Joel M Bradshaw

1In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, began to reign. 2Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the LORD his God, as his father David had done, 3but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even burned his son as an offering, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel. 4And he sacrificed and made offerings on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.–2 Kings 16

1. Israel up north was full of evil, compromising kings.
2. Today’s chapter is just a reminder that Judah had its share of evil ones, too.
3. Ahaz was simply horrible.
4. Rather than focusing on having an heir to pass on his crown, Ahaz killed his own son as an offering of worship.
5. Ahaz therefore focused more on worshiping the pagan gods than he did the God of Israel.
6. The word that God chose to use above to describe that was “despicable.”
7. Care more about the things of God than about the things of man.–JMB