2 Kings 16:10-13 (ESV Strong's)
When King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, he saw the altar that was at Damascus. And King Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest a model of the altar, and its pattern, exact in all its details. And Uriah the priest built the altar; in accordance with all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, so Uriah the priest made it, before King Ahaz arrived from Damascus. And when the king came from Damascus, the king viewed the altar. Then the king drew near to the altar and went up on it and burned his burnt offering and his grain offering and poured his drink offering and threw the blood of his peace offerings on the altar.
Tag: The World’s System Seems Nice
Ahaz was not a good king for Judah. He did many evil things and had very little concern for the Word of God. The above story shows his lack of spiritual sensitivity. When he visited a foreign land and foreign king, he saw a worship system (complete with an alter) that caught his eyes. It was a shinny thing to Ahaz. He drew a picture of the shinny thing and sent it back home to his high priest, Uriah. Uriah was commanded by Ahaz to build a replica of this shinny, worldly worship system. This is where it all goes bad. There is one thing for Ahaz to disregard the Word of God, but quite another for the high priest to disregard God’s Word. Uriah should have stood up to the king; even to the point of death. But, he did not. Instead Ahaz begins to “redesign” Solomon’s Temple to become more like the world around him. Ahaz has now traveled the “world” and has his eyes open to new ideas and new innovations. He finds a new way to worship. This was in his heart prior, but now he is creating this spirit for the nation of Judah. This is a very dark time. Ahaz is “enlightened” and no doubt sees his current way of worship as archaic and out of step with the world. He wants to fit in. He sees the shinny things of the world and begins to integrate them with God’s prescribed way to worship. This is the downfall of Ahaz and Judah. The world may have shinny things. They may seem to fit “today’s mindset.” But, God has His Word, which is the same today and forever. We can often see the world’s way of doing things and want to fold them into God’s ways. That is not what God wants. It might look shinny and new and progressive and enlightened, but if it means we start dismantling God’s way, it is wrong. Notice what Ahaz further tells Uriah to do:
2 Kings 16:14-16 (ESV Strong's)
And the bronze altar that was before the Lord he removed from the front of the house, from the place between his altar and the house of the Lord, and put it on the north side of his altar. And King Ahaz commanded Uriah the priest, saying, “On the great altar burn the morning burnt offering and the evening grain offering and the king's burnt offering and his grain offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their grain offering and their drink offering. And throw on it all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifice, but the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by.” Uriah the priest did all this, as King Ahaz commanded.
And “Uriah the priest did all this ...”. Ahaz took it upon himself to dismantle what God put together for the purpose of fitting in with the world around him. It sounds very much like the modern day church. We simply want our worship to look acceptable to the world so we remove anything that might be offensive to them and worship like the world would worship. Attractive? Yes! Authentic? No.
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