From Evil Leadership to Godly

INTRO

We’ve been studying the kings of Judah, some good in the sight of the Lord, and some bad. Today, we go from bad, to worse, to revival. Jotham’s son Ahaz found a way of committing every conceivable act of idolatry. Our theme for 2 Chronicles is Royal Throne. The question for you today is, who do you put on the Royal Throne? This was the major question for our two protagonists in chapters 28 and 29.

TEACHING

2 Chronicles 28:1-8: Ahaz become king at the age of 20 and reigned for 16 years (v. 1). Remember that Chronicles focuses on the temple and what led to spiritual captivity of the exiles in Babylon. As king, Ahaz committed every conceivable act of idolatry, even sacrificing and burning his own children. This was something the evil kings of Israel had never done (vv. 2-3). The place where the children were sacrificed to the Canaanite god Moloch led to the valley called Gehenna—the word for hell. He personally participated in worship in the high places (v. 4). Few men in the Bible were as strongly opposed to God as King Ahaz of Judah.

Between verses 4 and 5, God demonstrated to Ahaz that he could rely on God (Isaiah 7:1-17). He declined Isaiah’s invitation to believe the Word of God with false piety, saying he would not put the Lord to the test (Isaiah 7:12). God still gave a sign—the prophecy of the virgin birth who would be called Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14). This was a future prophecy for Christ as well as prophecy of the coming Assyrian invasion. God handed evil Ahaz over to the king of Aram who took Judean captives to Damascus and gave Ahaz to the king of Israel. The king of Israel struck Ahaz soundly (v. 5).

Commentator Winfried Corduan wrote, “Abandonment of God inevitably led to abandonment by God.”¹ In verses 5b-8, the armies of Israel killed hundreds of thousands of Judah’s men and killed Masseiah, Ahaz’s son; Azikam, the governor of the palace; and Elkanah, Ahaz’s second son. The Israelites also took 200,000 captives (including women and children), and plunder to Samaria. God used not only the Arameans to serve His punishment of Judah, but he also used the army of Israel from the idolatrous northern kingdom to defeat them as well.

2 Chronicles 28:9-15: Verse 9 begins an interesting interlude. Oded, an ultra-minor prophet of the Lord, went out to meet the Israelite army that came to Samaria and told them they were pushing their luck against God. God used them to punish Judah, but that didn’t give them license to do as they pleased, so they had to take the hostages back to Judah (vv. 9-11). In response, the leaders of the Ephraimites said the captives and the plunder must go back to Judah so the Israelites’ guilt wouldn’t be brought upon the tribe of Ephraim (vv. 12-13). The men of Ephraim cared for the captives, gave clothes and sandals to those who needed them (some of whom were naked), fed them, dressed their wounds, and provided donkeys for all the feeble. Then they took the Judeans back to Jericho (vv. 14-15). They went above and beyond to minimize the captives’ suffering on the return trip. The people of Israel listened to Obed’s warning and responded.

2 Chronicles 28:16-27: Judah continued to deteriorate under Ahaz’s reign. Ahaz next asked the king of Assyria for help (v. 16). In response, the Edomites and the Philistines attacked Judah, took captives, and took over their villages, and the Assyrians attacked as well (vv. 17-18, 20). “For the Lord humbled Judah because of King Ahaz of Judah, who threw off restraint in Judah and was faithful to the Lord” (v. 19). Ahaz had even plundered the Lord’s temple to try to buy off the Assyrians, but they would not help him (v. 21). Ahaz then became even more unfaithful to the Lord and sacrificed to the gods of Damascus hoping they would help him (vv. 22-23a). “But they were the downfall of him and all Israel” (v. 23b).

Instead of turning back to Yahweh the Lord, Ahaz continued to try to connect to other countries by worshipping their foreign gods to get support for Judah. For Ahaz, a return to the worship of God was unthinkable, but the hybrid religion of Aram in Damascus, combining Canaanite deities with some of their own gods, seemed right to him. Then Ahaz cut up the utensils of God’s temple, shut the temple up, made altars on every street corner in Jerusalem, and created high places in every city of Judah (v. 24). Ahaz wanted to supplant the worship of God throughout his kingdom. The good news is that Hezekiah, the son of King Ahaz, became king in his place (vv. 26-27). The Davidic line still held despite this awful king.

The state of faith in Judah was as bad as it could get. There is a similar time in American history, in 1790, when the Church seemed at its weakest and college students wouldn’t even acknowledge their belief in Jesus. It was at this time the second Great Awakening began as a prayer movement of five students at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. That prayer movement led to revival at Yale, and an exploding move of the Holy Spirit across our nation.

2 Chronicles 29:1-19: Hezekiah was 25 years old when he became king, and he reigned 29 years. “He did what was right in the Lord’s sight just as his ancestor David had done” (vv. 1-2). Hezekiah’s name means, “My father is Jehovah” or “The Will of God.” His mother’s name was Abijah (a name we’ve often seen used for men) and was a daughter of Zechariah (not the prophet). The chronicler gave Hezekiah the highest possible praise by comparing his conduct to his ancestor David. Hezekiah’s story was so significant it was told three times in the Old Testament: 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, and Isaiah.

Hezekiah never saw himself as a victim of his father’s disastrous reign, but instead he enthusiastically and deliberately went to work to undo the damage his father caused. Hezekiah began with the reclamation of the temple. He instructed the priests and Levites to cleanse themselves and then reestablished the temple (vv. 3-11). His speech was possibly based on Solomon’s dedication prayer for the temple 250 years earlier (2 Chronicles 6:14-42). Hezekiah also initiated a paradigm shift for the kingdom of Judah by committing himself to a new covenant. The Levites resuming their duties would also signal a fresh relationship between God and His people. The Levites and the temple musicians stood up and embraced the new project with enthusiasm (vv.12-14). They consecrated themselves and went to work according to the king’s command and the words of the Lord (vv. 15-19). This decontamination took two weeks.

2 Chronicles 29:20-36: Hezekiah led in rededicating the temple with a variation on the annual Feast of Atonement (Leviticus 16:18) and the sin offering (Leviticus 4), except that they used more animals than would normally be the case. Notice the symbolism as the king laid hands on the sacrifices, not to usurp the role of the priest but to demonstrate the need of the people. He used it correctly by the Law (vv. 20-24). In the celebration and dedication, they sang the psalms of David, finally bringing the worship of God again to Jerusalem (vv. 25-26). Verses 27-33 talks about the sacrifices brought before the Lord. And a total of 600 bulls and 3,000 sheep and goats were consecrated. Then, Hezekiah invited others to bring their sacrifices. The number of sacrifices and offerings was huge—to the point there weren’t enough priests to handle the sacrifices because a number of priests hadn’t finished their ritual cleansing (Leviticus 8:136).

Since there weren’t enough priests, the Levites helped. They had been more conscientious to consecrate themselves than the priests (v. 34). After the sacrifices and offerings, Hezekiah and the people rejoiced over how God had prepared the people because it had happened in only one month (vv. 35-36). In the first month of Hezekiah’s reign (2 Chronicles 29:3), Judah had moved from a nation mired in Ahaz’s national idolatry to a renewed relationship with the Lord.

CLOSING

What, by God's power, is He calling you to in service for Him? What is God prompting you to do in relationship to God? Change comes about, not by our strength, but the Lord's. What is going on around you? It might be your family. King Hezekiah knew that changes needed to be made, he had work to do. Who are you going to put on the Royal Throne? Who are you going to call alongside of you in this work? Are you going to do this for the Lord? He is the one on the Royal Throne. He deserves it all