The Scenic Route Through The Book Of Isaiah, Part 2 - King Ahaz and The "High" Places

The Scenic Route Through The Book Of Isaiah, Part 2 – King Ahaz & The ‘High’ Places

Welcome to the Something To Gnaw On Podcast, Usually a short Parable Style Devotional for the Christian with a short attention span, and I’m your host, Nate Vainio.   We are starting a bit of what I would call a sub-series called THE SCENIC ROUTE THROUGH THE BOOK OF ISAIAH, where I want to take a bit more time to work through the book than I had spent in the Crash Course Through The Old Testament series….yet taking some of the lessons we learned in the process and apply them to this book.   And in the process, I hope to make the Old Testament and the books of the Prophets a little less intimidating, really I hope it comes alive to you, and hopefully, it sparks an interest for listeners to get into the Bible for themselves, Remember the cliché’ saying…. Get into the Word and let the Word get into you.   

This episode is Part 2 in the series, King Ahaz and the ‘High’ Places

How bad does a nation have to get to incur the wrath of God?   It’s a legit question, given there are those who think of God as a ‘Tyrant In The Sky’ bent on taking a life for every little mis-step.   Surely, mankind should know where the “point of no return” is!

But, lets keep in mind … this kind of an assertion of God being a Divine Tyrant is usually based more on breakroom rhetoric and atheistic banter, as opposed to historical fact.  

A theme that has come to the surface in our Scenic Drive Through The Book Of Isaiah, is that God’s holiness (and all that comes with it), and God’s Love (and all that comes with it), are choreographed as a 1-2 punch in the book of Isaiah.  Sometimes you have to look at the text a bit more intently, but other times it’s absolutely blatant.

(WARNING:  I did not mark this episode as “EXPLICIT” on account of the fact that I don’t use foul language, however, I think it fair and respectful to warn you that if you have a weak stomach, or are highly bothered with depictions of pagan worship, you might want to fast forward  at least a minute or so…. I want to be respectful of people’s sensitivities while at the same time calling out some of the explicitly disgusting elements of pagan worship of the era for what it was).  

So, lets go back to the original question.  How bad does a nation have to get to incur the wrath of God?  Or what about a church for that matter? Or a community? Or a person?  Or a region? 

What if they were sacrificing children?  Or aborting children?  Or taking innocent life from those so young that they have to play music so loud that they drown out the scream of the child to keep the parent from changing their mind? Or what if they have to tie a live baby to the altar so it doesn’t writhe its way off of the altar as it burns in flame? Is God justified then?   Is he waiting to pounce? 

What if the governmental leadership systematically eliminates the religious expression of a people group? What about that of the church.  What if the government nails the doors shut, sells off the sacred elements of the church, and repurposes what is declared holy by God as something that is distinctly declared as an abomination by Him.  Is God justified then?  Is He waiting to pounce?

What if the powers that be -  take one of the most sacred parts of church, the worship service, and twist every tradition – every divine command – every sanctified step in the process of corporate worship in an effort to be edgy and ahead of the curve, and relevant.  What if this meant church leaders traded in their smoke machines in for…… wait for it…… Cannabis machines, that is to say marijuana smoke dispensaries … seriously…. What if worship involved a free hit of the pipe, a free joint for communion, or instead of a coffee bar the church had a place for you to get your marijuana paraphernalia before walking into service?  What if they had a Bring a Bong to the temple events  Would God be justified then?  Would He be waiting to pounce?  

And for those of you that think I am being a bit over the top here, check the show notes for the references for this story from the Armstrong Institute for Biblical Archaeology & Hebrew University, and the Smithsonian regarding the finding of Cannabis on a secondary altar of incense in a hidden pagan temple, in a little town just south of Jerusalem.  It was found in an archaeological dig about 4 years ago.  And given the combination of advances in scientific identification, and the amount of residue that remained, both altars were tested for their contents, confirming both Biblical incense and cannabis along with animal excrement.

And when those archaeologists found this site 4 years ago, what era do you think it points to?  If you guessed Uzziah, you’d be getting close.

Isaiah said in chapter 1 that he served under King’s Uzziah Jotham Ahaz and Hezekiah.  

We covered Uzziah last week.   We may mention Jotham somewhere along the lines.   And we will eventually get to Hezekiah.   But this week we are going to be talking about King Uzziah’s grandson, Ahaz….   The king whose reign is connected to the great cannabis find from 4 years ago, and one who is considered one of the most wicked kings  in Judah.

Let me give you the quick and abbreviated rundown of what happened and why (biblically speaking) it’s a problem.

If you go back and read through the Pentateuch, especially Exodus and Leviticus, you will find that God had specific instructions for worship.   And these rules were not to be deviated from.

There were instructions on what kind of animal to bring for whatever sacrifice, how it was to be prepared, under what circumstances to bring it, what to do with the blood, waste, and meat, etc.  which altar to put it on, what to burn it with. Etc etc etc.   lots of details.   And this all had to do with the sin offerings, and I am grateful that under the New Covenant Jesus took care of that once and for all!  And that we aren’t subject to this Old Testament system…  but this doesn’t mean that there isn’t anything for us to learn…. In fact, quite the opposite is true.  Hang with me here.

In Jewish  temple worship there is an altar, called The Altar of Incense.  And this is one incredibly important altar to God!  God get’s very specific about, not only the recipe for the incense, but for the type of fire that will burn the incense. He is specific about  It’s location. according to the text,  was supposed to be placed directly in front of the veil, in front of the ark of the covenant.  He is specific about who is supposed to offer it, Aaron (and his direct descendants) were supposed to burn incense.   And he is specific about when it was to be burnt:   every morning and evening.  And whatever the ultimate purpose, God’s final instruction to Moses on it is this… “You shall not offer unauthorized incense on it or a burnt offering, or a grain offering, and you shall not pour a drink offering on it…….. and he cap’s off the verse with this phrase….  It is most holy to the Lord”  Exodus 30:1-11 …. Not just holy, but MOST HOLY.  

Now, without getting into the details of both… let me just say that in Leviticus 10 you will read a story about two knuckleheaded PK’s who thought they could get away with doing  it differently.  Here’s what the text says “Now Nadab and Abihu, the son’s of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered UNAUTHORIZED fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them.  And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.”   This is how important this Altar and the Incense is to God.

And is this not what King Uzziah taught us in the last episode?   God is not messing around with the severity and importance of the Altar of Incense!  Uzziah got off easy  with 10 years of leperosy (plus or minus) and isolation, and plenty of time to change his heart.

So, when archaeologists found this pseudo-temple south of Jerusalem, what they found was one of these places that are referred to as ‘high-places’ (which is quite the humorous now term given the recent finding… for years they have been literally called the ‘high places’ and nobody realized they were burning weed there,  how fitting.)  Does anyone remember that old Ron Kenoly worship song from the 90’s…. going up to the high places…. Gonna tear the devils kingdom down….  Sorry, it’s just humerous to me at the moment.

Anyhow, the way this newly discovered ‘high’ place was laid out was similar in format to the temple, except to say that next to the altar of incense they had a secondary altar, an altar of cannabis…. And in addition to the unauthorized burning of marijuana, to get full effect they had to burn it with animal dung. 

Apparently, when God set up the recipe for the proper incense, he also setup the proper type of wood, or coals, to burn at a temperature that brought out the most effective aromatic scent from the frankincense.   The problem for those who wanted to smoke their weed in these ‘high’ place temples (under this super spiritual premise), was that the same coals that burned the frankencense would not get the desired effect out of the cannabis.  So, to get the most effective usage out of the cannabis, they would have to burn animal dung…..which burns at a significantly different temperature…..   

What an absolute mess this is shaping up to be… it’s what I would call a 3 step mess:  

·         MESSY STEP 1:  They had pretend worship happening where it shouldn’t; outside the temple, outside of God’s design.   That is to say that worship in the temple was eventually shut down (and you can read about that in 2 Chronicles 28 and 2 Kings 16), but these high places… at least this one found by archaeologists, were laid out in similar fashion…. But, despite any similarity, it was 100% wrong, and against God’s prescribed plan.  And there was a systematic dismantling of the temple and it’s services that you can read in 2 Kings 16, starting in verse 7.

o   So step 1 is simply having a form of religion, but it grossly violated every rule in the Old Testament.

o   This type of religious rebellion is nothing new.  It isn’t the first time, and it sure won’t be the last:

§  There’s an interesting verse in the New Testament, 2 Timothy 3

§  “… In the last days there will be very difficult times.  For people will love only themselves and their money.  They will be boastful and proud, scoffing God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful.  They will consider nothing sacred.  They will be unloving and unforgiving:  they will slander others and have no self-control.  They will be cruel and hate what is good.  They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God.  They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them Godly,”  And the key instruction from Paul to Timothy, “Stay away from people like that!”        

§  There’s nothing new under the sun, this isn’t Paul’s first go around with this…. he knew Jewish history.   And history is cyclical, and repetitive.

§  So, messy step #1 is simply having a form of religion….. a dangerous form of religion…. And denying it’s power.  (notwithstanding many of the other characteristics Paul mentions being a fit)

§  MOVING ON………

·         MESSY STEP 2:   They had a type of prayer and worship, or incense being burnt, that is more about the effect it has on the participant, than about how pleasing it is to the Lord.

o   Everyone needs to stop and chew on this one for a minute….. press pause if you have to, but when a culture – and religious culture in particular – gets to a place where the importance of the personal experience of the worshiper (or church attendee) exceeds what the deity deserves and receives, then you have drifted into a dangerous realm of idolatry.

o   Make no mistake about it, Doing Worship and Church by the book, you will get plenty out of your time with The Lord… and you should…. But whatever you and I get should be a byproduct of what God receives, not the sole focus of the corporate worship event.

o   As we move through the book of Isaiah this issue of idolatry (in a myriad of forms) will be  prevalent… And on several occasions God says He won’t share His Glory with another…. And as we saw how God handle Nadab and Abihu, and Uzziah, God’s serious about this.

o   It needs to be understood that this is a serious offense to offer strange incense… strange worship…. Strange prayers

o   I need to add here that to be clear, all the elements of Temple worship as designed by God prove to be a type and shadow for us under the new covenantt.  For clarity’s sake think of the whole process of the temple as worship.

§  The key component is the altar where the sacrifice is made, and Christ has become our sacrifice.

§  The Holy  of Holies, or the Most Holy Place used to be a place that only one priest could enter, once per year.  Now the Holy of Holies dwells in us.

§  More important to todays podcast, When it comes to the altar of incense, it is clearly a symbol of prayer.

·         Psalm 141:2 “Accept my prayer as incense offered to you,
    and my upraised hands as an evening offering.”

·         Revelation 5:8 “And when he took the scroll, the four living beings and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp, and they held gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of God’s people.”

o   This is echoed again in Revelation 8:3-4

·         And let’s not forget Isaiah’s words in chapter 56:7-8  “I will bring them to my holy mountain of Jerusalem
    and will fill them with joy in my house of prayer.
 I will accept their burnt offerings and sacrifices,
    because my Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”

o   And what’s beautiful with this is that 3 of the Gospels record Jesus quoting this Isaiah here, as he is cleansing the temple.

·          

§  The Alltar of Incense is no secondary or tertiary element of worship.  IT IS ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL….. DAY AND NIGHT …. IT WAS OFFERED INFRONT OF THE VEIL BEFORE THE MOST HOLY PLACE, BEFORE THE ALTAR OF THE PRESENCE.  

·         Offering the incense put the priest as close to the presence of the Lord on a daily basis as anyone could get.

·         If this isn’t driving it home enough, listen to the way Dr. RC SPROUL of Ligonier Ministries stated it back in 2010:

o   …the ascending smoke symbolizing that what was offered there went up to God, much as our prayers go up to Him. Being set outside the veil, the priest would see the smoke penetrate the curtain into the Holy of Holies even though He could not see past the curtain. And is this not like prayer in that we know our prayers enter heaven itself even though we cannot yet see into that place?

o   The altar of incense reminded Israel to pray and assured the people their prayers were sweet-smelling to the Lord.

o   https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/altar-incense

o   Ok, we gotta keep MOVING  

·         MESSY STEP 3:    They are flat-out delusional.  To accomplish step 1&2, they had to completely defile themselves by burning animal excrement…. In a setting that is supposedly holy, but isn’t.      Their idea of what is holy and what is worship is totally contrary to the law.  In the archaeological dig, and all the temple’s that Ahaz built, they set up the holy right next to the profane and somehow have an expectation that God would be ok with this…  How delusional do you have to be?  Do they not remember that Nadab and Abihu died because of such irreverence?  Do they not remember Uzziah’s leperosy just a few years previous?!  

o   That being said, if there was a new church growth method that involved giving out free weed, instead of literature or cookies or coffee or donuts, I’m sure there would be plenty of delusional people lining up for their personal experience…… just my armchair opinion!) 

o    

I am going to move on to some other details in a moment, but I want to issue a serious challenge right here:

o   Look at your prayer life.  Look at the worship in your church, and the prayer in the church.  Is it about what people get out of it?  Is it about an experience?

o   Now be careful here!  Giving God His just worship and us getting something out of it are not mutually exclusive issues, but what needs to happen is what God gets needs to be the primary focus.   Is the focus to come together to give God the glory and honor  He rightly deserves?

o   And in our prayer lives…. Have you noticed how the lords prayer begins with honoring him and praising him, and asking for his kingdom to come andhis will to be done before we ask anything for ourselves?   

o   The message today is not that we don’t get anything…… it’s that we worship Him first, it’s not about us, its not about new, it’s not about edgy or realavant, its not about our feelings……. First and foremost, its about God and how He longs for things to be.    Honor that and you’d be amazed how he gives back.

§  It’s an amazing part of God’s character, the law of firsts they call it.

·         I don’t have time to get into it, but when you give god the first, he has a way of multiplying it back to you…. And that isn’t a monetary thing.

o   Remember Hannah?  Couldn’t have children, prayed for a son, was given Samuel, she gave him to the Lord, and the lord opened her womb and she had several more children.   She gave the first, God blessed.

o   Worship God first, give him what he requires…. And let him respond however he wishes…. You won’t be disappointed.  

Ok,  time to get back to the history and the archaeology of this episode….

I began with the basic question “How bad does a nation have to get to incur the wrath of God?“    All of the aforementioned situations relating to child sacrifice, shutting down the temple, and worshiping in the high places, all come to a cross-roads in the person and reign of King Ahaz.  Frankly it could be our culture too, child sacrifice, shutting down churches (or the silencing, or attempted silencing of the voice of the church), and church degenerating and becoming more emblematic of the culture it was sent to save.

As we dig into this and the book of Isaiah, I am reminded of a comment that the late David Wilkerson made regarding the application of the prophetic books to our current situations.  Wilkerson is most famously known as the founder of Teen Challenge, Times Square Church in New York City.  And keep in mind that Teen Challenge is a highly successful addiction recovery ministry that began on the streets of New York City, and has run the world over with its scripture based approach to overcoming strongholds and breaking addictions (and dare I call them idol’s too!)   

So when I pass this quote along, this is not just some random facebook post or social media meme, this is coming from a man who has ministered to thousands and seen them delivered and set free from the very things that were happening in the days of king Ahaz.     Tim Dilena, the current pastor at Times Square Church, had the opportunity to talk with him and had noticed he was using the books of prophecy to preach on the social ills of his time, and this was David Wilkerson’s response … “behavior is cyclical, so sin is predictable”.  

So, in essence he’s saying that if we can see a behavior happening, the sin to follow is reasonably predictable and the same way it offended God in the past, will be the same way it offends Him now.  And, dare I add however, that if sin is predictable it is also preventable.

So, when we read the prophets, the primary understanding is to figure out who the prophet is speaking to, what the circumstances of the time are, and what specifically is being communicated.   Then it is no quantum leap to draw similarities when the same circumstances line up, the same attitudes line up, the same power struggles line up, and the same demonic strategies line up to our current situation.  And it is not inappropriate to apply the truth of how God approved or disapproved in the past.  

I have kind of folded my hand here, but I think there is a mountain of evidence that is similar to our culture right now that is either spot on accurate, or within striking distance given time.   So as we read further through this interaction between Isaiah and Ahaz in the next few episodes, keep an eye open for these similarities, and how they may apply in our personal situations.

In the weeks to come we will be looking at Isaiah 7 which is another epic clash between a king and a prophet… and God calls it a ‘take your son to work day’, and has Isaiah take his son for a front row seat in this confrontation.  

Before we get there I would encourage all of you to take some time this week to read up on the first part of Isaiah 7, which is the encounter that we will be looking at.  But additionally, please read 2 Kings 16 and 2 Chronicles 28.  Both of these passages provide key details about Ahaz and his disposition.   

Often times people say ignorant things about God judging people, or people groups, and in this situation there is judgment coming, no doubt about it…  but what is mind bending is how God handles the process.  

You have heard me say often that when you get into the word and the word gets into you that when you hear sermons (or podcasts in this case), you move from hearing revelation to hearing confirmation… meaning that when you read the text first, God will show you things and he will confirm them in the sermon (or in a podcast like this).   If you read the texts, I promise you that you will get more out of it!!!   So, this week, please dig into the text. 

This week’s episode just sets the cultural setting and background for our study next week.

As we close this episode, I was reminded of a song we used to sing at church…..I will say that I was a bit humored by the song after this episode….and thought that it might be fitting….  Let me know what you think!!!

Until Next Week

God Bless