Start Time:	07:15 AM
End Time:	07:37 AM
Date:	July 12, 2014

 

TITLE: Ahaz King of Judah

Scripture: 2 Kings 16:1 – 20

God’s Message / God’s Commands / God’s Promises:

→In the seventeenth year of Pekah son of Remaliah, Ahaz son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign. Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem sixteen years. Unlike David his father, he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God.  He followed the ways of the kings of Israel and even sacrificed his son in the fire, engaging in the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. He offered sacrifices and burned incenseat the high places, on the hilltops and under every spreading tree.  Then Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel marched up to fight against Jerusalem and besieged Ahaz, but they could not overpower him. At that time, Rezin king of Aram recovered Elath for Aram by driving out the people of Judah. Edomites then moved into Elath and have lived there to this day.  Ahaz sent messengers to say to Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria, “I am your servant and vassal. Come up and save me out of the hand of the king of Aram and of the king of Israel, who are attacking me.” And Ahaz took the silver and gold found in the temple of the Lord and in the treasuries of the royal palace and sent it as a gift to the king of Assyria. The king of Assyria complied by attacking Damascus and capturing it. He deported its inhabitants to Kir and put Rezin to death. Then King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria. He saw an altar in Damascus and sent to Uriah the priest a sketch of the altar, with detailed plans for its construction. So Uriah the priest built an altar in accordance with all the plans that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus and finished it before King Ahaz returned.  When the king came back from Damascus and saw the altar, he approached it and presented offerings^[a] on it.  He offered up his burnt offering and grain offering, poured out his drink offering, and splashed the blood of his fellowship offerings against the altar.  As for the bronze altar that stood before the Lord, he brought it from the front of the temple—from between the new altar and the temple of the Lord—and put it on the north side of the new altar.  King Ahaz then gave these orders to Uriah the priest: “On the large new altar, offer the morning burnt offering and the evening grain offering, the king’s burnt offering and his grain offering, and the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their grain offering and their drink offering. Splash against this altar the blood of all the burnt offerings and sacrifices. But I will use the bronze altar for seeking guidance.” And Uriah the priest did just as King Ahaz had ordered.  King Ahaz cut off the side panels and removed the basins from the movable stands. He removed the Sea from the bronze bulls that supported it and set it on a stone base. He took away the Sabbath canopy^[b] that had been built at the temple and removed the royal entryway outside the temple of the Lord, in deference to the king of Assyria.  As for the other events of the reign of Ahaz, and what he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? Ahaz rested with his ancestors and was buried with them in the City of David. And Hezekiah his son succeeded him as king.

NOTES:

Ø  God uses even our enemies to save us from our destructions even if we do not deserved to be saved!  Assyria is another nation that is an enemy to Israel yet when Judah was trapped against Aram and Israel, Assyria came to rescue Judah and delivered them from being totally destroyed.  God at times uses the unlikely people to help us for a reason and He allows it to happen again to fulfill His word and promises.  Judah is about to be wiped out as Judah is about to lose to Aram and Israel, but God came to their rescue by sending Assyria to deliver them.  At times, we feel like God does not hear us that’s because of the wicked things we do but when the time comes that we are in our own destruction, God will never leave us hanging.  He will be true to His word and fulfill the promises He made to us.  Here in this passage, we see that Ahaz followed evil ways yet when Damascus was captured by Assyria and became his place also, his first action was to build an altar.  Here we can see the fruit of our habit and how it will come naturally from us even when we have forgotten the Lord.  That’s why habit is important.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, Gracious and amazing Father!  Thank You because no matter what happens, You remain true to Your word and Your promises to us.  Thank You because You ensure that we are safe as You have promised and You do not look at what we have done or what we will be doing.  Thank You because You fulfill Your promises even when we do not deserve it.  Help me Lord to never go far from You and built a habit in my life so whatever happens my first solution is to draw near to You.  Just like Ahaz in this story that even his evil ways, in the end, it was natural for him to build an altar after capturing Damascus because it has been a habit and already built within him to do so.  Let my drawing near to You be a inner habit that no matter what happens Lord, my nature will always go back to You.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen!