1. II Kings 16:10-18 Why was King Ahaz so enamored with the altar in Damascus? What alterations did he make to the altar in the Temple, and why?

Perhaps Ahaz was simply trying to please the Assyrian king, or could it be that he actually was switching his allegiance from Jehovah to another god? Whatever the case, he eventually made serious changes in the Temple furnishings. God Himself had given the directives for these pieces, as recorded in Exodus 25-27. This was a very serious matter.

Per Macarthur, his moving of the bronze altar commanded by God put it in a place of secondary importance. Not only was its position changed, but its purpose also. Ahaz decided to use it for personal reasons, that may well have been related to pagan divination.

The stripping away of panels and changing of the basin stand could well have been to gain valuable metal for sale in his dire straits, or to give to the Assyrian king.

The removal of the Sabbath “canopy” could have signaled to the priests that he no longer would observe the traditional rituals, even to the point of closing down the special entrance way used for Sabbath observances.

The larger answer to all of this is found in the end of verse 18: because of the King of Assyria. His religion, his financial demands, his complete dominance over the tiny Kingdom.

2. II Kings 17:32-34, 41. The sacred historian insists that the foreigners who are now being planted in Israel’s land “feared the Lord”. (v. 32-33) Then he insists that they “do not fear the Lord,” in the very next verse. (V. 34) But in verse 41, “…these nations feared the Lord.” Which is it?

It is both. And it has ever been both for surface believers. The citizens of pagan countries learned the “tricks” of pleasing God, the rituals, the outward observances. In that sense they feared the Lord. They tried to keep a reasonable amount of the Jewish Law so that the Jewish God would not be offended.

But deep in their heart there was no true fear of the one and only living God. Him they spurned by continuing to worship their own gods, with whom they had been familiar from childhood.

It can happen to us, and this should serve as a warning. When God called Abraham, He called him totally out of the paganism of his day. There was to be no mixing in of the old with the new call. Yet one will find in the story of descendants, even early on, a mixture. Rachel and her household gods. Joseph and his Egyptian wife. Zipporah and her disdain for the bloody husband she had married.

Romanism has brought to perfection the syncretism which is referenced here. One can observe religious rituals on Sunday, cuss like a sailor on Monday, drink like a fish on Tuesday, and all the rest, but a quick confession and then back to the Sunday ritual. How many in your church fear the Lord but don’t really fear the Lord? In your house? In your mirror?

3. II Kings 18:13-16. Why was Hezekiah so quick to admit guilt and give gifts to Sennacherib of Assyria?

Hezekiah was the son of Ahaz. That may be the big reason. But lest we condemn too hard, it is not easy for a little nation to say no to a huge one. Perhaps he believed it was proper to obey the authority of the day. He could see things falling apart around him and began to think God was telling him to yield, to let go.

Certainly elsewhere in the story of Hezekiah, there is no such effort to compromise, and his tale becomes one of the heroic episodes of the Bible. But here we see the other side.