Who is your biggest helper in your life? When times are hard, who can you lean on and who can you trust? When life gets hard, we want to know that we have the help that we need. We want to know that we have helpers who will be there for us. But there is another important question that must be considered. The question is not simply who will help us. The question is: what is the help we need? This is the question that we are going to address in our lesson today. What is the help we need? Open your copies of God’s word to 2 Chronicles 28 and we are going to see the Chronicler teach us about what is the help we need for this life.
The Comparison (2 Chronicles 28:1-4)
The reign of Ahaz begins with a couple of comparisons. We are told in 2 Chronicles 28:1 that Ahaz did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord. We read that his father, Jotham, and his grandfather, Uzziah, did do what was right in the sight of the Lord. In fact, the last four kings did what was right in the sight of the Lord, though there were noted failures in their rule. But notice that Ahaz’s measurement is not with his father or grandfather or even great-grandfathers. He is measured to David, the man after God’s own heart. He did not follow in the footsteps of David, the standard by which the kings of Judah were measured. Instead, he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel (2 Chronicles 28:2). This is not a positive statement. There were no kings of Israel who did what was right in the sight of the Lord or walked in the ways of David. Not only did he walk according to the paths of the kings of Israel, Ahaz establishes horrifying idolatry. He set up metal images to the Baals. He burned his sons as an offering in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom (2 Chronicles 28:3). Listen to how verse 3 ends. He followed the detestable practices of the nations that were in this land before that the Lord drove out. In short, the king and the people are acting like the world. They are acting like the people who were in the land before God gave the land to the people of Israel. The reason the nations were removed by the Lord from the land of Canaan was because of these sinful practices. So now Judah is setting itself up to be removed for committing the same sins.
Sometimes we can read about this kind of idolatry and be shocked that people would sacrifice their children or engage in such sinful worship. But we should not be surprised. God’s constant message is that being self-serving leads to harming others. Thinking about yourself and do what is good for you does not make the world a better place. Selfish living leads to harming and destroying others. When we are thinking about ourselves, we will sacrifice anyone else to get what we want. We sacrifice our marriages. We sacrifice our families. We sacrifice our friends. Once we are willing to hurt others to get what we want, then we are on the path to this kind of depraved living that we see Ahaz committing.
Failed Obedience (2 Chronicles 28:5-15)
With the prior two kings we read that when Uzziah and Jotham set themselves to seek the Lord, then the Lord was making their rule successful and prosperous. Now we see the opposite. Ahaz has determined not to seek the Lord so verse 5 tells us that the Lord gave him into the hand of the king of Syria. Please notice that the scripture is clear that the destruction you read in this paragraph was “because Judah had forsaken the Lord” (2 Chronicles 28:6). The Syrians defeated Judah and took captive a great number of the people. We also read in verses 5-6 that the king of Israel struck Judah with great force.
Now you would think that this paragraph would be all about how Judah deserved the suffering they experienced as a consequence for abandoning the Lord. However, in verse 8 the attention turns to what the king of Israel did. We read that the king of Israel captured 200,000 people as well as plundering a significant amount from Judah. So a prophet of the Lord meets Israel’s army after it returns from capturing and plundering Judah. Listen to the message of the prophet in verses 9-11. First, God gave Judah into your hand but you have killed them in a rage that has reached up to heaven. Second, you intended to subjugate the people of Judah, which is a violation of God’s law (cf. Leviticus 25:39-55). Third, you have not paid attention to your own sins in the actions you are doing. This is similar to what Jesus said about failing to see the plank in your own eye while trying to remove the speck in your brother’s eye (cf. Matthew 7:3-5). You did not look at yourself while carrying out God’s will. The resolution is for Israel to send the captives back to Judah because the fierce wrath of God is on them for what they have done. To the credit of the leaders of Israel, they rose up and told the returning army not to bring the captives into the city or else they will be guilty before the Lord, adding to our present sins and guilt (cf. 2 Chronicles 28:13). So the soldiers gave up the prisoners and these leaders clothed the captives, provided them food and drink, put the feeble on donkeys, and brought them back to their people in Judah (cf. 2 Chronicles 28:15).
Yet again we are observing that there is way to do God’s will in a way that God condemns. We are yet again being reminded that God cares about our motives. God cares about how we carry out his will and why we are carrying out his will.
Help Misguided (2 Chronicles 28:16-21)
But the Chronicler now turns his attention back to King Ahaz of Judah. We are now going to read about how Ahaz handled all of this trouble that came because of his abominations. In verse 16 we read that Ahaz reached out to the king of Assyria when the Edomites (28:17) and Philistines attacked (28:18). In verse 19 the Chronicler wants to remind us again that the reason for Ahaz’s troubles was because he made Judah act sinfully and he was very unfaithful to the Lord. The Lord was humbling Judah for their sins. So Ahaz knows he needs help. But he reaches out to the king of Assyria. The king of Assyria comes, but rather than helping Ahaz and Judah, he attacks Ahaz and Judah (2 Chronicles 28:20). Ahaz had taken from the treasures of the temple and from his own palace to pay tribute to king Assyria. But look at how verse 21 ends. “But it did not help him.”
This is the Chronicler’s big warning for those who will listen to him. When trouble comes, we are tempted to turn to seek help from other people and other things rather than seeking help from the Lord. I want us to notice how Ahaz thinks his problems can be solved. He thinks another person is going to be able to help him. If Ahaz just had the right people on his side, then he will succeed. He thinks the king of Assyria is the answer to his problems. Just get Assyria on his side then all will be well. Just get this king to help him and then he will be fine. Ahaz thinks he just needs the right person. Sometimes we look at life in the same way. When we are having a hard time we can think we just need another person to lean on to support us. If we were just married, or if we had a better spouse, or if we had children, or better friends, or a better church, or some other person who could rescue us from the trouble we are in. This is the same mistake that Ahaz is making. But then I want you to see how Ahaz doubles down on this problem. He also thinks money will fix his problems. Ahaz wants to use his wealth to help him out of the trouble he is in. What I want us to see in this first point is that there is nothing physical that can save him. He thinks if he had the right person then things would be better. He thinks he just used his treasures then things would be better. The functional idols that we carry in our lives affect us in the same way. We want to think that if we surround ourselves with the right people and have enough riches that we will be able to insulate ourselves from any future troubles and will have these things to rescue us from our troubles.
What was Ahaz missing? Was his problem that he did not have enough wealth to help him? Was his problem that he did not have the right people available to save him? No. His problem is that God gave him into the hand of the king of Syria (cf. 2 Chronicles 28:5). His problem is that God was trying to humble him because of his unfaithfulness (cf. 2 Chronicles 28:19). The problem is that he does not see that God has him in this circumstance and the only help that he needs and the only help that can actually help is God himself. But this is not the big point. Notice what happens next as we look at the rest of chapter 28.
Help Ruined (2 Chronicles 28:22-27)
We are told in verse 22 that in Ahaz’s time of trouble, he became even more unfaithful to the Lord. Now he starts sacrificing to the gods of Syria, the nation that has successfully attacked and plundered them. Why would he do this? Look at his reasoning in verse 23. Ahaz thinks that since the gods helped the kings of Syria against him, then he should do what they are doing so that he can get the same help. Ahaz makes a number of mistakes. First, he thinks that the king of Syria worshiping other gods is the reason for his success. This is false, of course. The reason the king of Syria was successful was because the Lord was using him to accomplish his purposes against Judah. But Ahaz mistakenly thinks abandoning the Lord is the reason for success. Second, Ahaz makes the mistake of following after the ways of these worldly kings. In verse 24 Ahaz begins destroying the contents and structure of the Lord’s temple. He tears down worship to the Lord and then makes altars all over Jerusalem and Judah so that everyone will worship false gods. In Ahaz’s distress, he turned to greater unfaithfulness.
The problem looks like this: we are dealing with hardships and trials. We then start trying to solve our own problems which does not work. We may even turn to God in prayer because he answers with a no. So what do we do? Rather than waiting on the Lord and trusting in the Lord to do his will and his work in his time, we give up on God. We look at the world, see its seeming success, and then model what they are doing. We stop serving the Lord. We stop worshiping him. Instead, we decide to go a different direction to see if that will be the help we are looking for. Was this the help that Ahaz wanted? Look back to verse 23. This decision that Ahaz made was the ruin and downfall for him and for all of Israel. It was the worst decision Ahaz could have made. But this is what happens. If God does not change our lives or give us what we want, then we look to how the world is working and try what it is doing. If depending on ourselves does not rescue us, then we will try what other people are doing.
This is such a significant failure but a repeated message that God gives to us. Continued hardship is not supposed to cause us to move away from true worship and true service to God. But this is what we are tempted to do because we often operate only in terms of solving our near term problem. We have to fix what is wrong. We have to make the hardships stop. We need to make the suffering end. But here is the really big thing that we are missing. We are missing that if God wants us to go through this turmoil, then there is nothing we can do to change it. There is no doctor, no person, no wealth, no job, no change, or anything else that is going to stop or change the hardships we are experiencing. We keep thinking that we can fix this. We keep thinking that we have control. We keep thinking that if we could just find the right help then everything would be so much better. But what we fail to do is trust that God has us here in the moment to teach us, change us, and move us closer to him. We can become so busy trying to fix the problem that we fail to see that God is trying to fix us through the problem. We are so concerned with changing our circumstances that we do not see that God is trying to change us through the circumstances. This is what Ahaz missed. Ahaz was so determined to fix his hardships that he failed to see that God was trying to humble him through these hardships.
Friends, the help we need is not somewhere else. The help we need is from God. But do not miss the point. The help we need might be to continue in the struggle and walk through the valley of the shadow of death rather than quickly ending our pain and getting back to comfort. God is helping us when he says no. God is helping us when the trial continues. God is helping us when the hardships get harder. This is our God doing his work in our lives. This is exactly the point Paul was teaching us in 2 Corinthians 12 regarding the thorn in the flesh. Since God kept the thorn with him to torment him he then understood that God was using this to keep him weak so that he would be strong in the Lord (cf. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10). Our definition of God being with us must not be that he takes away all our troubles. Rather, we know God is with us because he gave his Son for us so that we will walk with him through the troubles. God is holding our hand and giving us the help we need. Do not let go of God!