SERIES: Enlightening Epitaphs of the Kings and Prophets
Ahaz: “In Time of Trouble He Became Even More Unfaithful.”
Introduction: Is anyone here in trouble today? Out of work or facing the strong possibility of unemployment? Financial problems? Relationship difficulties? Physical issues? Emotional problems? Temptation, or even addiction? I suspect nearly everyone is in one kind of trouble or another. Trouble, you know, can have various sources. Some is due simply to the fact that we live in a fallen world (West Nile virus, flat tires, crabgrass). Some trouble is due to sin in the lives of others (you can become the innocent victim of a drunk driver, or of a terrorist, or of malpractice by a doctor, or more likely, if you’re a doctor, the victim of a frivolous lawsuit by one of your patients). Still other troubles can be the result of Satanic attack. There are sufficient examples of this in the Scripture that we ought to be wary and cautious.
But let’s face it, a great deal of the trouble we get into is directly due to sin in our own lives. This latter category can itself be divided into two parts: the natural consequences of sin and the “discipline” of the Lord. If you’re lazy, you’re going to be poor; if you smoke for 30 years, you’re going to get cancer. The Lord doesn’t have to step in and take any direct action. That’s just how He built the universe. But sometimes our sin brings direct action from the Lord. Last Sunday I referred briefly to a passage about discipline that is found in the book of Hebrews. I want us to return to that passage this morning, but I want to begin reading a little earlier.
The entire12th chapter of Hebrews is about discipline and the danger of reacting wrongly to it. The author begins by glancing back at the Hall of Faith he has just described in chapter 11–the great heroes of the OT–and, using those individuals as a gallery of encouragement to us, he offers this exhortation: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”
Hindrances and discouragement are all around us. Trouble is everywhere. We don’t even have to go looking for it. But how do we respond? The single most important thing we can do is to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus:
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart (Hebrews 12:2,3).
Now Jesus didn’t earn trouble because of his own sin–He only endured trouble because of the sin of others. But we do earn trouble because of our own sin, and verse 4 goes on to address that issue:
“In your struggle against sin . . . you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons:
My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
because the Lord disciplines those he loves,
and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.
Here we are urged to avoid two responses to the Lord’s discipline: making light or losing heart. Don’t thumb your nose at it, and don’t become so discouraged that you give up. You see, the Lord’s discipline is a sign of love. In fact, “if you are not disciplined,” it goes on to say, “then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.” I received a lot of discipline as I was growing up. I remember my dad saying, “I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t love you,” and then he’d let me have it. I always wondered why my parents played favorites and loved me more than all my brothers and sisters. But as difficult as it was to receive the discipline, I knew I needed it, and for the most part I accepted it and learned from it. I know my dad really loved me, and I know I would never have become a pastor, or anything else that amounted to anything, if that discipline had not been there.
We come this morning to a sad story about a wicked king of Judah named Ahaz. He had a key place of leadership among God’s people, and because leaders set the standard, God could not ignore his sinful actions and attitudes. So, He troubled him. Yet Ahaz never accepted his trouble as discipline, never learned from it, never saw the loving hand of God behind it. His reaction was to simply sin more. 2 Chronicles 28 says of Ahaz, “In his time of trouble King Ahaz became even more unfaithfulto the Lord.”
Discipline, in contrast to punishment, is always designed for correction; its purpose is to get the person’s attention, change him for the better, and restore him to usefulness. When we respond appropriately to the Lord’s discipline, tremendous good can result. But if we respond to the Lord’s discipline with further unfaithfulness, the results are tragic. In fact, there no longer remains any hope for such a person. How can there be? After all, if a person ignores or rejects the very means God designs to bring them to their senses, what do we expect God to do? Force them to repent? This He will not do.
Our approach this morning will be to briefly tell the sad but fascinating story of Ahaz and then ask the question, “How do we respond to the discipline of the Lord?”
Historical background
Ahaz was 20 when he became king of Judah and he reigned for 16 years. His father was Jotham, and his grandfather was Uzziah. You will recall from last Sunday that Uzziah was a king who started out well, but he did not have a “whole heart” for God and his pride led to his downfall. His son Jotham had to take over the royal duties when Uzziah became a leper. Jotham saw the awful consequences of sin in his father’s life, and he made sure he didn’t make the same mistakes. We are told in verse 2 of chapter 27 that “Jotham did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father Uzziah had done, but unlike him he did not enter the temple of the LORD.”
You will recall that Uzziah’s fatal mistake was going into the temple to offer incense against the commandment of God and the warnings of the priests. In fact, Jotham earned a wonderful epitaph: “Jotham grew powerful because he walked steadfastly before the LORD his God” (2 Chronicles 27:6). When Jotham died of unknown causes at the age of 41, his son Ahaz succeeded him at the age of 20, and he reigned in Jerusalem sixteen years.
Probably the most far-reaching historical event in Ahaz’ life is one that is not even mentioned in 2 Chronicles 28 but only in 2 Kings 17:
The Kingdom of Israel was destroyed by the Assyrians while Ahaz was on the throne of Judah. We are not going to deal with this dramatic event in any detail this morning, because our message next Lord’s Day will be on the fall of the Northern Kingdom: “The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel: They refused to listen.” But the importance of this event is that despite the destruction and demise of his countrymen to the north, which occurred right before his eyes, Ahaz refused to repent of his own wickedness. He refused to believe that God would dare do to Judah what He had done to Israel. Eventually that’s exactly what happened.
Now the opening paragraph of 2 Chronicles 28 paints a startling picture of …
The detestable apostasy of Ahaz
In case some are not familiar with this term apostasy, let me define it as “departure from the faith.” We sometimes confuse the term apostasy with heresy. Heresy is a departure from correct teaching in some important area; apostasy is total departure from the faith. A heretic is a believer whose theology is screwed up in some area or other. An apostate is an unbeliever who was once identified with and immersed in the faith but abandoned it. Ahaz was an apostate.
Unlike David his father, he did not do what was right in the eyes of the LORD. Ahaz did not have the “whole heart” for God that his ancestor David had. He did not even have the half-heart that his grandfather and great-grandfather (Uzziah and Amaziah) had; he had no heart for God. In fact, it says in verse 2 that he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. He took the northern kingdom, which didn’t have a single godly king in over 200 years of history, as the pattern for his behavior. Furthermore,…
He reached new depths of pagan idolatry. He actually got into the business of manufacturing idols. He offered his own sons as child sacrifices to pagan gods. And he set up worship centers everywhere except at the Temple, which was the one place God called the people to worship. So widespread was his idolatry that we are told he offered sacrifices and burned incense “under every spreading tree.” Frankly, he was the worst of all the kings of Judah and rivaled even Ahab of Israel.
Well, God couldn’t just ignore this behavior and remain true to Himself, so beginning in verse 5 we read about …
The severe discipline of Ahaz
God engineered Judah’s defeat by Aram and Israel, resulting in 120,000 casualties. The fact that these defeats were not just bad luck is made very clear in the text:
Therefore the LORD his God handed him over to the king of Aram. The Arameans defeated him and took many of his people as prisoners and brought them to Damascus.
He was also given into the hands of the king of Israel, who inflicted heavy casualties on him. In one day Pekah (the king of Israel) killed a hundred and twenty thousand soldiers in Judah–because Judah had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers. (2 Chronicles 28:5,6)
This defeat was especially painful to Ahaz because three of the casualties were individuals very close to him. One was his own son, another was the officer in charge of his palace, and a third was his closest aide. But even more devastating for the nation was the fact that …
Prisoners numbering 200,000 were seized, plus a great deal of plunder. The captives were primarily women and children. Imagine the turmoil in Judah when the magnitude of this defeat was realized. Wouldn’t the anger and resentment of his fellow-countrymen, if not the knowledge that the Lord was disciplining him, drive Ahaz to his knees? Well, we’re left in suspense on that question for a moment as the author takes a strange detour to tell us about a prophet who comes and brings a strong warning from God. But he doesn’t come to warn Ahaz or Judah but rather the northern kingdom of Israel!
Now to make sense of this story, we must keep in mind that God’s chosen people, the Israelites, whose first three kings were Saul, David, and Solomon, had undergone a civil war after Solomon’s reign and had split into two nations–the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. None of Israel’s kings were descendants of David and none of them were godly. All of Judah’s rulers were descendants of David (except for the brief reign of Athaliah), and eight of them were godly, or somewhat so. But right now Judah has a king who is as ungodly as any king of Israel. Because of his sin, God is disciplining him, and God is using the godless nation of Israel to bring judgment on Ahaz and Judah. But what we discover is …
The surprising repentance of Israel, the northern kingdom
The prophet Oded challenged them to return their prisoners. Listen to the words of this prophet Oded as he spoke to the army of Israel as it returns to Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom, with the spoils of victory:
“Because the LORD, the God of your fathers, was angry with Judah, he gave them into your hand. But you have slaughtered them in a rage that reaches to heaven. And now you intend to make the men and women of Judah and Jerusalem your slaves. But aren’t you also guilty of sins against the LORD your God? Now listen to me! Send back your fellow countrymen you have taken as prisoners, for the LORD’s fierce anger rests on you” (2 Chronicles 28:9-11).
He calls the prisoners from Judah their “fellow countrymen” because they too are Jews, people of the Covenant. Amazingly,…
The leaders of Israel recognized their guilt and repented. They confronted those arriving from the war and said, “‘You must not bring those prisoners here,’ they said, ‘or we will be guilty before the LORD. Do you intend to add to our sin and guilt? For our guilt is already great, and his fierce anger rests on Israel.’” The soldiers responded by giving up their prisoners and their plunder. Not only that, they clothed all the prisoners who were naked, they provided them with shoes, food, drink, and medicine; those that were weak were put on donkeys; and they even took them back, rather than send them back to their homeland.
Now please grasp the significance of all this. The reason the writer of Chronicles is focusing our attention on this unprecedented turn-around by the godless nation of Israel (admittedly temporary) is to contrast it with the reaction of Ahaz, king of the supposedly godly nation of Judah. And what was that reaction? Well, in verse 16 the writer turns back to Ahaz and notes for us his further apostasy.
The further apostasy of Ahaz
Ahaz promoted wickedness and was most unfaithful to the Lord. Before he had only been unfaithful; now he was most unfaithful. What is the evidence?
At that time King Ahaz sent to the king of Assyria for help. The Edomites had again come and attacked Judah and carried away prisoners, while the Philistines had raided towns in the foothills and in the Negev of Judah…. The Lord had humbled Judah because of Ahaz king of Israel, for he had promoted wickedness in Judah and had been most unfaithful to the Lord. (2 Chronicles 28:17-19)
The details of his promotion of wickedness are not given here, but the focus of his unfaithfulness is his decision to go to Assyria for help instead of to the Lord. Time and again the Lord had warned His people not to trust in alliances with other nations but to turn to Him in time of trouble. But Ahaz turned to Assyria instead. And verse 20 tells us that “Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria came to him, but he gave him trouble instead of help.” Isn’t that always the result when we turn to broken cisterns to quench the thirst in our souls, when we try to solve our problems using human manipulations instead of divine solutions.
Ahaz is a slow learner if there ever was one. The next verse tells us he tries to buy off the king of Assyria by taking some of the treasures from the temple of the Lord (apparently gold fixtures and other valuable articles), plus other treasures from the palace and from the royal family, and giving them to the king of Assyria, “but that did not help him.” It is at this point that we read Ahaz’ epitaph: “In his time of trouble King Ahaz became even more unfaithful to the LORD.”
Believe it or not, he began to offer sacrifices to the Assyrian gods. Here is his reasoning, found in verse 23: “‘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 (northern and southern kingdoms).” If we turn to the parallel passage in 2 Kings 16, we find an interesting additional event that indicates just how far Ahaz went into idolatry. It says,
Then King Ahaz went to Damascus (the capital of Assyria) to meet Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyia. He saw an altar in Damascus and sent to Uriah the priest a sketch of the altar, with detailed plans for its construction. 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. When the king came back from Damascus and saw the altar, he approached it and presented offerings on it (2 Kings 16:10-12).
This was a pagan altar, mind you. But Ahaz wasn’t satisfied to simply add a pagan altar, for the passage goes on to say that he ordered the priest to remove from the Temple the bronze altar, as well as the rest of the furnishings that had been in the Temple since Solomon’s day–all “in deference to the king of Assyria.” Then he shut and sealed the doors of the Lord’s temple. He put up a “closed” sign on the temple and instead set up altars on every street corner in Jerusalem. Then he spread his idolatry to every town in Judah. Verse 24 of 2 Chronicles 28 closes his reign with this observation: he “provoked the LORD, the God of his fathers, to anger.” And he died, but he was not buried with the kings because his wickedness had brought reproach and shame to his memory.
So far this morning I have pretty much just taught the historical facts surrounding Ahaz king of Judah. I want us now to spend the remainder of our time applying this account to our own lives. I want us to focus on our response to trouble, particularly the kind that is brought upon us by our own sinful behavior. It would of value to think through our response to other kinds of trouble as well–the kind that comes just because we live in a fallen world and the kind that results from other people’s sin. That is usually dealt with under the theme of “The problem of suffering,” or “Why do bad things happen to good people.” But that will have to await another time and another occasion. This story drives us to consider a different question: “Why do bad things happen to bad people?” For some reason we even struggle with that question. How should guilty people respond to trouble? Or, to bring it all the way home,…
How do we respond to the discipline of the Lord?
As I thought this through, I came up with five common responses I have seen either in my own life and in the lives of Christian people around me.
1. Ignorance and apathy. Some people just don’t seem to have a clue as to why they are in trouble, even though it’s pretty obvious to others that they’ve brought it on themselves. As Bill Hybels put it in one of his addresses on Thursday, “The clue phone is ringing and you’re not answering it.” One of my Wichita friends and I used to have a thing going. I’d ask him, “Leland, do you think ignorance and apathy are the biggest problems in the world today,” and he’d always answer, “I don’t know and I don’t care.” Whenever I see him, we go through that same ritual. Unfortunately, there are a lot of Christians who don’t seem to know and don’t seem to care why they’re in trouble. They just bemoan their bad luck or stew in their juices, but the thought of actually dealing with the sin that got them where they are never enters their minds.
An even more common response is …
2. Anger and resentment. Some people when they experience deserved trouble get angry with God, or blame others, or just play the victim thing to the hilt. I have seen this often in cases of church discipline. For some twelve years I served on the Board of Ministerial Standing with the EFCA. That is the credentialing and disciplinary board for some 3000 pastors, and unfortunately, every year we had from 6 to ten pastors who had to be disciplined for conduct unbecoming a minister, resulting in their temporary removal from the ministry or, in a few instances, excommunication. In the vast majority of those cases there was no real dispute about guilt–we had multiple witnesses and often signed confessions.
But in a surprising number of instances, even after acknowledging their sinful behavior, these pastors would exhibit real anger and resentment toward their governing boards or congregations or the denomination. Either the discipline was too harsh, or the severance package wasn’t large enough, or the process wasn’t fair, or communication wasn’t thorough, or something. It was frankly pretty rare when a pastor would respond like King David responded in Psalm 51, effectively saying, “I did it, my sin was against God and I deserve the discipline, I’m sorry and I want to be forgiven and cleansed. Period.”
I’ll tell you something, if that’s how guilty pastors often respond to church discipline, it probably shouldn’t surprise anyone that the people in the pew often respond to God’s discipline with similar anger and resentment. Of course, not many are courageous enough to acknowledge, “I’m angry at God, or even at the church,” but a lot of them are. And when their marriage falls apart or one of their kids goes off the deep end, they are quick to ask, “God, why didn’t you come through for me? Or, Where was my Youth Pastor when I needed him?” What you don’t hear are questions like, “Where did I fail to love my spouse or train my children?” Or “Did I sell my soul to the company while my family went down the toilet?”
3. Fear and hopelessness. Some people simply lose heart as troubles pile up. They know their particular troubles started with disobedience and for a while they worked on the issues, but their efforts weren’t successful. This is especially true when people are struggling with an addiction–maybe gambling or alcohol or drugs or sex. They know that behavior is self-destructive, even suicidal. But every effort to stop has failed and now their hearts are filled with fear and they believe they are hopeless. They feel they are condemned to a life of failure and therefore trouble.
Friends, that’s a lie from the pit of hell. No one is hopeless so long as God is on the throne and so long as He’s in the business of redeeming sinful people. Dan Allender spoke to us Friday at the Leadership Conference, and he pointed out that the worst sinner in the history of mankind was forgiven and healed and remade into a powerful trophy of God’s grace. Therefore, however bad you think you are, however hopeless you feel, God can forgive you and heal you and remake you, because He did it for that person. Allender was talking, of course, about the Apostle Paul, who in 1 Timothy 1:15 claimed the top spot among the hierarchy of sinners:
Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners–of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.
The problem for a lot of people whose lives are really messed up is that we have separated addictions from morality. Alcoholism and gambling and sexual addiction are viewed as diseases, not sins, in our society. What have we gained by that? Well, we’ve relieved a lot of people of guilt. What have we lost? We’ve taken away the only chance many of them have to find complete forgiveness and healing. After all, a disease doesn’t need to be forgiven–it just needs to be treated. But when a disease has its roots in sin, treatment can only deal with the symptoms, and often not even those very well; nothing is done about the root of the problem.
Don’t misunderstand me. I accept that alcoholism is a disease, and many other addictions may be as well, but they are not exactly like other diseases. They are diseases inextricably tied to sinful behavior and bad choices. You can get cancer without anyone committing a sin or making a bad choice. But one can’t become addicted without someone making sinful choices, and it’s usually the addict himself or herself who makes those choices. Thus, to deal with the problem thoroughly we not only have to treat the symptoms; we also have to find forgiveness for the sin. Frankly, once the sin is dealt with, the treatment of the symptoms is a whole lot easier.
The main thing I want to communicate this morning is, “Don’t give up. Don’t allow fear and hopelessness to overcome you.” If you’re going through trouble because of your behavior, the same God who is disciplining you has the power to heal you, if you will allow Him to. That healing starts with acknowledging that you are a sinner and you can’t help yourself. The Twelve Step program starts right there. But then you must move to the fact that there is One who can help you, and His name is Jesus, not A Higher Power. He died on the cross for your sins and He offers you forgiveness if you will put your faith and trust in Him.
4. Further unfaithfulness. This was Ahaz’ answer, but it is the most tragic response of all. Occasionally I come across a professing Christian who takes Ahaz’ path. He sins, he is disciplined by the Lord, and in effect he responds, “I don’t care. I’m going to do it my way.” I know a man who was an elder in another evangelical church, actually a lay pastor. He had an affair and divorced his wife. Sometime later he came to our church, admitted his sin and asked for another chance. We gave him some opportunities to serve, but I should have known something wasn’t right, because he had a lot of anger toward the people in the previous church and the way they had treated him. Several years ago it became obvious that he was having another affair. I called him and asked him to come and meet with me or with our elders. He refused. Today he is living with this other woman, not involved in church at all, and to the best of my knowledge has abandoned the faith.
Do you know how dangerous it is to respond to trouble with further unfaithfulness? I want to read a few verses from Hebrews 6. I don’t want to debate the theology of these verses this morning or try to explain them away, which seems to be a favorite pastime of some evangelicals. I just want you to listen to the Word of the Lord:
It is impossible (not just unlikely or difficult, but impossible) for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away (that’s the Greek word apostasia, from which we get our English word apostasy), to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace (Hebrews 6:4-6)
That’s serious business, but that’s what can happen when a person responds to the trouble that comes from unfaithfulness with further unfaithfulness. But if you’re feeling the conviction of the Holy Spirit, I can say with confidence that you have not completely fallen away. There is still time for you to repent, which brings us to the final possible reaction to discipline.
5. Repentance and restoration. This is the only one of the five options that makes any long-term sense. Ahaz refused to go this route, and his name is written in infamy as one of the worst leaders of God’s people ever. But there are many in Scripture who responded to the trouble that God’s discipline brought in their lives with repentance and restoration, and, as a result, they are in God’s hall of faith in Hebrews 11.
There’s Noah and Abraham, Jacob and Moses–scoundrels all. There’s Samson–talk about a man whose behavior brought discipline from the Lord! He had his eyes plucked out and had to do the work of a draft horse in a filthy dungeon! There’s David, who broke five of the ten commandments in one fell swoop, leaving a woman pregnant, her husband head, his own son dead, and a nation in mourning. But their names are all there because they responded with repentance and God restored them.
Thankfully, God’s Hall of Faith was not closed with the end of the OT, for there was room for Peter and the rest of the Apostles, Mary Magdalen and Joseph of Arimethea, and Paul. It wasn’t even closed with the end of the NT, for there’s room also for Augustine and Luther and Moody and Colson. And, praise God, there’s still room for more names. There’s Jack and Barb and Ron and Anne and Steve and Sue and Kevin and Joyce . . . and Mike.
May it never be said of us, “In time of trouble he or she became even more unfaithful,” but rather “In time of trouble he repented. She humbled herself before the Lord. He confessed. She sought forgiveness. He was restored. She became useful once more to a gracious God.”
DATE: August 11, 2002
Tags:
Apostasy
Idolatry
Divine Discipline
Anger
Fear
Unfaithfulness
Restoration