The High Cost of Cheap Allies Text: 2 Kings 16:5-6
Introduction: The Politics of Unbelief
We live in an age that is saturated with politics. Every issue, from what you eat to how you worship, is politicized. And because we are political creatures, this is not entirely surprising. But the great temptation for the people of God in every generation is to adopt the world's political assumptions, to play the game by the world's rules, and to seek security in the world's strongmen. We are tempted to believe that our safety lies in shrewd alliances, in geopolitical maneuvering, and in finding a powerful friend to protect us from our powerful enemies. This is the essence of pragmatism, which is just a respectable word for unbelief.
The story of King Ahaz of Judah is a master class in this kind of faithless pragmatism. He was a man with enemies at the gate, and he was terrified. His response to this very real threat reveals the deep idolatry of his heart, an idolatry that is alive and well in the modern church. He looked to the north, to the east, anywhere but up. He calculated his odds, assessed the military strength of his neighbors, and made a decision based entirely on what he could see with his eyes. He chose to trust in the arm of flesh, and in doing so, he sold his birthright, bankrupted his kingdom, and profaned the house of God.
This passage before us is more than just a dry historical record of the Syro-Ephraimite war. It is a spiritual diagnostic. It forces us to ask ourselves where our trust really lies when the pressure is on. When the enemies are at the gates of your life, your family, or your church, do you run to the throne of grace or do you run to the phone to call a human king? God brought this test to Ahaz to reveal what was in his heart, and He brings similar tests to us for the same reason. The choice is always the same: covenant faithfulness or worldly alliance. Trust in the Lord or trust in chariots. And as Ahaz discovered, the protection offered by the world always comes at a price you cannot afford to pay.
The Text
Then Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war; and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him. At that time Rezin king of Aram restored Elath for Aram and cleared the Judeans out of Elath entirely; and the Arameans came to Elath and have lived there to this day.
(2 Kings 16:5-6 LSB)
The Squeeze of God's Providence (v. 5)
We begin with the military and political pressure cooker that God places Ahaz into.
"Then Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war; and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him." (2 Kings 16:5 LSB)
Here we have two kings, Rezin of Aram (Syria) and Pekah of Israel, forming an unholy alliance. It is worth noting that Pekah is the king of the northern kingdom, Israel. This is a civil war. Brother is coming against brother. They have a common enemy, the rising Assyrian empire, and they want to force Ahaz and the southern kingdom of Judah to join their anti-Assyrian coalition. When Ahaz refused, they decided to remove him and set up their own puppet king in Jerusalem. So they march on the capital and lay siege to it.
This is a moment of intense, clarifying pressure. The account in Isaiah 7 tells us that "his heart and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind" (Isaiah 7:2). This was sheer terror. And it is precisely in such moments that true faith is revealed, or the lack of it. God is sovereign over this political crisis. He is the one who allowed these two kings to come to the very gates of Jerusalem. He is testing His covenant people and their king. Will they remember the promises made to David? Will they cry out to the Lord for deliverance? Or will they look for a merely human, political solution?
Notice the last clause: "but could not overcome him." Why not? Was Ahaz a brilliant military strategist? Was the army of Judah particularly mighty? No. The text is silent on the means, because the means are not the point. They could not overcome him because God did not let them. Even in the midst of Ahaz's coming apostasy, God sovereignly protects the city of David for His own name's sake and for the sake of the promise He made to David. This is a staggering display of God's longsuffering. God is giving Ahaz a demonstration of His power to save. He is essentially saying, "Look, Ahaz. These enemies you are terrified of are on a leash. I am your shield. Trust me." God gave him a deliverance he did not deserve as an invitation to trust Him for the deliverance he truly needed. But Ahaz was spiritually blind. He saw the human armies, but he did not see the hand of God.
The Fruit of Faithless Alliances (v. 6)
Ahaz does not respond to this initial deliverance with faith. As the rest of the chapter shows, he ignores the prophet Isaiah's counsel to stand firm in the Lord and instead sends messengers with gold and silver from the Temple to Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, saying, "I am your servant and your son. Come up and save me" (2 Kings 16:7-8). He chooses to become a vassal of a pagan king rather than a son of the living God. And verse 6 shows us the immediate, bitter fruit of this political calculation.
"At that time Rezin king of Aram restored Elath for Aram and cleared the Judeans out of Elath entirely; and the Arameans came to Elath and have lived there to this day." (2 Kings 16:6 LSB)
While the siege of Jerusalem itself fails, the broader military campaign takes its toll. While Ahaz is focused on the immediate threat at his front door, he loses ground on his periphery. Rezin, one of the besieging kings, successfully captures the vital port city of Elath. This was a key strategic and economic asset for Judah, located on the Red Sea. It was a gateway for trade and a symbol of the reach of the Davidic kingdom.
There is a profound irony here. Ahaz is about to pay Assyria a fortune to save him from Rezin, but while he is making his faithless deal, that very same Rezin is busy carving off a valuable piece of his kingdom. His unbelief is costing him dearly, right out of the gate. He sought security through a human alliance, and the immediate result was not security, but loss. He lost territory, he lost wealth, and he lost national prestige.
This is always the way it works when we trade trust in God for trust in the world. The world's solutions are a protection racket. The devil, and the worldly systems he runs, will promise you safety in exchange for your loyalty, your integrity, and your worship. But the safety is an illusion, and the cost is everything. Ahaz thought he was being a shrewd political realist. He was actually being a fool. He was trying to save his kingdom, but his very methods were ensuring its eventual destruction. By inviting the Assyrian wolf to deal with the Aramean and Israelite dogs, he was setting the stage for that same wolf to devour him later. And it did.
Conclusion: The Only Ally Who Saves
The story of Ahaz is a cautionary tale written in large letters. It is the story of a man who feared men more than he feared God. And because he feared men, he became their slave. He sought a savior in a pagan king, and the result was bondage and loss. He saw the immediate threat, but he was blind to the eternal realities.
We are faced with the same choice every day, in ways both small and large. When your finances are threatened, who is your savior? When your health is failing, who is your savior? When your reputation is under attack, who is your savior? When your nation seems to be crumbling, who is your savior? Do you run to the solutions offered by the world, solutions that always require you to compromise, to bend the knee, to become a servant and a son to a lesser king? Or do you run to the true King?
God sent the prophet Isaiah to Ahaz with a glorious promise, a promise that pointed to the ultimate solution. He told Ahaz to ask for a sign, and when the faithless king refused, God gave one anyway. "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel" (Isaiah 7:14), which means "God with us."
The ultimate answer to the problem of Rezin and Pekah at the gates was not Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria. The answer was Jesus Christ. The answer to every threat, every fear, every siege, is Immanuel. God with us. Ahaz was offered the presence of God and he chose the protection of Assyria. He chose a political alliance over a covenant relationship.
The gospel tells us that we are in a far worse siege than Ahaz ever was. We are besieged by our sin, by the world, the flesh, and the devil. And we cannot overcome them. But God has not left us to find our own political solution. He has not left us to bribe our way out of trouble. He has sent His Son. Jesus is the true King who did not wait for us to send Him tribute, but who came and paid the tribute for us, with His own blood. He is the only ally who does not enslave, but liberates. He is the only strongman who does not demand our worship for his protection, but who protects us because we are His by grace.
Therefore, when you feel the squeeze of God's providence, when the enemies are at the gate, do not be an Ahaz. Do not look to the world's kings. Look to King Jesus. Stand firm in the faith, and you will see the salvation of the Lord. For any other ally will cost you your kingdom, but in Christ, you gain an eternal one.