Context No. 3825 of 4322 · 2 Kings

2 Kings 16:1-9: in context

1In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign. 2Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. He didn’t do that which was right in the LORD his God’s eyes, like David his father. 3But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and even made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel. 4He sacrificed and burned incense in the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree. 5Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war. They besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him. 6At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria, and drove the Jews from Elath; and the Syrians came to Elath, and live there to this day. 7So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath Pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria and out of the hand of the king of Israel, who rise up against me.” 8Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the LORD’s house, and in the treasures of the king’s house, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria. 9The king of Assyria listened to him; and the king of Assyria went up against Damascus and took it, and carried its people captive to Kir, and killed Rezin.

King Ahaz is a study in misplaced trust. He does evil, following the abominations of the nations, even sacrificing his own son in the fire, a horror we note soberly. Then, when threatened by two enemy kings, instead of trusting the LORD, he turns to the king of Assyria for rescue, stripping the silver and gold from the temple of the LORD and from his own treasury to buy Assyrian help.

Everything about Ahaz's response is backward. Facing danger, he looks to a foreign power rather than to God, and he plunders God's own house to pay for it. He trades the treasures dedicated to the LORD for the protection of a pagan empire, a bargain that would cost Judah dearly and make it a vassal. There is a warning here about where we turn in our fear. Ahaz, under pressure, trusted a worldly power he could see and pay, rather than the God he could not control, and he gave up what was holy to secure it. When trouble comes, we too are tempted to buy security from the powers of this world rather than trust God, even at the cost of what belongs to him.

When fear presses me, am I tempted, like Ahaz, to buy security from worldly powers rather than trust God, even sacrificing what is holy, or will I turn first to the God who alone can truly save?

Sources

2 Kings 16:7: "Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath Pileser king of Assyria, saying, I am your servant and your son. Come up and save me."
2 Kings 16:8: "Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the LORD's house... and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria."
2 Kings 16:3: "He even made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the nations."