2 Kings 15 lists in rapid-fire a number of kings of both Judah and Israel. We’re still in parallel, the Northern Kingdom of Israel (many dynasties, no good kings) and the Southern Kingdom of Judah (one dynasty (David) and a few good kings). Then there’s a pause to talk about Ahaz, king of Judah, not a good king:

In the seventeenth year of Pekah son of Remaliah, Ahaz son of Jotham became king of Judah. Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king and he ruled for sixteen years in Jerusalem. He didn’t behave in the eyes of his GOD; he wasn’t at all like his ancestor David. Instead he followed in the track of the kings of Israel. He even indulged in the outrageous practice of “passing his son through the fire”—a truly abominable act he picked up from the pagans GOD had earlier thrown out of the country. He also participated in the activities of the neighborhood sex-and-religion shrines that flourished all over the place. (2 Kings 16.1 – 4, MSG)

Remember, this is Judah, where Solomon’s Temple is, and it turns out that Ahaz is more impressed with how the Assyrians worship their false gods:

King Ahaz went to meet Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria in Damascus. The altar in Damascus made a great impression on him. He sent back to Uriah the priest a drawing and set of blueprints of the altar. Uriah the priest built the altar to the specifications that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus. By the time the king returned from Damascus, Uriah had completed the altar. The minute the king saw the altar he approached it with reverence and arranged a service of worship with a full course of offerings: Whole-Burnt-Offerings with billows of smoke, Grain-Offerings, libations of Drink-Offerings, the sprinkling of blood from the Peace-Offerings—the works. But the old bronze Altar that signaled the presence of GOD he displaced from its central place and pushed it off to the side of his new altar. (2 Kings 16.10 – 14, MSG)

The text goes on to say that Ahaz made other modifications to the Temple:

Then King Ahaz proceeded to plunder The Temple furniture of all its bronze. He stripped the bronze from The Temple furnishings, even salvaged the four bronze oxen that supported the huge basin, The Sea, and set The Sea unceremoniously on the stone pavement. Finally, he removed any distinctive features from within The Temple that were offensive to the king of Assyria. (2 Kings 16.17 – 18, MSG)

There’s not even a commentary like, “This was really bad!” Or, “God was angry about these actions.” Nope. Those judgments are so obvious they’re not even recorded.

There is always the temptation to fit in. In the days of the early church, some wanted not to get too far away from Old Testament law keeping, they wanted to lessen the “offense” of the cross, and they were attracted to new, complex teaching. Who wants a plain, bronze altar, when we can have something fancier?

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. (Hebrews 13.8 – 13, ESV)

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— (Galatians 1.6, ESV)

Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. ¹⁸  Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind,  and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. (Colossians 2.16 – 19, ESV)