May 24, 2024

Ahaz became king of Judah and followed after the ways of the kings of Israel and worshipped the golden calves and fake gods. I am most disturbed by his actions because he passed his sons through the fire as a sacrifice to Molech. Even Hezekiah, who would follow him as king, was passed through the fire, but he survived. Israel and Syria came against Ahaz in war but failed in overtaking Jerusalem, but were able to recover Elath, the port city. However, because they caused trouble, Ahaz asked the king of Assyria for help against Israel and Syria and sent him the treasures from the temple and the king’s house as payment. When he visited the king of Assyria to thank him for his help, he saw an altar he liked and sent the design ahead of him to Urijah, the priest, to have it built. Urijah followed his orders. Ahaz then rearranged the artifacts in the temple to his liking, going against God and His design that he had given Moses, and ordered the priests to begin using the new altar to make sacrifices. Ahaz only lived to age thirty-six, and Hezekiah, a better man, would reign in his place.

When God tells us in His word that we should honor His Son and his sacrifice for our salvation, we must follow his instructions. As we see in this story, Ahaz was cut off early because of his blatant destruction of the temple, his worshipping of the false gods, and the burning of human sacrifices. This type of worship is not a thing of the past; it’s just carefully covered up; abor**on only scratches the surface of satanic worship. 

And king Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases, and removed the laver from off them; and took down the sea from off the brasen oxen that were under it, and put it upon a pavement of stones. 2 Kings 16:17