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David Guzik · Citado em PreceptAustin
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Guzik writes - Micah 7:2-7 is a good description of the depravity of the times of Ahaz and the reaction of the godly remnant to it. Micah 7:2-7+ (MICAH BEGAN HIS PROPHETIC MINISTRY TO JUDAH ca. 742 BC OR ABOUT 10 YEARS PRIOR TO AHAZ BECOMING KING IN JUDAH cf Micah 1:1) - The godly person has perished from the land, And there is no upright person among men. All of them lie in wait for bloodshed; Each of them hunts the other with a net. 3 Concerning evil, both hands do it well. The prince asks, also the judge, for a bribe, And a great man speaks the desire of his soul; So they weave it together. 4 The best of them is like a briar, The most upright like a thorn hedge. The day when you post your watchmen, Your punishment will come. Then their confusion will occur. 5 Do not trust in a neighbor; Do not have confidence in a friend. From her who lies in your bosom Guard your lips. 6 For son treats father contemptuously, Daughter rises up against her mother, Daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; A man’s enemies are the men of his own household. 7 But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. 2 Chronicles 28:3 Moreover, he burned incense in the valley of Ben-hinnom and burned his sons in fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD had driven out before the sons of Israel. the valley: 2Ki 23:10 Jer 7:31,32 19:2-6,13 burned: 2Ch 33:6 Lev 18:21 2Ki 16:3 Ps 106:37,38 Jer 2:34 32:35 Eze 16:20,21 Mic 6:7 the abominations: 2Ch 33:2 De 12:31 Related Passages: 2 Kings 16:3+ But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and even made his son (NOTE PLURAL IN CHRONICLES) pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD had driven out from before the sons of Israel. Leviticus 18:21+ ‘You shall not give any of your offspring to offer them to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God; I am the LORD. Deuteronomy 12:29-31+ (GOD'S CLEAR WARNING AGAINST PAGAN PRACTICES) “When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations which you are going in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, 30beware that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations serve their gods, that I also may do likewise?’ 31 “You shall not behave thus toward the LORD your God, for every abominable act which the LORD hates they have done for their gods; for they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. Deuteronomy 18:10+ “There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 2 Kings 23:10+ (KING JOSIAH) He also defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire for Molech. AHAZ ABOMINATION SON SACRIFICE! Moreover, he burned incense in the valley of Ben-hinnom and burned his sons in fire, according to the abominations (toebah; LXX - bdelugma - destestable things) of the nations whom the LORD had driven out before the sons of Israel. This verse marks the depth of Ahaz’s apostasy. Notice that Ahaz is acting as his own priest burning incense. Kings said he made his son (singular) "pass through the fire" but the Chronicler states it more dreadfully that he burned his sons (plural)! The Valley of Ben-hinnom, just outside Jerusalem, had become a center of Canaanite worship where the god Molech was honored with grotesque rites. Ahaz not only offered incense there, participating personally in pagan rituals, but went further and burned his own sons (PLURAL) in the fire, a practice explicitly condemned in the Law (Dt 12:31+; Dt 18:10+). What God had called an “abomination” Ahaz embraced as acceptable religion. It is interesting that the word Gehenna (geenna) the place of eternal torment is related to Ben-hinnom. The phrase “according to the abominations of the nations” recalls that these were the very sins for which the LORD had expelled the Canaanites from the land and yet now the king of Judah was now imitating the evils that once brought divine judgment on the land (and would in fact bring divine judgment on the land again!) Instead of protecting his children and his people, Ahaz sacrificed them to false gods, revealing how idolatry enslaves, deceives, dehumanizes and destroys. This act shows that his rebellion was not merely political compromise but a complete moral and spiritual collapse, replacing the worship of the life-giving LORD with the cruel satanic rituals of pagan darkness. Warren
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Guzik - Molech was worshipped by heating a metal statue representing the god until it was red hot, then placing a living infant on the outstretched hands of the statue, while beating drums drowned out the screams of the child until it burned to death. Sadly, even a man as great as Solomon at least sanctioned the worship of Molech and built a temple to this idol (1 Kings 11:7). One of the great crimes of the northern tribes of Israel was their worship of Molech, leading to the Assyrian captivity (2 Kings 17:17). King Manasseh of Judah gave his son to Molech (2 Kings 21:6). Up to the days of King Josiah of Judah, Molech worship continued, until he destroyed a place of worship to that idol (2 Kings 23:10). Frederick Mabie: A key attraction to Baal-Hadad was his presumed dominion over storms (i.e., rain), while a key attraction point for Asherah was her presumed dominion over fertility – both of which were key areas of concern for ancient societies such as Judah and Israel. But acts of spiritual compromise can have unexpected waves of consequences, as seen in the subsequent events of this chapter. . . The Valley of Ben Hinnom was located south of the Temple Mount and came to symbolize grave apostasy (Jer 32:35). During the reforms of Josiah this area was purged of its ignominious usage (cf. 2Ki 23:4-14). Ultimately the area became a city dump used for refuse and even the bodies of criminals; it was marked by constant fires and dreadful sights and smells. In the light of this imagery, the Hebrew expression for this valley (approximately “Gehenna”) came to be used of hell itself (cf. Mt 10:28; Mk 9:43, 47). (SEE 1 and 2 Chronicles) J.A. Thompson: Even worse than imitating the apostasy of the Northern Kingdom, Ahaz is condemned for behaving as the cursed Canaanites, whose culture was so vile that God had ordered its elimination (Lev 18:28; 20:23; Deut 7:22-26; 12:2-4; 18:9- 14). Little wonder that Yahweh visited Ahaz with judgment in the form of an Aramean attack. (SEE 1, 2 Chronicles: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition) Spurgeon -The worship of Moloch was one of the most horrible that can be imagined. A brazen image was made terribly hot, and then children were thrust into its burning arms to be consumed; and this king went to such a length that he gave his own children to death in that cruel fashion in the place commonly called by the Jews Topheth, or, the place of spitting, since it was so loathsome to them to think of this false God. John Schultz: Evidently, in the worship of Molech, babies and young children were thrown alive in the mouth of the idol in which a fire was burning. When Israel was on her way to Canaan, God warned them about the atrocious practices of the people of the land. We read: “Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.” And: “You must not worship the Lord your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.” John Walton - 28:3. Valley of Ben Hinnom. The Valley of Ben Hinnom was on the south side of Jerusalem and joined the Kidron Valley at the southeast corner of the city. Access from the city to Ben Hinnom came from the Potsherd Gate and the Valley Gate. The valley became infamous for Baal worship because of the acts of Ahaz and Manasseh. Josiah defiled the region in order to prevent future idolatrous acts (2 Kings 23:10). (See page 449 The IVP Bible Background Commentary-Old Testament) David Guzik - “The ‘Valley of (the son of) Hinnom’ descended eastward below the southern edge of the city of Jerusalem; and it became noted as the scene of Judah’s most revolting pagan practices (2 Chronicles 33:6). It was later defiled by King Josiah and converted into a place of refuse for the city (2 Kings 23:10); thus the perpetual fires of ‘Gehenna’ became descriptive of hell itself (Mark 9:43).” (Payne) The Canaanite nations that occupied Canaan before the time of Joshua also practiced this terrible form of human and child sacrifice. God would bring judgment upon Judah for their continued practice of these sins. This reminds us that the war against the Canaanites in the Book of Joshua – as terrible and complete as it was – was not a racial war. God’s judgment did not come upon the Canaanites through the armies of Israel because of their race, but because of their sin. If Israel insisted on walking in the same sins, God would bring similar judgment upon them. John Walton - 28:3. sons passing through the fire. The biblical writers distinguished between the practice of the nations of burning their children in the service to their gods (Deut 12:31 and 2 Kings 17:31) and the idolatrous Israelites who “passed their sons and daughters through the fire.” If “passing through the fire” was something different than child sacrifice, it is not certain what it was. In Deuteronomy 18:9 “passing through the fire” appears with other Canaanite divination practices. There are hints from contemporary Assyrian sources of burning children in this period. In some Assyrian economic documents the penalty clauses include “burning children to Sin.” (See page 449 The IVP Bible Background Commentary-Old Testament) Henry
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Guzik - So ended the reign of perhaps the worst king of Judah. Micah – who prophesied during the reign of Ahaz – describes the man who works to successfully do evil with both hands (Micah 7:3). The idea is that the man pursues evil with all his effort, with both hands. He may very well have had King Ahaz in mind. G Campbell
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Guzik adds "Times of trial and distress do not necessarily drive people closer to God. Sometimes people allow such distresses to drive them away from God. Ahaz was notable among that type, so much so that the Chronicler noted, This is that King Ahaz." Frederick Mabie: This is one of the saddest verses in all of Chronicles. As noted above (2Ch 28:9, 19), the judgment of God via the incursions of the surrounding nations is a direct result of the unfaithfulness of Ahaz (and Judah) to obey and trust the Lord fully. While such covenantal consequences are intended to drive God’s people back to him in repentance, Ahaz instead becomes “even more unfaithful” and pursues greater levels of wickedness by raiding the temple and palace treasuries, worshiping additional deities associated with the Arameans, and looting the temple for the furnishings of his many high places (cf. 2Ch 28:21-25). By so doing Ahaz spurns the forgiving nature of the God, who abounds in mercy and forgiveness when his people seek him in humility and contrition. (SEE 1 and 2 Chronicles) Unfaithful (verb) (be or act unfaithful) (04603) maal means to act unfaithfully, to trespass, to violate one's duty, to break faith, to commit a violation, to act. The idea is of a conscious act of treachery or unfaithfulness against the Lord. NET Note - The word maal refers to some kind of overstepping of the boundary between that which is common (i.e., available for common use by common people) and that which is holy (i.e., to be used only for holy purposes because it has been consecrated to the LORD). Maal - 36v - act(1), acted(2), acted treacherously(2), acting(1), acting treacherously(1), acting unfaithfully(1), acts(2), became...unfaithful(1), been(1), been unfaithful(5), broke faith(1), committed(6), committing unfaithfulness(1), err(1), perpetrated(1), unfaithful(3), unfaithfulness they committed(1), violated(1). Gen. 32:7; Exod. 12:34; Deut. 28:52; Jos. 9:4; Jdg. 2:15; Jdg. 10:9; Jdg. 11:7; 1 Sam. 25:29; 1 Sam. 28:15; 1 Sam. 30:6; 2 Sam. 1:26; 2 Sam. 13:2; 2 Sam. 20:3; 1 Ki. 8:37; 1 Chr. 21:13; 2 Chr. 6:28; 2 Chr. 28:20; 2 Chr. 28:22; 2 Chr. 33:12; Neh. 9:27; Job 18:7; Job 20:22; Job 26:8; Ps. 31:9; Ps. 69:17; Prov. 4:12; Prov. 26:8; Prov. 30:4; Isa. 8:16; Isa. 28:20; Isa. 49:19; Jer. 10:18; Lam. 1:20; Hos. 4:19; Hos. 13:12; Zeph. 1:17 G Campbell
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Guzik - Ahaz’s grandfather Azariah (Uzziah) dared to enter the temple and serve God as a priest (2 Chronicles 26). Yet at least Azariah falsely worshipped the true God. Ahaz falsely worshipped a false god of his own creation. “Uzziah for so doing was smitten with leprosy; but Ahaz of a far worse disease, an incurable hardness of heart.” (Trapp) And said, “Because the gods of the kings of Aram helped (azar) - them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help (azar) me.” - This is utter foolishness, but shows the corrupting effect of sin on the ability of a person to even have "common sense." Ahaz could not think clearly, because he was so deceived by his bondage to idolatry. One has to wonder if by now God has given Ahaz over to his fallen flesh like in Romans 1:28+ where Paul writes "just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer (LIKE AHAZ), God gave them over (paradidomi) to a depraved (adokimos) mind, to do those things which are not proper." Amaziah Worshiped Defeated Gods, Ahaz Worshiped Defeating Gods Note the bizaree double irony -- Whereas Amaziah foolishly sacrificed to gods he had defeated in Edom (2Ch 25:14–16+), Ahaz sacrified to godes that defeated him! Go figure! No, fall on your face before God, Who controlled both of these situations! But (strategic term of contrast) they became the downfall of him and all Israel. The verdict is swift and tragic. The gods Ahaz embraced did not rescue him but ruined him. Idolatry deepened the nation’s corruption, invited further judgment, and accelerated Judah’s collapse. What Ahaz foolishly thought promised help, delivered destruction. Ahaz’s personal apostasy spread like leaven through the people, proving that a leader’s false worship can drag an entire society into spiritual disaster. J.A. Thompson: A list of his apostasies is given. He offered sacrifices to the gods of Damascus whom he regarded as his conquerors, obviously blind to the truth that it was the Lord who was responsible for his defeat. It was a case of extreme apostasy, for it involved repudiation of the religious regulations the Lord gave Israel through Moses and David, although Ahaz probably worshiped the Lord along with the gods of Aram. Certainly Ahaz seems to have turned in all directions for help – the Assyrians, the gods of the kings of Aram – everywhere except to the Lord, the God of Israel, the source of the “help” he needed. These others served only to ruin Ahaz and all Israel. (SEE 1, 2 Chronicles: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition) John Walton - gods of Damascus. Most of the people groups in the ancient Near East believed that the gods had limited geographic jurisdiction. The god’s land was in effect under the stewardship of the monarch. Normally the gods did not have control of events occurring in other regions (where other gods had jurisdiction). Since most wars were conducted as holy wars, credit was given to the god(s) of the victorious army. As early as the mid-third millennium B.C. the Sumerian city of Lagash claimed that their gods gave them victory over neighboring Umma. Here Ahaz is making a frank admission that since the Arameans had been victorious over him, their gods were more powerful and in the right. The gods of Damascus were from the Aramean pantheon and included Hadad (the storm deity), which was most probably the proper name of Baal, known from Canaanite sources. Ahaz also made a large altar to the “gods of Damascus” (see 2 Kings 16:9-16). It is not clear whether the altar was Phoenician, Aramean or even Assyrian. It was to replace the bronze altar built by Solomon. The temple that Ahaz visited was probably that of Hadad-Rimmon (cf. 2 Kings 5:18). However the rites described here are typically Israelite (See page 450 The IVP Bible Background Commentary-Old Testament) C H Spurgeon (Sermon on 2 Chr 28:23 - RUINS) - I HAVE a little to say about the condition of Judah under Ahaz, before I come to personal dealing with souls from this text. God had given to his people a very simple mode of worship. He was the invisible and only living God, and they were to worship him in spirit and in truth; there was to be one altar, and that was to be at Jerusalem; but all the rest of the world was given up to idolatry, and the Israelites were not a very spiritual people, so by-and-by they wanted something to see, some image, some symbol. When the ten tribes broke off from Judah, they set up images of a bull to represent the strength of Deity. Those who kept to the worship of the invisible Jehovah, without emblems, ridiculed these symbols, and called the bulls, in contempt, calves; but the calf-worship became very strong throughout Israel, and there were many in Judah who were attracted to it. It was the worship of God, but it was the worship of God in a wrong way: for there was a very express commandment which forbade it: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.” There are many still who worship idols and images; but they say, “No, we do not worship them; we worship God through them.” Just so, but that is as much forbidden in the second commandment as the worship of other gods is forbidden in the first; they are both violations of the Divine law. When the people of Judah had gone so far as to worship God through images, they went still farther, and bowed down to Baal and Ashtaroth, the sun, and even flies, for Baal-zebub, the god of flies, became one of the objects of adoration. Associated with this idolatry was everything that was sinful; I should not dare to tell you what horrible and loathsome abominations were witnessed in connection with the worship of these gods.
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Guzik - “Ahaz’s appropriation of the panels and bases from the sacred furniture does not seem to be for the purpose of sending a further gift to Tiglath-pileser but rather for deemphasizing their importance in the worship services. Perhaps he planned to reuse them in some other decorative way. At any rate death overtook him before his attention could be turned to them. They are mentioned among the several items that were carried away in the later Babylonian despoiling of Jerusalem (2 Kings 25:13-14; Jeremiah 27:19-20; 52:17-23).” (Patterson and Austel - see 1 Samuel - 2 Kings - Volume 3 - Page 894) We remember that all this took place at the temple Solomon built unto the LORD. The mere location did not make it true worship. Sometimes idols are worshipped at a house that was once dedicated to the true God. And he closed the doors of the house of the LORD For a more complete picture of how far Ahaz went in undermining the true worship of Yahweh, consult the account in 2 Kings 16:10–11, 17–18. Those verses describe Ahaz's deliberate imitation of a pagan altar he saw in Damascus, the construction of a copy within the temple precincts, and his arrogant command that Uriah the priest replace the divinely prescribed bronze altar with this foreign design. The passage further records how Ahaz dismantled sacred furnishings and altered temple arrangements to accommodate Assyrian interests, revealing a calculated effort to reshape Judah’s worship according to political expediency rather than covenant faithfulness. These actions show that Ahaz was not merely adding foreign elements alongside Yahweh worship, but was actively displacing it, even exchanging God’s revealed pattern for a man-made, pagan substitute. And made altars for himself in every corner of Jerusalem. This statement reveals how thoroughly Ahaz reshaped the spiritual landscape of the holy city. Jerusalem was meant to be the one place on earth where the LORD’s name dwelt, centered on a single altar according to God’s command. Yet Ahaz scattered rival altars throughout the city, turning what was to be a unified center of worship into a patchwork of idolatrous shrines. The phrase “for himself” exposes the heart of the matter—these altars were not built for the glory of God but to satisfy the king’s own preferences and political alliances. By filling “every corner of Jerusalem” with unauthorized places of sacrifice, Ahaz blurred the distinction between true worship and pagan practice. The city that David had established as the dwelling of the LORD became crowded with monuments to foreign gods. Instead of leading the people to the temple, the king led them away from it, making idolatry convenient and commonplace. His actions did more than multiply altars; they multiplied confusion, inviting the nation to serve many gods rather than the one true God. The verse paints a tragic picture of Jerusalem, the city of peace, being transformed by an evil king into a marketplace of false religion. What should have been a beacon to the nations became a mirror of the polytheisitic idolatry of the surrounding pagan world. Ahaz’s personal apostasy spilled into public life, and the spiritual center of Judah was slowly being dismantled stone by stone. WOE! G Campbell