Through the Bible Study — 2 Kings 15–16

Welcome! How are y'all doing? Good to see you all this evening. Why don't you stand with me and I'll open us up in a word of prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, I just pray that you would meet us here this evening. I thank you just for giving us a place that we can just come together and just corporately worship you with our brothers and sisters in Christ. I just pray from the beginning of this service through just singing praises to you and digging into the word that, Lord, this all would just be an act of worship. And I pray that, Lord, that you just help us to just relax and slow down and take our minds off of all of the situations and earthly things that we're dealing with, Lord, and that we would just get to just realign with you.

I just pray this in your name. Amen.

Amen.

I have a seat for these next two you can.

Let's sing these songs. As I offer each song, must I praise you again?

Because all that I have is a heart.

Praise you again. Because all that I have is a heart. Get shy on me, lift up. because you've got three joys and all the earth rejoice and darkness tries to hide bulls at his voice trembles at his voice sing with me is our and all will see how let's pray that you would just lord just help us to just be transformed from the inside out lord that we would be more like you lord that no matter how smart you've made us how great other people might think that we are lord i just pray that we would just be like you that we'd walk in your footsteps steps of humility lord as a lamb god i just pray that you would god just conform us to your will and how you want us to act and i just pray this in your name good evening

if you would open up in your bibles to the book of second kings chapter 15. second kings chapter 15. i've entitled the message tonight the beginning of the end because we'll go through a series of kings some from the southern kingdom a couple of them good a couple of them bad but mainly from the northern kingdom and and by the time we end chapter 16 we will have arrived at the very last of the kings of the northern kingdom before the northern kingdom uh by assyria and what we'll see is is sort of the downward continual downward progression of the nation of israel um if you remember correctly again most of you have been here for this entire time but i've been gone for a couple of weeks and and so i'll just make sure we all are on the same

page here but you know israel had desired a king because they wanted to be like all of the other nations and and the first king that they got was the king that they thought they wanted which was saul the second king that they got was the king that they really needed and his name was david david had a son named solomon and solomon from all intents and purposes started off so well in his reign by seeking wisdom from the lord and and uh you know wiser than any other king potentially any other man besides jesus that ever lived and yet he had one achilles heel and that was his flesh because he loved many foreign women and it led him as well as the entire nation into idolatry

and so god ripped a portion of the kingdom from him part of the kingdom stayed with the line of david because god had made a promise to the king that he would be the king of the kingdom and he might earn the life span of all your flesh he was thanks for the agricultural works and the skins of jesus and performed thanksgiving for all you know we're talking about old angel yeah and he also briscoe and that's the echelon that we're going to talk about now and then in an ethno of the kingdom astrologers hold found his latest book that's some Chinese culture history tongue and subjects that we're going to explore in a moment the historical history of the old angel i Bridgeland i want to take you a little bit over two chapters into

today so if you're interested please download that because the first three chapters will be about the second chapter of the commandments and certainly more discipline and girls and all a few of the books close this week longer than lastitions we do tell you that we just read the british argument on baskets here is this in antipunk the internet rhetoric that there's so many two golden calves, one at the northern end of the northern kingdom and one towards the southern end of the northern kingdom because he was afraid that they would go back and worship in Jerusalem and basically defect to that southern kingdom. And that area of sin will carry throughout the entire northern kingdom of Israel.

As a matter of fact, in every king that we read about from the northern kingdom, we are told that they continued in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nabot, because he instituted idolatry and they continued to follow that idolatry. And so the southern kingdom had some good kings. The northern kingdom had no good kings. But it will all ultimately lead to God having to judge the nation of Israel.

And so we pick up tonight with a good king of the nation of Judah in chapter 15. As a matter of fact, I haven't even given this like points. It's just different kings. So I think that's what he's going to put up there tonight. All right. So the first king that we're going to talk about is the king of Judah. And we come across as a guy by the name of Azariah.

It says, In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam, king of Israel, Azariah, the son of Amaziah, king of Judah, became king. He was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jechaliah of Jerusalem, and he did right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. Only the high places were not taken away.

The people still sacrificed. They sacrificed and burnt incense on the high places. And the Lord struck the king so that he was a leper to the day of his death. And he lived in a separate house while Jotham, the king's son, was over the household, judging the people of the land. Now the rest of the acts of Azariah and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

And Azariah slept with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David. And Jotham, his son, became king in his place. Now this Azariah really was a very good king. He has an interestingly bad end, but he was a really good king. Most of us know him by the name of Uzziah. As a matter of fact, if you were to go to the book of Isaiah, don't do that right now,

but if you were to go to the book of Isaiah, you will find that when Isaiah first started prophesying, it says that in the year that King Uzziah died, this is in chapter 6 of the book of Isaiah, I saw the Lord high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple with glory. Because he was a fantastic king that did such a great job, but it would be during his reign, that the prophet Isaiah would really begin his work of prophecy, that God had given for him to do. And in so many ways, Azariah, or Uzziah, was a fantastic king, it says he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. There was that one area of compromise that many of the kings of Judah had, they didn't take down the high places.

It wasn't that those were institutions of idolatry, it was just not worship of the Lord and what God had instituted. They weren't going to the temple, they were instead going to these high places. It was an area of compromise. But he was a really good king, up until the very end. And the only issue that Uzziah had, is that towards the end of his reign, he decided to also assume the role of the priest.

You see, one of the things that God was sure to do with the nation of Israel, is he separated out institutions, ruling bodies. There was the prophet, there was the priest, and there was the king. And they were to be separate things. Because God knew that if you put the power of religion, with the power of government together, that you would ultimately end up having a man who had way too much power.

And so God had said that the king would never do the role of the priest, and the priest would never do the role of the king. Well Uzziah, because he was a little bit lifted up with pride, went into the temple one day to do the job that only the priest was supposed to do. And he offered incense to the Lord. In and of itself, that doesn't sound like a bad thing.

One would think that that's a good thing. He wants to go in and offer prayers to the Lord. But the fact of the matter is, he had violated God's order. And he had violated God's order not out of a pure desire to worship the Lord, but out of being lifted up with pride, thinking that if he was that good of a king, couldn't he also do that good as a priest? So in that moment, we're told that God struck Uzziah with leprosy.

And because God struck him with leprosy, he ultimately ended up living isolated from everyone else for the rest of his days, until he ultimately died of leprosy. And can I just be honest and say that the sin of pride is just like that in our lives? Like of all of the sins, I think pride is the one that we excuse the most easily. Can we all agree with that? Because pride in and of itself doesn't always look as ugly as, say, immorality.

It doesn't always look as ugly as, say, embezzlement or some other crime or sin that just looks really ugly at the outset. And yet, you know what the hardest sin is? The hardest sin for us to admit to is in our lives. The hardest sin for us to admit to is pride. You know why? Because to admit to our pride would create humility in our lives. And the one thing that pride hates the most is humility.

And so we can't admit to it in our lives. Because once we do, we will have humbled ourselves. But it's the most dangerous sin. C.S. Lewis in his work, Mere Christianity, says it's the one great sin. It is the one sin that every other sin springs from. And to an extent, he's right. Because pride says, I will have my way in no one else's way. I will have my way, not God's way.

I can be my own God. And that sin in the life of Uzziah was the one stain on an otherwise wonderful reign by a great king who did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. And so the first king that we read about is a guy by the name of Azariah. And of course, he was struck with leprosy and lived isolated until he died. And his son, Jotham, became king in his place.

Keep that name in your mind because we will get to him in chapter 16. Well, now we switch to the southern kingdom. It says in the 38th year of Azariah, king of Judah. Remember, Azariah reigned for 52 years. That was a really long reign. In the 38th year of Azariah, king of Judah, Zechariah, the son of Jeroboam, became king over Israel in Samaria for six months.

And he did evil in the sight of the Lord as his fathers had done. He did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, which he made Israel sin. And then Shalem, son of Jabesh, conspired against him and struck him before the people and killed him and reigned in his place. Now the rest of the acts of Zechariah, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

And this is the word of the Lord, which he spoke to Jehu, saying, Your sons to the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel. This Zechariah is the son of Jeroboam. Not Jeroboam, the one who ultimately set up the idols in Israel. He was the son of Jeroboam II. And of course, this man, Zechariah, who's ruling in the northern kingdom, did what was evil in the sight of the Lord

and that he continued on with that idolatry in the northern kingdom. And ultimately, after a six-month reign, which is pretty fascinating when you think about the fact that Azariah reigned for 52 years, after six months of being in power, this guy named Shalem comes along and conspires against him and kills him. And it puts an end to the dynasty of a guy by the name of Jehu. If you remember Jehu, he was the one who God ultimately put into power to judge Ahab and his family.

And once again, had he followed God wholeheartedly, God told him, I would have established your kingdom. I would have established your dynasty. You did good in that you obeyed, but you did bad in that you continued in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. So he told him, there will only be someone on the throne from your family until the fourth generation.

Well, Zechariah ended that fourth generation. And listen, according to the word of the Lord, he was dealt with. And the line of Jehu ended. I don't know about you, but that's something I always pay attention to when it says, according to the word of the Lord. This is what the word of the Lord spoke. And we usually like that in positive ways. We usually like all the positive promises of God,

that God keeps his word in all of the positive ways. But can I be honest that we all have to pay attention to the fact that God keeps his word when it's judgment too. Like God keeps his word in the negative sense as well. And I think that that's important for us to remember in a world that wants to claim a lot of positivity. That yes, God is beautiful at keeping his promises.

He is so patient with us. But when he warns us about things, he's really faithful to keep his word about that too. And that's what he does here with Zechariah. And so it says in verse 13, Shalem, the son of Jabesh, became king in the 39th year of Uzziah, king of Judah. And he reigned one month in Samaria. Then Manahim, son of Gadi, I have no idea if that's how you say that or not,

went up from Tirzah and came to Samaria and struck Shalem, son of Jabesh, in Samaria. And he killed him and became king in his place. Now the rest of the acts of Shalem and his conspiracy which he made, behold, they are written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel. Then Manahim struck Tifsa and all who were in it and its borders from Tirzah, because they did not open to him.

Therefore he struck it and ripped up all its women who were with child. See what I mean about this downward progression of the kings of Israel? They don't seem to get better as things are going on, as a matter of fact, they seem to be getting much worse. And I find it interesting that this man Shalem, in my notes I was like, what do you write about this guy?

He reigned one month. That's it. That's all he had to say for his reign. He reigned one month and he did evil in the sight of the Lord. And then another came along and struck him and killed him. And if he wasn't bad enough, this guy Manahim went on and committed abominable acts that no one should have ever done. And I find it kind of interesting, because when God allowed the children of Israel

to come into the land, he gave them a command. The command that he gave them was to completely deal with every inhabitant of the land, because otherwise they would adopt their policies, they would adopt their idolatry, they would adopt their worship, and they would adopt their immorality. The children of Israel failed to do what God told them to do. They failed to deal with all of the inhabitants of the land.

And you know what we find? They adopted their immorality, they adopted their idolatry, and can we also say they adopted their brutality in the way that they treated each other. And that's what we see here as the northern kingdom continues its degradation. So we pick up in verse 17. It says, In the thirty-ninth year of Azariah king of Judah, Manahim the son of Gadi became king over Israel

and reigned ten years in Samaria. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord. He did not depart all his days from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel sin. And Paul king of Assyria came against the land, and Manahim gave Paul a thousand talents of silver so that his hand might be with him to strengthen the kingdom under his rule. And he exacted money from Israel,

even from all the mighty men of wealth, from each man fifty shekels of silver to pay the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria returned and did not remain in the land. And the rest of the acts of Manahim and all that he did are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? And he slept with his fathers, and Pechahiah his son became king in his place.

Now during this reign of Manahim, there's a guy that comes against the nation of Israel. His name is Paul king of Assyria. Many scholars believe that this is the same guy that's mentioned in the next chapter whose name is Tiglath-Pileser, the king of Assyria or the leader of Assyria. And that ultimately will be the one, that ultimately will be the kingdom that will take down the northern kingdom of Israel.

And so as these Assyrians come against the northern kingdom, you would think in this moment that they would begin to ask themselves, why is a foreign army beginning to overtake us? Well if they'd done any sort of a study of the law, they would know that what it says in the law is that when they fall into idolatry, when they begin to abandon God, when they begin to abandon the truth that God would send against them people of a foreign tongue that they would not be able to understand and they would ultimately take them over. But because no one was paying attention to the law, because no one was paying attention to the truth, instead of seeking God when there was an issue within the land, they looked for a way to deal with it.

They found all of the best counselors, they found all of the best wisdom, they put all of the smartest people in a room together, and all the smartest people in the room together came up with a plan. None of them suggested the word of God. None of them suggested consulting the law. None of them suggested let's look inside and see if there's something wrong with us before we move forward.

They said, let's pay them off. Let's come up with a way that we can bribe them to keep them from killing us. Let's see if we can come up with a way that we can bribe them to keep them from taking over our land. And that's exactly what they did. And you know it's really easy for us to look at the nation of Israel and go, man, they should have done this. But I have a question for you.

When things begin to happen in your life, what is the first thing that you do? Is the first thing that you do begin to look inside? Is the first thing that you do begin to look into the word? Or is the first thing that you do to get all of the smartest people together and have them come up with a plan? Because I have found that when things arise in my life that are difficulties,

I have to look to the Lord and say, okay, Lord, what are you wanting me to do here? Where are you trying to get a hold of me? Where are you trying to put your finger on something in my life that needs to be dealt with? Because clearly something needs to be dealt with. But they didn't do that. Just like sometimes we don't do that. And because they did that, they ultimately made themselves slaves

to the king of Assyria. And so we move on from there. The king of Assyria, the son of Menahem dies and his son takes over. Again, I have no idea if I'm pronouncing this correctly. Pechahiah, it's a fun name to say. Whether I'm saying it correctly or not, I enjoy saying it, I smile a little bit. However, he was a terrible king. In the fiftieth year of Assyria,

this is verse 23 of chapter 15. In the fiftieth year of Assyria, king of Judah, Pechahiah, the son of Menahem, became king over Israel and Samaria. He reigned two years. He did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, son of Nebad, which he made Israel sin. And then Pekah, the son of Remaliah, his officer, conspired against him, and he struck him in Samaria, in the castle of the king's house, with Argab and Aria.

And with him were fifty men of the Gileadites. And he killed him, and he became king in his place. And the rest of the acts of Pekahiah, and all that he did, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. Again, another example of one who simply did evil in the sight of the Lord, and his reign was short-lived, because the nation of Israel is continuing to trend downward.

It says, In the twenty-second year of Azariah, king of Judah, Pekah, the son of Remaliah, became king over Israel in Samaria. And he reigned twenty years, but he did evil in the sight of the Lord. And he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebad, which he made Israel sin. In the days of Pekah, king of Israel, Tiglath, or excuse me, in the days of Pekah, king of Israel, Tiglath-Pileser, same guy from earlier in the chapter, king of Assyria, came and he captured Ihon, Abel, Beth-Maaka, Jenoah, and Kadesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and he carried them captive to Assyria.

And Hoshea, the son of Elah, made a commandment to the king of Israel, a conspiracy against Pekah, the son of Remaliah, and he struck him, and put him to death, and became king in his place, in the twentieth year of Jotham, the son of Uzziah. And the rest of the acts of Pekah, and all that he did, they are written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel. And so, this last king that we just read about, Hoshea, he's going to be the last king of the northern kingdom. Because as you can see, Assyria is continuing its work of taking over the northern kingdom.

And he will be the last king that we'll read about in chapter 17. We won't make it that far tonight. He'll be the last king that we read about in chapter 17. But what an unfortunate downward trend that we see happening in the nation of Israel, that will ultimately lead to their being taken over by the Assyrians. Well, there's a little bit of a bright spot here.

In the second year of Pekah, the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, Jotham, the son of Uzziah, became king. He was 25 years old when he became king. He reigned 16 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jerusha, the daughter of Zadok. And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord. He did according to all that his father Uzziah had done. Only the high places weren't taken away.

The people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. He built the upper gate of the house of the Lord. And the rest of the acts of Jotham and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah? Isn't there a really good moment after this? After you read about all the bad kings, and this guy conspired against this guy to kill him,

and this guy conspired against this guy to kill him, and they did all this evil in the sight of the Lord, you go back and you find a guy by the name of Jotham. What a breath of fresh air in the midst of an incredible amount of sin. And Jotham was truly an amazing king. Truly a fantastic king as far as the nation of Israel was concerned. As a matter of fact, there's a beautiful commentary given about this king

over in 2 Chronicles chapter 27. Hold your finger here and go over to the right. Go to 2 Chronicles chapter 27. I want you to look down at verse 6. And this is what it says. 2 Chronicles 27 verse 6 says, So Jotham became mighty because he ordered his ways before the Lord his God. It's a short little verse, but I love this commentary on his reign. He became mighty because he ordered his ways before the Lord his God.

He didn't become mighty because he had so much wisdom. He didn't become mighty because he was such a great military leader. He didn't become mighty because he had so much wealth. No, the one thing that made him mighty is that he ordered his ways before the Lord. In other words, he lived his life in accordance with what God wanted for him to do. And I can just tell you right now what an amazing thing to be able to put on your tombstone.

What an amazing thing to be said of your life when all is said and done is that the thing that made you great was that you followed God in all of your life. You followed God in all of your ways. The thing that made you great is that you pursued God with all of your heart. And I love this because if you think about it, everything about him, everything surrounding this king is a great deal of evil.

When you look to the northern kingdom, remember there's a terrible king that's king in the northern kingdom during this time. When you look to the northern kingdom, somebody who could have potentially been one of his allies, someone who could have potentially been aligned with him, you find that all of them are pursuing the things of evil. As a matter of fact, his dad ended in a pretty bad way, his dad, Uzziah, was the one who became lifted up with pride, offered the incense when he wasn't supposed to, and lived isolated because of the leprosy that God struck him with because he disobeyed the Lord. And yet, even though around him was an incredible amount of evil, even within his own nation, which we'll read in just a moment,

he continued to keep himself strong. He continued to order his ways after the things of the Lord. Listen, even though it wasn't the most popular thing to do. And I think that in the world that we're living in today, that's important for us as men and women of God to pay attention to, is that the potential is there that the rest of the world is going to continue to go after the things of the world.

And that maybe even people within the church will fall away from the truth and not continue to pursue the things of God. But if you want to truly be mighty, if you want your life to mean something, if you want your life to have a wonderful stamp on it at the very end, then you will continue to order yourself after the things of God. Listen, no matter what else is going on around you. And so, we see this wonderful commentary on this king who lived in a pretty down time.

But I want you to notice what it says in verse 37. Go back to 2 Kings chapter 15. I want you to notice what it says in verse 37. In those days, the Lord began to send Rezin king of Aram and Pekah the son of Ramaliah against Judah. And Jotham slept with his fathers, and he was buried with his fathers in the city of David, in Ahaz his son. Became king in his place.

Now that kind of bothered me when I read that. I don't know if that bothers you or not, but it bothered me. Because we saw this happen in the northern kingdom and it made sense why it happened in the northern kingdom. It made sense that God would send enemy kings against the northern kingdom because their king was awful and was leading them into idolatry. But we just read about a great king

who did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. Not perfectly, but had a great reputation for doing what was right in the eyes of the Lord. As a matter of fact, the commentary in 2 Chronicles chapter 27 indicates such. That he was so mighty because he ordered himself according to the ways of the Lord. And yet in verse 37, which by the way I've underlined in my own Bible,

it says, In those days the Lord began to send Rezin king of Aram and Pekah the son of Ramaliah against Judah. That would indicate something to me. That would indicate that it was God who was sending these enemies against the southern kingdom, and not just some random occurrence. So I was asking myself a question. Why? Why if they have this great king, why if he is ordering his ways according to the Lord,

and that's what made him mighty, why was God sending enemies against the nation of Judah? And then I was reminded of something. I wrote it down so that I would say it the way I intended to. Good rulers don't equate to godly people. Good rulers don't equate to godly people. Because at the end of the day, everybody within the nation of Judah had to continue to make decisions

for themselves. And the decisions that the rest of the nation of Judah was making for themselves were evil. Because while their ruler was pursuing the things of God, the people were still half-hearted in their obedience towards the Lord. The people were still half-hearted in their worship of God. We learn that in the book of Isaiah. We learn that in the book of Hosea.

That they were still half-hearted in the way that they approached the worship of God. And we see that reflected in the next king that's going to come about. But I want to remind us all of something. Living in a nation with a godly leader doesn't equate to you being a godly person. Sitting in a church that teaches the Bible doesn't equate to you being someone

who lives according to the Bible. Reading your Bible every day doesn't equate to you being a person who ultimately lives according to what it says. At the end of the day, every day, day in and day out, you have to make decisions. And the decisions that you make will alter the course of your life. They will change the course of who you are. If those decisions are based upon

what Scripture has to say and you're obeying the Lord, then your life will be in accordance constantly with the things of God, just like Jotham. But just because you sit under godly teaching, just because you read the Bible for yourself, doesn't mean that you're going to make those decisions. Because you can hear all the right things, you can read all the right things, but if you still make decisions opposed to the truth of the word of God, listen, you will reap the consequences of that. If not, to an even greater degree.

Because those who have much knowledge are held to a higher level of accountability. Each of us has to make decisions for ourselves. That was one of the hardest things I had to learn as a youth pastor. It's one of the hardest things I've had to learn as a pastor. And it's an incredibly hard thing to have to learn as a parent. But I want to share with you that at the end of the day,

all I can do is give people the truth. At the end of the day, that's all that I can do. And then you have to make decisions for yourself. You have to decide whether or not you're going to follow what God's word has to say. You're going to have to decide whether or not you're going to obey what God's word has to say. And if you don't, you'll always reap the consequences.

Just like when you do, you'll always reap the benefits. And so God sent these foreign nations, these foreign nations against the nation of Judah to hopefully bring about repentance within the nation of Judah. But unfortunately, after a wonderful bright spot of Jotham, we come to chapter 16, verse 1. It says, In the seventeenth year of Pekah, the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, became king.

Ahaz was 20 years old when he became king, and he reigned 16 years. In Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord, as his father David had done. But he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. He even made his son pass through the fire according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had driven out from before the sons of Israel.

He sacrificed and burned incense on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree. Ahaz, who was raised by a wonderful father, who was taught the truth by his father and watched his father be blessed and mighty because he ordered his ways after the ways of the Lord, becomes one of the southern kingdom's worst kings. The only king that might have been worse than him was Manasseh, which we'll read about later. But even Manasseh, at the end of his life, repented of the way that he lived.

Ahaz did not. We're told that Ahaz, the son of Jotham, did not. We're told that he followed the idolatry of the kings of Israel. But in this instance, he followed it to an even greater degree because it says he made his sons pass through the fire. That is a universal reference to the worship of the god of Molech. And most of tradition and history teaches us

that this god, Molech, was a god whose hands were held out, and in order to sacrifice them, they would heat those hands up white hot, and they would sacrifice children to Molech, and those particular hands that were heated up so hot. And we'd say, oh, that's so grotesque. How could anyone do that? The problem is it's a whole lot like the abortion industry of today.

And that's exactly where this Ahaz found himself. I don't know how you go from a father who loved the Lord so much to being one who would commit such an atrocity that God at some point in time will say it had never even come into my mind that you would worship me like that, that you would do that sort of thing. That's how grotesquely evil this was. And yet he found himself in this place where this is now what he's giving into.

You know why? Because when you reject the truth, there is no limit to the depths that you will fall into. There is no limit to the depths that sin will take you to. That's why obeying the truth in every small way possible is so important in our lives. Because when we reject the truth, it begins to harden us towards anything of God to the point where even that which is called evil

we tend to call good. I give you a great portion of our society today. And this is where he finds himself. He finds himself in this place where he has become so evil. And I want you to notice what God does. In verse 5 it says, Then Rezin the king of Aram and Pekah the son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war. And they besieged Ahaz but could not overcome him.

And at that time Rezin king of Aram recovered Eloth and Aram and cleared the Judeans out of Eloth entirely. And the Arameans came to Eloth and have lived there to this day. Now I want you to go with me to one more place in scripture. I want you to go over to Isaiah chapter 7. Isaiah chapter 7. Because even in all of this God is gracious. Isaiah chapter 7. Starting in verse 1 it says,

Now it came about in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham the son of Uzziah king of Judah that Rezin the king of Aram and Pekah the son of Remaliah king of Israel went up to Jerusalem to wage war against it but could not conquer it. And when it was reported to the house of David saying the Arameans have camped in Ephraim his heart and the hearts of the people shook as the trees of the forest shake with the wind. The Lord said to Isaiah go out now to meet Ahaz you and your son. Shear Jasha.

And at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the fuller's field and say to him take care and be calm and have no fear and do not be faint hearted because of these two stubs of smoldering firebrands on account of the fierce anger of Rezin and the son of Remaliah. Because Aram with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah has planned evil against you saying let's go up against Judah and terrorize it and make ourselves a breach. Thus verse 7 thus says the Lord it shall not stand nor shall it come to pass for the head of Aram is Damascus and the head of Damascus is Rezin. Now within another 65 years Ephraim will be shattered so that it is no longer a people.

The head of Ephraim is Samaria and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. You will not believe you shall surely not last. And the Lord spoke again to Ahaz saying ask for yourself a sign from the Lord your God make it as deep as Sheol or as high as heaven. And Ahaz said I will not ask nor will I test the Lord. He said listen now house of David is it too slight a thing for you

to try the patience of men that you will try the patience of my God as well? The Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold a virgin shall be with child and bear a son. And she will call his name Emmanuel. And he will be curds and honey at the time he knows enough to refuse evil and choose good. For before the boy will know enough to refuse evil and choose good

the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken. Now this is what we call grace. Okay? This is unmerited favor on the part of God. Here Ahaz is living in probably the worst sin any king of Judah ever has or ever will live in because of how evil of a guy he is. And two foreign kings come against him. One from the northern kingdom the other from the Arameans.

They come against him and he is absolutely terrified to the point where he's like a tree shaking in the wind. And the entire nation is like a tree shaking in the wind. In other words they're super scared right? And so God says Isaiah go talk to Ahaz and tell him that this is not going to succeed that Ephraim will ultimately be destroyed. That the Arameans will ultimately be driven away.

Ask a sign. And Ahaz in his false humility says I'm not going to ask a sign. And Isaiah says what? You're going to try men and God? I'll give you a sign. A virgin shall bear a child and he shall be called Emmanuel, God with us. This has a dual fulfillment. It has a near and a future fulfillment. The near fulfillment is that Isaiah will marry a woman who will have a child and before

that child was old enough to know good from evil, probably around the ages of 12 to 14 that all of these enemies would be driven away from the land of Judah. The future fulfillment is that the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son and you shall call his name Emmanuel. That's the prophecy of Jesus. And God in his grace during the reign of the worst king that Judah had not only promised to preserve Judah even though they didn't deserve it but he promised a savior that would come through Judah.

Even though they didn't deserve it. People say where is grace in the Old Testament? It's right there. And if anything could have brought Ahaz to the point of repenting, you would think it would be this. But he doesn't. Unfortunately his heart was so hardened against the things of God that a message directly from God doesn't change him. Go back to 2 Kings once you notice what it says.

So verse 6. At that time Rezan king of Aram recovered Elath. Or excuse me verse 7. So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath pleaser of Assyria saying I am your servant and your son. Come up and deliver me from the hand of the king of Aram and from the hand of the king of Israel who are rising up against me. And Ahaz took silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord

and in the treasury of the king's house and sent a present to the king of Assyria. The king of Assyria went up against Damascus and captured it. He carried the people of it away into exile to Ker and put Rezan to death. You mean to tell me God just made a promise specifically to Ahaz that he would ultimately deal with the problem but instead of Ahaz believing the promise of God he goes and hires the king of Assyria to fight his battle for him. Again

before we get too hard on Ahaz before we get too hard on this king who had rejected God how many times has God made a promise that we come up with our own plan to try to fulfill? How many times has God made a promise that we go wait I have another idea. And that's what he does. And unfortunately he sells his soul to the king of Assyria for some momentary peace.

He sells his soul to the king of Assyria for a little bit of momentary peace. Did you notice what he called the king of Assyria? I am your servant and I am your son come and deliver me. Can I be honest with you and say that had he humbled himself under the mighty hand of God in the way that he humbled himself under the mighty king of Assyria he would have not only been delivered from his enemies but he would have saved himself a lot of money.

He would have ultimately been set free for all of eternity. But rather than humbling himself under the mighty hand of God and he faces the consequences of it. And so he hires Assyria and in the moment it works. Assyria comes down and they take over Damascus. Notice what it says in verse 10. King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria and he saw the altar which was at Damascus

and King Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest the pattern of the altar and its model according to all its workmanship. So Uriah the priest built an altar with all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus. Thus Uriah the priest made it before the coming of King Ahaz from Damascus. Instead what does he do? Well he goes up essentially in a welcoming party for the king of Assyria

after he takes over Damascus to sort of greet him and tell him congratulations and he sees an altar there. What's the altar that's there? What's the altar to the golden calf? It's the false altar that's there. And he sees this altar and he's like Stunning! He's got to build his own. So he rolls up a little scroll that has a picture of what he just saw and he sends it down to Uriah the priest

the priest, bear in mind who's supposed to be representing God to the people sends it to Uriah and says Build me something like this! And so Uriah the priest does. And when he comes back from Damascus there's the altar waiting for him. It says in verse 12 When the king came home from Damascus he searched the altar and went up to it he burned his burnt offering his meal offering and poured his drink offering and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings on the altar the bronze altar which was before the Lord he brought it from the front of the house from between his altar and the house of the Lord and he put it on the north side of his altar King Ahaz commanded Uriah the priest saying upon the great altar burn the morning burnt offering

the evening meal offering and the king's burnt offering and his meal offering all the people of the land and their meal offering and their drink offerings sprinkle on it all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifice but the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by So Uriah the priest did according to all that King Ahaz commanded and King Ahaz cut off the borders of the stands and he removed the laver from them he also took down the seed from the bronze oxen which were under it and he put it on a pavement of stone the covered way for the people and the Sabbath which they had built in the house and the outer entry of the king he removed from the house of the Lord because of the king of Assyria

what an unfortunate turn of events that have taken place in Judah at this point in time essentially he just completely rearranged everything about the worship of the Lord in Judah he rearranged everything about the temple where the altar was, the bronze all of the things that God had said this is where it's supposed to be this is exactly where it's supposed to be this is exactly how it's supposed to be built he came in and said actually I want to do it my way you know what he just said in that moment actually I'm going to be my own God have you ever noticed nothing changes ultimately he wants to be his own God I can tell God the way that it's supposed to be and the really truly sad thing is that Uriah the priest joined him in it

you see in this moment it would have taken a bold man to do it it would have taken a strong man to do it it would have taken an Elijah or an Elisa to do it but in this moment the priest should have stood up and said not here this isn't what we're going to do I know that you're the king but this is not what God wants for us to do would he have lost his life for it maybe but would his life have been honored by God for it absolutely see the fact of the matter is those of us that are believers in Jesus Christ well I do think we need to make sure that we choose our stands wisely that we choose the right stand to make I don't know that some of the stands we're choosing to make are the right ones right now for instance jeans advertisements

but I do think that we need to make sure that we're making a stand because there are those who would want to say maybe this is what we should do and we always have to come back to this and say but this is what it says we should do and wouldn't it be wonderful if some of the most influential people in the world were not the ones making decisions about religion instead what we were doing is following what God had to say and it's an unfortunate thing when we as Christians decide that we don't have the boldness that we don't have the confidence that we don't have the backbone to stand up and say this is the way and this is the truth and this is the life and no one is going to change that well Ahaz comes to the end of his life it says in verse 19

Ahaz which he did are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah and Ahaz slept with his fathers and he was buried with his fathers in the city of David and his son Hezekiah reigned in his place I promise there will be another bright spot next week and his name is Hezekiah and we will get there so hang in there with me okay Father we come to you now and Lord as hard as it is to read about the beginning of the end Lord we know that on this side of eternity there is no truly good king but God and Lord we know that ultimately you are who we are looking for and so Lord keep our hearts and our minds focused on you Lord keep us true to you in everything and Father we just lift these things to you in Jesus name Amen be blessed