Are You Worshipping God the Right Way? A Study of Ahaz and the Temple | 2 Kings 16:10-18

Show Notes

Episode 647: 
In this episode, we dive into the intriguing and often troubling story of King Ahaz from 2 Kings 16 and 2 Chronicles 28. We highlight Ahaz's troubling actions, including his decision to close the temple and build an altar to pagan gods, which reflects a significant departure from the worship of the God of Israel. We discuss how Ahaz, in his fear and desperation, sought help from the king of Assyria, Tilgath-Pilese.

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You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Well, good morning, morning, we talk home next morning. Good morning to you man, you and you. Okay, that's one of my favorites. You know, yes, you know that. Every everybody, Boddy, if you're listening in the morning, hopefully that applies. Everybody loves it. Yeah, every I'm glad that you love it. Jeff. It's universal, and it is universal. I forgive me, by the way, this whole week, I'm gonna be uh second on cough drops because I have a cough that just won't go away. Well, you know, I was thinking I totally blew it yesterday and yesterday's opening segment because I could have picked you as one of my favorite singers. Oh, we were drafting. We were doing a draft of all of our favorite musicians. That's what I should. Well, hey, here's a great opportunity. This is a segment that we've been doing for a while now, and uh we came up with it, I don't know, a month or two ago. We've only done twice, I know. But we want it more often. I told, I told i'd like to have it every other day if we could do it. So this segment is we still don't have like a Bible Guy's theme song, and we need to do a new rollin right, so for sure, So we look like we're wearing blue wearing like balloon suits walking in and the thing. And then it's the old studio with the old headphones and stuff. So it's just it just looks different. It's time quite a minute. But we don't have a theme song. And so we've been working with chat GPT asking chests. So we've we've done now what themes have we done? We did friends and so so really really you know, important historic, yes songs. So today we want you to work on We asked chat GPT, I said, what was my question? Help me write lyrics for the Bible Guys podcast to show about two guys we love to talk about the Bible and fun and practical ways and write it to the tune of the TV show Cheers cheers. From the eighties. So yeah, we're sure age. Shuh yeah, Ted dancing there. Well, we're just using iconic tunes, right, iconic tunes. So all right, okay, so you gotta do it. I'm gonna take my cough drop out for this one. Okay, ready, oh my word, here we go. Okay, sometimes you want to read the word, but man, it feels so tough. That's why they that's why we're here to break it down and make it fun enough. Wouldn't you like to laugh a while? Oh? Come hang with the Bible guys, where the jokes are strong? Do have the face the pluce do do? You don't need a PhD. Just bring all your heart. We'll help you dive in and make a friend to start. Dude, Well, we're. Just honest about it. You're not going to need a PhD to track with this one. Yeah, wouldn't you like to laugh a while? That was so fun I guess you did say in fun and practical it's so funny. Yeah, that is so funny. Dude. There's the next verse, but I'm not doing that. Man, we'd pay extra. Okay, just the next verse? Okay, okay. From crazy Tales to Jesus Grace will help you see it clear with wisdom laughs in real life talk. You love the word in here and then it goes into the chorus. Wouldn't you like to grow some more? Dude? Come here? With the Bible. Guys, that's all. That's all. And then it's the same chorus. Oh that's so funny, Chris, that might be my favorite one, so fun Oh yeah, yeah, that's that's funny. Okay, it's such a song. Well, and you got into it too, and that that helped me a little bit. I got you there. Yeah, I appreciate that, you know, I like I like the tunes that make you laugh, you know, yeah, I like the tunes that make you laugh. But that one made me laugh. But you know, it's probably not going to make us laugh today. What this passage in Second King chapter sixteen. Where as closes the temple that's not funny and. Builds an altar of a whole what is it? A whole statue? Yeah, it's terrible, like what I was looking for. It's like an idolatry altar, right, yeah, yeah, that that doesn't make us laugh, does it. No, it's not funny at all. So there's the transition's terrible. Yeah, we're always always working for the worst possible transition. What is the page seven ninety eight, seven ninety eight okay, okay, so god, we were flipping back and forth kind of picking up where the prophets are at interjecting into the middle of First and Second King chronicles. Yeah, yeah, that was just a spot where it was referencing this judgment that was coming. Right now, Judah goes and does these bad things and then or I'm sorry, King a Has goes and does these bad things, and then that judgment is going to come after this. So that's what happened. Yeah, and he has is king in Judah. So isn't he? Yes, I believe so, yeah, that's what I believe too. Yeah, he's a bad guy. So here we go. Yep. In Second King, chapter sixteen, verse ten, it says, right, yeah, King a Has then went to Damascus to meet with King Tilgath Polizer of Assyria. Oh yeah, yeah yeah, one of my favorite names. We almost named our son. That between Johnny or. While he was there, he took special note of the altar, and then he sent a model of the altar to Uriah the priest, along with his design and full detail. Uriah followed the king's instructions and built an altar just like it, and it was ready for the king before the king returned from Damascus. When the king returned, he inspected the altar and made offerings on it. He presented a burnt offering and a grain offering, and he poured out a liquid offering, and he sprinkled the blood of peace offerings on the altar. Then King AHAs removed the old bronze altar from its place in front of the Lord's temple between the entrance and the new altar, and placed it on the north side of the new altar. He told Uriah the Priest used the new altar for the morning sacrifices of burnt offering, the evening grain offering, and King's burnt offering and grain offering, and the burnt offerings of all the people, as well as their grain offerings and liquid offerings. Sprinkle the blood from all the burnt offerings and sacrifices on the new altar. The bronze altar would be for my personal use only Uriah the Priest did just as King ah Has commanded him. Then the King removed the side panels and basins from the portable water carts. He also removed the great bronze basin called the Sea, from the backs of the bronze oxen and placed it on the stone pavement and deference to the king of a Siri. He also removed the canopy that had been constructed inside the palace for use on the Sabbath day, as well as the Lord's outer the King's outer entrance, the Temple of the Lord. Yeah, so you're you're messing with the temple altar. This is what he's doing, Yes, the temple altar. Yes, even though that God was so unbelievably specific, because this is this is the temple now, this is the same temple of Solomon, right right, yes, And so Solomon was given instructions down to the to the Cuban right right, And so so God is saying, you know, go back and go back and read some of those details for a minute and understand, like God is saying, this is exactly how I want you to build this altar. It has to be this dimension, made of this material, shaped in this fashion, lined with you know, this material, and it's just an unbelievably specific thing. And God said that he was pleased. Remember when the altar was done, God said that he would be pleased when it would be. Used for him. He actually commented specifically on this altar God himself, that's right. And then what he does is King a has comes along and he hijacks the altar and says, let's go ahead, and what he wants to honor the King of Assyria because because he did, he decided to make an altar based on something that the King of a Syria is familiar with. Let me read Second Chronicles, chapter twenty eight, in verse sixteen, it says at that time King a has A Judah asked the King of Assyria for help. The armies of Edom had again invaded Judah and taking captives, and the Philistines had raided towns located in the foothills of Judah. In the negative, Judah already captured and occupied Bethshemath, Aigelon, Ghetara, Soko and its villages, tim Nah with its villages, and Gimzo with its villages. The Lord was humbling Judah because of King AHAs of Judah, for he had encouraged his people to sin and had been utterly unfaithful to the Lord. So remember Isaiah had said bad things were going to happen the Syrians. We're gonna come and get you right right. So when King Tilgath Polizer of Assyria arrived, he attacked a has instead of helping him. Oh there it is, you see. Yeah. So then it says A has took valuable items from the lord's temple, the royal palace, and from the homes of his officials and gave them to the King of Assyria's tribute. But this did not help him. So King till death Polier still wasn't giving him any grace. He came to he enlisted him. He has enlisted him to come and help. Instead he invaded, right, is what happened. So then A has is trying to appease him, and he gives him stuff holy articles from the temple, and this didn't even appease you know, this godless man. Even during this time of trouble, King A has continued to reject the Lord. Well there you go, yep, you know my favorite word in ding dong. That's it, right there, there you go, ding dong. He offered sacrifices to the gods of Damascus who had defeated him, for he said, since these gods helped the kings of Aram, they will help me too if I sacrifice to them. But instead they led to his ruin and the ruin of all Judah. And then it goes on and talks about He then took various articles from the Temple of God and broke them into pieces. He shut the doors of the Lord's temple so that no one could worship there. And he set up altars to pagan gods in every corner of Jerusalem, made pagan shrines, and all the towns of Judah for offering sacrifice to other gods. And in this way he aroused the anger of the Lord and the God of his ancestors. Remember, his dad was a good guy, you know, and his son is a good guy. Yeah, but this guy man. You know, it's so interesting about that passage and Second Chronicles. I'm so glad you read that, because even though that a second King is what we started with, it talked about what a has did. Second Chronicles tells us why he. Did it, and it says, since it actually has a quote, since the gods small g helped the kings of Aram, they will help me too if I sacrifice to them. But instead they led to his ruin, in the ruin of all Judah. And then he went ahead and took various articles from the temple, broke them into pieces, built all these false altars, and so he must he had this theory. He offered sacrifices to the gods of Damascus who defeated them, thinking like, hey, this is the way. And so in other words, it sounds like what he was doing was he was so afraid of the King of Assyria. He wanted to submit to him and show his submission in every single way, including religious sacrifice, thinking if I just totally submit to him, I'll be on the receiving end of mercy and maybe perhaps favor. Right, So he takes and desecrates the temple the Lord and somehow puts politics in the King of Assyria as more important than God himself. So we're going to change the altar because we want to please the King of Assyria. And he's trying to act like the other powerful people, you know, and so for kings, kings want to be powerful, Kings want to be successful. So what he's doing is he's looking, well, they're successful. It must be their gods that did it, So I'm going to do what they do. We get tempted to do the same thing. We start copying our neighbors. They live in a nicer house, they drive a fancier car, they seem to be going on all the vacations. So we start trying to do the same things they do. We in high school or in college. Your friends look like they're having fun all the time, but of course it's always boos and alcohol and women or whatever, and so then you wind up doing the same thing. They begin to adapt their life style to the lifestyle and the belief system of the people that they're admiring. He got defeated, but in a weird way, he admires his oppressor, right, and so he looks up to him and says, man, I want that there's a note here in the Life Applications study a byout. You know, we love these the Life applications. You should get you one. It says, evil king a has copied pagan religious customs. He changed the temple services and used the temple alter for his own personal benefit, and so doing he demonstrated a callous disregard for God's commands. We condemn a Haas for his actions, but we act the same way if we try to mold God's message to fit our personal preferences. We must worship God for who he is, not what we would selfishly like him to be. That's the core lesson of this of this passage is so hey. I know God said to put the altar here, and this is what he wanted. But I think their altar is super cool. Let's move God's alter over there. I'm not totally getting rid of it. You know. He didn't totally get rid of it. He just altered it, changed its purpose and moved it from where God said to put it. And then I like this one, and I'm just going to worship my gods this way, and so he brings in another altar. Then he says, let's move They called it the sea. It was this giant basin of water, huge basin of water that was used for cleansing in the temple and stuff, and it was very beautiful, so they called the sea. He said, I just I want to change the purpose of that. Let's move this over here. Let's do these things. And he's making worship fit him rather than him worshiping God the way. God said, this is how you approached me right now through Jesus, we can boldly come before the throne. Our experience with God is a little bit different than a has is. For them, they had a very precise process and it was all hinting towards the cross someday, don't mess this up, right, do it the right way. And so it wasn't like it was confusing. It was that he didn't care. He decided he was going to mold God and got the worship of God to his own preferences rather than following God's way. Yeah, And. It's also a matter of convenience. And it's the same thing for us today. So for instance, people will say, uh, you know, I'm going to claim to be a Christian and I'm gonna when it's very convenient, I'm gonna, you know, do one of these you know, you know, in. A point to the sky right. And yet everything about my entire life is not going to represent what the Bible says at all or what God commands. This reminds me. Of most of the people that I'm sounding old here, but most of the people that I'm in conversation with now, who like, you know, I have this person I'm meeting with for for for a marriage or wedding, right, and and you know, I'm talking about like, hey, let's do things God's way, right. And and they're just like, what are you talking about? That is so old fashioned and ancient and right like like like that is. Not what anybody does. And I'm like, okay, what does that have to do with what I'm talking about? Right? What I'm talking about is this is what God says. And so my wife, why do you want to have a church wedding? Why do you want to have a pastor to your wedding? Right? Well, we want God to bless us, right, He's already told you how he'll bless you. Right, do the right thing, right, right, But it's so foreign to them, they don't know. Yeah, but people are that way in every area of our lives. It's it's like what we want to do is we want to customize Christianity and we want to you know, worship the way we want to and then not worship the way that we don't want to. So it's it's like I'll pick and choose. So one time our church did a video we did the Bible like a buffet. Remember, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, we did a Bible buffe. Yeah, we did a. Bible buffet where you sort of walk over and and there's like a big stoop of food and it says like versus on generosity. And then we had people go and they just walk by it. I don't care for the generosity, but I want blessings. That, you know. And then there's other easier ones. You know, I don't want holiness. Let's get the whole Oh yeah, but then. This one's like, you know, be nice, Like okay, I'll take a little bit of that. You know, I like to be nice. And so yeah, that's what we do. We customize the Bible. And that's really a picture of what's happening here. He's he's just like you said, He's like, hey, we won't totally get rid of it. We'll just put on the back burner. We're not going to obey God's commandment's exactly, but you know, we're it's sort of still there and I'll just do what I want. And and it's like that's that's the way that we Christianity today. I back in the early two thousands, Uh, Stephen Curtis Chapman had a song and it talks about I've got the bumper sticker and I've got the necklace and the message on my T shirt tells everybody what I believe, all these things, and he's like, yeah, but what about the change. So the whole course is what about the change. Yeah, and so you know, we we we use the We got the little statue on our on our dashboard, and we got the cross hanging from our mirror. But we're living like the devil all the time. We just want God to be a good luck charm a lot of times. And that's kind of what you're finding with a hash. Only here A has has gone beyond that even and he's so attracted to his to the people who defeated him. He's so attracted to their gods, thinking that their gods must be more powerful than his gods. And you know why, because his God didn't bail him out, The God of Israel did not bail him out. So he decided, instead of looking in why didn't God help me? He goes, I'm going to throw off this God. It's not my fault, it's God's fault. I'm going to go find it. I'm going to get a new God. I'm going to go worship the way I want to worship, do what I want to do. And you know, God never promises to bless us, ever promises bless us apart from obedience, right, So repentance leads us to going God's way and so in this case, I think a lot of times people want God's blessings, but they also want to do everything they want to do. They want to move the altar, they want to they want to change the process, they want to change everything, and still expect him to bless and he just doesn't do it. So that's one. Here's the other one that I wanted to highlight was and this came up in today's thing. The Bible is its own best commentary. So as we talk about Bible study, as we talk about applying the Bible, so as we read Second Kings, you know, it left a lot of unanswered questions for you and me. And I'll be honest with you, it's probably been a couple of years since I read this passage. I would imagine the last time I read through Second Kings. Shame on me, but shame on me. But you know what I mean, Probably this passage. I bet it was a couple of years ago, two or three years ago. So I wasn't like spur the moment. And for our listeners, if you don't know. You can't cover all the Bible all the time. Right, But for our listeners, if you're new, Chris and I are trying to operate this Bible study just like it would be for you and your friends if you went to a coffee shop, opened the Bible today and went, oh, we're in Second Kings chapter sixteen. Yep, right, And so we're talking about the Bible practical ways, and you know, we like to have fun with it. We laugh a lot, but we're just taking the words on the page right now without doing a bunch of research and prep at a time. We just have a good study Bible in front of us, sure, and a reservoir of stuff we know, right, And so we're chit chatting about it that way. And we think you can have the same kind of conversation like this with your friends if you do a couple of things. One, if you ask, every every time you read a passage, what does this teach us about God? You also ask what is it saying about how humanity tends to behave? So it talks about a has here, but we can apply a has this thing to hey, humanity does this a lot of. Which we just did. We just did right. Then you ask is there a command to obey? Is there a sin to avoid? Is there a promise to claim? And then you come back to yourself and you're asking, how do I apply this to me? What does this mean? And because of this, this is what I'm going to do different or this is how I'm going to move forward in my life. Those six questions the seventh questions sometimes and oftentimes it'll be earlier in it, like we just did. Where else in the Bible doesn't talk about this? Right? Right? Because the Bible will never disagree with itself and it always is its own best commentary. Right. So what we found was in Second Chronicles, chapter twenty eight. It tells a different portion of the same story, and we learned a lot more. He was defeated by til Death Pilzer, and that's why he was attracted, because he felt like he's God abandoned and he went to embraced their God. So those six questions plus the idea of where else it doesn't mention in the Bible, the Bible's its own best commentation. I think you can understand almost any pass. Give me the six questions quickly again. What's to say about God? Yep? What's to say about people? Yep? Is there a command to obeyep? Is there a sinda avoid? Is there a promise to claim what should I do about it? That's great? Yeah, that's great. And that's that's essentially the format you and I use for all the time. For sure we do, right, for sure we do. There's there's and there's nothing wrong with different types of studies, right Like like if you were to listen to different types of podcast and and they go word by word, sure, and they and they're going to break down that word and they're going to research it and they're going to dissect it, and they're going to cross reference it, and they're gonna talk about you know, interpretations and misinterpretations and things like that, and uh, those are great. Studies, right. But but this is this is a this is. A applicant application approach, which, by the way, is is my bent. I love when you can understand it passage that is sometimes maybe perhaps a little bit more complicated and sometimes in discussion. Uh. And that's why I love small groups sometimes because if you're depending on who you're in the room with, somebody in the room will say, you know what, that reminds me of this, and they'll say. It and you go, oh, like. I remember, I remember one time we were talking about like, uh, creation and and uh. And I remember I was with this guy named Steve and he said, you know what that reminds me of? He said, uh, he said, he goes this word in the in the Hebrew is what is it? Ex helio? Right? Is that listen where you speak something from nothing? Yeah? He spoke from God created, Yeah, which is something from nothing? Yes? And and and did you know that that same concept can be transferred when when Jesus spoke the church into existence? Oh h isn't that cool? It didn't exist and then it did? Yes? Yeah, right, and so like like you just probably you probably just connected the dots right there, just like Steve did for me. And I remember thinking to myself, like, wow, that is an unbelievable thought. And again it's it's it's a that's an information based thing. But uh, but you know, sometimes the application can be Sometimes God can speak something into your life from nothing. Well, this this idea asking those six questions, They've been kicked around quite a bit, but I think the one who made it the most famous a guy named David Watson. He was a missionary, uh, to people who did not have access to podcasts, they didn't have access to TV. There wasn't some giant and printing industry printing new Bible study books. All they had was portions of the Bible in their language. And so he realized, there's no other way to disciple these people except the words written on the page. And I can't be with them all the time. So in order to reach this whole group of people, I'm going to need to teach a whole bunch of them how to go to their friends and family and have a meaningful look into what the Bible says. So this isn't a theological dig. This is just for understanding and application kind of a day. And that's how you and I are doing it. Right. So one of the things that I've encouraged people to do before is every day when you open your Bible, have a little journal. If you're trying to learn how to make this discipline in your life, have a little journal and write it. First of all, write the question was to say about God? Question mark? And then dig through. Here's what we found out. God didn't help out. King A has here, Okay, great, what's to say about people? People tend to want to worship God their own way? Right? Okay? Write that down? And what I'll happen is you'll start to develop the habit of seeing that. My dad taught me that process a number of years ago, and then I've had the opportunity to meet some of the key leaders that ever worked with David Watson and those kinds of things. I met David Watson one time, and it's fantastic. This whole process has changed my life. And I believe if you would apply that even in some obscure passage in Second Kings chapter sixteen, Second Chronicles chapter twenty eight, you can grab something from every passage in the Bible. If you ask those simple questions, you don't have to be at the Elogian. Well, that's a great place to wrap it up. And thank you so much for being here today and joining us on the Bible guys, and hopefully we will see you tomorrow. See you then,