CONTENTS This chapter contains the history of the reign of Ahaz and a melancholy relation of his wicked reign it furnisheth. He is afflicted by the Syrians. His death, and successor in the kingdom, is also related.... [ Continue Reading ]
What a melancholy account is here given in a few verses of the life and conduct of Ahaz! had we not the authority of God's sacred word it would be incredible to read of the degeneracy both of king and people respecting idolatry. But Reader! what must have been the forbearance, mercy, and long suffer... [ Continue Reading ]
Both Syrians and Israelites shall become instruments in the hand of God when the Lord will punish Judah. And in the private afflictions of God's people the severity of our trials is doubly increased when it comes from a quarter where we least expected. When a man's foes shall be they of his own hous... [ Continue Reading ]
Was it not most gracious in God to send this message to the sinners in Israel? And was not the man of God most faithful in the delivery of it! Here is no congratulation of their victory, but reproof and an alarming assurance of the Lord's displeasure in consequence of their sins!... [ Continue Reading ]
I feel delight in the perusal of those verses in that they plainly manifest the grace of the Lord had not totally departed from Israel. Certain persons among them still felt the sovereign grace of the Lord. How precious is it to behold that in the worst of times, there is (as the apostle expresses i... [ Continue Reading ]
It is hardly possible to read this account of Ahaz's distress, and behold at the same time the sad cause of all in his multiplied and aggravated transgressions, without being struck with a renewed conviction, of the hardness and impenitent state of the heart under sin. Though he had made Judah naked... [ Continue Reading ]
Observe the progression of sin when the mind is hardened under its influence. You see Ahaz robs God's house to purchase man's arm against him; sacrificeth to devil's to gain human interest. And thus goeth on from bad to worse, until the measure of his iniquity is full. And observe, Reader! for it is... [ Continue Reading ]
The mind feels relief when arriving at the close of such an history and such a character. I cannot dismiss the relation of this impious prince's life without desiring the Reader to compare it with the seventh chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah; in the perusal of which he will discover, not only the g... [ Continue Reading ]
REFLECTIONS PAUSE! my soul, over the perusal of this chapter, and in the conduct of Ahaz behold the lost, depraved, hardened, and wretched state of human nature. See, my soul, to what sin hath reduced every man? and remark also how deluded to his own ruin is the sinner, who, when the Lord is coming... [ Continue Reading ]