I Shake My Head In Disgust

King Ahaz then went to Damascus to meet with King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria. While he was there, he took special note of the altar. Then he sent a model of the altar to Uriah the priest, along with its design in full detail. Uriah followed the king’s instructions and built an altar just like it, and it was ready 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, he poured out a liquid offering, and he sprinkled the blood of peace offerings on the altar. Then King Ahaz 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, “Use the new altar for the morning sacrifices of burnt offering, the evening grain offering, the 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 will be for my personal use only.” Uriah the priest did just as King Ahaz 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. In deference to the king of Assyria, he also removed the canopy that had been constructed inside the palace for use on the Sabbath day, as well as the king’s outer entrance to the Temple of the LORD. [2 Kings 16.10-18]

I guess I never before recognized what Ahaz did here. As best I understand it, I am going to explain it here.

Before Ahaz's visit to Damascus, he had unfaithfully solicited and trusted King Tiglath-pileser to rescue Judah from the attacks of Aram and Israel. Then in the passage above, in what could very easily have been nothing more than political positioning, Ahaz aligned Judah to mimic the pagan worship of Tiglath-pileser with no regard for God's specific design and layout of the Temple. 

I can imagine Ahaz's actions here weren't so much a betrayal by overt disobedience to God as much as they were an effort to save Judah without even considering God. If I look at this story in this way, it sheds a sickening light on my condition today.

So sickening is this betrayal to God that the story of Hosea and his proustite wife Gomer is contemporary to this time. It wasn't so much that Gomer hated Hosea, but that she would not limit herself to her husband alone:

The LORD gave this message to Hosea son of Beeri during the years when Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah were kings of Judah, and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel. When the LORD first began speaking to Israel through Hosea, he said to him, “Go and marry a prostitute, so that some of her children will be conceived in prostitution. This will illustrate how Israel has acted like a prostitute by turning against the LORD and worshiping other gods.” [Hosea 1.1-2]

The sad thing is, I think today because I do not worship trinkets, carved images, or cast statues, that these Old Testament stories don't really apply to me. Instead, I shake my head in disgust how Israel (and Judah) could have been so unfaithful.

As the Old Testament chronicles Israel's history of unfaithfulness to God, I see another event contemporary to that time found in today's One Year Chronological Bible reading. This is arguably the most overlooked (or worse, ignored) bit of information in the entire Bible:

Hezekiah son of Ahaz began to rule over Judah in the third year of King Hoshea’s reign in Israel. He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. He did what was pleasing in the LORD’s sight, just as his ancestor David had done. He removed the pagan shrines, smashed the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke up the bronze serpent that Moses had made, because the people of Israel had been offering sacrifices to it. The bronze serpent was called Nehushtan. [2 Kings 18.1-4]

In Israel's faithlessness to God alone, they had begun to worship Nehushtan. The irony of Nehushtan was that this symbol had been been commissioned by God in Israel's wilderness experience after their deliverance from Egypt. In summary, Nehushtan was a bronze snake wrapped around a stick that when the Israelites looked upon it, they were healed of their snakebites (see Numbers 21). Hezekiah destroyed Nehushtan because Israel had inadvertently overlooked God, the giver, and had began to worship Nehushtan, the gift.

In fact, the snake-on-a-stick is very symbol of modern medicine today! Who do I shake my head in disgust at now?

In summary, God is displeased when I seek help outside of Him. God is displeased when I adjust my worship of Him to please (or, in deference to) anyone else (as Ahaz adjusted the Temple to mimic Tiglath-pileser). God is displeased when I look first or only to the gifts He has given instead of to Him the Giver. God's displeasure is likened to that most undesirable disdain of a husband whose wife is flagrantly becoming pregnant by other men and bringing the children home to him!

The ONLY thing that pleases God is faith in Him alone. My "bastard children" of faithlessness bring God no glory.

Father, there are so many alternatives to You today, and so many considerations I defer to instead of You, that I must confess here my sin of faithlessness to You and You alone. Your Word, as found particularly in the Old Testament, reveals to me what unfaithfulness to You looks like and I am afraid I look too much like it. Your Word, as found in the New Testament, reveals to me what faithfulness to Your Word looks like (Jesus) and I am afraid I look very little like Him. Please forgive me. Continue to reveal to me my unfaithfulness and receive my repentance. May I be found repentant! May my life defer to no one or no thing but You alone in what I trust and how I worship. Oh God, may I be changed into the glorious image of Jesus!