Commentary - 2 Kings 16:7-9

Bird's-eye view

In this brief but potent section of 2 Kings, we are confronted with the spiritual bankruptcy of King Ahaz. Faced with a military coalition from the north, the combined forces of Aram and Israel, Ahaz demonstrates a catastrophic failure of faith. Instead of turning to Yahweh, the covenant God of his fathers who had delivered Judah time and again, he turns to the pagan superpower of Assyria. This is not merely a political miscalculation; it is high treason against the King of kings. Ahaz's actions represent a formal rejection of dependence on God, opting instead for the supposed security of a human alliance. He strips the house of God to pay for this alliance, illustrating in the most tangible way possible that his trust is in gold and armies, not in the living God. The passage serves as a stark illustration of the principle that where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Ahaz’s heart was with Assyria, and so he sent his treasure there, profaning the holy things to do so.

The immediate result appears to be a success. Tiglath-pileser responds, conquers Damascus, and kills King Rezin, thereby relieving the pressure on Judah. But this is a shortsighted victory, a fool's bargain. Ahaz has invited the fox into the henhouse. By declaring himself the "servant and son" of the Assyrian king, he has surrendered Judah's sovereignty and yoked the people of God to a brutal, idolatrous empire. This act of faithlessness will have devastating long-term consequences, setting the stage for future subjugation and judgment. God, in His sovereignty, uses the Assyrians to accomplish His purposes, but this does not exonerate Ahaz. It shows us that God can use even the faithless schemes of men to advance His kingdom, all while holding those men accountable for their rebellion.

Outline

Clause-by-Clause Commentary

v. 7 So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son; come up and save me from the hand of the king of Aram and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are rising up against me.”

We must begin by recognizing what is happening here. This is not just politics. This is theology in action, bad theology. Ahaz is the king of Judah, the heir to the promises of David. He sits on a throne that Yahweh established. Yet when the heat is turned up, when Aram and Israel come knocking, his first instinct is not to run to the throne of grace, but to the throne of Assyria. He sends messengers, which is to say, he sends his faith, his hope, and his allegiance northward to a pagan king.

His message is groveling, and every word is a betrayal. "I am your servant and your son." This is covenant language. This is the kind of language a believer should use toward God. We are His servants, and through Christ, we are His sons. Ahaz usurps this language and applies it to Tiglath-pileser. In effect, he is formally renouncing his covenant relationship with Yahweh and entering into a covenant with a man who worships sticks and stones. He is adopting a new father and a new lord. This is spiritual adultery of the highest order. He asks this new father-god to "come up and save me." The word for "save" is the very word that should be directed to God. The Psalms are filled with it: "Save me, O God!" Ahaz has replaced the Savior of Israel with the King of Assyria. He sees his problem as merely political and military, the kings of Aram and Israel. But his real problem is spiritual; it is a crisis of faith, and he is failing the test spectacularly.

v. 8 Ahaz also took the silver and gold that was found in the house of Yahweh and in the treasuries of the king’s house, and sent a gift to the king of Assyria.

Having pledged his allegiance with his words, he now seals the deal with his wallet. And where does he get the money? He raids the house of Yahweh. This is more than just looting; it is a profound theological statement. The treasures in the Temple were dedicated things, holy to the Lord. They represented the wealth and devotion of God's people, set apart for His glory. Ahaz takes what is consecrated to God and uses it to buy the favor of a pagan. He is literally converting holy assets into a bribe for an idolater. He is saying, in essence, that the silver and gold are more useful in the hands of Tiglath-pileser than they are in the house of God. This demonstrates a complete loss of perspective. He sees the Temple not as the dwelling place of the living God, but as a bank to be plundered in a time of crisis.

He also takes from the king's treasuries, which is to be expected. But the fact that he lumps the house of Yahweh in with his own house shows how far he has fallen. There is no distinction in his mind between the sacred and the secular. It is all just a pile of resources to be leveraged for his own security. This is the pragmatic mindset of the unbeliever. God and His house are only valuable insofar as they can serve our immediate, earth-bound needs. Ahaz is the quintessential secularist in a king's robe. He sent it as a "gift," but the Hebrew word can also mean bribe. He is not giving from a position of strength, but paying for protection from a position of utter desperation and spiritual destitution.

v. 9 So the king of Assyria listened to him; and the king of Assyria went up against Damascus and seized it and took the people of it away into exile to Kir, and put Rezin to death.

And here we see the tragic irony of God's providence. The faithless plan works, at least on the surface. The king of Assyria "listened to him." Ahaz prayed to the wrong god, and he got an answer. This is a dangerous thing. A worldly solution that appears to succeed can harden a man in his folly. Tiglath-pileser does exactly what Ahaz hoped he would do. He marches on Damascus, the capital of Aram, and crushes it. He takes the people into exile, a standard Assyrian tactic for breaking the national spirit of conquered peoples. And he executes Rezin, one of the two kings who were threatening Judah. Problem solved, right?

Wrong. God is the one who is truly sovereign here. He is using the king of Assyria as His rod of judgment against Aram, just as He would later use Assyria as a rod against the northern kingdom of Israel. Tiglath-pileser thinks he is building his empire, but he is merely an instrument, a tool in the hand of Yahweh. God answered Ahaz's prayer to Assyria, but it was a judgment in itself. Ahaz got the deliverance he paid for, but he lost his kingdom's soul in the process. He traded a temporary threat from two minor kings for long-term vassalage to a world empire. He has sold his birthright for a bowl of Assyrian stew. The immediate relief only masks the deeper spiritual disease and the far greater political danger he has brought upon his people. This is the devil's bargain: apparent success in the short run, followed by bondage and ruin.

Application

The story of Ahaz is a cautionary tale for every generation of the church. The temptation to trust in the "Assyrians" of our own day is ever-present. When the culture presses in, when our enemies seem to be gaining the upper hand, our first instinct must be to run to God, not to the world's power brokers. Ahaz's sin was not that he sought an alliance, but that he sought a godless alliance rooted in fear and unbelief. He used the language of sonship and servanthood, which belongs to God alone, and offered it to a pagan king. We do the same thing when we look to political parties, secular ideologies, or financial security to save us. We call them our master and look to them as our father, hoping they will deliver us from our immediate troubles.

Furthermore, we must be careful not to plunder the house of God to pay for these worldly solutions. Ahaz stripped the temple to pay off Assyria. We do this when we compromise biblical doctrine for the sake of cultural acceptance, when we water down the demands of the gospel to make it more palatable to the world, or when we divert the resources of the church, our time, our money, our energy, into worldly pursuits that promise security but deliver only bondage. We think we are being pragmatic, but we are being faithless.

Finally, we must beware of the apparent success of worldly methods. Tiglath-pileser did, in fact, solve Ahaz's immediate problem. But this "success" was a snare. It confirmed Ahaz in his idolatry and brought Judah under the heel of a much greater foe. When we compromise with the world and it seems to "work," we are in a place of great spiritual danger. We may have won a skirmish, but we are setting ourselves up to lose the war. The only true security is found in faithfulness to our covenant King, Jesus Christ. He is our only servant and our only Son. Trusting in Him may look like folly to the world, but it is the only path to true and lasting deliverance.