From Splendor to Shadow

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Chapter 27—Ahaz Almost Ruins the Kingdom

The accession of Ahaz to the throne brought Isaiah face to face with conditions more appalling than any that had hitherto existed in Judah. Many were now being persuaded to worship heathen deities. Princes were untrue to their trust; false prophets were leading astray; some priests were teaching for hire. Yet the leaders in apostasy still kept up the forms of divine worship and claimed to be the people of God. SS 170.1

The prophet Micah declared that sinners in Zion, while blasphemously boasting, “Is not the Lord in the midst of us? No evil shall come upon us,” continued to “build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with wrong.” Micah 3:11, 10, RSV. Isaiah lifted his voice in stern rebuke: “What to Me is the multitude of your sacrifices? ... When you come to appear before Me, who requires of you this trampling of My courts?” Isaiah 1:11, 12, RSV. SS 170.2

Inspiration declares, “The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination: how much more, when he bringeth it with a wicked mind?” Proverbs 21:27. It is not because God is unwilling to forgive that He turns from the transgressor; because the sinner refuses the abundant provisions of grace, God is unable to deliver from sin. “Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear.” Isaiah 59:2. SS 170.3

Isaiah called the attention of the people to the weakness of their position among the nations and showed that this was the result of wickedness in high places: “The Lord, the Lord of hosts, is taking away from Jerusalem and Judah stay and staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water; the mighty man and the soldier, the judge and the prophet, the diviner and the elder, the captain of fifty and the man of rank, the counselor and the skilful magician and the expert in charms. And I will make boys their princes, and babes shall rule over them.” “For Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen; because their speech and their deeds are against the Lord.” Isaiah 3:1-4, 8, RSV. SS 170.4

“They which lead thee,” the prophet continued, “cause thee to err.” Verse 12. Of Ahaz it is written: “He walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even burned his son as an offering, according to the abominable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel.” 2 Kings 16:3, RSV. SS 171.1