Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
2 Kings 16:12

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Judah’s decline under Ahaz (15:27-16:20)

The writer of Kings records the Assyrian attack mentioned above. Pekah’s policy had proved fatal and he was assassinated by Hoshea, a sympathizer with Assyria. Hoshea then became king and won temporary relief for Israel by submitting to Assyria’s control (27-31).

Before speaking further of Hoshea, the writer returns to the time before Pekah was assassinated. Pekah’s program for the conquest of Judah had begun during the reign of Jotham, but reached its climax in the reign of Jotham’s successor Ahaz. The aggression of Israel-Syria and the constant threat from Assyria prompted Jotham to build defence fortifications throughout Judah. He also made his borders secure by taking control of neighbouring Ammon (32-38; 2 Chronicles 27:3-6).

Because of his lack of faith in God, Ahaz had a disastrous reign. Apart from the damage he did to Judah by following other gods, he almost ruined the nation’s economy by his policies in the war with Israel and Syria. Buying Assyrian aid did not save him from heavy losses in the war, and he would have suffered even more had not Israel released the war prisoners taken from Judah. His weakened country suffered further at the hands of invading Edomites from the south and Philistines from the west. He also lost the Red Sea port of Elath (Ezion-geber) (16:1-9; 2 Chronicles 28:5-18).

Earlier, after losing a battle with Syria, Ahaz had turned from Yahweh to worship the ‘victorious’ Syrian gods. He closed the temple to Yahweh in Jerusalem and built altars to foreign gods throughout Judah (2 Chronicles 28:22-25). But Assyria, acting on Ahaz’s request, had now conquered Syria (see v. 9) and established its religion and its administration in Damascus. Ahaz now replaced the Syrians’ religion with the Assyrians’, and built a copy of their altar in Jerusalem (10-16). Ahaz’s hiring of Assyria was so costly that he removed valuable metal from the temple to pay Tiglath-pileser (17-20). (It was after this conquest of Syria that Tiglath-pileser overran eastern and northern Israel; see 15:29.)

The importance of Isaiah

There was great variety in the kinds of people God chose to be his prophets. Whereas Amos was a poor farmer, Isaiah was a person of high social standing, an adviser to the king who was able to influence national policy. His ministry had begun long before the time of Ahaz. It began in the year of Uzziah’s death and continued through the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah (Isaiah 1:1; Isaiah 6:1). The traditional belief is that he was executed during the reign of the wicked Manasseh by being sawn in two (cf. 21:1-2,16; Hebrews 11:37).

In the early part of the book of Isaiah, the prophet records his attempts to persuade Ahaz to trust in God, not in Assyria, to save Judah from the Israel-Syrian invasion. In the next part of the book he records his attempts to control the zeal of the good king Hezekiah, who was rather too keen to rely on help from Egypt in revolting against Assyria (see notes on 18:1-20:21). Isaiah shows that all these nations, and others as well, were under God’s judgment. Judah too would be punished for its sin, and its people taken into captivity.
The final section of the book of Isaiah shows that God would not cast off his people for ever. He would preserve that minority of people who had always remained faithful to him, and through them he would rebuild the nation. God’s people would return to their land and enjoy peace and prosperity once more. The Messiah-king would come, and his kingdom would spread to all nations.

Micah accuses the rich landowners

No doubt one man who cooperated with Isaiah was Micah, who prophesied during the same period of Judah’s history (Isaiah 1:1; Micah 1:1). While Isaiah was using his influence at Jerusalem’s royal court, Micah was coming to the aid of the small farmers. (He came from a farming village and was probably a farmer himself; Micah 1:1,Micah 1:14.) As Amos and Hosea had done before him, he condemned the injustice, greed and false religion that were widespread in Judah, especially among the upper class people of Jerusalem (Micah 3:1-3,Micah 3:9-11; Micah 6:9-12; Micah 7:3).

Micah was particularly concerned at how the rich ruthlessly gained possession of the land of the small farmers. They lent money to the farmers at high interest, then, when the farmers found it impossible to pay their debts, seized the farmers’ houses and land as payment (Micah 2:1-3,Micah 2:9). The farmers then were required to rent their land from their new masters, which increased their burden even more. The state of affairs showed no thought for the rights of others, no understanding of true religion, and no knowledge of the character of God. It was a sure indication that Judah was heading for judgment (Micah 3:12; Micah 6:16).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

RELIGIOUS INNOVATIONS WHICH WERE PROBABLY REQUIRED BY ASSYRIA

"And king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and saw the altar that was at Damascus; and king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof. And Urijah the priest built an altar: according to all that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus, so did Urijah the priest make it against the coming of king Ahaz from Damascus. And when the king was come from Damascus, the king saw the altar, and offered thereon."

From the inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser, we learn that his custom was to hold court in various conquered cities, demanding the appearance (with their tribute) of all the vassal kings throughout the area.Albert Barnes, op. cit., p. 273. It was to such a court in Damascus that king Ahaz was summoned by the king of Assyria. There were three types of altars used in Nineveh, and one was the portable altar which Tiglath-pileser carried with him in his campaigns. It was probably that portable altar from Assyria that Ahaz copied, very likely upon the insistence of Tiglath-pileser. Montgomery noted that, "Ahaz's attendance upon Tiglath-pileser at Damascus and the resulting ritual innovations in the temple, and certain reconstructions, were after the usual Assyrian manner."International Critical Commentary, op. cit., p. 259. "The altar Ahaz copied was Assyrian, and Ahaz was doing honor unto the Assyrian gods."The New Bible Commentary, Revised, p. 361.

It was a terrible price that Ahaz had paid for Assyrian assistance. When he wrote, "I am thy servant and thy son," it was understood from that time forward that, "Ahaz and his advisers had surrendered themselves body and soul into the hands of the great world-power of that period. It meant complete submission and enrollment among Assyria's tribute-paying vassal states."The Pulpit Commentary, op. cit., p. 214.

"Urijah the priest made it" This reprobate priest was named by Isaiah as a witness (Isaiah 8:2), but what the man did here was evil. "A bold priest like Azariah (1 Chronicles 26:17) would have refused to do what the king requested, which was a desecration of the temple and at least an evil compromise with idolatry."Ibid., p. 316.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 16

Now in the seventeenth year of Pekah, Remaliah or the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign ( 2 Kings 16:1 ).

Ahaz the son of Jotham. So you have now an Ahaz reigning. Used to have an Ahaz in the north tribes, now you have one in the southern tribes.

He was twenty years old he began to reign, he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem, [but he was one of the rare bad kings in Judah,] he did not walk after the LORD like David his father. But walked after the ways of the kings of Israel, in fact, he caused his own children to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen, that the LORD had cast out of the land before the children of Israel had come in. He sacrificed and burned incense in the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree. Then Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah both attacked him ( 2 Kings 16:2-5 ).

And so he sent to the king of Assyria and sent him money unto Tiglathpileser and asked for his help. And Tiglathpileser came down to Syria. He took Damascus, and Ahaz, of course, sort of bought him off. And the king of Assyria began to strike against Syria and against Israel. Of course, they called off their attack then on Ahaz.

And king Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest saying, "Upon the great altar... " When he was up there in Damascus, the king of Assyria after taking Damascus, he invited him to come up and see Damascus. And when he got up there he saw an altar that attracted him. And so he drew it out, got the dimensions and then he went home and he said to the priest, "Now I want you to build an altar like this." And so they built another altar. They took away the altar out of the temple and replaced it with this altar that was fashioned like unto the pagan altar that he had seen in Damascus.

Also this great brass laver that was set upon these twelve brass oxen out in front of the temple, he took it off and set it on the ground and just sort of desecrated the temple of God and sort of fashioned it after some of the pagan temples that he had seen there in Damascus. And his death is recorded in the last couple of verses here.

Now as we get into chapter seventeen next week, we'll find the reasons why Israel fell. God lists to us the reasons why Israel went into captivity. For we come to the end of the nation Israel next week. All the reasons are listed. Their failure to follow God and worship God.

Now with knowledge comes responsibility. And the Bible says that "righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people" ( Proverbs 14:34 ). And as we get into the reasons for the fall of Israel to their enemies, and as we sort of try to learn from history, the lessons that we are going to learn will be bitter lessons indeed as we look at the United States today and we see how godless a nation we are becoming. Now there are people who have a hard time understanding the ways of God. Habakkuk the prophet said to the Lord one day, "God, please don't show me anything else because the nation is going downhill so fast. It's so corrupt. The leaders are so corrupt and God, You're not doing anything about it." And God said to Habakkuk, "Habakkuk, I am doing something about it, but if I told you what I was doing, you wouldn't believe Me." Habakkuk said, "Well, try me, Lord." And so the Lord said, "Alright, I'm going to bring Babylon against Judah and they're going to take Judah captive." "Why, Lord would you do that?" He said, "I told you you wouldn't believe Me." But he said, "Hey, we're bad, that's true, but they're worse than we are. Why would You use a nation that is worse than we are to punish us?" And He said, "Because they don't know. They're not My people. But you are My people. And you have turned from Me. And because you have known Me, knowledge brings responsibility." And the failure to act to the knowledge is the thing that brings the judgment of God.

So that if God should use Russia as an instrument to punish the United States, we'd have the same kind of mental problems that Habakkuk had. "Lord, they're atheistic nation. Why would You use them to punish the United States?" It wouldn't be the first time in history that God used a godless nation to punish a once godly nation because the godly nation had turned from their godliness and had turned after idols and turned away from the living God. I would not be surprised to see God judge our nation. I could surely not blame God for doing it. Because of the things that are going on in our nation today. Surely we must lead the world in pornography and in so many filthy things and in godlessness. And we look at how we have sought to rule God out of our national life. And how the courts are seeking to rule God out of our national life. And we cannot and should not complain if God brings His judgment against this nation. As we read the reasons why judgment was brought against Israel, you'll see that God has every right to judge the United States. And I believe He is going to. And He's going to judge it severely. But I think the judgment is going to fall after I'm gone.

When God was ready to judge Sodom and Gomorrah, you remember what Abraham said to the Lord. "Lord, shouldn't God be fair? Would You judge the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous there?" God said, "I will spare it for the fifty righteous." Hey, you should feel very honored tonight, because it is because of you that God is sparing the nation the judgment that is due it. And God did not bring His judgment against Sodom and Gomorrah until He had first removed that righteous man Lot. And then the judgment fell. I believe that God is going to remove His righteous church, but then judgment such as the nation deserves will surely come from God.

We'll get into this more next week as we look at the fall of Israel, the judgment of God and the reasons for that judgment.

May the Lord bless you and keep you. And may He strengthen you through this week. As you have to go out and mix in that world I pray that God will give you divine insulation by His Holy Spirit that will just sort of ward off all of the evil influences that are pointed in your direction that surround you daily when you're on the job or in your classroom or just dealing with this corrupt system. I pray that God will just help you to keep your mind and heart fixed upon Him. And that you'll look above the corruption of this world. And that you'll be strengthened as we look to Him, our only hope but Who is our strength and our defense.nter your comments here "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Ahaz’s apostasy 16:10-18

As Ahab had imported Baal worship from Phoenicia, so Ahaz imported a foreign altar from Damascus (cf. Amaziah of Judah’s Edomite idols, 2 Chronicles 25:14; 2 Chronicles 25:20). As Judah’s king-priest, he led the nation in worshipping at an altar different from what Yahweh had specified (Exodus 27:1-8). Furthermore, he removed the altar God had established from the place God had said it should occupy in the temple courtyard (Exodus 40:6; Exodus 40:29).

"Readers could hardly miss the similarities between Jeroboam, the father of institutionalized idolatry in Israel, and Ahaz, the Judahite king who makes polytheism acceptable nationwide." [Note: Ibid., p. 337.]

Ahaz did not completely discard the worship God had prescribed, but he changed it according to his liking, thus claiming God’s authority (2 Kings 16:15). The high priest unfortunately cooperated with the king. Ahaz likewise changed the other temple furnishings to please the Assyrian king (2 Kings 16:18). [Note: For a more favorable evaluation of Ahaz’s actions, see Richard Nelson, "The Altar of Ahaz: A Revisionist View," Hebrew Annual Review 10 (1986):267-76.]

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

And when the king was come from Damascus, the king saw the altar,.... Looked at it, and liked it, being exactly according to the pattern he had sent:

and the king approached the altar, and offered thereon; either by a priest, or it may be in his own person, having no regard to the laws and appointments of God, and especially as his sacrifices were not offered to him, but to the gods of Damascus and Syria, 2 Chronicles 28:23.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      10 And king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and saw an altar that was at Damascus: and king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof.   11 And Urijah the priest built an altar according to all that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus: so Urijah the priest made it against king Ahaz came from Damascus.   12 And when the king was come from Damascus, the king saw the altar: and the king approached to the altar, and offered thereon.   13 And he burnt his burnt offering and his meat offering, and poured his drink offering, and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings, upon the altar.   14 And he brought also the brasen altar, which was before the LORD, from the forefront of the house, from between the altar and the house of the LORD, and put it on the north side of the altar.   15 And king Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, Upon the great altar burn the morning burnt offering, and the evening meat offering, and the king's burnt sacrifice, and his meat offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their meat offering, and their drink offerings; and sprinkle upon it all the blood of the burnt offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice: and the brasen altar shall be for me to enquire by.   16 Thus did Urijah the priest, according to all that king Ahaz commanded.

      Though Ahaz had himself sacrificed in high places, on hills, and under every green tree (2 Kings 16:4; 2 Kings 16:4), yet God's altar had hitherto continued in its place and in use, and the king's burnt-offering and his meat-offering (2 Kings 16:15; 2 Kings 16:15) had been offered upon it by the priests that attended it; but here we have it taken away by wicked Ahaz, and another altar, an idolatrous one, put in the room of it--a bolder stroke than the worst of the kings had yet given to religion. We have here,

      I. The model of this new altar, taken from one at Damascus, by the king himself, 2 Kings 16:10; 2 Kings 16:10. The king of Assyria having taken Damascus, thither Ahaz went, to congratulate him on his success, to return him thanks for the kindness he had done him by this expedition, and, as his servant and son, to receive his commands. Had he been faithful to his God, he would not have needed to crouch thus meanly to a foreign power. At Damascus, either while viewing the rarities of the place, or rather while joining with them in their devotions (for, when he was there, he thought it no harm to do as they did), he saw an altar that pleased his fancy extremely, not such a plain old-fashioned one as that which he had been trained up in attendance upon at Jerusalem, but curiously carved, it is likely, and adorned with image-work; there were many pretty things about it which he thought significant, surprising, very charming, and calculated to excite his devotion. Solomon had but a dull fancy, he thought, compared with the ingenious artist that made this altar. Nothing will serve him but he must have an altar just like this: a pattern of it must be taken immediately; he cannot stay till he returns himself, but sends it before him in all haste, with orders to Urijah the priest to get one made exactly according to this model and have it ready against he came home. The pattern God showed to Moses in the mount or to David by the Spirit was not comparable to this pattern sent from Damascus. The hearts of idolaters walked after their eyes, which are therefore said to go a whoring after their idols; but the true worshippers worship the true God by faith.

      II. The making of it by Urijah the priests, 2 Kings 16:11; 2 Kings 16:11. This Urijah, it is likely, was the chief priest who at this time presided in the temple-service. To him Ahaz sent an intimation of his mind (for we read not of any express orders he gave him), to get an altar made by this pattern. And, without any dispute or objection, he put it in hand immediately, being perhaps as fond of it as the king was, at least being very willing to humour the king and desirous to curry favour with him. Perhaps he might have this excuse for gratifying the king herein, that, by this means, he might keep him to the temple at Jerusalem and prevent his totally deserting it for the high places and the groves. "Let us oblige him in this," thinks Urijah, "and then he will bring all his sacrifices to us; for by this craft we get our living." But, whatever pretence he had, it was a most base wicked thing for him that was a priest, a chief priest, to make this altar, in compliance with an idolatrous prince, for hereby, 1. He prostituted his authority and profaned the crown of his priesthood, making himself a servant to the lusts of men. There is not a greater disgrace to the ministry than obsequiousness to such wicked commands as this was. 2. He betrayed his trust. As priest, he was bound to maintain and defend God's institutions, and to oppose and witness against all innovations; and, for him to assist and serve the king in setting up an altar to confront the altar which by divine appointment he was consecrated to minister at, was such a piece of treachery and perfidiousness as may justly render him infamous to all posterity. Had he only connived at the doing of it,--had he been frightened into it by menaces,--had he endeavoured to dissuade the king from it, or but delayed the doing of it till he came home, that he might first talk with him about it,--it would not have been so bad; but so willingly to walk after his commandment, as if he were glad of the opportunity to oblige him, was such an affront to the God he served as was utterly inexcusable.

      III. The dedicating of it. Urijah, perceiving that the king's heart was much upon it, took care to have it ready against he came down, and set it near the brazen altar, but somewhat lower and further from the door of the temple. The king was exceedingly pleased with it, approached it with all possible veneration, and offered thereon his burnt-offering, c., 2 Kings 16:12; 2 Kings 16:13. His sacrifices were not offered to the God of Israel, but to the gods of Damascus (as we find 2 Chronicles 28:23), and, when he borrowed the Syrians' altar, no marvel that he borrowed their gods. Naaman, the Syrian, embraced the God of Israel when he got earth from the land of Israel to make an altar of.

      IV. The removal of God's altar, to make room for it. Urijah was so modest that he put this altar at the lower end of the court, and left God's altar in its place, between this and the house of the Lord,2 Kings 16:14; 2 Kings 16:14. But that would not satisfy Ahaz; he removed God's altar to an obscure corner in the north side of the court, and put his own before the sanctuary, in the place of it. He thinks his new altar is much more stately, and much more sightly, and disgraces that; and therefore "let that be laid aside as a vessel in which there is no pleasure." His superstitious invention, at first, jostled with God's sacred institution, but at length jostled it out. Note, Those will soon come to make nothing of God that will not be content to make him their all. Ahaz durst not (perhaps for fear of the people) quite demolish the brazen altar and knock it to pieces; but, while he ordered all the sacrifices to be offered upon this new altar (2 Kings 16:15; 2 Kings 16:15), The brazen altar (says he) shall be for me to enquire by. Having thrust it out from the use for which it was instituted, which was to sanctify the gifts offered upon it, he pretends to advance it above its institution, which it is common for superstitious people to do. The altar was never designed for an oracle, yet Ahaz will have it for that use. The Romish church seemingly magnifies Christ's sacraments, yet wretchedly corrupts them. But some give another sense of Ahaz's purpose: "As for the brazen altar, I will consider what to do with it, and give order about it." The Jews say that, afterwards, of the brass of it he made that famous dial which was called the dial of Ahaz,2 Kings 20:11; 2 Kings 20:11. The base compliance of the poor-spirited priest with the presumptuous usurpations of an ill-spirited king is again taken notice of (2 Kings 16:16; 2 Kings 16:16): Urijah the priest did according to all that king Ahaz commanded. Miserable is the case of great men when those that should reprove them for their sins strengthen and serve them in their sins.

Kelly Commentary on Books of the Bible

But not merely this. "Elisha died and they buried him" (2 Kings 13:20). Was not Elisha gone then? Not so. There was to be even a more glorious witness in his death than in his life. In his life, no doubt, he had witnessed; but with what great toil and anxiety and pains! stretching himself over the dead youth, he had breathed, and put his face upon the child's face; and so it was, laboriously and with effort in appearance, that God raised him up. For God would show the magnitude of the deed that he was doing then, and although it was in no wise because of all the labour of the prophet, since God could have done it in an instant as truly at the beginning as at the end, yet still it was the way of God. But not so now. Even in death what a witness of the power of life, in Elisha, for, as we are told, "It came to pass as they were burying a man that, behold, they spied a band of men; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood upon his feet." And so will Israel another day not more truly that dead man then, than Israel by-and-by, when all seems forgotten and Israel as good as dead, and buried in response to the prophets, in answer to that voice which will never be truly extinguished, though it may be forgotten or despised, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it, and the hand of the Lord had written it. And according to the prophets Israel will rise again.

They may be, as now they are politically, in the dust of the earth, but they will rise again. This is the portion of Israel. There are those who suppose that nations shall not rise. Alas! it is a common error. And there is no error more common in this day than the denying the resurrection of the body, but we know that the resurrection of the body is the most essential truth of God and the most sacred truth and the peculiar one of the gospel. For if the dead rise not, then is Christ not risen, and God's testimony is denied, for God's testimony is that He raised Christ from the dead which He has not done if the dead rise not. But contrariwise He raised Him up, and so the dead will be raised; and as the dead man here undoubtedly rises, so truly Israel will rise again, and, in truth, it will be "life from the dead" for all the nations. Such is the clear voice of prophecy, and it will be accomplished.

But we find that Hazael still pursues his oppression. Such is the literal history; such is the fact, for the present; such it was then.

And then in the next chapter (2 Kings 14:1-29), whatever might be the measure of right, evil takes its way even in Judah. "And it came to pass, as soon as the kingdom was confirmed in his hands, that he slew his servants which had slain the king his father. But the children of the murderers he slew not; according unto that which is written in the book of the law of Moses, wherein Jehovah commanded, saying, The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, nor the children be put to death for the fathers; but every man shall be put to death for his own sin. He slew of Edom, in the valley of salt, ten thousand, and took Selah by war, and called the name of it Joktheel unto this day." Amaziah thus shows a measure of righteousness, but his heart becomes, at last, lifted up within him, and he challenges the king of Israel; and the solemn fact appears that God will never sanction the presumption of a righteous man, that God will rather take the part of the bad man who is challenged presumptuously than of the righteous man that challenges him presumptuously. It is a solemn thing when the folly of God's people thus makes it necessary for God so to deal. It was so then, but the truth is, God will always be where righteousness is, and there is not a single failure in righteousness though it be in God's own people, where God does not set His face against it.

Does this then prove that the one is not a righteous man? Not so. But even where the unrighteous man may be righteous, and where the righteous man may be unrighteous, God will appear to change sides. The truth is, that God holds to righteousness wherever it exists. This is what we find, and to my own mind it is a most wholesome principle, and one that counts for a great deal in practical life, because often one sees the sad spectacle in one truly to be loved and valued, but a mistake is made never without its consequences. An error that is made always bears its fruit. Am I therefore to forget my love and esteem for him who has done it? Nay, I am to judge according to God the particular thing; but to let the heart and its affections flow in their proper channel. God would not have us to abandon, any more than He does Himself, the one who trusts Him, for swerving for a moment. God would not have us to sanction an unrighteous man because in a particular instance he may be right; nor, on the other hand, are we to sanction an unrighteous act because done by a righteous man. Well, all this shows us the nice and jealous care in details in details for righteousness. And this is to my mind the great moral of the dealings of God regarding Amaziah and Joash, and the reason why the comparatively righteous Amaziah was allowed to fall before the certainly unrighteous Joash.

Then we find another remarkable dealing of God in the case of Azariah in the fifteenth chapter. We are told there that he was found smitten of the Lord. "And Jehovah smote the king, so that he was a leper unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a separate house." The details of this are not given. He is called here Azariah. You must remember it is the same person who is called Uzziah in the book of Chronicles. But further, at this time evil was coming in more and more with a flood, and we have the sad and humbling history of Samaria. What brought in this terrible day was Ahaz so it is that the Spirit of God speaks of him for Ahaz was the worst king that had ever reigned in Judah up to this point. He it was that first brought in the Assyrian as a helper. At this time the Assyrian had come in in another way. We are told of Azariah king of Judah that "In the nine and thirtieth year of Azariah king of Judah began Menahem the son of Gadi to reign over Israel, and reigned ten years in Samaria. And he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah: he departed not all his days from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. And Pul the king of Assyria came against the land."

The solemn thing that appears in Ahaz that I have referred to was that the conspiracy of Israel with Syria led Judah to call in Assyria against Israel. That is the point. It is not merely the only course of enmity that the Assyrian would have against the land. This is the point of the fifteenth chapter; but in the sixteenth it is a still more solemn thing; it is the union of Judah with the Gentile against Israel. And, accordingly, God marks His deep displeasure of this terrible reign. Indeed in every point of view it was unboundedly evil. What did God do? What marked the way of God in that day? It was the time when God brought out prophecy with a greater brightness and distinctness than He had ever been pleased to give. This is of the greatest moment for our souls to consider.

Prophecy always comes in a time of ruin. When was the first prophecy? When man fell. When was the first continuous prophecy prophecy not merely of a person that was coming, but of the character of him that was coming, and what was to be done that which most of all looks like a prophecy? It was Enoch's, when the world was full of corruption and violence, and the flood was about to be sent upon it. Thus if we look either at the prophecy of the Son, of man the woman's Seed, or look at the first form of prophecy, Enoch's, we see how clearly the time of ruin is the time when God gives prophecy. In the same way it is, when we come lower down the stream of time. The most magnificent burst of prophecy that God ever gave was through Isaiah, and Isaiah began his course under these very kings in the days of Azariah and Ahaz. It was continued, indeed, till the days of Hezekiah, but it was in these very times. And there was not Isaiah alone. We know there were other prophets, commonly called The Minor; but I refer to it now for the great moral principle. A time of evil is not necessarily a time of evil for the people of God. It is evil for those' that are false; it is evil for those that would take advantage. But a time of evil is a time when God particularly works for the blessing of those that may have failed. Therefore let no one find an excuse because things are in a condition of ruin.

Take the present time. No man can look upon the face of Christendom without feeling that it is out of joint that it is altogether anomalous that the state of things is inexplicable except to the man who reads it in the light of the word of God that it is confusion, and that the worst confusion is where the highest profession of order is found, and that the truest order is found where people would tax them with disorder; for I believe in point of fact, it really is so. You must remember that in an evil day the external order is always with the enemies of God; the true internal order is always found with those that have faith. Hence it is that now that which has the highest pretension to order is, as we know, the Eastern church the Latin church; but of all the things under the sun in the form of religion, that which is most opposed to God is, surely, the Latin church. And therefore we see clearly how those who make the highest claim to order are precisely those that are most opposed to God's way, and the reason is plain because the great assumption, invariably, of those that stand to outward order is succession a plain continued title from God!

But this is a thing which prophecy so rudely breaks this dream of outward order which is a mere veil thrown over confusion, and every evil work. Hence the immense importance of prophecy in a time of ruin, and so it has been that since the ruin came into Christendom, prophecy has always been the grand support of those who have had faith; as, on the other hand, the Latin church has always been the deadly enemy of prophecy always endeavoured to extinguish the study of it and to destroy all faith in it, and to make people believe that it is impossible to have real light from it that it is an illusion, as indeed they would make you believe the word of God generally is.

Now, then, in this very place I call your attention, beloved friends, to this grand point. When this evil became insupportable, God granted this precious light of His own word the light of prophecy, and I would press this strongly upon all here who love the word of the Lord. Use the same thing, not by any means to make it a kind of study a kind of exclusive occupation, for nothing can be more drying up to spiritual affections than making, what I may call, a hobby of prophecy or of anything else; but I do say that where Christ has the first place, where all the precious hopes of grace, where all our associations with the Lord have their true place and power, a most important part is filled up by the understanding of that light which God gives to judge the present by the future. This was the object of the prophecies of Isaiah, for it is a very important thing to remember that the object of prophecy is, and must be, moral that it is not merely facts; and there is no greater mistake than to suppose that the prediction of events is what makes a prophet. Not so. I admit that prophets did predict events, but prophecy does not mean predicting. Prophecy is always bringing in God to deal with the conscience. If that is not done the grand object of prophecy has failed. And here you have a test, therefore, as to whether you understand and rightly use prophecy. Does it bring your conscience into the presence of God? Does it deal with what you are about? Does it judge the secrets of the heart? Does it shine upon your ways? Where this fails, God's object is not attained. I just draw attention, therefore, by the way, to this beautiful contrast to man's ways on the one hand this flood of evil that was now rising to its height. Nevertheless God, astonishing to say, instead of meeting it by immediate judgment answers it by prophecy. The glorious light that He caused to shine through the prophet Isaiah was His answer. No doubt that made the wickedness of what was going on in the land more apparent, but it had another purpose; it bound up the hopes of every believing soul in Israel with the Messiah that was coming. That was God's great object. It dissociated them from present things, giving them a sound judgment, and means to form an estimate of it, but it bound up their hearts with the Lord.

Therefore I need not say much about the enormous wickedness of Ahaz, which is brought before us in the sixteenth chapter, nor will I do more than just refer to the seventeenth chapter. There the Assyrian comes, but he comes now as an avenger; he comes as a scourge. He sweeps the land, and the ten tribes are carried away never to return till Jesus returns. The ten tribes from that day disappeared from the land of Israel. What took their place what formed the kingdom of Samaria was a mere mass of heathen that took up the forms of Israel that had been left behind, for God in a remarkable way visited the land. When the Assyrians were planted in the devastated cities of Israel they set up their old Assyrian religion, and the Lord sent lions among them. They understood it. Man has a conscience. They understood it; they knew that it was a voice from the God of Israel. It was the God of Israel that claimed that land. No doubt they thought to propitiate Him by renewing the old worship of Israel, and in their folly they sent for a priest of Israel from the captivity, and the old religion, accordingly, was brought in a most strange medley of the nominal worship of Jehovah and real idolatry. But so it was. Thus began not the Samaritan kingdom but the Samaritan religion the mixture of Judaism and idolatry carried on by heathen.

On this I do not now say more than just refer to it. It was a sad succession for a sad people. The ten tribes now dispersed in Assyria awaiting the day when the Saviour will awake them from the dust of the earth when the Saviour will call them back to the land of their inheritance. But we must look at other scriptures before we reach that blessed point.