2 Chronicles 28:22-27: a reflection

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.

The Chronicler adds a bitter note to King Ahaz: in the time of his distress, he trespassed yet more against the LORD. Trouble did not turn him home or humble him; it drove him further into folly. He even began sacrificing to the gods of Damascus, the very gods of the nation that had defeated him, reasoning that since those gods seemed to help his enemies, perhaps they would help him too.

Notice the tragic logic. Ahaz is in real distress, and distress is a fork in the road: it can drive a person to God or further from him. Ahaz takes the wrong turn every time. Beaten, he chases the gods of those who beat him. Cornered, he shuts up the house of the true God and builds altars on every corner. His response to trouble is to double down on exactly what is destroying him.

That is a caution for how we handle our own distress, because the pull to run the wrong direction is real. When life goes hard, there is a temptation to turn away from God, to chase whatever seems to be working for others, to abandon the very thing that could save us. Ahaz shows where that road ends: they were the ruin of him. When distress comes, notice which way you are turning. Let trouble drive you toward God, not, like Ahaz, deeper into what is ruining you.

Lord, when distress comes, keep me from turning the wrong way, chasing what cannot save and abandoning you. Let my troubles drive me toward you, not deeper into the things that ruin me.