God’s Word for You

2 Chronicles 28:16-19 he had behaved without restraint

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Friday, May 16, 2025

16 At that time King Ahaz sent to the king of Assyria for help. 17 For the Edomites had invaded again. They attacked Judah and carried away captives. 18 Also, the Philistines had made raids on the cities in the Shephelah and the Negeb of Judah. They had taken Beth Shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Soco with its villages, Timnah with its villages, and Gimzo with its villages. They occupied all these. 19 The LORD humbled Judah because of Ahaz, king of Israel, for he had behaved without restraint in Judah and he had been unfaithful to the LORD.

The King of Assyria at this time was Tiglath-Pileser III, who ruled from 745-727 BC when Assyria was already an important power. In 743 he defeated a rival neighboring kingdom known as Urartu (Ararat) and was on his way to subjugating the Babylonians. He was interested in controlling Damascus and the region around Mount Qasioun and Mount Hermon. Ahaz asked Tiglath-Pileser for help because he believed that they were the only help available.

At this time, Egypt was broken into three rival kingdoms: Osorkon IV (740-730) was Pharaoh of the 22nd Dynasty and distant successor to the same Shishak who troubled Rehoboam (1 Kings 14:25). But a Nubian king named Piye (744-714) successfully extended Cushite rule into southern Egypt and was a constant threat to Osorkon. His 25th Dynasty lasted a century (a 23rd Dynasty had ended during the reign of Jotham, Ahaz’ father). At about this time, a rival faction was coming to power in the western Nile Delta, and another Osorkon, probably a military officer, was succeeded there by a prince named Tefnakht (Tνέϕαχθoς) who began a 24th Dynasty, ruling 732-725 BC. This is why, a few years later, the Assyrian commander would say to Ahaz’ son, “You are depending on Egypt, a splintered reed of a staff, which pierces a man’s hand and wounds him if he leans on it” (Isaiah 36:6). When there were three Pharaohs all scrambling for power over the same Nile-flooded fields, all three could make promises, but not one of them could ever leave home without being afraid he would not have a home to return to.

So when Edom attacked Judah from the east and the Philistines attacked Judah from the west, and Samaria was an enemy just waiting for its chance, Ahaz turned to Assyria and forgot to ask the Lord for help. The Lord noticed—not only that Judah was in danger, but that Judah was not asking him for help. Therefore, it was time to humble Judah.

This humbling begins with something Ahaz was aware of and which our author says out loud but which might surprise the reader. The prophet calls Ahaz “the King of Israel.” Of course, he was not the king of the present Israel; that was Pekah. But the ten tribes of Israel had been torn away from the ancestor of Ahaz, and the use of this term for Ahaz is a reminder of what happens when a king turns his back on the Lord.

This humbling of Ahaz was on account of his unbelief, his refusal to repent, and his acting “without restraint” in the many wicked things he did, which broke all of the laws of the Lord and probably many of the secular laws of the land as well. He was a tyrant who wanted to act like the tyrants who lived all around him. Ahaz made idols with his own hands, pouring the metal into the molds and choosing which one suited him best. He was searching for a god to give him glory and power and authority over other nations. And he was making a fool of himself.

Those things are not the marks of the true God. Our God tells us about himself in the Bible. He doesn’t show himself to us in greatness, but in weakness. Isaiah, who preached to Ahaz and stood toe-to-toe with this king, described God to all who would listen: “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering” (Isaiah 53:2-3). Surely Ahaz and others like him demanded miraculous signs of God, “and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified; a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles” (1 Corinthians 1:22-23). For God “was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe” (1 Cornthians 1:21). So a king like Ahaz needed to be shown how much he needed the true God and not his polished statues that decorated the bathroom hallway of his palace, next to the closet where Ahaz’ wife Abijah kept the guest towels. He would lose and he would keep on losing. And each and every loss, every town, every village, every skirmish and every battle, was a call to repentance. Each of these things took place with the very same force as the questions God asked in the Garden. “Why were you hiding? Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat the fruit?” Setbacks like these are the hand of God held out to us while there is still breath in our lungs and life in our bodies. He invites us to trust in him, to expect nothing but good things from him, and to be saved by his grace and mercy.

You may already guess what the end will be like for Ahaz. But remember that setbacks, troubles, crosses in our lives, are equally blessings for us that the Lord sends to focus our attention on him alone. To ask his forgiveness. To appreciate his gifts. To trust in his salvation. He is the hidden God; the God who chooses to be found in the cross of Christ and not on a throne of gold. This is “the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints” (Colossians 1:26). This is the mystery of the love of God, of the power of God, and of God’s saving hand. Behold how he grasps us when troubles come our way, so that at the same time he has permitted us to see the trouble and to see his love and rescue! What a marvelous, wonderful Savior he is!

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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