Judah slid downhill during the reign of Ahaz. He manifested deep unfaithfulness towards the Lord by committing several detestable sins. He engaged in idolatry and worshipped the idols of the original Canaanites which were abhorrent to the Lord. He offered or allowed the people to offer child sacrifices to pagan idols, an action which was and still is by far one of the worst sins any one can commit. The modern sin of abortion is the same as human sacrifice was then. It is abhorrent to the Lord because the underlying motive of all abortions is idolatry, worship of false gods. In the contemporary world, these gods are not Baal, Ashtoreth or Molech, but selfishness, pride and autonomy, among others.
Ahaz also closed the Temple of the Lord and stopped the rightful worship of Yahweh. He did not seek the Lord’s help when attacked by Samaria but trusted in Assyria for help. Assyria turned out to be more trouble than help: eventually Judah became a vassal which required her to pay tribute. In fact, the Lord was using Samaria to chastise Judah but Samaria went too far in her slaughter of fellow Hebrews. The Samaritans were chastised for brutalizing their brethren in Judah and they repented and treated the survivors with kindness. Yet they too would suffer as a result of Judah’s alliance with Assyria since that nation later overran Israel and carried off the Samaritans into slavery and exile. The lesson of course is that we who are called Christians should trust in the Lord even when the odds seem stacked against us. The Lord is more powerful than any human being or government or army.
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