2 Kings 16:10, “And king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and saw an altar that was at Damascus: and king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof.”
Ahaz, king of Judah, went up to Damascus to meet the king of Assyria who had just rescued him from his enemies. While he was there he saw a pagan altar, liked it, and sent the pattern back to Urijah the priest in Jerusalem. By the time Ahaz got home, Urijah had built an exact copy and set it up in the house of the LORD.
The steps Ahaz followed are the same steps the church or Christian follows every time it drifts from following God.
1. He Saw It
It all started with the eyes. Ahaz was in the capital of an idolatrous nation God was judging, and instead of asking what the LORD thought of their altar, he was impressed by their workmanship.
Nobody falls into compromise by accident. We see what a worldly church or person is doing, and instead of asking is this from God, we ask why is it working for them.
2. He Copied It
2 Kings 16:11, “And Urijah the priest built an altar according to all that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus: so Urijah the priest made it against king Ahaz came from Damascus.”
Ahaz did not adapt the Damascus altar or take inspiration from it. He sent for the fashion, the pattern, and all the workmanship. He wanted an exact replica.
Ahaz did not invent the new altar, he imported it, and most modern compromise is imported from a system God never authorized.
3. The Priest Went Along
Urijah was supposed to guard the worship of God. He built the pagan altar himself and had it ready before the king got home. No resistance or prophet sent to confront. No “thus saith the LORD.”
The people who should be standing in the gap are the ones building the new altar. The men whose job is to guard the worship are the ones handing the hammer to the king.
4. He Used the New Altar First
2 Kings 16:12-13, “And when the king was come from Damascus, the king saw the altar: and the king approached to the altar, and offered thereon. And he burnt his burnt offering and his meat offering, and poured his drink offering, and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings, upon the altar.”
The minute Ahaz got home he walked past the brazen altar God had commanded and offered every kind of sacrifice on the Damascus altar. He had full worship, but on the wrong altar.
You can offer all the right things on the wrong altar and God will not receive a single one.
5. He Moved God’s Altar Out of the Way
2 Kings 16:14, “And he brought also the brasen altar, which was before the LORD, from the forefront of the house, from between the altar and the house of the LORD, and put it on the north side of the altar.”
Ahaz did not destroy the brazen altar, he just moved it. Off to the north side and out of the middle.
The modern church or Christian almost never burns the Bible, they just moves it.
The pulpit shrinks while the stage grows. Everything was just shifted off center.
6. He Renamed It and Reassigned It
2 Kings 16:15, “And king Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, Upon the great altar burn the morning burnt offering, and the evening meat offering, and the king’s burnt sacrifice, and his meat offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their meat offerings, and their drink offerings; and sprinkle upon it all the blood of the burnt offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice: and the brasen altar shall be for me to enquire by.”
The Damascus altar got a new title. He called it the great altar! The brazen altar got demoted to something to enquire by occasionally.
Listen to modern church language. The new style is relevant, engaging, fresh. The old way is traditional, outdated, legalistic.
Scripture becomes a verse to start the message. A proof text for whatever the new altar is already doing.
7. The People Followed
2 Kings 16:16, “Thus did Urijah the priest, according to all that king Ahaz commanded.”
The priest obeyed and all the people’s offerings ended up on the new altar. The whole nation worshipped on the imported altar and called it normal.
This is how a generation grows up not knowing what a real altar looks like. Kids raised in the new system have never heard a sermon that was not built around a video clip. Never sat through a service that was not engineered for emotion.
That is how compromise wins. The compromise is patience.
The Detail That Should Wake Us Up
2 Chronicles 28:23, “For he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him: and he said, Because the gods of Syria help them, therefore will I sacrifice to them, that they may help me. But they were the ruin of him, and of all Israel.”
Ahaz sacrificed to the gods of the nation that had been beating him because he thought they were helping the people who beat him. He copied a system God was already judging.
That is the modern “Christian” who copies the broken system of the world. The world is falling apart and we are borrowing from it!
Ahaz lost because he became religious about the wrong altar.
The brazen altar was still on the property, but nobody used it.
We should not move the altar.
Keep the Bible in the middle.
Keep the gospel clear.
Ahaz lost a kingdom because he changed the altar. Do not change the altar.
