The Depths to Which Some People Can Fall. (2 Kings 17: 1-20)

The Bible Project Daily Podcast is an in-depth, daily study of the entire Bible, chapter by chapter, verse by verse. 

Episode Notes: The Depths to Which Some People Can Fall. (2 Kings 17: 1-20)

Now and then, we hear stories of people who have committed truly shocking sins, the kind that make you pause and ask: “How low can a person go?”

When we ask it honestly, Scripture gives us insight, not just into the human heart, but into the grace of God, the consequences of sin, and the dangers of drifting.

 And today, as we continue our journey through the book of 2 Kings, we come to a king who sinks lower than any king before him.  His story is disturbing. It’s dark. It’s tragic…. But it’s also instructive.

So, here’s what we’re going to do today.

 First, we’ll walk through 2 Kings 16 and see just how far this king fell.

 Then, we’ll step into the New Testament and ask what this means for us today.

 Two passages, but one very important lesson.

 Let’s begin….

Transcript

The Depths to Which Some People Can Fall. (2 Kings 16: 1-20)

 Every now and then, we hear stories of people who have committed truly shocking sins, the kind that make you pause and ask: “How low can a person go?”

It’s a sobering question, but it’s also an important one.

Because when we ask it honestly, Scripture gives us insight, not just into the human heart, but into the grace of God, the consequences of sin, and the dangers of drifting.

And today, as we continue our journey through the book of 2 Kings, we come to a king who sinks lower than any king before him.

His story is disturbing.

It’s dark.

It’s tragic….

But it’s also instructive.

So, here’s what we’re going to do:

First, we’ll walk through 2 Kings 16 and see just how far this king fell.

Then, we’ll step into the New Testament and ask what this means for us today.

Two passages.

One Old Testament.

One New Testament.

One very important lesson.

Let’s begin….

2 Kings Chapter 16 - A New King — and a New Low

2 Kings 16 opens with a historical note:

16 In the seventeenth year of Pekah, the son of Remaliah, Ahaz, the son of Jotham, king of Judah, began to reign. 2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and he did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord his God, as his father David had done. 3 But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel; indeed, he made his son pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out from before the children of Israel. 4 And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.

(2 Kings 16: 1-4)

Ahaz becomes king of the southern kingdom — Judah, and he reigns from 735 to 715 BC.

And interestingly, his name appears in Assyrian inscriptions. We don’t need archaeology to validate Scripture, but it’s always fascinating when history lines up with the biblical record.

Verse 2 then gives us his evaluation: “He did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God, as his father David had done.”

There’s the standard again — David.

Not because David was perfect.

Not because David never sinned.

But because David, as king, obeyed God’s commands regarding civic life and worship.

David centralized worship in Jerusalem, just as the Mosaic Law required.

Ahaz did not.

And that’s where the descent begins.

Instead, he continued to “walk in the ways of the kings of Israel…”

That’s not a compliment. The northern kings were notorious for allowing and even promoting worship at the high places. They ignored God’s command that sacrifices were to be offered only in Jerusalem.

And Ahaz follows their example.

He abandons David’s pattern, he abandons God’s instruction, and he abandons the Word of the Lord.

But it gets worse. Much worse because: “…he made his son pass through the fire…”

This is one of the darkest statements in the Old Testament.

This refers to the worship of Molech, a pagan deity whose rituals included child sacrifice.

So, Ahaz, the king of Judah — a descendant of David — a man entrusted with leading God’s people — sacrificed his own son.

This is the lowest point in Judah’s history up to this moment. And the text adds a chilling detail: “…according to the abominations of the nations the Lord drove out before Israel.”

This is deeply significant.

When God gave the land of Canaan to Israel, He waited 400 years before judging the Canaanites, giving them time to repent. But when they began sacrificing children, that was the final straw.

Child sacrifice was the sin that brought judgment on Canaan. And now Judah — God’s own people — are doing the same thing.

This is how low Ahaz has fallen, there is idolatry everywhere. We are told, he sacrificed on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.

Ahaz didn’t just sin personally.

He led the entire nation into sin.

He didn’t just drift.

He plunged.

He didn’t just tolerate idolatry.

He multiplied it.

This is the spiritual climate of Judah under Ahaz.

But scripture is clear: When people turn from the Lord, consequences follow.

Then Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah, the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to make war; and they besieged Ahaz but could not overcome him. At that time, Rezin, king of Syria, captured Elath for Syria and drove the men of Judah from Elath. Then the Edomites went to Elath, and dwell there to this day.

(2 Kings 16: 5-6)

Ahaz abandons God and immediately finds himself surrounded by enemies.

God had promised to protect His people as long as they followed Him.

But Ahaz has rejected the Lord.

He has rejected His Word.

He has rejected His ways.

And now the consequences begin.

The kings of Aram and Israel besiege Jerusalem but cannot fully conquer it. 

Still, the pressure is intense and Ahaz responds in the worst possible way because he turns to Assyria instead of God

Verse 7 says:

“Ahaz sent messengers to the king of Assyria, saying, ‘I am your servant and your son. Come up and save me…’”

This is tragic.

Ahaz is not the servant of Assyria; he is the servant of the living God. 

But instead of turning to the Lord, he turns to a pagan empire.

Instead of saying, “Lord, save me,” he says, “Assyria, save me.”

This is the heart of the problem. Ahaz doesn’t trust, believe, or obey God. And when trouble comes, he runs to the wrong saviour. And when you stop trusting God, you start trusting something else

Ahaz is in trouble. Two kings march against Jerusalem, and Scripture makes the connection clear: that Ahaz has abandoned the Lord, and now the Lord removes His protection.

Before we go further, let’s pause and bring in a New Testament perspective. One of the clearest teachings of the New Testament is this:

We walk by faith. We trust the Lord, and we call on Him to save us, not just from sin, but from destruction, defeat, and danger.

Romans 10:13 says:

“Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Now, in context, that verse isn’t just talking about going to heaven.

Paul is talking about being rescued, delivered from danger, trouble, or destruction.

And he lays out the order:

First, someone calls upon the Lord.

Then you hear.

Then you believe.

And once you believe, you can call on the Lord, not just for salvation (that already happened), but for deliverance in the trials of life.

The Bible uses the word saved in more than one way. James says, “The prayer of faith shall save the sick.” Meaning: God rescues. God delivers. God intervenes.

Ahaz could have done that. He could have called on the Lord…. But he didn’t.

But when fear grips the heart, we often run to the wrong saviour.

Instead of saying, “Lord, save me,”  Ahaz says, “Assyria, save me.”

And that decision sets off a chain reaction of compromise.

💰 He Robs the Temple to Pay a Pagan King

Verse 8 says:

“ And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasuries of the king’s house, and sent it as a present to the king of Assyria.”

This is shocking.

If Ahaz wanted to bribe Assyria, he could have used his own treasury. But instead, he raids the temple, the sacred place where God’s people worshiped, and hands its treasures to a pagan king.

It’s like taking the offering from a church and donating it to a temple dedicated to another god. How low can you go?

And yet — Verse 9 says the plan worked.

The king of Assyria heeded him; for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus and took it, carried its people captive to Kir, and killed Rezin.

Assyria attacked Damascus, and the threat eased. 

And that’s another sobering truth: You can walk away from the Lord and still experience short‑term success. But it always comes at a long‑term cost.

Ahaz is drifting further and further from God.

The next section takes us even deeper:

“10 King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, and saw an altar that was at Damascus; and King Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the design of the altar and its pattern, according to all its workmanship.  11 Then Urijah the priest built an altar according to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus. So, Urijah the priest made it before King Ahaz came back from Damascus. 12 And when the king came back from Damascus, the king saw the altar; and the king approached the altar and made offerings on it. 13 So he burned his burnt offering and his grain offering; and he poured his drink offering and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings on the altar. 14 He also brought the bronze altar, which was before the Lord, from the front of the temple—from between the new altar and the house of the Lord—and put it on the north side of the new altar. 15 Then King Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, “On the great new altar burn the morning burnt offering, the evening grain offering, the king’s burnt sacrifice, and his grain offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, their grain offering, and their drink offerings; and sprinkle on it all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifice. And the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by.” 16 Thus did Urijah the priest, according to all that King Ahaz commanded.

(2 Kings 16: 10-16)

Ahaz travels to Damascus, sees a pagan altar, and says to the priest Uriah: “Build me one just like it.” 

This is stunning. Jerusalem already has an altar, the one God designed, the one God commanded and the one God placed at the center of worship.

But Ahaz wants something new.

Something fashionable. And the priest who should have stood firm

simply obeys.

This is a tragedy within a tragedy: Because when spiritual leaders stop speaking God’s Word and the people of God lose their anchor.

When Ahaz returns from Damascus, he sees the new altar and immediately begins offering sacrifices on it.

Then he takes the bronze altar, the one God commanded and moves it aside.

He doesn’t destroy it. He doesn’t reject it outright.

He simply repositions it.

And that’s often how idolatry works:

Not by replacing God, but by rearranging Him to meet are new perspective.

Not by denying truth, but by demoting it.

Not always by out-and-out rejecting Scripture, but by relocating it.

Ahaz now has two altars:

One designed by God.

One designed by pagans.

And he uses both.

This is syncretism, a blending of worship that God never accepts.

 He then dismantles the Temple itself.

17 And King Ahaz cut off the panels of the carts, and removed the lavers from them; and he took down the Sea from the bronze oxen that were under it, and put it on a pavement of stones. 18 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.19 Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 

(2 Kings 16: 17-19)

Verses 17–18 describe Ahaz dismantling parts of the temple, the carts, the basins, the sea, the pavilion, and the royal entrance.

We’re not told exactly how he used them, but the implication is clear:

He is stripping the temple of its God‑given design to accommodate his new form of worship.

And by the way the 2nd book of Chronicles indeed does add one final detail:

Ahaz closed the temple.  (2 Chronicles 28:24)

He shut the doors.

He extinguished the lamps.

He stopped the sacrifices.

He silenced the worship.

He took the money out of the church.

He took the furniture out of the church.

And then he closed the church.

How low can you go?

20 So Ahaz rested with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the City of David. Then Hezekiah, his son, reigned in his place.

And finally, verse 20 says Ahaz died and was buried in the city of David without honour.

Even the people recognized how far he had fallen.

He failed politically.

He failed spiritually.

And he failed personally.

He left behind a legacy of idolatry, compromise, and spiritual collapse.

And the question hangs in the air: How low can a person go?

Well, Ahaz shows us the answer.

But now we must ask a deeper question:

Can a believer fall this far?

And what does the New Testament say about that?

Can someone who knows the Lord sink into deep sin?

Well, the New Testament gives us a clear, honest, and sobering picture of what the Christian life is really like.

So, let’s begin in Romans 1. Which tells us that the Christian life begins and continues by Faith

Romans 1:17 says: “The just shall live by faith.”

Not just get saved by faith — live by faith.

Paul says the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. That means:

You start the Christian life by faith.

You continue the Christian life by faith.

You grow by faith.

You walk by faith.

You overcome by faith.

And that faith is not just the doorway into salvation, it’s the pathway of the entire Christian life.

Galatians 2:20 says: “The life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God.”

Paul says: “We walk by faith, not by sight.”

Faith has two parts:

·         Believing something is true.

·         Trusting the One who said it.

You can believe Jesus died and rose again, but you must trust Him to save you.

You can believe God’s commands are right, but you must trust Him to empower you to obey.

Faith is not passive.

Faith is dependence.

Romans 4:5 says: “To the one who does not work but believes… his faith is counted for righteousness.”

That’s as clear as Scripture gets.

You are justified — declared righteous —

·         by faith alone,

·         without works,

·         without merit,

·         without contribution.

Christ did it all.

And Romans 5:1 says:

“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God…”

If you have trusted Christ, you have peace with God. Not maybe, not hopefully, not someday — you have it now.

And verse 2 adds:

“…we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand.”

This is where many Christians struggle.

They trust Christ to get them to heaven but then try to live the Christian life by self‑effort.

But Paul says:

You stand in grace.

You walk in grace.

You grow in grace.

The Christian life is not “try harder.”

It’s “trust deeper.”

Romans 6 explains what happens the moment you believe:

·         You are united with Christ.

·         You are joined to His death.

·         You are joined to His resurrection.

·         You are given the power to walk in newness of life.

Romans 6:4 says: “Walk in newness of life.”

Romans 6:5 says: “We have been united with Him…”

This is the foundation of spiritual growth.

But here’s the key:

It is not automatic.

Romans 6:16 is one of the most important verses in the New Testament for understanding the Christian life:

“Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves… whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?”

Did you hear that? Even as a believer, you can present yourself to sin. You can become enslaved to sin and you can walk in disobedience. You can even experience spiritual death, not loss of salvation, but loss of fellowship, joy, peace, and blessing.

Romans 6 does not say: “If you’re a Christian, you will automatically walk in righteousness.”

It says:

You choose whether to walk in righteousness. And your choices have consequences.

You can be justified and saved and still become a slave of sin…. That’s how low a believer can go.

If you still doubt it, listen to Paul in Romans 7:

“What I want to do, I do not do… What I hate, that I do.” “In me… nothing good dwells.” “The good I want to do, I do not do.” “The evil I do not want to do — that I practice.” “O wretched man that I am!”

Does that sound like someone who never struggles?

Never fails?

Never falls?

No.

It sounds like someone who knows the battle, someone who loves God but feels the pull of sin, and sometimes even loses the fight.

Romans 7 is the testimony of a believer — a mature believer. Someone who knows what it is to fall short.

And that brings us back to our question:

How low can a believer go?

According to Scripture:

A believer can become enslaved to sin.

A believer can walk in disobedience.

A believer can lose joy, peace, and spiritual vitality.

A believer can experience the “death” of fellowship and blessing.

Not loss of salvation — but loss of spiritual life in the present.

Ahaz shows us how low a person can fall.

Romans shows us how low a believer can fall.

And the answer is sobering:

A believer can fall very far — but never beyond the reach of God’s grace.

In 2 Kings 16, Ahaz went shockingly low, lower than any king before him.

But the New Testament adds another layer:

A believer can also fall deeply into sin.

Not losing their salvation, but losing fellowship, joy, peace, and spiritual vitality.

Scripture calls that condition death.

Not physical death.

Not eternal death.

But the kind of spiritual death you can experience while you’re still alive.

Paul describes it in Romans 6 as “death”. The spiritual deadness that comes from yielding to sin.

1 Timothy 5 speaks of a widow who is “dead while she lives”,alive physically, but spiritually numb.

And that’s what sin does:

Sin separates.

Sin suffocates.

Sin deadens the soul.

Ahaz experienced it.

Believers can experience it too.

How Low Can a Believer Go? Scripture Answers Honestly

Let’s walk through a few New Testament passages — gently, but honestly.

1. Can a believer fall into idolatry?

Yes.

1 John 5:21 says: “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”

Paul says covetousness is idolatry (Colossians 3:5).

If Scripture warns believers about idolatry, it’s because believers can fall into it.

2. Can a believer commit murder?

David did —, and God still used him.

Peter warns believers. “Let none of you suffer as a murderer…” (1 Peter 4:15)

If it were impossible, the warning wouldn’t be necessary.

3. Can a believer fall into sexual sin?

Galatians 5:19 lists adultery and fornication as “works of the flesh.”

And 1 Corinthians 5 describes a believer involved in a shocking sexual sin.

4. Can a believer fall into hatred, envy, bitterness, or addiction?

Yes.

Galatians 5 lists all of these :

·         hatred

·         jealousy

·         envy

·         drunkenness

·         strife

·         outbursts of anger

These are not theoretical. They are real temptations for real Christians.

5. Can a believer fall into destructive cultural patterns?

Sadly, yes also.

We live in a world where human life is often devalued, where children are harmed and abused, where confusion is celebrated, and where moral boundaries are blurred.

Believers are not immune to cultural pressure. We can be swept along by the currents of our age if we are not anchored in the Word and walking in the Spirit.

So, the answer is clear:

A believer can go very low.

But a believer never has to stay there.

And that brings us to the hope.

Instead, we can choose to take the high road — Walking in the Spirit

Galatians 5:16 says: “Walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”

That’s the high road.

Walking in the Spirit is not mystical. It’s not emotional and it’s not complicated.

It is simply trusting God’s Word and depending on God’s grace, and yielding to God’s Spirit.

When you walk in the Spirit, the fruit begins to grow:

·         love

·         joy

·         peace

·         patience

·         kindness

·         goodness

·         faithfulness

·         gentleness

·         self‑control

That’s the high road.

And here’s the good news:

No matter how low you’ve gone, you can choose the high road today.

You can turn.

You can trust.

You can walk by faith.

You can access God’s grace.

You can experience the Spirit’s power.

You don’t have to stay in the riptide.

You don’t have to stay enslaved.

You don’t have to stay defeated.

Grace is available.

The Spirit is available.

The high road is open.

Maybe as you listen today,

you recognize something in your own life:

a habit you can’t break

a sin you keep returning to

a bitterness you can’t shake

a temptation that keeps winning

an addiction that keeps whispering

a pattern you’re ashamed of

You don’t have to hide it.

You don’t have to fix it alone.

You don’t have to pretend.

You can pray:

“Lord, give me the grace to believe what You’ve said

and the strength to walk in the Spirit.”

That prayer is the first step onto the high road.

Outro:

In our next episode, we step into 2 Kings 17,

one of the most important chapters in the entire book.

My working title is: “Is All Religion Pure?”

It’s a chapter that exposes counterfeit religion and reveals the dangers of mixing truth with error as well as showing us what God calls true worship.

It’s challenging.

It’s clarifying.

And it’s incredibly relevant to the world we live in today.

I hope you’ll join me for that.

Until then —

walk in the Spirit,

trust in God’s grace,

and remember:

You don’t have to take the low road.

By faith, you can take the high one.