{"id":35661,"date":"2025-05-01T22:00:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T05:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=35661"},"modified":"2025-04-22T22:53:30","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T05:53:30","slug":"2-kings-16_1-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/2-kings-16_1-20\/","title":{"rendered":"Before You Make That Change, Ask Why"},"content":{"rendered":"

2 Kings\u00a0 16:1-20 (CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 2 Kings 16:1-20.\u00a0 As usual,\u00a0I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.\u00a0 See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

2 Kings 16:1-4 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0In the seventeenth year of Pekah son of Remaliah, Ahaz son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign.
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem sixteen years. Unlike David his father, he did not do what was right in the eyes of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0his God.
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and even sacrificed his son in the fire, following the detestable ways of the nations the\u00a0LORD\u00a0had driven out before the Israelites.
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He offered sacrifices and burned incense at the high places, on the hilltops and under every spreading tree.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses\u00a01-4:\u00a0 Ahaz replaces his father Jotham as king of Judah. Unlike his father, Ahaz is deeply into idol worship.\u00a0 As part of worshiping an idol, Ahaz sacrifices his child in the fire (v3), hoping it will bring him prosperity. As horrific as such an act is and sounds, it is also a warning for parents today.\u00a0Sometimes parents can be tempted to sacrifice their children for the sake of their careers or their financial gain.\u00a0 So we neglect our children and deprive them of our presence all in the name of “making money for the family”<\/strong>.\u00a0 While working and being providers for the family is important, let\u2019s\u00a0remember that in all our working and striving that our real treasure is our children and that what they need even more than money or material things is us, our time and our presence<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

2 Kings 16:5-9 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel marched up to fight against Jerusalem and besieged Ahaz, but they could not overpower him.
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0At that time, Rezin king of Aram recovered Elath for Aram by driving out the men of Judah. Edomites then moved into Elath and have lived there to this day.
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Ahaz sent messengers to say to Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria, “I am your servant and vassal. Come up and save me out of the hand of the king of Aram and of the king of Israel, who are attacking me.”
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0And Ahaz took the silver and gold found in the temple of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0and in the treasuries of the royal palace and sent it as a gift to the king of Assyria.
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The king of Assyria complied by attacking Damascus and capturing it. He deported its inhabitants to Kir and put Rezin to death.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 5-9: To help him in his ongoing battles against Rezin King of Aram and Pekah King of Israel, Ahaz looks to Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria for help. In verse 8, Ahaz takes gold and silver from the temple of the Lord (as well as from the royal treasuries) and pays them to Tiglath-Pileser in exchange for his help and protection. Ahaz takes what belongs to the house of God and uses it for another purpose.\u00a0 Similarly,\u00a0when you’re under financial pressure, you may be tempted to think, “Let’s not tithe to the church.<\/strong>\u00a0 Let’s take what we would otherwise pay to God and use it for some other purpose.”\u00a0\u00a0If you live that way, don’t be surprised if even then you still don’t have enough.<\/strong>\u00a0 For God’s promise is: seek His kingdom first and take good care of God’s house, and He will give you everything you need and more (Matthew\u00a06:33; Malachi\u00a03:16)<\/p>\n

2 Kings 16:10-20 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria. He saw an altar in Damascus and sent to Uriah the priest a sketch of the altar, with detailed plans for its construction.
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So Uriah the priest built an altar in accordance with all the plans that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus and finished it before King Ahaz returned.
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When the king came back from Damascus and saw the altar, he approached it and presented offerings on it.
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He offered up his burnt offering and grain offering, poured out his drink offering, and sprinkled the blood of his fellowship offerings on the altar.
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The bronze altar that stood before the\u00a0LORD\u00a0he brought from the front of the temple–from between the new altar and the temple of the\u00a0LORD–and put it on the north side of the new altar.
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0King Ahaz then gave these orders to Uriah the priest: “On the large new altar, offer the morning burnt offering and the evening grain offering, the king’s burnt offering and his grain offering, and the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their grain offering and their drink offering. Sprinkle on the altar all the blood of the burnt offerings and sacrifices. But I will use the bronze altar for seeking guidance.”
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0And Uriah the priest did just as King Ahaz had ordered.
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0King Ahaz took away the side panels and removed the basins from the movable stands. He removed the Sea from the bronze bulls that supported it and set it on a stone base.
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He took away the Sabbath canopy that had been built at the temple and removed the royal entryway outside the temple of the\u00a0LORD, in deference to the king of Assyria.
\n19\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0As for the other events of the reign of Ahaz, and what he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah?
\n20\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Ahaz rested with his fathers and was buried with them in the City of David. And Hezekiah his son succeeded him as king.
\nOn verses 10-20: To thank Tiglath-Pileser for his help, Ahaz goes to Assyria to meet him. While there, Ahaz is so impressed and influenced by what he sees at Tiglath-Pileser\u2019s idol worshiping sites that he tells his priest Uriah back home to make him an altar that looks just like Tiglath-Pileser’s and to place it in the temple of the Lord. Ahaz gets all the people to make their offerings on this large new altar and takes the old altar for himself to use for his own divination activities (v15-16). He also starts to undo many of the furnishings and equipment that the Lord had instituted for the temple (v17-18).\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Why did Ahaz make these changes?\u00a0 It wasn’t because he loved the Lord or wanted to bring more people to worship Him.\u00a0 Rather, Ahaz instituted these changes because he wanted to please the king of the Assyrians (“in deference to the king of Assyria” (v18) and to look more like them.\u00a0 In so doing, he took the people of Judah further and further away from the Lord.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0When you want to make a major change to your body (which the Bible calls the temple of the Holy Spirit –\u00a0<\/strong>1<\/strong>\u00a0Corinthians\u00a06:19), your church (which is Christ’s temple and also Christ’s body –\u00a0<\/strong>1<\/strong>\u00a0Corinthians\u00a012:10) or to some other important part of your life, ask yourself: why do you want to make those changes?<\/strong>\u00a0 What is your motive?\u00a0 Are you doing it in faith or in fear?\u00a0 What does God think about this change you want to make?\u00a0\u00a0Your motive behind a change is important when determining whether or not you should make that change.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Father, I pray that I would not sacrifice my children for the sake of my career, or sacrifice my church for the sake of getting the world’s help or approval. Before I make a major change, may I also be careful to check my motives.\u00a0 \u00a0In Jesus’ name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

copyright \u00a9 2022 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 2 Kings 16:1-20.\u00a0 As usual,\u00a0I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.\u00a0 See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!\u00a0<\/p>\n

2 Kings 16:1-4 (NIV)
\n1\u00a0\u00a0In the seventeenth year of Pekah son of Remaliah, Ahaz son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign.
\n2\u00a0\u00a0Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem sixteen years. Unlike David his father, he did not do what was right in the eyes of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0his God.
\n3\u00a0\u00a0He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and even sacrificed his son in the fire, following the detestable ways of the nations the\u00a0LORD\u00a0had driven out before the Israelites.
\n4\u00a0\u00a0He offered sacrifices and burned incense at the high places, on the hilltops and under every spreading tree.
\n\u00a0
\nOn verses\u00a01-4:\u00a0 Ahaz replaces his father Jotham as king of Judah. Unlike his father, Ahaz is deeply into idol worship.\u00a0 As part of worshiping an idol, Ahaz sacrifices his child in the fire (v3), hoping it will bring him prosperity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35663,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35661"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35664,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35661\/revisions\/35664"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}