King Ahaz

“When King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, he saw the altar that was at Damascus. And King Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest a model of the altar, and its pattern, exact in all its details.” - 2 Kings 16:10

King Ahaz had a lot going for him. In fact, he’s not unlike someone we would picture meeting in the Bay Area: he was young (reigning in his twenties and thirties), loved innovation and technology (introduced the Babylonian sundial to Jerusalem, 2 Kings 20:11), had access to the latest information (prophets Isaiah and Micah spoke during his reign), and was interested in spirituality (involved himself in sacred spaces and practices). But he had no real relationship with God, and this despite benefiting from God’s deliverance in battle (2 Kings 16:5), having the influence of a godly father (2 Kings 15:34), and being of the line of David.

Instead, he emulates those around him. When the tide turns against him in battle, he looks not to God for help, but makes an alliance with the Assyrian king, just as he sees the Syrians and Israelites doing. But far from it being an equal alliance, Ahaz declares himself their servant, literally slave (2 Kings 16:17), giving the Assyrians treasures from the temple and palace. And when he sees the Assyrian altar in Damascus, he decides to make one exactly like it for himself.

Assyrian altars were quite different from Jewish ones: they were smaller, and had peculiar and unmistakable ornamentation. As one article put it, “Careful instructions would be needed for workmen who had never seen the sort of object which they were required to produce.” In a distorted echo of Exodus 38, Ahaz now puts himself in the place of God, directing the priest in constructing an idolatrous altar which he puts in the place of God’s bronze altar in the temple, and upon which he makes burnt, grain, drink, and peace offerings. It’s a strange and somewhat hideous amalgam of religions: he is in Solomon’s temple, making offerings from Levitical law, but on an Assyrian altar, to Damascene gods. 2 Chronicles 28:23 tells us something of his motivations: “For he… said, ‘Because the gods of the kings of Syria helped them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me.’” 

The next sentence in 2 Chronicles is compelling: “But they were the ruin of him and of all Israel.” God is not one in a line of many. We cannot keep the convenient or traditional parts of our faith and mix them in with what seems to be working for everyone else. This is not to say we can’t make our faith culturally relevant, but we must always be going back to God’s word as we bring forward His truths to our current day.

Ahaz had auspicious beginnings: but he ended up being one of the worst kings, going on to make idolatrous altars “in every city of Judah” (2 Chronicles 28:25). Perhaps, more than anything else, his story is a warning to us: of how incredibly easy it can be to be so caught up by what others are doing, to trust so much in worldly patterns of success, to care so much about what someone in power thinks of us, that we lose a right view of God in our lives.