Tiglath-pilese — Blog — KEN D. MILLER

6 At that time Rezin the king of Syria recovered Elath for Syria and drove the men of Judah from Elath, and the Edomites came to Elath, where they dwell to this day. 7 So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up and rescue me from the hand of the king of Syria and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are attacking me.” 8 Ahaz also took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasures of the king’s house and sent a present to the king of Assyria. 9 And the king of Assyria listened to him. The king of Assyria marched up against Damascus and took it, carrying its people captive to Kir, and he killed Rezin.

10 When King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, he saw the altar that was at Damascus. And King Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest a model of the altar, and its pattern, exact in all its details. 11 And Uriah the priest built the altar; in accordance with all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, so Uriah the priest made it, before King Ahaz arrived from Damascus. 12 And when the king came from Damascus, the king viewed the altar. Then the king drew near to the altar and went up on it 13 and burned his burnt offering and his grain offering and poured his drink offering and threw the blood of his peace offerings on the altar. 14 And the bronze altar that was before the Lord he removed from the front of the house, from the place between his altar and the house of the Lord, and put it on the north side of his altar. 15 And King Ahaz commanded Uriah the priest, saying, “On the great altar burn the morning burnt offering and the evening grain offering and the king’s burnt offering and his grain offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their grain offering and their drink offering. And throw on it all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifice, but the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by.” 16 Uriah the priest did all this, as King Ahaz commanded.

17 And King Ahaz cut off the frames of the stands and removed the basin from them, and he took down the sea from off the bronze oxen that were under it and put it on a stone pedestal. 18 And the covered way for the Sabbath that had been built inside the house and the outer entrance for the king he caused to go around the house of the Lord, because of the king of Assyria. 19 Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 20 And Ahaz slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David, and Hezekiah his son reigned in his place. – 2 Kings 16:6-20 ESV

As we have already seen, Ahaz patterned his reign after his contemporaries in the northern kingdom. The author states that “he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God, as his father David had done, but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel” (2 Kings 16:2 ESV). Rather than promote the worship of Yawheh, Ahaz adopted a variety of pagan gods and not only authorized but encouraged their worship. And as evidence of his personal commitment to these false gods, Ahaz made human sacrifices, offering up his own sons on their altars.

He even made metal images for the Baals, and he made offerings in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom and burned his sons as an offering, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. – 2 Chronicles 28:2-3 ESV

As a result, God authorized the Syrians and the Israelites to act as His agents of judgment against the kingdom of Judah. And while these two nations ended up making Ahaz’s life miserable, they were not allowed to defeat Judah. Yet their constant attacks resulted in the loss of land and lives. Hundreds of thousands of the citizens of Judah were killed or captured, leaving the rest of the people in a state of constant fear. And because Judah’s army had been unable to prevent these costly attacks, Ahaz was forced to seek assistance from the Assyrians.

So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up and rescue me from the hand of the king of Syria and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are attacking me.” – 2 Kings 16:7 ESV

Of course, Ahaz knew Tiglath-pileser was not going to provide assistance without some form of compensation. So, to pay off his rescuers, Ahaz drained the royal treasury and then pilfered silver and gold from the temple coffers to sweeten the deal. And while Ahaz’s plan came with a high price tag, it proved effective. The Assyrians immediately launched an attack against Damascus, the capital city of Syria. Rezin, the king of Syria, was killed in the battle and the city was taken. When King Ahaz received word of the victory, he traveled to Damascus to meet King Tiglath-pileser. While there, he became obsessed with one of the many altars dedicated to the Syrian gods. He had a model made and sent to Uriah the high priest, who was ordered to build an exact replica in Jerusalem. Uriah complied with the king’s command, and when Ahaz returned to Jerusalem, he offered sacrifices to the Syrian god. And adding insult to injury, he also ordered the removal and relocation of the bronze altar that stood in the courtyard of the temple.

These were just a few of the many “reforms” that Ahaz instituted. He was making wholesale changes to the religious institution that God had ordained for His chosen people. While he didn’t completely abandon the worship of Yahweh, Ahaz did create an unauthorized and fully syncretized form of worship that transformed the religion of Judah from monotheism to polytheism. God Almighty became just one more deity among the many whose altars and high places filled the land of Judah.

But Ahaz would soon discover the error of his ways. In time, the ambitious king of Assyria would turn his sights on Judah.

So when King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria arrived, he attacked Ahaz instead of helping him. Ahaz took valuable items from the Lord’s Temple, the royal palace, and from the homes of his officials and gave them to the king of Assyria as tribute. But this did not help him. – 2 Chronicles 28:20-21 NLT

Once Tiglath-pileser saw how easily Damascus had fallen, he became greedy and determined to make Jerusalem his next point of conquest. So, as he had done before, King Ahaz attempted to buy off the Assyrians. And with the treasures of the palace and temple depleted, he was forced to ransack the private property of his own officials. But, this time, his plan failed. King Tiglath-pileser gladly took his money, but refused to call off his troops. This left Ahaz in a state of desperation. He was left with no other choice but to seek divine help. But rather than seek the aid of Yahweh, Ahaz “offered sacrifices to the gods of Damascus who had defeated him” (2 Chronicles 28:23 NLT). Ironically, in an attempt to thwart the Assyrians, Ahaz put his hope in the gods of the nation whom the Assyrians had easily defeated. He unwisely rationalized, “Since these gods helped the kings of Aram, they will help me, too, if I sacrifice to them” (2 Chronicles 28:23 NLT).

But his reasoning proved faulty and it produced a painfully predictable outcome. Rather than providing deliverance from his enemies, these false gods produced “his ruin and the ruin of all Judah” (2 Chronicles 28:23 NLT). With a blatant and stubborn disregard for Yahweh, Ahaz continued to place all his hope in the false gods he had adopted. Not only that, in anger and defiance, Ahaz ordered the desecration of Yahweh’s temple. He even barred the doors to prevent anyone from worshiping or calling upon the one true God.

The king took the various articles from the Temple of God and broke them into pieces. He shut the doors of the Lord’s Temple so that no one could worship there, and he set up altars to pagan gods in every corner of Jerusalem. He made pagan shrines in all the towns of Judah for offering sacrifices to other gods. In this way, he aroused the anger of the Lord, the God of his ancestors. – 2 Chronicles 28:24-25 NLT

Ahaz did all of this in a misguided attempt to stop the threat of the Assyrians. But what he failed to realize was that the presence of the Assyrians was due to his disregard and disrespect for God. Everything he was doing was going to backfire because he was refusing to give Yahweh the glory and honor He deserved. Ahaz had tried to relegate God Almighty to an inferior status among all the gods. He treated Yahweh with contempt, acting as if He was powerless and incapable of delivering either redemption or judgment. But little did he know that this impotent God was about to bring down judgment against his northern neighbor. And God would use the dreaded Assyrians to accomplish His divine will.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.