I want to begin our study by reading the first two verses of 2 Chronicles 25. You will read that Amaziah was 25 years old when he began to reign. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but not wholeheartedly. At the very beginning of the account of Amaziah’s reign, the Chronicler wants you to pay attention to what happens to him. He did right in the eyes of the Lord, but not with his whole heart. We are left with some questions that we want answered. Why did he not serve with his whole heart? What did he do that brought this result about? What happens when faith goes missing, how does this happen, and what can we do to make sure this failure does not happen to us?
Faith In The Right Direction (2 Chronicles 25:1-13)
In 2 Chronicles 25:3-4 we begin the description of Amaziah’s reign by seeing that he is following the commands of the Lord. In verse 3 we see the king execute judgment on those who had killed his father, Joash. But he did not kill their whole families because that would have been a violation of the Law. This is a contrast to Athaliah in 2 Chronicles 22-23 who will kill anyone, even children, in order to seize the throne for herself. In 2 Chronicles 25:5 we read that Amaziah is preparing to go to war against Edom. Amaziah is able to muster 300,000 choice men who were fit for war. Amaziah goes even further and hires 100,000 mighty men of valor from the nation of Israel for 100 talents of silver. Now it is important to keep in mind the spiritual condition of Israel. Israel is full of wickedness and idolatry. The nation of Judah was not to be in alliances with Israel because of Israel’s rebellion to the Lord. The reign of Jehoshaphat noted this problem twice. Jehoshaphat was condemned for helping Ahab, the king of Israel (2 Chronicles 19:1-3) and for helping Ahaziah, the king of Israel (2 Chronicles 20:35-37). It was completely foolish to have anything to do with the northern nation of Israel.
In 2 Chronicles 25:7-8 we read that a man of God is sent with a message for King Amaziah. The message is very simple. First, do not let the army of Israel go with you because the Lord is not with Israel. The Lord is against the nation of Israel so you do not want to have them on your side. Second, the man of God gives a very important reminder. It does not matter if you are strong for the battle. God will overthrow you before your enemy. God has the power to help or the power to cast down. In short, Amaziah is looking at the wrong thing. Amaziah is looking at the numbers. He wants to be strong enough to overthrow the Edomites in this upcoming battle. But having greater numbers is not the path to success. God can overthrow you even if you are strong in battle. God is the one who has power to determine the outcome. The outcome is in God’s hands and he will either help you or overthrow you.
Now what do you think Amaziah’s answer is going to be? In 2 Chronicles 25:9 Amaziah asks the man of God what he is supposed to do about the 100 talents of silver he just spent for these fighting men from Israel. Amaziah has spent millions of dollars to have these 100,000 soldiers from Israel. What am I supposed to do? I can’t just throw away that money! Is this not the kinds of questions we ask when it comes to serving the Lord? But doing what God said is going to be costly. Obeying the word of the Lord means that I am going to lose money. God cannot possibly want me to be at a loss financially! Look at the man of God’s answer to Amaziah at the end of verse 9. “The Lord is able to give you much more than this.” The man of God does not say that he did not realize that the king had spent so much money. The man of God does not say that it is acceptable to follow through with his plans because it would cost him too much to not continue with these Israelite soldiers. The man of God says that the Lord can give you much more than what you will lose.
I want you to notice that Amaziah struggled with the command of God because of the financial cost. But the man of God’s answer is a reminder that your wealth comes from God. Amaziah thinks he has to take care of himself. He needs to muster enough people to win the battle. He needs to worry about how much money he will lose by obeying the Lord. The man of God says that the Lord will give your the victory or defeat and the Lord will give you more than what you could lose by obeying his voice.
In verse 10 we read that Amaziah obeyed the message. He dismissed the soldiers from Israel. But those soldiers were really angry about this and, in verse 13, we read that those soldiers start destroying cities in Judah and killing people. But we also see that the Lord gave Amaziah the victory over the Edomites in 2 Chronicles 25:11-12. This outcome is a hard reality that we must accept. There are consequences for doing what is right. When we do what is right, wicked people are going to retaliate. Sometimes we can think that if we do the right thing and do not have a positive outcome, then we did not do the right thing. But this is false thinking. Doing what is right can have negative outcomes. Jesus did what was right and ended up on a cross. The people of faith did what was right and yet Hebrews 11 records all the difficulties they faced for doing right. Jesus said that we would be persecuted for righteousness’ sake. Doing right will be costly. We must do what is right and obey the voice of the Lord even if it means financial loss or negative consequences because the Lord is able to give much more than this (2 Chronicles 25:9).
Foolish Idolatry (2 Chronicles 25:14-16)
With the Lord giving Amaziah the victory, we would be tempted to think that this is going to set Amaziah on the continued path of righteousness. But look at 2 Chronicles 25:14. After Amaziah was victorious over the Edomites, he took the Edomite gods, set them up as his gods, and worshiped them. This is a completely illogical response. The Lord gave Amaziah the victory over Edom’s gods and then you want to go worship the gods that lost rather than the Lord who won!
The Lord is going to try to rescue the king from his sins. The Lord sends a prophet to challenge the king’s actions. In 2 Chronicles 25:15 we read the message of the prophet. Why are you seeking the gods of this people who did not deliver them from his hand? But notice verse 16. Amaziah interrupts the prophet and tells him to stop. You have not been appointed to be a royal counselor. In essence, no one told you that you could give the king advice. Keep speaking and you are going to be killed.
So notice how the message of the prophet changed. The prophet came asking the king why he would do what he has done. Now the prophet stops speaking in verse 16 and the message changes. Rather than trying to generate repentance from the king, the message is now that God will destroy you. Why would God destroy Amaziah? “Because you have done this and have not listened to my counsel” (2 Chronicles 25:16). When the man of God came to Amaziah about the 100,000 soldiers from Israel, Amaziah listened and was given success. When the prophet came to Amaziah about worshiping the gods of Edom, Amaziah does not listen and now destruction is decreed for him. Why did Amaziah listen before but now refuses to listen to the message from God? Let’s read the rest of Amaziah’s reign and we will see God’s answer to this question.
Foolish War (2 Chronicles 25:17-28)
In 2 Chronicles 25:17 we read that Amaziah now wants to meet the king of Israel, Joash, face to face in battle. Joash has an answer for Amaziah in verses 18-19. Joash begins with a story about a thorn bush speaking to a cedar tree about making a marriage alliance but a wild beast came by and trampled the thorn bush. In verse 19 the king of Israel explains his parable. You struck down Edom, Amaziah, and now you are gloating over your success. Your heart has become boastful. If you fight Israel, Amaziah, you will lose. So stay home and do not provoke trouble. Notice the condemnation in 2 Chronicles 25:20. “But Amaziah would not listen.” Amaziah went from listening to no longer listening. Now God is going to use this for Amaziah’s downfall because he went seeking after the gods of Edom. The outcome was just as the king of Israel said. Judah was defeated and plundered. The temple was plundered. The king’s house and treasures were plundered. Why would Amaziah not listen? Look at verse 27 and notice how that sentence begins. “From the time that Amaziah turned away from the Lord…” From the time Amaziah turned away from the Lord, judgment was coming after him until judgment finally caught up to him (cf. 2 Chronicles 25:27-28).
When Faith Goes Missing
So what happened to Amaziah? What is the Chronicler wanting us to see in his life? What are we to learn about this failure? I want to bring us back to the start of the scripture in 2 Chronicles 25. The assessed problem of Amaziah is that he did right in the eyes of the Lord, but not with a whole heart. What is wrong with doing right but not living with a whole and true heart before the Lord? This scripture shows us the problem. The problem is that when we do not serve the Lord with a whole heart, then sometimes we are going to listen to God and sometimes we are not going to listen to God. The problem of a divided heart is sometimes we are going to do what God wants and sometimes we will not. A divided heart means we are going to be the determiner of when we will listen and when we will not. This might surprise us but doing right without a whole heart will lead to disaster and failure. Amaziah is showing us this. Only a whole heart is going to listen and respond to every word that comes from the Lord.
Now here is the catch: If you looked at Amaziah at the beginning, you would think he was serving with a whole heart. He did what the law said to do and did not punish the children for the sins of the parents. He looked like he was serving with his whole heart when he took the financial loss and sent back the warriors from Israel. But underneath his obedience was a divided heart. Jesus taught that no one can serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). Why not? Why can we not serve two masters? Why can’t we have a divided heart? The problem is that no one will be your ultimate master. You are going to love one and hate the other on one occasion. On another occasion you are going to be despise one and be devoted to the other. The divided heart leads to disaster. Faith goes missing when we are doing what is right but not with a whole heart. Faith is going to fail when our obedience does not come from the true heart.
So how are we to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord with a whole heart? The answer is in 2 Chronicles 25:9. We have to believe the words that the man of God spoke to Amaziah and apply it to every area of our lives. “The Lord is able to give you much more than this.” Do we believe that the Lord is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or think (cf. Ephesians 3:20)? Amaziah believed this was true when he sent the Israelite soldiers away. But he did not believe it when he worshiped the gods of Edom. He did not believe it when he would not listen to the words of the prophet. He did not believe it when the king of Israel told him that he would be destroyed going to war against him. The divided heart does not believe that the Lord able to give us much more than this. The Lord is able to go far beyond what we think we need. The Lord is the power to conquer our circumstances. The Lord is the power to give us what we need for life. The divided heart does not believe God is enough for today. The divided heart does not believe that God has my future in his hands and will carry us through anything we are facing. Faith goes missing when we stop believing that God is enough and will give us much more than this if we will listen to him and obey him.