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Context No. 71 of 4322 · 2 Chronicles

Context · Reflection

2 Chronicles 28:22-27: in context

22In the time of his distress, he trespassed yet more against the LORD, this same King Ahaz. 23For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus which had defeated him. He 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. 24Ahaz gathered together the vessels of God’s house, cut the vessels of God’s house in pieces, and shut up the doors of the LORD’s house; and he made himself altars in every corner of Jerusalem. 25In every city of Judah he made high places to burn incense to other gods, and provoked the LORD, the God of his fathers, to anger. 26Now the rest of his acts, and all his ways, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. 27Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, even in Jerusalem, because they didn’t bring him into the tombs of the kings of Israel; and Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.

Chronicles judges Judah's kings by whether they kept faith with God, and Ahaz gets one of the harshest accounts in the book. He reigned in the eighth century BC while Assyria was swallowing the region, and he had already stripped the temple to buy Assyrian protection. This passage is the bottom of his reign.

The sentence that names it is exact: in the time of his distress, this same King Ahaz became yet more unfaithful. Then the logic that follows, stated in his own words. Because the gods of the kings of Syria helped them, I will sacrifice to them so they may help me. He had been beaten by Damascus, so he took up the gods of Damascus, reasoning that the winners must have the stronger deity. Chronicles adds a flat verdict: they were the ruin of him and of all Israel.

Then he cut up the temple vessels, shut the doors of the house of God entirely, and set up altars on every corner of Jerusalem. Not neglect, but a deliberate closing. His response to being beaten was to change allegiance to whatever seemed to be winning. When something goes badly for me, do I turn toward what I believe or toward whatever appears to be working for other people?

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