The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 275

HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vere. 1-20.-Steps in a downward path: the reign of .t1.haa. In the opening chapters of Isaiah we have an account of the condition of the kingdom of Judah at the time that Ahaz succeeded to the throne. The prosperity which the country had enjoyed under Uzziah had been continued and increased under the righteous reign of his son Jotham. And now the grandson, Ahaz, a. young man of twenty, finds the country abounding in wealth, full of silver and gold. Isaiah says there was no end of their treasure; their land also was full of horses, neither was there any end of their chariots. Their commerce, too, was in a. thriving condition. "The ships of Tarshish, sailing from Elath, could boast th"lir gilded prows and stems, and purple sail~, and breught home rich cargoes from the distant East" (Geikie, 'Hours with the Bible: Rehoboam to Hezekiah,' p. 292). But before Ahaz died, all this was changed. Enemy after enemy invaded his country, The land became desolate. The king was reduced to great extremities to obtain money. Instead of the sunshine of prosperity, there was on every side the dark shadow of desolation and decay, We have the li\Xplanation of it all in the third and fourth verses. Ahaz began badly, and every fresh movement in his life was a step from bad to worse. His history is a further illustration of how one sin leads to another. It was a continuously downward path. I. 'l'!IE FIRST STEP IN TllE DOWNWARD OABEER OF A.RAZ WAS HIS IDOLATRY. (Vers. 3, 4.) He forsook the worship.of the true and living God, and worshipped the gods of the heathen. Even that step he would seem to have ta.ken gradually. At fir~t he began with the high places, which bad never been taken away. Then graven irnages and other heathen customs were used in the worship of God; and finally the idols of the false gods thomselves were set up. The policy of compromise had now reacherl its fitting conclusion. ·when the right makes compromise with the wrong, the wrong is sure to gain the victory. So it was in this case. The people had got accustomed to the high places. They saw no harm in them. And now they see no harm in the idols. Isaiah describes the universal corruptiou when he says, "Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made." And what a worship it was to substitute for the worship of the only true and living and almighty God! A useless worship, as Isaiah indicates, to worship the work of their own hands. It brought them no help in their hour of distress. But it U. KINGS, T  322 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. [OH. XVI, 1-20.