Israel and Syria joined together to attack Judah, and as their combined armies approached, it looked like everything would be lost. This marked a major test in the life of King Ahaz of Judah: would he or would he not seek the Lord and trust Him. Ahaz was in Jerusalem, living next door to the temple and the ark of the presence of God. It was only a short walk across the patio from his palace. It would have been so easy to go and seek the God of his father? Certainly David had learned how important it was to seek God, but would his great-great-great grandson Ahaz?<\/p>\n
Sadly, Ahaz did not seek the Lord, but asked for help from the Assyrians, and although the attack against Jerusalem was ultimately unsuccessful, Judah sustained a lot of damage, losing many people in the war and their only southern port city on the Gulf of Aqaba in the Indian Ocean. And as a result of seeking help from Assyria, Judah became subject to the king of Assyria, giving him silver and gold from the treasuries and dismantling parts of the temple to appease him. How different things might have turned out if King Ahaz had humbled himself and sought God.<\/p>\n
A mother named Mary Farwell wrote, \u201cI was listening to my 5-year-old son, Matthew, as he worked on his Speak and SpellTM<\/small><\/sup> computer. He was concentrating intensely, typing words for the computer to speak back to him. He punched in the word God<\/em>. To his surprise, the computer said, \u2018Word not found.\u2019 He tried again and got the same reply. With great disgust, he stared at the computer and told it in no uncertain terms, \u2018Jesus is not going to like this!\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Many people never find the word<\/em> because they refuse to humble themselves before Him. Will you?<\/p>\n LORD, we chose to humble ourselves before You this day. Please cleanse us and use us in Jesus\u2019 name.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n =============================================================<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2 Kings 16 KJV<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1<\/sup>\u00a0In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign.\u00a02<\/sup>\u00a0Twenty years old\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>Ahaz when he began to reign, and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem, and did not\u00a0that which was\u00a0<\/em>right in the sight of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0his God, like David his father.\u00a03<\/sup>\u00a0But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yea, and made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen, whom the\u00a0LORD\u00a0cast out from before the children of Israel.\u00a04<\/sup>\u00a0And he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree. 5<\/sup>\u00a0Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to war: and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome\u00a0him\u00a0<\/em>.\u00a06<\/sup>\u00a0At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria, and drave the Jews from Elath: and the Syrians came to Elath, and dwelt there unto this day.\u00a0\u00a07<\/sup>\u00a0So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, I\u00a0am\u00a0<\/em>thy servant and thy son: come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, which rise up against me.\u00a08<\/sup>\u00a0And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the\u00a0LORD, and in the treasures of the king\u2019s house, and sent\u00a0it for\u00a0<\/em>a present to the king of Assyria.\u00a09<\/sup>\u00a0And the king of Assyria hearkened unto him: for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried\u00a0the people of\u00a0<\/em>it captive to Kir, and slew Rezin.\u00a010<\/sup> And king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and saw an altar that\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>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.\u00a0\u00a011<\/sup>\u00a0And Urijah the priest built an altar according to all that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus: so Urijah the priest made\u00a0it\u00a0<\/em>against king Ahaz came from Damascus.\u00a012<\/sup>\u00a0And when the king was come from Damascus, the king saw the altar: and the king approached to the altar, and offered thereon.\u00a013<\/sup>\u00a0And 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.\u00a0\u00a014<\/sup>\u00a0And he brought also the brasen altar, which\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>before the\u00a0LORD, from the forefront of the house, from between the altar and the house of the\u00a0LORD, and put it on the north side of the altar.\u00a015<\/sup>\u00a0And king Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, Upon the great altar burn the morning burnt offering, and the evening meat offering, and the king\u2019s 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\u00a0by\u00a0<\/em>.\u00a016<\/sup>\u00a0Thus did Urijah the priest, according to all that king Ahaz commanded. 17<\/sup>\u00a0And king Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases, and removed the laver from off them; and took down the sea from off the brasen oxen that\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>under it, and put it upon a pavement of stones.\u00a018<\/sup>\u00a0And the covert for the sabbath that they had built in the house, and the king\u2019s entry without, turned he from the house of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0for the king of Assyria. 19<\/sup>\u00a0Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did,\u00a0are<\/em>they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?\u00a020<\/sup>\u00a0And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David: and Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Israel and Syria joined together to attack Judah, and as their combined armies approached, it looked like everything would be lost. This marked a major test in the life of King Ahaz of Judah: would he or would he not seek the Lord and trust Him. Ahaz was in Jerusalem, living next door to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6881"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6881"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16290,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6881\/revisions\/16290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}