer with and without, attend a true church, live humbly and righteously before them. They were not given to the state, church or any other than their parents, and it is our duty and if we are real, our privilege as well that they be brought up in the nurture and admonishment of the Lord. We must not only boldly profess the faith, but live it and correct their ungratefulness and all other sin. Still, when a child does well and runs after God with their whole heart, we have not ourselves to thank nor others to despise. We plant the seeds given to us in the ground prepared for us, and others may water, but it is God Who shows mercy, Who makes everything grow. Ahaz was not like his father, not even as good as his grandfather, and he could trace a line with it's histories and failures of the kings, back to David.
I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
8 Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.
9 For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. 1 Corinthians 3: 6-9
He could have learned from his father in walking upright before the Lord, but instead he chose the practices of Israel, which was to assimilate the false religions of those nations around them. He made altars and images for Baal. He sacrificed his children, much like we do today, to the god of virility, the gods of leisure, idols of convenience, and the image of self. "No, no, no,' you say, 'you've got it all wrong. We only hunt our children when they are still inside the womb. They are only sacrificed as non-humans, sub-humans, growths, like having an appendix removed, or your tonsils. It's a fetus and there is this thing called viability, and it is not it's own person but rather it's identity is that of a part of the mother, which falls under her decision to keep or to remove. Now science may show us something else, that information from you combined with information from another, makes not you or that other, but an individual, with it's own code, description and belonging to life, but I don't care even then. Why, because there is this population problem, and it is my right anyway, it affects my life." Killing someone kind of affects their life as well, and why do those who can't yet speak for themselves, have their rights or lack there of decided by others? How does the cure for "population" fall into your hands to decide? Technology has changed; men have not.
For these trespasses, God gives Ahaz over to the kings of Syria and Israel, where 120,000 of Judah's strong are killed and Israel captures 200,000 of what is called their relatives, for they are also Jacob's children. The kingdoms are divided, but no longer by good versus evil kings, or by right versus unholy doctrine. It is not because of God's special favor to Israel for their righteousness, for they had none, but rather that they are now His rod of correcting for Judah's unrighteousness. He has not given them up to be totally destroyed for out of Judah will still come Messiah, as the prophet Isaiah spoke during this time.
3 And he[g] said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel Isaiah 7: 13-14
Whom the Lord loveth He chaseneth, and yet He sends His prophet to protect. Judah has done wrong, she has cheated on me, but I have also seen the unjust vigor, the rabid malice of Israel, who has attacked his brother with rage. I have allowed you this far, but you have your own moat in your eye, something that is making you not see right, that you would now make slaves of Judah, adding insult to injury. Heaping transgression upon transgression, should we not rather restore our brothers, help them up from their injury, cover their nakedness, feed them and send them home? Is it not the gospel that I needed the same Christ that I am telling you about? They clothe them, anoint them and send them on their way. These were asked to be and became the good Samaritans that day.
Ahaz is unmoved, as can be seen again and more so in Isaiah 7; he will not call upon the God of Israel because he has decided in his heart that the king of Assyria is his deliverer. Note that his grandfather suffered leprosy for defying the rules of the temple in desiring to burn his own incense, to make himself also a priest, to have religion his way, on his own two feet and terms. This is so much worse, leprosy is a blessing compared to a hardened heart, dying in your trespasses and sins, locking up the temple away from the people, turning the access away to the north, sacrificing your children, destroying your country all in the name of pride. He could not be moved by or convinced in the least by his calamities, they only seemed to drive him deeper into this madness and rage. Some men will never worship a God they cannot control or make after them. They would rather worship another man who can be flattered or an idol that can be held, but both are made, so I will not see either as worthy. I will worship the Creator according to His word that He has given me, the Bible. Lord, please preserve me in Your way, let my life bring glory and honor to Your name.
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