Bible Commentaries

2 Chronicles 28:19, 2 Chronicles 28:22-23, 2 Chronicles 28:25

I. The career of Ahaz illustrates that law of character by which the wickedness of a man is proportioned to the amount of holy influence which he has conquered. We find a reason for his extreme depravity in the extreme facilities which he had for being a saint. The worst of men are apostates from the best of faiths.

II. The career of Ahaz illustrates also the faithfulness of God in chastising wicked men for their good. "The Lord brought Judah low because of Ahaz." From the beginning to the end of his reign he experienced the truth that the way of transgressors is hard. Nothing went well with him. His public life was one long career of defying God, yet of God's persistent efforts to save him by chastising him.

III. The life of Ahaz illustrates the extreme which sin reaches when men fight successfully against God's chastisements. Few things are so truthful a touchstone to the character of men as the way in which they treat the suffering which God sends as chastisement. One man turns at its bidding, and becomes an heir of glory; another defies it, and becomes a monument of perdition.

IV. The reign of Ahaz illustrates the disappointments which wicked men experience in their hopes of happiness in sin.

V. The reign of Ahaz illustrates the distinction which it is possible for a man to gain in this world as a monument of guilt. "He did trespass more against the Lord. This is that king Ahaz!" Such is the reflection of the annalist after enumerating the monarch's crimes. Look at him; mark him; let him stand in history as a monster of iniquity; let the world stand aghast at him.

A. Phelps, The Old Testament a Living Book, p. 101.