Foolishly Rejecting the Omnipotent One - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 2 Kings 16:7-8,

"Ahaz 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.' And Ahaz took the silver and gold found in the temple of the Lord and in the treasuries of the royal palace and sent it as a gift to the king of Assyria."

Ahaz was the twelfth king of Judah following Solomon's reign over all Israel. We are told he was, unlike the previous four kings of Judah, a bad king, "Unlike David his father, he [King Ahaz] did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God. He followed the ways of the kings of Israel and even sacrificed his son in the fire, engaging in the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. He offered sacrifices and burned incense at the high places, on the hilltops and under every spreading tree."

Ahaz was a man who did not embrace the Lord in faith. He neither feared nor revered the Lord. As such, when trouble came calling, rather than looking to the Lord for help, he went to the king of Assyria. In seeking help and refuge from both Aram and northern Israel who were attacking Judah, he sent the silver and gold from both the temple and the palace treasury in his request for help from Assyria.

In my thoughts this morning, I think of the foolishness of a king who could have had God Almighty on his side, he could have turned to the omnipotent God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob for refuge and victory over his enemies.

Instead, pitifully, he rejected the One with transcendent power and strength, robbed the temple of the gifts of generations that had been given to the Lord and used it to seek the help of another human king. Tiglath-Pileser was king of Assyria and martialled the greatest military strength in the region, but... hardly the resource of strength the God of the gifts that Ahaz pilfered was.

And, so, today, we have many who reject the One who is powerful enough to pay for our sins and forgive us of them, powerful enough to raise us up from the dead to live for an eternity... enjoying eternal pleasures at his right hand (Psalm 16:11), filling us with the joy of his presence. Just as King Ahaz, many today look past the transcendent resource we all need for our challenges, to look to relatively weak and meagerly things that, in the end, will never help us.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

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