Amaziah came next and he was quite a good king, but not great (v 2). He took control of the kingdom and executed (literally) judgement on those who had killed his father, but he did so within the limits of the Law (Deut 24:16), he did not seek vengeance for its own sake.
He then assembled together an army and equipped them. He had also hired men from Israel, but a prophet warned him not to do so, for Israel was living in complete disobedience to God. The key point is that it is the Lord who gives victory. This is not to say that planning and skill do not matter, we should plan, we should work hard, but in all things we need to be always aware that it is the Lord who gives victory.
Amaziah is concerned about the money he has paid. Nothing changes! The prophet reminds him that the Lord can return much more than that. Sometimes admitting a mistake and correcting it will involve cost, in financial or some other form. We should not let this deter us from putting things right. Money, in particular, is not as important as we think it is. So Amaziah fired the Israelites, much to their anger. We should not needlessly offend people, but sometimes our following the Lord will offend people.
Amaziah then duly won the victory. However, the disaffected Israelites exacted some revenge on Judah. While the Lord will forgive our sins and mistakes it is better not to make the mistakes or commit the sins in the first place.
Amaziah's failings then really came to the fore. He brought back some of the idols of the people he had conquered and set them up as his own gods. How stupid can we be? He had just defeated this people, and it was clear that the Lord had given them the victory, so why did he want to worship their useless gods? Our capacity for stupidity knows few limits.
God sent a prophet to Amaziah, but Amaziah's heart was now hardened and he threatened the prophet. He then sought to start a war with Israel. Quite what this was supposed to achieve is not clear, and Jehoash was not that keen on the idea. However, war ensued and Amaziah was defeated.
Eventually Amaziah was killed by conspirators.
No comments:
Post a Comment