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Day 182: The Inescapable God
Chapter 16: The Reign of King Ahaz in Judah
The Lord has launched a word at Jacob and it has fallen on Israel; and the people will all soon know it, Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, who say in the pride of their arrogant hearts, "The bricks have fallen down but we shall rebuild with dressed stone; the sycamores have been felled but we shall replace them with cedars." But, against them Yahweh has raised their foe Razon, he has whipped up their enemies, Aram to the east, Philistines to the west, to devour Israel with gaping jaws.
Isaiah 9:7-11
2 Kings 16:1-4 ~ The failure of King Ahaz's reign
See a more complete history of Ahaz in 2 Chronicles 28:1-17. For the first time with this Davidic king, the pattern is broken and his mother is not named; perhaps she died before her son became king and never ascended to the office of Gebirah/Queen Mother.
Question: How did God punish Ahaz? See 2 Chr 28:5-8.
Answer: God allowed a coalition of Aramaeans and Israelites to go to war against Judah in which Judah was defeated, the king's son many of the king's officials were killed, and many captives were taken back to Damascus.
2 Kings 16:5-9 ~ War with the Aramaeans and rescue by the Assyrians
God allowed the Aramaean king Razon of Damascus and King Pekah of Israel to form an alliance to attack Judah as judgment for the apostasy and idol worship that was present in the Southern Kingdom (Is 9:7-11). The kings of Israel and Damascus formed an alliance and go to war against the Kingdom of Judah. In the meantime, the Edomites used the vulnerability of Judah as an opportunity to take the Edomite town of Elath that had been lost by Jehoram and recovered by Amaziah of Judah (2 Kng 8:20-21; 14:22). In desperation, King Ahaz offered to become a vassal of the Assyrian king if he will rescue him from his enemies, paying a handsome tribute to gain the support of the Assyrians. His plan works but his purchase of foreign protection paves the way for the eventual downfall of the Kingdom of Judah (Is 8:5). It was after this that Ahaz appealed to the Assyrians to come to his aid and looted the royal palace and the Temple of Yahweh to pay tribute to the Assyrians (2 Chr 28:16-25).
The deportation of conquered populations became the practice of the Assyrians. In their view it eliminated the threat of a nationalistic uprising of conquered peoples.
2 Kings 16:10-20 ~ King Ahaz becomes a vassal of the Assyrians and destroys the altar built for Solomon's Temple
King Ahaz went to Damascus to perform his duty as Tiglath-Pileser's loyal vassal. While he was there he admired the pagan altar at the Damascus temple and decided to replace the altar of Yahweh's Temple that Solomon built.
The wheeled stands contained water for washing the sacrifices and are described in 1 Kings 7:23-37. Ahaz destroyed the wheeled stands and the bronze oxen for the valuable metal to meet the cost of the tribute he needed to pay the Assyrians. He removed the king's place at the Temple and the king's entrance as a sign that he no longer supported the Temple liturgy or Yahweh God of Israel.
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CHALLENGE: “Luke is mistaken when he says Jesus was born during ‘the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria’ (Luke 2:2). That census happened in A.D. 6–7, long after Jesus’ birth.”
DEFENSE: There are multiple solutions, some of which are presented here.
First, the word for “first” (Greek, prōtē) can mean “before.” Taken thus, Luke would be saying this was a census before the famous one in A.D. 6–7.
Second, if prōtē is translated “first,” this implies there was a second census under Quirinius. The second census would need to be famous for Luke to point out that Jesus was born during the first one, and the second census may have been the famous one of A.D. 6–7.
Third, the event may not have been a census. Luke says it was an “enrollment” or “registration” (Greek, apographē). This may refer to an event in 3–2 B.C. (the year of Christ’s birth; see Day 159) when the people of the Roman Empire acknowledged their allegiance to Augustus Caesar (except a few thousand Pharisees who Josephus records refused the oath; Antiquities of the Jews 17:2:4). Augustus himself mentions this in an inscription, stating: “In my thirteenth consulship [i.e., 2 B.C.] the senate, the equestrian order, and the whole people of Rome gave me the title of Father of my Country” (Res Gestae Divi Augusti 35, emphasis added).
Fourth, if the event was a census, the basis for dating it to A.D. 6–7 is based on Josephus’s statement that the event occurred in “the thirty-seventh year of [Augustus] Caesar’s victory over Antony at Actium,” or A.D. 6–7 (Antiquities of the Jews 18:2:1). However, internal indications in Josephus’s text suggest he was confused regarding when this event happened (see Steinmann, below).
Luke, writing around A.D. 59 (see Day 79) was closer in time to the events than Josephus, who was writing around A.D. 94. The events were more important to Luke than to Josephus, indicating a greater likelihood that his date was correct.
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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