How quick fixes can destroy us

 A student at a Bible college where I taught was in his last year before becoming a pastor. He was having trouble submitting his last assignment in time and, in desperation, he copied substantial parts of someone else’s essay. What seemed like a quick fix, a shortcut to finishing on time, however, turned into a major setback when he was discovered. Not only did he experience shame, but he was called up for a disciplinary hearing by the college, had to resubmit a brand-new essay and his actions were noted in his assessment for pastoral ministry. I remember the shock I felt at what had happened. It was worrying to think that a future pastor gave in at the first sign of pressure. What else might they do when the stakes were high in the real world?

Ahaz’s evaluation and choice of a quick fix

The story of King Ahaz reminds me of this incident, except that the student above was distraught and repentant and Judah’s king was not. While earlier kings of Judah were essentially recognised as doing right, Ahaz’s evaluation is entirely negative (2 Kings 16:2). He sacrificed his son to a foreign god (the meaning of passing him through the fire; 2 Kings 16:3) and was involved in the local fertility cults (practised ‘under every green tree’; 2 Kings 16:4). Israel and Aram, who have already troubled Ahaz’s father (2 Kings 15:37), now besiege Jerusalem and Aram also conquers Elath (modern-day Eilat on the southernmost tip of Israel at the top of the Gulf of Aqaba). This is God’s wake-up call for Ahaz to repent and trust Him, but he does not even see this as an option.[1] Instead, he turns to the growing Assyrian empire (north of Israel and Aram) to get help and pays him off from the royal and temple treasuries (2 Kings 16:7-8).

From quick fix to enslavement

It is a quick fix, but what Ahaz does not appreciate is that Israel and Aram are negligible enemies compared to Assyria. He was meant to be God’s servant and son (cf. 2 Sam 7:14, 19; Ps 2:7),[2] but he submits instead to a foreign and earthly power (‘I am your servant and your son’ in 2 Kings 16:7). In effect, he willingly enslaves himself to escape his difficulties, even though this is the very empire that will destroy Israel (2 Kings 17:6) and threaten Judah later (2 King 18:13). Alarmingly, Ahaz’s subservience also opens the door to other influences in worship. It is unclear if the pagan altar he sees in Damascus (2 Kings 16:10) is Assyrian or Aramean,[3] but the copy he erects in the Jerusalem temple becomes the main altar, while the original bronze one becomes a mere private altar for the king (2 Kings 16:14-15). While this may seem like harmless cultural accommodation – after all, the sacrifices are still Israelite ones[4] – the way the altar ‘before the LORD’ (v.14) is moved from its central position to an auxiliary one is a visual clue to what is happening on the spiritual level. The worship of God is made subservient to a power other than God.

How quick fixes can destroy us

Ahaz’s story is confronting. Who has not known the tug of an ‘easy’ solution that could pull us into a whirlpool of slavery to sin? It could be marriage trouble that leads to unburdening oneself to someone sympathetic from the opposite sex leading to attraction and adultery… It could be an addiction that requires money and more money until the person is drawn into embezzlement. Like Ahaz did regarding Israel’s worship, a church can make seemingly innocent changes to be more relevant or accommodating to the expectations of the culture around us and thereby compromise God’s Word. What constitutes a compromise is a matter of debate but as Olley observes,

This chapter becomes a mirror focusing light on the centrality of motivation. Are changes a matter of acceptance, adopting cultural norms that are contrary to the way of Christ, lessening ‘the offence of the cross’ (Gal 5:11)? Or is the drive missiological (1 Cor 9:19–23), an outworking of the work of the Spirit who speaks to all ‘in our native language’ (Acts 2:8)? Is the action seeking to please ‘the LORD’ or ‘the king of Assyria’?[5]

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[1] Isaiah 7:1-25 records the same incident with some more dramatic detail.

[2] In 2 Samuel 7:12-14, God promises to David that his son, Solomon, will build the temple and that His relationship to David’s descendant will be like a father to a son, correcting and disciplining as necessary (v.14). Psalm 2 is thought to be a coronation psalm where the king is pronounced God’s son at the occasion of his coronation (Ps 2:7). This does not mean divinity but a submissive stance of the human king under the authority of the divine King, God Himself. Both these passages are also interpreted messianically and apply to Jesus, who is God’s Son in the fullest sense, obedient to the Father but also sharing His divine nature.

[3] Since Ahaz meets the Assyrian king in the conquered Aramean city of Damascus, the altar is more likely to be an Aramean one. Moreover, the Assyrians did not require vassal states like Judah to worship the Assyrian gods, so copying the altar is not a political necessity but Ahaz’s own initiative.

[4] The language of the different types of offerings and the sprinkling of the blood (2 Kings 16:13, 15) are recognisable from Leviticus 1-6 and the writer of Kings does not mention the worship of other gods at this point, which suggest that the issue is more subtle than outright pagan worship.

[5] John W. Olley, The Message of Kings: God is present, BST (Nottingham: IVP, 2011), 303.

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