The Death of a Fool and the Dawn of Hope Text: 2 Kings 16:19-20
Introduction: The Hinge of History
History, as the world tells it, is a long, meaningless corridor of births, deaths, and taxes. One king replaces another, one empire supplants the next, and the great wheel of time grinds on, signifying nothing. But the Christian knows that history is not a wheel; it is a line. It is a story with a beginning, a middle, and a glorious end. It is His story. And every so often in this story, God places a hinge, a pivot point where the entire narrative swings in a new direction. These moments are not accidental. They are sovereignly orchestrated transitions that reveal the stark contrast between faithfulness and apostasy, between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of God's dear Son.
We come to such a hinge in our text today. It is a brief, almost perfunctory, obituary. It is the kind of thing one might skim over to get to the more exciting parts of the story. But we must not do that. The Holy Spirit does not waste ink. In these two verses, we witness the closing of one of the darkest chapters in the history of Judah and the quiet, unceremonious opening of one of its brightest. King Ahaz, the fool, the idolater, the man who tried to secure his kingdom by selling his soul to Assyria, is dead. And his son, Hezekiah, takes the throne. This is more than just a standard dynastic succession. This is the grace of God breaking through the accumulated filth of a generation. It is the antithesis between two worldviews, two religions, embodied in a father and a son.
Ahaz represents the folly of pragmatic unbelief. He was a man who thought he could play the world's game and win. He saw the political threats around him, and instead of turning to the Lord his God, who had made covenant promises to his father David, he turned to Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria. He made himself a servant and a son to a pagan king, stripping the Lord's house to buy his favor. He even remodeled the worship of God to suit the tastes of his new master. He was a thoroughly modern man. He believed in political solutions to spiritual problems. And the result was ruin. He bought himself a little temporary security at the cost of his nation's soul.
But God is not mocked. His purposes are not thwarted by foolish kings. In the midst of this covenantal wreckage, God had prepared a successor, a son who would be everything his father was not. This transition from Ahaz to Hezekiah is a powerful illustration of God's sovereign grace in history. It teaches us that no matter how dark the times, no matter how compromised the leadership, God always preserves His remnant and always has a man ready to raise up. It is a reminder that the line of David, the line that leads to Christ, is not maintained by the righteousness of the men in that line, but by the faithfulness of the God who made the promise.
The Text
Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? So Ahaz slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David; and Hezekiah his son became king in his place.
(2 Kings 16:19-20 LSB)
The Uninspired Ledger (v. 19)
We begin with the formal closing of the account of Ahaz.
"Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?" (2 Kings 16:19)
This is a standard formula used by the author of Kings to conclude a king's reign. On the surface, it is a simple historical reference. The author is telling his readers that if they want more details, the raw data of the administration, the political treaties, the building projects, they can consult the official court records. But there is a profound theological point being made here, even in its brevity. The Holy Spirit is distinguishing between two kinds of history books.
There is the "Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah," which is the secular, state-sanctioned record. It is a book written from man's perspective. It would have recorded Ahaz's treaty with Assyria as a shrewd political move, a masterstroke of foreign policy that saved the nation from the Syro-Ephraimite coalition. It would have detailed his architectural updates to the temple as a necessary modernization project. It would have measured his reign by its political stability and economic metrics. It is the book of pragmatism, of human wisdom, of what "works."
But then there is the book you are reading, the book of 2 Kings, which is God's inspired analysis of that same history. And what is God's summary of "the acts of Ahaz"? It is a story of rank apostasy. "He did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord his God" (2 Kings 16:2). He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, he sacrificed his own son in the fire, he worshipped on every high hill, and he desecrated the temple of the living God. God's history book is not interested in political maneuvering; it is interested in covenant faithfulness. God judges kings not by their GDP, but by their fidelity to His Word.
This verse, then, dismisses the merely human record. It says, in effect, "If you want the world's opinion of this man, go read the world's books. But here, in this book, is the judgment that matters." The acts of Ahaz are many, but they are ultimately irrelevant. They are the frantic shuffling of deck chairs on a sinking ship. All his cleverness and compromise are footnotes in the ledger of a fool. This is a crucial lesson for us. We are constantly tempted to measure the success of our churches, our families, and our nations by the world's standards. But God has a different set of books, and the final judgment will be rendered from His inspired chronicle, not the annals of men.
The End of an Era (v. 20a)
The first part of verse 20 records the death and burial of this wicked king.
"So Ahaz slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David..." (2 Kings 16:20a)
The phrase "slept with his fathers" is a standard euphemism for death, particularly for the kings of David's line. It speaks of a continuity, of joining the generations that have gone before. He is buried "with his fathers in the city of David," the royal cemetery. On the surface, he receives the honors due to a king of Judah. He is, after all, a link in the covenant line. God's promise to David is not nullified by the wickedness of David's sons.
However, when we compare this account with the parallel record in 2 Chronicles, we get a crucial piece of additional information. 2 Chronicles 28:27 tells us, "So Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, in Jerusalem, but they did not bring him into the tombs of the kings of Israel."
So, he was buried in Jerusalem, the city of David, but he was denied a place in the royal sepulcher itself. This was a posthumous, public rebuke. It was a statement by the people, likely led by the priests and Levites who would soon be empowered by Hezekiah, that while Ahaz was a son of David by blood, he had not lived as a son of David by faith. His dishonorable burial was a testimony against his dishonorable life. He had sought the honor of pagan kings, and he forfeited the ultimate honor of his own people.
This is a picture of the final judgment. Many will say on that day, "Lord, Lord," pointing to their formal connection to the covenant community. They were baptized, they were members of the church, they were buried in the church cemetery. But the Lord will say, "I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness." Formal inclusion in the line is not enough. God requires faith, and the fruit of that faith, which is obedience. Ahaz had the pedigree, but he did not have the piety. And so, while he was buried near his fathers, he was not truly with them.
The Sovereign Succession (v. 20b)
The verse, and the chapter, ends with a simple, declarative statement that is pregnant with hope.
"...and Hezekiah his son became king in his place." (2 Kings 16:20b)
After the long, dark night of Ahaz's reign, the sun rises. Just like that. No fanfare, no dramatic battle, just the quiet, sovereign turning of the page. "And Hezekiah his son became king." This is the grace of God in action. How did Hezekiah emerge from such a corrupt and idolatrous household? His father was a man who literally sacrificed one of his sons to Molech. His court was a cesspool of pagan compromise. Yet out of this spiritual toxic waste dump comes one of Judah's greatest reformers.
This is a glorious testimony to the doctrine of election and the power of God's grace. Covenant succession is the norm God has established. He has promised to be a God to us and to our children after us. We are to raise our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, expecting them to follow us in the faith. But when a father like Ahaz utterly defaults on this duty, when he actively nurtures his children in the admonition of the devil, God can and does intervene. Hezekiah is a miracle. He is a brand plucked from the fire his own father had kindled.
This phrase, "in his place," is key. Hezekiah did not just take his father's office; he took his father's covenantal station and reversed its direction entirely. Where Ahaz shut the doors of the temple (2 Chron. 28:24), Hezekiah, in the very first month of his reign, opened them and repaired them (2 Chron. 29:3). Where Ahaz imported a pagan altar from Damascus, Hezekiah cleansed the temple and restored true worship. Where Ahaz trusted in Assyria, Hezekiah trusted in the Lord. He stood in his father's place and did the exact opposite. This is what repentance looks like on a national scale.
This succession is a foretaste of the gospel. Ahaz is a type of the first Adam. He is a federal head who leads his people into sin, idolatry, and judgment. He brings death and corruption. But Hezekiah is a type of the second Adam, Jesus Christ. He is the righteous king who comes after the unrighteous one and reverses the curse. He cleanses the temple, restores the covenant, and leads his people in righteousness. The transition from Ahaz to Hezekiah is a microcosm of the transition from the old covenant of works, which we all broke in Adam, to the new covenant of grace, which Christ perfectly fulfilled on our behalf. The death of the fool makes way for the reign of the righteous king.
Conclusion: The King is Dead, Long Live the King
So what do we take from this brief historical notice? We see here the fundamental choice that confronts every generation, every nation, and every individual. It is the choice between Ahaz and Hezekiah. It is the choice between faith and unbelief, between covenant-keeping and covenant-breaking, between trusting in the wisdom of man and trusting in the promises of God.
Ahaz's story is a solemn warning. Do not think you can be cleverer than God. Do not imagine that you can secure your future by compromising with the world. The path of pragmatism is the path of apostasy. It may seem to work for a season, but its end is dishonor and ruin. Every time we trust in our money, in our political connections, in our own shrewdness rather than in the plain Word of God, we are walking in the way of Ahaz.
But Hezekiah's story is a glorious encouragement. It shows us that God's grace is not bound by our failures. Even when fathers fail catastrophically, God can raise up faithful sons. Even when a nation seems hopelessly lost to idolatry and corruption, God can bring about revival overnight through a change in leadership. This should give us a profound hope. We should not despair when we look at the state of our own nations. The West is currently governed by a host of little Ahazes, men and women who despise the law of God and trust in their own pagan schemes. But God is sovereign. He can replace them. The king is dead, long live the King.
And ultimately, our hope is not in a better Hezekiah, for even he was a flawed man who sinned. Our hope is in the greater Hezekiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the true and faithful king who has taken the throne. The ultimate fool, Adam, is dead, and all who are in him died with him. But the true King, Christ, is risen, and He reigns forever. He has cleansed the heavenly temple with His own blood, and He has opened the way for us to worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The story of Ahaz and Hezekiah reminds us that history is swinging on a hinge, and that hinge is the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The old era of sin and death is over. The new era of life and righteousness has dawned. Therefore, let us put away the deeds of Ahaz and live as faithful subjects of our King Hezekiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.