Reading

• Isa. 21:11-12; 34:5-17; 21:13-17; 23:1-18
• 2 Kings 16:7-18
• 2 Chron. 28:22-27a
• 2 Kings 16:20b; 18:1-7a

Devotional

Ahaz king of Judah was a very wicked man. Consider some of what the Bible says he did:

¹⁰ Then King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet [the] 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. ¹¹ 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. ¹² When the king came back from Damascus and saw the altar, he approached it and presented offerings on it. ¹³ 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. ¹⁴ 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.

¹⁵ 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.” ¹⁶ And Uriah the priest did just as King Ahaz had ordered.

¹⁷ 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. ¹⁸ He took away the Sabbath canopy 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.

¹⁹ 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? ²⁰ Ahaz rested with his ancestors and was buried with them in the City of David. And Hezekiah his son succeeded him as king.
(2 Kings 16:10-20 NIV)

²² In his time of trouble King Ahaz became even more unfaithful to the LORD. ²³ He offered sacrifices to the gods of Damascus, who had defeated him; for he thought, “Since the gods of the kings of Aram have helped them, I will sacrifice to them so they will help me.” But they were his downfall and the downfall of all Israel.

²⁴ Ahaz gathered together the furnishings from the temple of God and cut them in pieces. He shut the doors of the LORD’s temple and set up altars at every street corner in Jerusalem. ²⁵ In every town in Judah he built high places to burn sacrifices to other gods and aroused the anger of the LORD, the God of his ancestors.

²⁶ The other events of his reign and all his ways, from beginning to end, are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. ²⁷ Ahaz rested with his ancestors and was buried in the city of Jerusalem, but he was not placed in the tombs of the kings of Israel. And Hezekiah his son succeeded him as king.
(2 Chron. 28:22-25 NIV)

Ahaz was incredibly evil! Now consider what the Bible says about his son, Hezekiah:

¹ Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea the son of Elah, king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. ² He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. ³ And he did what was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father David had done.

⁴ He removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it, and called it Nehushtan. ⁵ He trusted in the LORD God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor who were before him. ⁶ For he held fast to the LORD; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the LORD had commanded Moses. ⁷ The LORD was with him; he prospered wherever he went.
(2 Kings 18:1-7a NKJV)

The life lesson here is that GOD rewards each person according to their deeds:

⁵ But if a man is just And does what is lawful and right…⁹ If he has walked in My statutes And kept My judgments faithfully—He is just; He shall surely live!” Says the Lord GOD. ¹⁰ “ If he begets a son who is a robber Or a shedder of blood, Who does any of these things ¹¹ And does none of those duties, But has eaten on the mountains Or defiled his neighbor’s wife; ¹² If he has oppressed the poor and needy, Robbed by violence, Not restored the pledge, Lifted his eyes to the idols, Or committed abomination; ¹³ If he has exacted usury Or taken increase—Shall he then live? He shall not live! If he has done any of these abominations, He shall surely die; His blood shall be upon him…¹⁹ “Yet you say, ‘Why should the son not bear the guilt of the father?’ Because the son has done what is lawful and right, and has kept all My statutes and observed them, he shall surely live. ²⁰ The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
(Eze. 18:5-20 NKJV)

Be a Hezekiah, not an Ahaz!