Trying to Please the World

The 16th chapter of 2 Kings introduces us to Ahaz, perhaps one of the most wicked kings of the southern kingdom of Judah. He was vile and disreputable. He practiced not only the in vogue sins of high place worship his forefathers practiced, he even revived the practices of the pagan nations that pre-dated Israel's occupation of the land. 

2 Kings 16:2–3 (ESV) Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the LORD his God, as his father David had done, 3 but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even burned his son as an offering, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel.

We notice first this fact of Ahaz: He sought to be liked. 

First, we see that he wanted to be like the hedonistic kings of Israel. Verse 3 states, "he walked in the way of the kings of Israel." It's ironically similar to what happens among God's people today. Instead of following Christ, they follow the world. But not just the "world" as it stands sinfully before God. No, a worldly kind of spirituality - such as the northern kingdom of Israel so perfectly illustrated - compromised, half-hearted, and corrupt. They were void of spiritual power or any discernable devotion to God. YET this nation influenced Ahaz's reign. He wanted to be like them! You have to wonder why. Israel was not exactly "winning." 

Here's why. Because inside all of us is the pull of the world. The pull toward carnality. Consider the Corinthian church to which Paul writes 2 of the New Testament letters. They were utterly carnal, dishonoring each other, sexually immoral, selfish, boastful and in some ways stingy while at the same time boasting about their expressions of the "power" gifts. The pull of the world was strong on them. 

What we see in Ahaz is the expressed pull of the world in a man who should have followed David. That pull is always there. Paul talks about that pull in himself in Romans 7 when he says, 

Romans 7:18 (ESV) For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

The saddest part for Ahaz is, the king he wanted to be like ended up attacking him. 

2 Kings 16:5 (ESV) Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to wage war on Jerusalem, and they besieged Ahaz but could not conquer him.

Dear Christian, a simple reason to avoid fellowship with darkness is to remember that evil never plays nice. Evil is always evil. If you give yourself to please the world it will never be pleased and you will forfeit your own personhood.

Ahaz then moves diplomatically, selling his nation to the Assyrians for protection.

2 Kings 16:8–9 (ESV) 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.

Instead of trusting the Lord, Ahas looked to Assyria! Sadly, it works. Then, while he warms himself to the temporary help they provide, he begins to admire the Assyrian ways of false worship and seeks to import it to Israel. 

2 Kings 16:10 (ESV) 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.

The rest of the chapter unpacks the detailed way in which Ahaz mimicked the worship structure and ways of ancient Assyria. He even assumed the role of a priest which may have been what attracted Ahaz to Assyrian paganism. For in Israel, kings and priests were separate in role and function as designed by God. But Ahaz perhaps saw the manipulative value over people by being both king and priest. 

Ahaz is a case study of trying to be "liked" by the world. In the end, you are attacked, enslaved and your entire identity as a child of God is confiscated. In our present age, I see this happening particularly among the young. They want to be liked and if they chase it, it will cost them. 

We must remember we serve a Savior who was hated and told us we'd be hated as well. In fact, the hatred we receive will serve as a sign we belong to Him. 

John 15:18–19 (ESV) “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

We don't seek to be hated, but we remain rooted in His perfect love which casts out any fear of what the world may think.