Considerably, the children of Israel faired well when they were under God’s rule. In the latter days of Samuel, they asked for a king. They gave two reasons for their request. One was that Samuel’s sons who he appointed judges were corrupt. The other reason was a little more worrisome. They had seen other kingdoms ruled by kings, and they wanted to be like them. They lusted after the practice of other nations until they lost their peculiar status as a nation under God. The problem was that they copied the pattern of other nations, and that became a snare to them.

“He also forgot that the altar at Damascus was not receiving sacrifices meant for the true and living God but for the lesser gods of other nations.”

In our text, King Ahaz repeated that initial error. He visited the king of Assyria in Damascus where he saw a fanciful altar. He sketched and sent it to the priest to replicate in Judah. Ahaz forgot that God gave the pattern of the altar which he rubbished. He also forgot that the altar at Damascus was not receiving sacrifices meant for the true and living God but for the lesser gods of other nations. A verse of scripture shows other untoward changes that the king made and the reason for his action – “Also he removed the Sabbath pavilion which they had built in the temple, and he removed the king’s outer entrance from the house of the Lord, on account of the king of Assyria.”