2 Kings 16 NIV

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A-haz King of Judah

Welcome to the daily SOAP from New Hope I’m Jaci and I am on staff here at New Hope Church, and today I will be your guest speaker. We are going to read from 2nd Kings chapter 16. If you haven’t taken a moment yet to read the chapter, you can click here, there’s a lot of interesting information here and it will help make a lot more sense. Today we’re reading about Ahaz and his reign. In summary Ahaz, began reigning when he was 20 and he did not follow the laws of God. He followed Pagan traditions of offering sacrifices and burned incense and even sacrificed his son. When Rezin king of Aram and Pecha son of Remaliah king of Israel marched against him, they did not defeat him; however, Ahaz needed help and contacted Assyria. This is where we'll pick up the reading:

Verse 7 through 11 reads, “Ahaz sent messengers to say to Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria, “I am your servant and vassal. Come up and save me out of the hand of the king of Aram and of the king of Israel, who are attacking me.” 8 And Ahaz took the silver and gold found in the temple of the Lord and in the treasuries of the royal palace and sent it as a gift to the king of Assyria. 9 The king of Assyria complied by attacking Damascus and capturing it. He deported its inhabitants to Kir and put Rezin to death. 10 Then King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria. He saw an altar in Damascus and sent to Uriah the priest a sketch of the altar, with detailed plans for its construction. 11 So Uriah the priest built an altar in accordance with all the plans that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus…”

Ahaz didn’t turn from his sinful ways until he was near defeat, at which point he called on the King of Assyria, not God, to help him out. Removing sacred items as a gift to persuade the king for help. Once they successfully repelled the attackers, he builds an altar for sacrifices to the Lord. While Ahaz ultimately received help, had he been using the tools and rules he sent to the King initially, he would have saved himself and his people a lot of heartache. I feel like this is a parallel to the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Someone who thinks they have a better way or who has turned away from what they know and learned the hard way to put their trust in God and his guidance for our lives.  We should strive to give ourselves fully to the Lord daily, not only crying out to Him when we need help.

Let’s pray, “God help us soften our hearts to receive your guidance. Open our ears to hear you when we call on you. Give us wisdom to do the right things we are doing in your name. And show us your grace when we fail. And most importantly, give us the encouragement to echo your love and compassion to our neighbors. We ask all of this in the powerful and loving name of Jesus. Amen.”