Ahaz, Remembered as a Wicked King

The combined forces of Aram and the northern kingdom of Israel attack Jerusalem, and Judah suffers a heavy defeat. Ahaz, however, was a king sunk in idolatry, who went so far as to make his children pass through the fire as human sacrifices. Even in the face of crisis he refuses the word bidding him ask God for a sign, and turns to Assyria for help instead.

The human sacrifice of Molech worship looks outwardly like devotion carried to its extreme, but in truth it is an utter self-centeredness that will give up even what is most precious to protect its own prosperity. When Ahaz said he would not put God to the test, that too was not humility; it was disobedience, a way of escaping God’s clear answer and holding to the course he had set for himself. God had foretold that the invaders would come to ruin, yet Ahaz would not believe his word and entrusted his own fate and that of his nation to the power of the world.

However strong the powers of this world may appear, they are in the end only instruments God makes use of for a time, and judgment and destruction await them. No worldly power, by contrast, can lightly lay a hand on one who stands rightly before God. Just as Noah, Moses, Job and David received their names from God, to stand before him under a name that is wise in what is good and simple in what is evil: this is the conclusion of the message.