Or, Staying Faithful in Difficult Times

By Bill Valine

If you were to picture yourself as royalty, what kind of mental image would you paint?

What would being a king or queen look like? Would you picture yourself living in luxury? Would you imagine yourself surrounded by servants who would do your every bidding?

I doubt that your mental image would include a life of misery and heartache. But that is just what Abijah experienced.

Abijah was the wife of Ahaz, King of Judah, yet she lived through the most difficult of times.

Ahaz was the king of Judah when the country was being pressed upon from every side. Of all the nations surrounding Judah (Edom, Israel, Syria, Ammon, Moab, and the Philistines) Ammon and Moab were the only ones who did not attack Ahaz – and this was partially due to the fact that Ammon and Moab were themselves dominated by Syria at that time.

Due to these unending attacks, Ahaz saw his kingdom reduced to a fraction of what he had inherited from his father, Joram. How greatly this differed from the reign of his grandfather, Uzziah, who had extended Judah’s power over Edom, Ammon, and the lands of the Philistines, and who was said to be exceedingly strong!

In 2 Chronicles 28:19 and 22, God makes it abundantly clear why Judah experienced such a rapid decline in its fortunes: “For the Lord brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel, for he had encouraged moral decline in Judah and had been continually unfaithful to the Lord...  Now in the time of his distress King Ahaz became increasingly unfaithful to the Lord.”

Ahaz was steeped in idolatry. He made molded images for the Baals. He sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree. In a show of disrespect for the God of Israel, he stripped many sacred items from the Temple courtyard, replacing the bronze altar of burnt offering with one patterned after an altar in Damascus; removing the lavers from the carts; and removing the bronze sea from the backs of the oxen.

Through his example and under his rule the Temple was neglected, its doors were shut, its lamps put out, and the people stopped burning incense and offering burnt offerings to God in it.

Moreover, Ahaz’s idolatry was fueled by a misguided sense of pragmatism. While King Hezekiah, for example, understood that God was judging the people because of their unfaithfulness, Ahaz failed to see the connection between his own wickedness and the calamities that Judah was facing.

He thought, rather, that since he had been defeated by the nations around him, that their gods must have been stronger than the Lord. So he sacrificed to any god he thought might help him.

This was the world in which Abijah lived. A world filled with oppression, evil, and idolatry. But for Abijah, it was much more personal than for most of the people in Judah.

She lost her son, Maaseiah, in a battle brought on by her husband’s wickedness; she knew gut-wrenching agony as Ahaz burned his children in the fire – whether these were hers or another’s; and she lived in constant fear of what Ahaz might do next. Yet through it all, she stayed faithful to God.

Abijah came from a godly family. Her father was named Zechariah, which means “the Lord has remembered.” Zechariah named his daughter Abijah, which means “my father is the Lord.” Abijah named one son Maaseiah, which means “work of the Lord,” and she named the future king Hezekiah, which means “Strengthened by the Lord.”

Even in the midst of horrible times, Abijah lived by the faith of her family before her – this is evident in the fact that her sons most certainly did not receive their names from Ahaz!

Not only that, but she extended that faith in raising Hezekiah, a godly king, who truly was strengthened by God, as it tells us in 2 Kings 18:5,6: “He trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor who were before him. For he held fast to the Lord.”

God used Abijah’s son, Hezekiah to bring revival to the nation.

In many ways, Abijah lived in times that were similar to our own – and in many ways she lived in times that were worse than ours. Her life and testimony show us that, as bad as things may be, we can, with God’s help, live faithfully for Him, and pass that faith on to others.

Abijah, like Deborah, was simply a mother in Judah, yet her life, no matter how obscure, shows us that God can use one faithful person to shape a nation.

Abijah’s name has been engraved by God in His Word for all generations to see, not only in the accounts of the kings, but also in the lineage of Jesus.

Her story also shows us that God sees us, that He knows what we are facing, and that He will always honor those who honor Him (1 Samuel 2:30).