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This seems to be a repeating pattern: “Amaziah made an excellent beginning, but he
later abandoned the Lord and was also assassinated.”
My commentary pointed out some of his primary sins:
Unbelief –
Despite the reassuring word of a prophet that God would help his army defeat
Edom, he hired 100,000 mercenaries from apostate Israel. “His faith was in numbers and not in the Lord
… Amaziah was not wholehearted in his relationship to the Lord and this revealed itself in the
way he argued with the prophet about
the will of God.” He also worried about
the money he’d already paid for the mercenaries, but the prophet told him God
would give him much more. He ended up not using those soldiers, and they looted several cities in Judah
and killed 3,000 people there in their anger.
Idolatry – He defeated
Edom by listening to the Lord, but stupidly took their idols with him and began to
worship the idols that couldn’t protect their own people! He also interrupted the warning of another
prophet about it! The prophet managed to
get on last word in: God would destroy
the king for his sin. “The greatest judgment God can send to
people is to let them have their own way,” my commentary repeated.
Pride – “Inflated
by his great success and unconcerned about his great sin, Amaziah looked for
other worlds to conquer and decided to challenge Israel … Amaziah was bent on
defeating Israel and becoming the ruler of a united kingdom.” He rejected a second warning from God and was soundly defeated and imprisoned in
exile. Upon returning, he was chased and
killed by his own officers!
“He was a double-minded man who didn’t wholeheartedly serve
the Lord. He had his own agenda and didn’t
take time to see the mind of the Lord,” my commentary concluded.
Father, please love me enough to never let me have my own
way when I’m acting in opposition to You.
I don’t want to receive Your greatest judgment. Shake me and wake me instead!
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
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