Chapter 27
Ahaz
The accession of Ahaz to the throne brought Isaiah and his associates
face to face with conditions more appalling than any that had hitherto
existed in the realm of Judah. Many who had formerly withstood the
seductive influence of idolatrous practices were now being persuaded to
take part in the worship of heathen deities. Princes in Israel were
proving untrue to their trust; false prophets were arising with messages
to lead astray; even some of the priests were teaching for hire. Yet the
leaders in apostasy still kept up the forms of divine worship and
claimed to be numbered among the people of God.
The prophet Micah, who bore his testimony during those troublous
times, declared that sinners in Zion, while claiming to "lean upon
the Lord," and blasphemously boasting, "Is not the Lord among
us? none evil can come upon us," continued to "build up Zion
with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity." Micah 3:11, 10. Against
these evils the prophet Isaiah lifted his voice in stern rebuke:
"Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the
law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude
of your sacrifices unto Me? saith the Lord. . . . When ye come to appear
before Me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread My
courts?" Isaiah 1:10-12.
Inspiration declares, "The sacrifice of the wicked is
abomination: how much more, when he bringeth it with a wicked
mind?" Proverbs 21:27. The God of heaven is "of purer eyes
than to behold evil," and cannot "look on iniquity."
Habakkuk 1:13. It is not because He is unwilling to forgive that He
turns from the transgressor; it is because the sinner refuses to make
use of the abundant provisions of grace, that God is unable to deliver
from sin. "The Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save;
neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear: but your iniquities have
separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from
you, that He will not hear." Isaiah 59:1, 2.
Solomon had written, "Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a
child!" Ecclesiastes 10:16. Thus it was with the land of Judah.
Through continued transgression her rulers had become as children.
Isaiah called the attention of the people to the weakness of their
position among the nations of earth, and he showed that this was the
result of wickedness in high places. "Behold," he said,
"the Lord, the Lord of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and
from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the
whole stay of water, the mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and
the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient, the captain of fifty, and
the honorable man, and the counselor, and the cunning artificer, and the
eloquent orator. And I will give children to be their princes, and babes
shall rule over them." "For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is
fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against the
Lord." Isaiah 3:1-4, 8.
"They which lead thee," the prophet continued, "cause
thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths." Verse 12. During
the reign of Ahaz this was literally true; for of him it is written:
"He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and made also molten
images for Baalim. Moreover he burnt incense in the valley of the son of
Hinnom;" "yea, and made his son to pass through the fire,
according to the abominations of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out
from before the children of Israel." 2 Chron. 28:2, 3;2 Kings 16:3.
This was indeed a time of great peril for the chosen nation. Only a
few short years, and the ten tribes of the kingdom of Israel were to be
scattered among the nations of heathendom. And in the kingdom of Judah
also the outlook was dark. The forces for good were rapidly diminishing,
the forces for evil multiplying. The prophet Micah, viewing the
situation, was constrained to exclaim: "The good man is perished
out of the earth: and there is none upright among men." "The
best of them is as a brier: the most upright is sharper than a thorn
hedge." Micah 7:2, 4. "Except the Lord of hosts had left unto
us a very small remnant," declared Isaiah, "we should have
been as Sodom, and . . . Gomorrah." Isaiah 1:9.
In every age, for the sake of those who have remained true, as well
as because of His infinite love for the erring, God has borne long with
the rebellious, and has urged them to forsake their course of evil and
return to Him. "Precept upon precept; line upon line, . . . here a
little, and there a little," through men of His appointment, He has
taught transgressors' the way of righteousness. Isaiah 28:10.
And thus it was during the reign of Ahaz. Invitation upon invitation
was sent to erring Israel to return to their allegiance to Jehovah.
Tender were the pleadings of the prophets; and as they stood before the
people, earnestly exhorting to repentance and reformation, their words
bore fruit to the glory of God.
Through Micah came the wonderful appeal, "Hear ye now what the
Lord saith; Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills
hear thy voice. Hear ye, O mountains, the Lord's controversy, and ye
strong foundations of the earth: for the Lord hath a controversy with
His people, and He will plead with Israel.
"O My people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I
wearied thee? testify against Me. For I brought thee up out of the land
of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of servants; and I sent
before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
"O My people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted,
and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal;
that ye may know the righteousness of the Lord." Micah 6:1-5.
The God whom we serve is long-suffering; "His compassions fail
not." Lamentations 3:22. Throughout the period of probationary time
His Spirit is entreating men to accept the gift of life. "As I
live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked;
but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from
your evil ways; for why will ye die?" Ezekiel 33:11. It is Satan's
special device to lead man into sin and then leave him there, helpless
and hopeless, fearing to seek for pardon. But God invites, "Let him
take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; and he shall
make peace with Me." Isaiah 27:5. In Christ every provision has
been made, every encouragement offered.
In the days of apostasy in Judah and Israel, many were inquiring:
"Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the
high God? shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves of a
year old? will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten
thousands of rivers of oil?" The answer is plain and positive:
"He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord
require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly
with thy God?" Micah 6:6-8.
In urging the value of practical godliness, the prophet was only
repeating the counsel given Israel centuries before. Through Moses, as
they were about to enter the Promised Land, the word of the Lord had
been: "And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee,
but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him,
and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,
to keep the commandments of the Lord, and His statutes, which I command
thee this day for thy good?" Deuteronomy 10:12, 13. From age to age
these counsels were repeated by the servants of Jehovah to those who
were in danger of falling into habits of formalism and of forgetting to
show mercy. When Christ Himself, during His earthly ministry, was
approached by a lawyer with the question, "Master, which is the
great commandment in the law?" Jesus said to him, "Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and
with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the
second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On
these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." Matthew
22:36-40.
These plain utterances of the prophets and of the Master Himself,
should be received by us as the voice of God to every soul. We should
lose no opportunity of performing deeds of mercy, of tender forethought
and Christian courtesy, for the burdened and the oppressed. If we can do
no more, we may speak words of courage and hope to those who are
unacquainted with God, and who can be approached most easily by the
avenue of sympathy and love.
Rich and abundant are the promises made to those who are watchful of
opportunities to bring joy and blessing into the lives of others.
"If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted
soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the
noonday: and the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul
in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered
garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not." Isaiah
58:10, 11.
The idolatrous course of Ahaz, in the face of the earnest appeals of
the prophets, could have but one result. "The wrath of the Lord was
upon Judah and Jerusalem, and He . . . delivered them to trouble, to
astonishment, and to hissing." 2 Chronicles 29:8. The kingdom
suffered a rapid decline, and its very existence was soon imperiled by
invading armies. "Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah
king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to war: and they besieged Ahaz."
2 Kings 16:5.
Had Ahaz and the chief men of his realm been true servants of the
Most High, they would have had no fear of so unnatural an alliance as
had been formed against them. But repeated transgression had shorn them
of strength. Stricken with a nameless dread of the retributive judgments
of an offended God, the heart of the king "was moved, and the heart
of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind."
Isaiah 7:2. In this crisis the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, bidding
him meet the trembling king and say:
"Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be fainthearted . .
. . Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have taken evil
counsel against thee, saying, Let us go up against Judah, and vex it,
and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of
it: . . . thus saith the Lord God, It shall not stand, neither shall it
come to pass." The prophet declared that the kingdom of Israel, and
Syria as well, would soon come to an end. "If ye will not
believe," he concluded, "surely ye shall not be
established." Verses 4-7,9.
Well would it have been for the kingdom of Judah had Ahaz received
this message as from heaven. But choosing to lean on the arm of flesh,
he sought help from the heathen. In desperation he sent word to
Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria: "I am thy servant and thy son:
come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of
the hand of the king of Israel, which rise up against me." 2 Kings
16:7. The request was accompanied by a rich present from the king's
treasure and from the temple storehouse.
The help asked for was sent, and King Ahaz was given temporary
relief, but at what a cost to Judah! The tribute offered aroused the
cupidity of Assyria, and that treacherous nation soon threatened to
overflow and spoil Judah. Ahaz and his unhappy subjects were now
harassed by the fear of falling completely into the hands of the cruel
Assyrians.
"The Lord brought Judah low" because of continued
transgression. In this time of chastisement Ahaz, instead of repenting,
trespassed "yet more against the Lord: . . . for he sacrificed unto
the gods of Damascus." "Because the gods of the kings of Syria
help them," he said, "therefore will I sacrifice to them, that
they may help me." 2 Chronicles 28:19, 22, 23.
As the apostate king neared the end of his reign, he caused the doors
of the temple to be closed. The sacred services were interrupted. No
longer were the candlesticks kept burning before the altar. No longer
were offerings made for the sins of the people. No longer did sweet
incense ascend on high at the time of the morning and the evening
sacrifice. Deserting the courts of the house of God and locking fast its
doors, the inhabitants of the godless city boldly set up altars for the
worship of heathen deities on the street corners throughout Jerusalem.
Heathenism had seemingly triumphed; the powers of darkness had well-nigh
prevailed.
But in Judah there dwelt some who maintained their allegiance to
Jehovah, steadfastly refusing to be led into idolatry. It was to these
that Isaiah and Micah and their associates looked in hope as they
surveyed the ruin wrought during the last years of Ahaz. Their sanctuary
was closed, but the faithful ones were assured: "God is with
us." Sanctify the Lord of hosts Himself; and let Him be your fear,
and let Him be your dread. And He shall be for a sanctuary." Isaiah
8:10, 13, 14.
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