Context No. 2893 of 4322 · 2 Kings

2 Kings 16:10-20: in context

10King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath Pileser king of Assyria, and saw the altar that was at Damascus; and King Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest a drawing of the altar and plans to build it. 11Urijah the priest built an altar. According to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, so Urijah the priest made it for the coming of King Ahaz from Damascus. 12When the king had come from Damascus, the king saw the altar; and the king came near to the altar, and offered on it. 13He burned his burnt offering and his meal offering, poured his drink offering, and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings on the altar. 14The bronze altar, which was before the LORD, he brought from the front of the house, from between his altar and the LORD’s house, and put it on the north side of his altar. 15King Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, “On the great altar burn the morning burnt offering, the evening meal offering, the king’s burnt offering and his meal offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, their meal offering, and their drink offerings; and sprinkle on it all the blood of the burnt offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice; but the bronze altar will be for me to inquire by.” 16Urijah the priest did so, according to all that King Ahaz commanded. 17King Ahaz cut off the panels of the bases, and removed the basin from off them, and took down the sea from off the bronze oxen that were under it, and put it on a pavement of stone. 18He removed the covered way for the Sabbath that they had built in the house, and the king’s outer entrance to the LORD’s house, because of the king of Assyria. 19Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 20Ahaz slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in David’s city; and Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.

King Ahaz visits Damascus, sees a pagan altar there, and is so impressed that he sends the design home to Urijah the priest and has a copy built in the temple. When he returns he offers on it himself, then shoves the LORD's own bronze altar aside to a corner and puts his new altar in the center. Urijah does exactly as the king commands, and Ahaz strips the temple furnishings to pay tribute to Assyria.

Two failures meet here. Ahaz sees the impressive altar of a stronger nation and imports it, displacing the LORD's altar to the side, a king who prizes what the admired world approves over what God had commanded. And Urijah the priest, whose whole calling was to guard the worship, simply goes along; the man charged to protect God's ways bends them to please the king. When admiration for what the world finds impressive drives our worship, and the guardians quietly comply, God's altar gets shoved to the corner without anyone quite deciding to reject him.

Have I let something the world finds impressive quietly displace God from the center, while I tell myself I have kept him around at the edge?

Sources

2 Kings 16:11: "Urijah the priest built an altar. According to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, so Urijah the priest made it."
Isaiah 7:9: "If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established."
Exodus 20:3: "You shall have no other gods before me."