2 Chronicles 25:1-28
25:1-2 Amaziah was a king who obeyed God but did not love God. It was not a strong relationship; for God is not searching for subjects, His quest is for His children.
25:3-4 At the earliest opportunity, Amaziah executed everyone who betrayed his father, Joash. Joash had been severely wounded by an enemy army but his servants delivered the actual killing blow. Joash was killed by his own because he had killed innocents. Amaziah continued the bloodbath, though he showed restraint in not punishing the children of the people he found guilty.
Amaziah did not kill their children because of Deuteronomy 24:16, which essentially states that people should not be punished for another person's actions. In that, Amaziah was obedient. But he readily killed men and women who had tried to remove a corrupt king from power.
25:5 Amaziah built an army of three hundred thousand to go to war against Edom.
25:6-8 To strengthen his army, he also added one hundred thousand men from Israel to his army. But Amaziah was approached by a man of God who warned him of an alliance with Israel. Israel had distanced itself from God. Amaziah was told that he would fail if he joined forces with a corrupt nation.
25:9 Amaziah did not mind dissociating his army with Israel, but he was concerned about losing the money he had already paid them to join him. A child of God knows that God will always fill the space they leave open for Him. When we skip an opportunity because of its unrighteousness, God ensures that a better, more abundant opportunity inevitably takes its place.
25:10 Reassured that his money would be restored, Amaziah released Israel and unhappily, they did not join him against Edom.
25:11-12 Amaziah and his army went into the Valley of Salt and overtook the people of Seir.
25:13 Meanwhile, the soldiers from Israel raided Judah.
25:14 Judah became vulnerable because Amaziah adopted the God's of the enemy nation. He forfeited the protection of the true God.
25:15 Amaziah is perfect evidence that our relationship with God must be founded on steadfast love. Amaziah easily shifted from his faith in god to his faith in false gods: money and power and control. A prophet of God asked Amaziah a blunt question: Why have you sought the gods of the people, which could not rescue their own people from your hand?
It made no sense for Amaziah to trade God for false gods. Yet every day people do. Every day people become obedient to their desires. They refuse to be obedient to God, whose authority serves their benefit because they are too proud to live humbly.
25:16 As corruption does, Amaziah closed his ears to the prophet's wisdom. He was too arrogant, too self-righteous to consider that he might have made a mistake. If we are unwilling to listen to God's discipline, we never grow in character. We become obstinate slaves to ignorance, anger and greed.
25:17 Amaziah informed Israel that Judah planned to battle against it.
25:18-19 Judah responded that Amaziah should be careful: Israel was much stronger than Judah. The king of Israel suggested that Judah be grateful for and content with its win against Edom instead of arrogantly pursuing a battle it could not win.
25:20-24 Israel defeated Judah. Amaziah thought he had the counsel and support of God but he had rejected and abandoned God. Amaziah made the foolish and cruel mistake of believing that he could pick and choose when to follow God. Either we have a stalwart relationship with God or we have none at all. We cannot use God when we need Him and abandon Him when we think we do not.
25:25-28 Amaziah lived a faithless and thus, tumultuous life, and then he died. Let that not be the summation of your life!
