King Jotham and his father, King Uzziah, had remained faithful to the Lord. Neither of them ever worshiped any other god. But Jotham's son Ahaz only wants to serve pagan gods. His idolatry leads to him participating in the most detestable heathen religious ritual of all.
Ahaz comes to the throne of Judah while Pekah is still king of Israel. "In the seventeenth year of Pekah son of Remaliah, Ahaz son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign. Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem sixteen years. Unlike David his father, he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God." (2 Kings 16:1-2, 2 Chronicles 28:1) It is said of some of the kings of Judah that they did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, remaining faithful to Him just as their forefather David was. But Ahaz is not one of those kings.
We don't know why he goes astray from the example set for him by his father and grandfather. Unlike with many of the other kings, we are not told the name of Ahaz's mother, and it could be that she was a foreign woman who followed heathen religious practices. If that's the case, she could have influenced her son into idolatry. Then again, would a man like King Jotham take as his wife a heathen woman?
Ahaz's wickedness could simply be a case that proves a statement made by David: "Even from birth the wicked go astray; from the womb they are wayward, spreading lies." (Psalm 58:3) David had observed a fact that we have all probably observed at one time or another---that some people from a very young age appear to harbor animosity toward the Lord and toward the laws of both God and man. They want to be a law unto themselves. Ahaz has probably been wicked for a long time if he is as depraved as we find him being after he attains the throne at age twenty. He wants to be a law unto himself and he refuses to acknowledge the Lord's sovereignty over his life. Instead he bows to false deities and commits the most unimaginable type of atrocity.
"He followed the ways of the kings of Israel and also made idols for worshipping the Baals. He burned sacrifices in the Valley of Ben Hinnom and sacrificed his children in the fire, engaging in the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. He offered sacrifices and burned incense at the high places, on the hilltops and under every spreading tree." (2 Chronicles 28:2-4) It's not enough for him to cling to an adulterated form of worship such as is going on in the northern kingdom of Israel at this time: the religious system of worshiping images at the altars placed at Dan and Bethel. He's not even satisfied by allowing himself to be seduced into Baal worship like the Ahab Dynasty of Israel. He adopts the most detestable practice of all: that of sacrificing his children to the abominable Canaanite deity known as Molek. (Some translations of the Bible and various other historical texts render the spelling of this deity's name as Molech or Moloch.)
In Leviticus 20 the Lord clearly stated, a number of times, that this is a death penalty offense. Any person who does what King Ahaz does is to be stoned to death by the members of his community. In addition to the perpetrator being guilty of a death penalty crime, anyone who was aware that this crime had been committed and did not turn the person in for his crime would fall under the judgment of the Lord. He said such persons would be "cut off" from their people. Whether this means excommunication from the house of the Lord and a life of exile outside of the nation or whether this means the Lord will cut their lives short to remove them from this earth, we do not know, but the Lord stated in no uncertain terms that anyone who conspired with such a person or hid the crime of such a person would be dealt with by Him.
Ahaz is the king of Judah. He bears more legal responsibility for following and enforcing the laws of the Lord than anyone else in the nation, yet he is the greatest transgressor. The members of his household and his community do not carry out the penalty they are required by law to carry out against him. Ahab's family and his top officials may have turned a blind eye to his sins because they agree with him politically---because he is the man they want on the throne. Or they may also have given themselves over to idolatry and may have believed Molek would give them and their nation success if the king sacrificed his children. Certainly, if those closest to King Ahaz protected him from justice, there was nothing the average citizens could do to him. Many members of the community may have wanted to see him die for his unspeakable deeds but attempting to take action against him would have resulted in his bodyguards striking them down.
The author of 2 Chronicles says Ahaz sacrificed "his children" to Molek but the author of 2 Kings only says that he sacrificed "his son". It could be that he sacrificed one son along with one or more daughters. In the ancient pagan nations who performed child sacrifice, it was fairly common for a man to sacrifice his firstborn son to a false god. After all, what greater gift could a man offer than his firstborn son and heir? But they also offered sons other than their firstborns and they offered daughters as well. So it could be that the author of 2 Kings mentions only a son because this was the only son Ahaz offered to Molek. We don't know whether Ahaz offered several children at once or if, on several different occasions, he sacrificed a child to Molek.
Is there any lower depth to which a person can sink than deliberately killing their own child? Is there any greater depravity than not having any compassion toward their own flesh and blood? This is the type of man who is now king over the people of Judah! A very heavy layer of spiritual, moral, and political darkness is settling over the land.
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