Links for today’s readings:
Nov 3 Read: 2 Kings 16 Listen: (3:46) Read: Psalms 68 Listen: (4:26)
Scripture Focus: 2 Kings 16.14-18
14 As for the bronze altar that stood before the Lord, he brought it from the front of the temple—from between the new altar and the temple of the Lord—and put it on the north side of the new altar. 15 King Ahaz then gave these orders to Uriah the priest: “On the large new altar, offer the morning burnt offering and the evening grain offering, the king’s burnt offering and his grain offering, and the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their grain offering and their drink offering. Splash against this altar the blood of all the burnt offerings and sacrifices. But I will use the bronze altar for seeking guidance.” 16 And Uriah the priest did just as King Ahaz had ordered. 17 King Ahaz cut off the side panels and removed the basins from the movable stands. He removed the Sea from the bronze bulls that supported it and set it on a stone base. 18 He took away the Sabbath canopy that had been built at the temple and removed the royal entryway outside the temple of the Lord, in deference to the king of Assyria.
Reflection: Vassals Become Vessels
By John Tillman
Assyria, the world’s first superpowered empire, was growing.
Judah’s neighbors, Israel and Aram, pressured Judah’s king, Ahaz, to join them in resisting Assyria. When he would not, they conspired to replace him as king and attacked him. As Isaiah promised Ahaz, the coup collapsed. (Isaiah 7.2-7) However, Ahaz failed to follow Isaiah’s advice and stand firm in his faith.
Rather than resist Assyria, Ahaz chose appeasement. Forsaking God’s promise through Isaiah, Ahaz forged an alliance with Assyria to protect himself from his neighbors. To pay Assyria for this protection, Ahaz stripped the temple of gold, silver, and bronze. When visiting Tiglath-Pileser as his newest vassal, Ahaz saw an Assyrian altar and had a copy of it built for the temple in Jerusalem. As a vassal of Assyria, Judah became a vessel for Assyrian ways, worship, and corruption.
First, Ahaz placed the Assyrian altar in front of the altar of God, between it and the temple’s entrance. Then Ahaz moved God’s altar to one side, out of its place. Ahaz instructed the priest to offer sacrifices on the new Assyrian altar, but kept God’s altar for “seeking guidance.” Ahaz not only sidelined Yahweh’s altar, he also worshiped Assyrian gods and sacrificed his son to them. Ahaz distorted and corrupted the temple “in deference to” the Assyrian king. He eventually shuttered the temple and filled the city with altars to many gods. (2 Chronicles 28.24-25) Ahaz’s kingdom and temple became indistinguishable from Assyria.
We are not kings like Ahaz, and the powers of the world rarely threaten us like an empire. Sometimes they woo us like algorithms, seduce us like sins, numb us like drugs, deceive us like politicians, or corrupt us like wicked or reckless friends.
When such powers of the world approach us, it is dangerous for us to choose appeasement. Appeasement soon becomes approval, and approval soon becomes adoption.
Have we become vassals of worldly powers (cultural or political) and vessels of their ways? Have we sidelined part of our theology to center the priorities of powerful allies? Does our deference to powerful forces erase the difference between us and them?
We must not be conformed to or discipled by worldly powers or leaders. (Romans 12.2) Rather than showing deference, we must demonstrate our difference.
Let us stand firm in our faith, using winsome persuasion, determined persistence, and uncompromising principles to distinguish ourselves and defend our neighbors from the world’s powers.
Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
“New Day”, by David Adam
This new day you give to me
From your great eternity
This new day now enfold
Me in your loving hold
You are the star of the morn
You are the day newly born
You are the light of our night
You are the savior by your might
God be in me this day
God ever with me stay
God be in the night
Keep us by thy light
God be in my heart
God abide, never depart
– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.
Read more: Kingdoms Breaking Bad
As Israel fractures, each dynasty hopes to be the answer. But each one, especially in the northern kingdom, “breaks bad.”
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