The Altar of Appeasement: 2 Kings 16:10-16
Introduction: The Lust for Relevance
There is a recurring temptation that confronts the people of God in every generation, and it is the temptation to be relevant. It is the deep-seated desire to be respectable in the eyes of the world, to be seen as sophisticated, and to shed the awkward, dusty particularity of our faith. We want to fit in. We want the world's approval. And so we look at what is fashionable and impressive in Damascus, or Babylon, or New York, and we think to ourselves, "Why can't our worship look a little more like that? Why can't we import some of their methods, their style, their altars?"
This is the story of King Ahaz. He is a man who has already demonstrated his profound faithlessness. Threatened by the kings of Israel and Syria, he rejected the word of the prophet Isaiah and the promised deliverance of God. Instead, he made himself a vassal of the king of Assyria, stripping the temple and the palace of its treasures to buy the friendship of a pagan emperor. He chose earthly power over heavenly help. And what we see in our text today is the liturgical consequence of that political decision. When you make yourself a servant to a foreign king, you will inevitably begin to worship at a foreign altar. Political compromise is always followed by liturgical compromise.
Ahaz is the quintessential pragmatist. He is the seeker-sensitive king. He sees something that looks powerful, successful, and culturally impressive, and he wants to incorporate it into the worship of God. He wants to update the temple, to make it more in line with the prevailing aesthetics of the Assyrian superpower. He is not, in his own mind, abandoning Yahweh entirely. He is just improving the user experience. He is blending, borrowing, and syncretizing. But what God calls this is adultery. It is treason. It is an abomination. This passage is a stark warning against the ever-present danger of liturgical innovation driven by a fear of man and a lust for worldly acceptance.
We will see here a faithless king, a spineless priest, and a defiled temple. And in it, we will see a picture of what happens whenever the church decides that the blueprints for worship given by God in His word are insufficient, and that we must send away to Damascus for better ones.
The Text
Now King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria and saw the altar which was at Damascus; and King Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the likeness of the altar and its pattern, according to all its workmanship. So Urijah the priest built an altar; according to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, thus Urijah the priest made it, before the coming of King Ahaz from Damascus. So the king came from Damascus, and the king saw the altar; then the king drew near the altar and made offerings on it, and offered his burnt offering and his meal offering up in smoke, and poured his drink offering and splashed the blood of his peace offerings on the altar. Now as for the bronze altar, which was before Yahweh, he drew it away from the front of the house, from between his altar and the house of Yahweh, and he put it on the north side of his altar. Then King Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, “Upon the great altar offer up in smoke the morning burnt offering and the evening grain offering and the king’s burnt offering and his grain offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land and their grain offering and their drink offerings; and splash on it all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifice. But the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by.” So Urijah the priest did according to all that King Ahaz commanded.
(2 Kings 16:10-16 LSB)
The King's Souvenir and the Priest's Surrender (vv. 10-11)
Our story begins with a political trip that turns into a liturgical disaster.
"Now King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria and saw the altar which was at Damascus; and King Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the likeness of the altar and its pattern, according to all its workmanship. So Urijah the priest built an altar; according to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, thus Urijah the priest made it, before the coming of King Ahaz from Damascus." (2 Kings 16:10-11)
Ahaz goes to Damascus not as a conqueror, but as a subordinate. He goes to pay homage to his new master, Tiglath-pileser. And while he is there, his eye is caught by an altar. We are not told what was so special about it, only that it impressed him. Perhaps it was larger, more ornate, more aesthetically pleasing than the old bronze altar God had designed. It was fashionable. It was Assyrian. It was the latest thing. And Ahaz, having already submitted his kingdom to Assyria, now decides to submit his worship to Assyrian style.
This is the essence of syncretism. It is not necessarily an outright rejection of the true God, but rather an attempt to blend the worship of the true God with the worship of false gods. It is the desire to have Yahweh, but to have Him on terms that are respectable to the world. Ahaz sends a blueprint, a detailed architectural drawing, back to Urijah the priest with a simple command: build me one of these. The command is clear: copy the pagan pattern precisely.
Now, the spotlight turns to Urijah the priest. Here is a man whose entire calling is to guard the holiness of God's house and the purity of God's worship. He is a steward of the divine pattern. God had given Moses excruciatingly detailed instructions for the tabernacle and its furniture, saying, "See that you make them after the pattern for them, which was shown to you on the mountain" (Exodus 25:40). That pattern, embodied in Solomon's temple, was Urijah's sacred trust. His job was to stand at the door and say, "Thus far, and no farther. The king has no authority here. God alone dictates how He is to be worshiped."
But what does Urijah do? He complies. He is a man without a backbone. He fears the king more than he fears God. He is more concerned with his job security than with God's glory. And so, with what we must assume was considerable skill and efficiency, he builds the pagan altar and has it ready and waiting for the king's return. Urijah is the classic institutional man. He is the bureaucrat who just follows orders, the pastor who trims his sails to the wind of the culture or the demands of the biggest donor. He is a tragic and cautionary figure. When the priests of God become yes-men to the kings of the earth, the church is in catastrophic trouble.
The Illegitimate Consecration (vv. 12-13)
When Ahaz returns, he doesn't waste any time. He immediately puts his new toy to use.
"So the king came from Damascus, and the king saw the altar; then the king drew near the altar and made offerings on it, and offered his burnt offering and his meal offering up in smoke, and poured his drink offering and splashed the blood of his peace offerings on the altar." (2 Kings 16:12-13 LSB)
Ahaz personally officiates at this new altar. He acts as his own priest. This is a direct usurpation of the Levitical priesthood, a sin for which King Uzziah was struck with leprosy (2 Chronicles 26:16-21). But Ahaz is emboldened by his rebellion. He performs all the prescribed sacrifices: the burnt offering, the meal offering, the drink offering, the peace offerings. He is using the correct liturgical actions, but he is performing them on an illegitimate altar. This is the very definition of will-worship.
This is a crucial point for us to grasp. Sincerity is not the test of true worship. Using the right "God-language" is not the test of true worship. Performing actions that look outwardly pious is not the test of true worship. The central question is this: is it according to God's command? Is it built according to His pattern? Nadab and Abihu offered "unauthorized fire" before the Lord, "which He had not commanded them," and they were consumed by fire from God's presence (Leviticus 10:1-2). God is not interested in our creative liturgical flourishes. He is not impressed by our attempts to make worship more appealing to the unregenerate tastes of the world. He has told us how He wants to be approached, and our only duty is to obey.
The Demotion of God's Altar (vv. 14-16)
Having installed his new altar, Ahaz now has to deal with the old one, the one God commanded. His solution is not to destroy it, but to demote it.
"Now as for the bronze altar, which was before Yahweh, he drew it away from the front of the house, from between his altar and the house of Yahweh, and he put it on the north side of his altar. Then King Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, 'Upon the great altar offer up in smoke the morning burnt offering and the evening grain offering and the king’s burnt offering and his grain offering...But the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by.' So Urijah the priest did according to all that King Ahaz commanded." (2 Kings 16:14-16 LSB)
The bronze altar, the place of atonement designed by God Himself, is shoved aside. It is moved from its central place "before Yahweh" and placed in a subordinate position to the north of Ahaz's "great altar." The man-made altar now takes the place of prominence. All the regular, corporate worship of Israel, the daily sacrifices, the king's offerings, the people's offerings, are all to be done on this new, pagan-inspired structure.
And what is the fate of God's altar? Ahaz says, "the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by." This is a deeply sinister statement. He is repurposing the altar of atonement into a tool for personal divination. This was a common pagan practice, seeking omens and guidance from the gods through various means. Ahaz is turning the furniture of God's house into a private crystal ball. He has not only corrupted the worship of God, he has reduced God's prescribed means of grace to a superstitious trinket for his personal use.
And once again, the verse ends with the sad, pathetic refrain: "So Urijah the priest did according to all that King Ahaz commanded." The surrender is complete. The priest, the guardian of orthodoxy, has become the compliant functionary of an apostate king. The state has completely co-opted the church. The worship of God is now dictated not by the Word of God, but by the whims of a man who got an idea on a business trip to Damascus.
The Gospel According to the Altar
This entire sordid affair is a rejection of the gospel. The bronze altar, the one God commanded, was a picture of the cross of Jesus Christ. It was the place where the penalty for sin was paid, where a substitute died in the place of the sinner, where the wrath of God was satisfied. It was God's provision, God's design, God's one way of approach. To set that altar aside for a more fashionable, man-made alternative is to say that the cross is insufficient. It is to say that we have a better idea. It is to say that we would prefer a way to God that is more impressive, more cultured, more palatable to the spirit of the age.
The church today is filled with altars from Damascus. Whenever we decide that the simple preaching of the cross is too offensive, and we replace it with TED talks on self-improvement, we are building an altar from Damascus. Whenever we decide that the psalms and hymns of the faith are too dated, and we replace them with shallow, sentimental ditties that sound like the world's pop music, we are building an altar from Damascus. Whenever we decide that God's clear commands regarding men and women, marriage, and sexuality are too out of step with the culture, and we craft a more "inclusive" and "affirming" theology, we are building an altar from Damascus.
The temptation is always to appease Tiglath-pileser, whatever his name is in our generation. We want the approval of the powerful, the intellectuals, the cultural elites. And so we send for their blueprints. We hire their consultants. We adopt their methods. And we shove God's bronze altar off to the side, perhaps keeping it around for some private, sentimental "inquiring," but it is no longer central. The man-made thing, the "great altar," takes center stage.
But the gospel declares that there is only one altar that saves. "We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat" (Hebrews 13:10). That altar is Christ Himself. His sacrifice is the only one that atones for sin. His pattern is the only one we are to follow. Our choice is the same as Urijah's. Will we obey the commands of the true King, Jesus, or will we bow to the pressure of the faithless kings of this world? Will we worship at the cross, with all its foolishness and offense to the world, or will we build a more respectable altar, imported from Damascus?
May God give us the courage to be faithful priests, who will not bow, who will not build, and who will not compromise. May we cling to the one, true, bronze altar, which is Christ crucified, and may we refuse all the glittering, fashionable, and damnable altars of this world.