Good weekend to you my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
We all like weekends, don’t we? And of course we prefer good news to bad news and we like sunny days rather than gray, cloudy days, right? If you’re a grandparent or a parent, of course you much prefer to encourage and have fun with your kids and grands, rather than calling them to recognize their mistakes or disciplining them, right?
So what do we expect and want from God as God tries to teach us right ways; and help us develop our God honoring maturity; and warn us when we’re drifting away from Him?
Come with me back to Jerusalem around 720bc as the prophet Isaiah is trying to help King Ahaz and the people of the southern kingdom Judah learn from the devastation happening to their north as the kingdom of Assyria is making a wasteland of Israel.
You’ll recall Ahaz had been terrified of what might happen to him and his people if the Assyrian army decided they wanted to conquer Jerusalem next and so Ahaz had stripped the gold and silver from the Temple and brought it to Tiglath-Pileser the Assyrian emperor as a peace offering. Ahaz had built altars both in the Temple courts and on every street corner in Jerusalem and even in the smaller towns and villages, calling the people of God to worship the idols of Assyria instead! (2 Kings 16:8-18)
King Ahaz even shut the doors of the Temple and outlawed worship of the God of Israel! (2 Chronicles 28:24,25) All through this time God was sending both Isaiah and Micah to Ahaz with God’s messages of warning and conviction, but Ahaz refused to hear or respond to those messages.
Yesterday we looked at one of those great messages which was intended to show Ahaz the great contrast between his failed leadership and the wonderful leadership of the Messiah who would one day be sent by God to lead His people in a glorious, righteous and powerful way. (Isaiah 9:6,7) Ahaz knew full well he was not that man and furthermore he had led the people of God far, far away from God.
God’s message through Isaiah to Ahaz then turned from a far distant future hope to near distant, terrifying judgment as Isaiah described how God was about to deal with Ahaz and the people of Judah who were defiant against God and with determination were trying to eradicate any memory of God from Jerusalem and the entire region with their idolatry!
The remainder of Isaiah 9 is that horrific picture of God’s judgment on rebellious Israel and that judgment was accomplished by the Assyrians! (2 Kings 17) Isaiah 10 then describes that because Ahaz was not repentant, even though he was seeing the horrific devastation of the Assyrians in Israel, God would eventually bring His justice judgment on unrepentant Jerusalem! Isaiah 10:10,11 “As My hand seized the kingdoms of the idols, kingdoms whose images excelled those of Jerusalem and Samaria – shall I not deal with Jerusalem and her images as I dealt with Samaria and her idols?”
The warning was clear: as Ahaz and the people of Jerusalem had been building idols and turning away from Almighty, Holy God of Israel, so God would retaliate against His beloved Jerusalem with the same judgment as He had poured out on Samaria and other cities which had become worshipers of man-made idols.
It was a message that should have shaken Ahaz to the core! But we see no evidence of any repentance from Ahaz and for 7 more years after the destruction of the northern kingdom Israel, King Ahaz remained defiant against God and kept the Temple shut in Jerusalem! Oh it was a very dark time in that great city which had so often before seen such great blessings of God.
Finally King Ahaz died in 715bc and as with other failed leaders like him here is how the death and burial of King Ahaz is recorded: “Ahaz rested with his ancestors and was buried in the city of Jerusalem but NOT placed in the tombs of the kings of Israel. And his son Hezekiah succeeded Ahaz as king. Hezekiah was 25 years old when he became king and he reigned in Jerusalem 29 years.” (2 Chron. 28:27)
As we have seen with previous kings, at the death of the king it was his officials, his family and the people who decided where to bury the dead body of the king and how to honor his legacy. For King Ahaz it’s clear the people expressed their disdain for his wicked leadership by NOT giving him an honorable state funeral and NOT burying his body in the ‘tombs of the kings’ which was a great honor for any king.
That causes us to pause for reflection for a few seconds doesn’t it? How do you think you will be remembered by those who gather to reflect on your life when your life has ended? What will people say about you? Years after your death, whenever your name is mentioned, what emotions will rise up in people, what words will be spoken as people react to your reputation, your legacy?
Hezekiah was 25 years old when he assumed the throne of Judah in Jerusalem and that means he was old enough to have watched his father Ahaz carefully as he reigned as King. Hezekiah would also have been old enough to remember his grandfather King Jotham and I’m sure he heard many stories about his great grandfather King Uzziah. I have no doubt Hezekiah had been thinking and planning for the day the crown would be placed on his head and he would have full authority to lead in Jerusalem however he desired. I assume Hezekiah had watched as Isaiah the prophet had attempted to counsel his father Ahaz and had been rebuffed time after time.
Perhaps Hezekiah as a teenager had begun developing a respectful admiration for the prophet and at the death of his father I wonder if Hezekiah invited Isaiah to become a close and respected advisor, always welcome in the king’s court? Why do I say this?
Because this one statement tells us how Hezekiah started his reign: “In the first month of the first year of his reign, king Hezekiah opened the doors of the temple of the LORD and repaired them!” (2 Chronicles 29:3) Now that is exciting! A new wind of God honoring, courageous leadership was blowing within a few days of the death of King Ahaz! There was suddenly HOPE in Jerusalem! God was invited back into His city and tomorrow we’ll see the exciting things that began to happen immediately in Jerusalem! Could it be you and I are like Hezekiah in our day, our city, our extended family ready to bring positive change and HOPE?
As I think about the excitement and hope that must have awakened in Jerusalem I’ve looked for a fresh new song that shouts “This is a New Day”! It’s a fun song, I think it will bring a smile to your face, and I’m imagining people may have been dancing in the streets of Jerusalem those first days of Hezekiah’s reign. Let’s celebrate HOPE of a fresh beginning with Go, my friends:
Today’s Scripture: Isa.10 & 2 Chron. 29:1-3.
Choose below to read or listen.
Isa.10
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2 Chron. 29:1-3
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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