The Book of 2 Chronicles

Word Study

"burnt his children in the fire," the horror of child sacrifice to Molech. Ahaz did not merely neglect the true God; he "walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and made also molten images for Baalim" (v2), and then descended to the ultimate abomination: he "burnt his children in the fire." He offered his own sons as human sacrifices to false gods "after the abominations of the heathen", the very sins for which "the LORD had cast out" the Canaanites "before the children of Israel." Ahaz thus repeated the exact wickedness that had earned the previous inhabitants their destruction.

"the valley of the son of Hinnom," Hebrew ge ven-hinnom (גֵּיא בֶן־הִנֹּם), later contracted to ge-hinnom, Gehenna, the New Testament word for hell. Note the place of this atrocity: "the valley of the son of Hinnom." That valley, defiled by child sacrifice, became so associated with fire, death, and judgment that its name, ge-hinnom, passed into Greek as Gehenna, the word the Lord Jesus Himself used for hell (Matthew 5:22; Mark 9:43). The place where Ahaz burned his children in the fire lent its very name to the place of final fire. Idolatry is never harmless; here it consumes the innocent, and its valley becomes a byword for damnation.

Explanation

Ahaz was thoroughly wicked. He made idols of Baal, worshipped in high places, and committed the unspeakable act of sacrificing his own children by burning them in fire to false gods, copying the very abominations for which God had driven the Canaanites out of the land. He did this in the valley of Hinnom near Jerusalem, a place whose name later became the word for hell. Ahaz shows how far the human heart can fall when it abandons the true God: from neglect, to idolatry, to the murder of one's own children in the name of religion.

Gospel Focus

The valley where Ahaz "burnt his children in the fire" gave its name, Gehenna, to hell itself, and the contrast with the Gospel could not be sharper. Ahaz gave his children to the fire to try to buy the favor of false gods that could not save. But the one true God "so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). In the incarnation, God did not demand a child from us to appease Him; He Himself, manifest in flesh in Jesus Christ, gave Himself, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself" (2 Corinthians 5:19). Ahaz's false worship burned the innocent to escape wrath; the true God bore the wrath Himself in Christ to save the guilty. And He did it precisely to deliver us from the fire that valley names, so that whosoever believeth "should not perish." Idolatry, ancient or modern, always costs the worshipper something precious and gives nothing back. The Gospel is the reverse: God gives, and we receive life. Flee the idols that devour; come to the God who gave Himself.

Word Study

"in a rage that reacheth up unto heaven," Hebrew be-zaaph (בְּזַעַף), in fury, in raging anger. Israel (the northern kingdom) had just crushed Judah, killing a hundred and twenty thousand in one day (v6) and taking two hundred thousand captive. They marched home to Samaria flush with victory, God had indeed "delivered them into your hand" because He "was wroth with Judah." But a prophet named Oded meets the triumphant army with an unexpected word. Yes, God used you as an instrument of judgment, but "ye have slain them in a rage (zaaph) that reacheth up unto heaven", you exceeded your commission and slaughtered your own brethren in fury.

"sins against the LORD your God," the prophet turns the accusation back on the victors. And now, Oded goes on, you plan to enslave them. Then comes the piercing question: "are there not with you, even with you, sins against the LORD your God?" The very people God used to punish Judah were themselves guilty before God. Being God's instrument of judgment did not make Israel righteous. The doubled "with you, even with you" drives the point home: do not imagine your victory proves your innocence. "Deliver the captives again... for the fierce wrath of the LORD is upon you." Judgment was hanging over the victors too.

Explanation

As the victorious northern army returned to Samaria with 200,000 captives from Judah, a prophet named Oded confronted them. He acknowledged that God had allowed their victory because He was angry with Judah, but he rebuked them for killing in uncontrolled rage and for planning to enslave their own kinsmen. His central point was devastating: the victors were not innocent either. "Are there not with you, even with you, sins against the LORD your God?" He warned them that God's fierce wrath was now upon them, and commanded them to send the captives home. Being used by God to judge others does not make a person righteous before God.

Gospel Focus

Oded's question, "are there not with you, even with you, sins against the LORD your God?", is a word every human heart needs. It is easy to see God's judgment on others and imagine ourselves innocent, to be the instrument of someone else's comeuppance and forget our own guilt. But "there is none righteous, no, not one" (Romans 3:10), and "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). The Lord Jesus warned those who pointed to others' calamities, "except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3). The victors at Samaria were sinners too, standing under "the fierce wrath of the LORD" even in their hour of triumph. Grace begins where self-righteousness ends, when we stop saying "look what they did" and admit "there are, with me, even with me, sins against the LORD my God." That confession is the doorway to mercy: "if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins" (1 John 1:9). Let Oded's question search you before you point at anyone else.

Word Study

"expressed by name," Hebrew niqqevu be-shemot (נִקְּבוּ בְשֵׁמוֹת), designated by name. The men "expressed by name" (the leaders named in v12) obeyed the prophet, and what follows is one of the most tender scenes in Chronicles. Their names stand in the record, so the mercy that follows is credited to particular men who were designated for the task, not to an anonymous crowd.

"clothed... arrayed... shod... gave them to eat and to drink... anointed... carried," a sevenfold ministry of mercy to enemies. They took the captives, their recent enemies from Judah, and lavished mercy on them: they "clothed all that were naked," "arrayed them, and shod them," "gave them to eat and to drink," "anointed them" (soothing wounds with oil), and "carried all the feeble of them upon asses." Then they brought them home "to Jericho, the city of palm trees, to their brethren." Every detail is deliberate: garments, shoes, food, drink, oil, transport for the weak. This is not merely releasing prisoners; it is nursing enemies back to dignity and carrying them home. The scene anticipates the Lord's parable of the Good Samaritan, who likewise "bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast" (Luke 10:34). Compassion here overleaps national hatred; the victors become servants to the vanquished. Grace shines in the darkest chapter of Judah's kings.

Explanation

The named leaders of Ephraim obeyed the prophet and did far more than release the captives. Using the very spoil they had taken, they clothed those who were naked, gave them shoes, fed them, gave them drink, anointed their wounds with oil, set the weak on donkeys, and personally escorted them all the way home to Jericho. It is a picture of astonishing mercy shown to recent enemies, an Old Testament foreshadowing of Christ's parable of the Good Samaritan, and a bright window of grace in a chapter otherwise filled with the wickedness of Ahaz.

Gospel Focus

This scene is one of the loveliest pictures of mercy in the Old Testament, and it points straight to the Gospel. The captives were helpless, naked, hungry, wounded, and feeble, and they were shown mercy by those who owed them nothing. So it is with us. "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). We were the naked whom He clothed, "for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (Galatians 3:27); the hungry whom He fed, "I am that bread of life" (John 6:48); the wounded whom He anointed; the feeble whom He carried home. The Good Samaritan whom this scene foreshadows is the Lord Himself, who found us beaten and dying by the road and "brought them" home. And the mercy shown here also becomes our pattern: "love your enemies... do good to them that hate you" (Matthew 5:44). The men of Ephraim clothed and carried their enemies; the Gospel calls us to the same self-forgetting compassion, because that is exactly the compassion God showed us in Christ.

Word Study

"in the time of his distress," Hebrew be-eth hatzer lo (בְּעֵת הָצֵר לוֹ), when it was straitened for him, when he was hemmed in. Affliction is meant to turn the heart back to God. Manasseh, later, "when he was in affliction... besought the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly" (chapter 33:12). But Ahaz did the opposite: "in the time of his distress did he trespass (maal, act treacherously, be unfaithful) yet more against the LORD." His sufferings, meant to drive him to repentance, only drove him deeper into sin. He sacrificed to the gods of Damascus that had defeated him, reasoning that if they beat him, they must be worth worshipping (v23). The same fire that softens wax hardens clay; the same trouble that humbles one heart hardens another.

"this is that king Ahaz," a rare editorial exclamation of contempt. Then comes the Chronicler's stinging summary: "this is that king Ahaz." It is a phrase of pointed scorn, that man, that notorious king, that is who he was. The historian steps back and, as it were, points a finger of disgust. Distress did not make Ahaz seek God; it made him "that king Ahaz," a byword for the man whom trouble only made worse.

Explanation

Trouble and defeat should have driven Ahaz to repentance, but they had the opposite effect: "in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the LORD." His suffering hardened him rather than humbling him. He turned to the very gods of the nation that had defeated him, thinking their apparent power was worth courting. The Chronicler sums up this whole miserable reign with a phrase dripping with contempt: "this is that king Ahaz", that notorious, unrepentant man. The same affliction that later humbled the wicked Manasseh only made Ahaz worse.

Gospel Focus

"In the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the LORD" is a solemn warning that suffering does not automatically produce repentance. The same trouble that breaks one heart open before God hardens another against Him. The difference is not the fire but the substance; wax melts, clay bakes hard. Pharaoh hardened his heart under the plagues; Ahaz sank deeper under his defeats; even at Calvary one thief railed while the other repented under the identical suffering. Distress is God's summons to come home, "in their affliction they will seek me early" (Hosea 5:15), and He stands ready: "a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise" (Psalm 51:17). But if we answer trouble with more rebellion, we become "that king Ahaz." The right response to distress is Manasseh's, not Ahaz's: to humble ourselves, seek the LORD, and be received. When affliction comes, let it drive you to God, not from Him; that is the whole difference between a Manasseh and an Ahaz.

Word Study

"shut up the doors of the house of the LORD," Hebrew va-yisgor eth-daltoth (וַיִּסְגֹּר אֶת־דַּלְתוֹת), he closed the doors. Ahaz's apostasy reaches its climax. He "gathered together the vessels of the house of God, and cut in pieces the vessels", he plundered and destroyed the sacred temple furnishings. Then he "shut up the doors of the house of the LORD." The temple, the appointed place of God's presence and worship, was closed for business; the daily offerings ceased, the lamps went dark, the doors barred. This is the lowest point in Judah's worship, the very house of God closed. Yet the chapter ends: "Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead" (v27). And the very first act of Hezekiah's reign will be to reverse this one: "he in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the LORD, and repaired them" (chapter 29:3). The doors Ahaz shut, Hezekiah will open. Darkness is not the last word.

"altars in every corner," idolatry saturating the whole city. In the place of the barred temple Ahaz "made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem," and in "every several city of Judah he made high places to burn incense unto other gods" (v25). He did not merely add idols; he shut the true God out and filled every corner with false ones. The saturation was deliberate and complete, reaching from the corners of the capital out to every town in the kingdom.

Explanation

Ahaz reached the depths of apostasy: he stripped and destroyed the temple's sacred vessels, then shut the doors of the temple altogether, ending the worship of the true God in His own house. In place of the temple he set up pagan altars in every corner of Jerusalem and high places in every city of Judah. It was total, deliberate replacement of the LORD with idols. Yet the chapter closes with a note of hope: Ahaz died, and "Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead." The very first thing Hezekiah would do is reopen the doors his father had shut.

Gospel Focus

Ahaz "shut up the doors of the house of the LORD", man's sin can close the door of worship, extinguish the lamps, and bar the way to God. But no man can shut it forever. Where Ahaz shut, Hezekiah opened (chapter 29:3), and the greater Son of David opens what no man can shut: "these things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth" (Revelation 3:7). Ahaz closed the temple, but in Christ the true and living way stands forever open: "having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us" (Hebrews 10:19-20). The veil is rent, the door is open, and the Lord Jesus stands and says, "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved" (John 10:9). Ahaz's shut doors are not the end of the story; they set the stage for the opened doors of Hezekiah and, ultimately, for the everlasting open door of the Gospel. However dark the apostasy, God always raises up a Hezekiah, and behind every Hezekiah stands the Christ who holds the key.