“Now in the time of his distress King Ahaz became increasingly unfaithful to the Lord. This is that King Ahaz. For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus which had defeated him, saying, ‘Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me.’ But they were the ruin of him and of all Israel” 2 Chronicles 28:22-23.
I’m going through the history and Chronicles of the kings of Israel and Judah right now and it’s stunning how dense they can be. Could they not look back on history and directly point to good following them when they followed God and a very severe inverse if they did not? Verses 1-4 outline the basics of King Ahaz’s wickedness and thus verse 5 God responds with, “Therefore the Lord His God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria…” Unbelievably dense to imagine he could do all the wickedness described and expect God to do nothing- the God who brought down plagues to free His people from Egypt, notably after He Himself hardened Pharaoh’s heart, thus showing his power on any spectrum; The God who threw down hail stones to fight off Israel’s enemies when they were too weak; The God who rained down manna and quail to answer Israel’s hunger in the desert for 40 years; The God who did countless other acts; This God, who Ahab surely knew did all these acts, was the one Ahab also didn’t fear. So he mucked about and squandered God’s goodness.
Throughout King Ahaz’s life he was unfaithful although he knew intimately the amazing acts of his nation’s God. Yet starting in verse 22 above, when he became in distress he turned further from God. He turned to the gods of the nations’ who had defeated him and worshipped them. It makes sense, sort of, but didn’t it occur to him that maybe God was angry and thus allowed those nations to win?
But isn’t that exactly like us? Don’t we have the Bible right in front of us? Haven’t we read it, even if only a few of the amazing stories? Don’t we know about Paul’s miracles, Jesus raising Lazareth and the feeding of the 5,000 men not to mention all the happenings Ahaz knew about as well? Isn’t our arsenal of God’s amazing deeds even larger than Ahaz’s?
I find the unfaithful kings of Israel and Judah insolent. How could they lead their people astray? How could they be so ignorant to God’s power and authority? But it seems the characteristics we detest the most in others are the very ones we ourselves portray. I know God; I know His ways; I know His authority and yet I often turn to other gods, or idols, and worship them. I turn to television; I turn to money; I turn to any form of strength and education for survival in this world and cling to it. I run to any version of immediate success and stability I can get my hands on.
The saying is true that hindsight is 20-20. But if I have this strong of a response to Ahaz in hindsight of his grossly incorrect lifestyle choices, why don’t I know that hindsight of my own life will yield the same results if I don’t correct my actions and turn first to the Lord, knowing He will provide? Have we learned nothing from the sins of our forefathers?
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