Look at 2 Chronicles 25:2 and you will notice what might be called a “split-epitaph.” The author of this passage1 stamped Amaziah’s life with good and bad. In this post, I will focus on his good phase the phase that resulted in his being approved by God. In another, I hope to point out that other side, and in a third to reconcile the two with me, with us, with the human condition: humanity as a melange, good admixed with evil.
Amaziah begins
1 Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan; she was from Jerusalem. 2 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but not wholeheartedly. 3 After the kingdom was firmly in his control, he executed the officials who had murdered his father the king. 4 Yet he did not put their children to death, but acted in accordance with what is written in the Law, in the Book of Moses, where the Lord commanded: “Parents shall not be put to death for their children, nor children be put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin.” (2 Chronicles 25:1-4–ESV)
Looking at verse 1 and let me unpack some things about him. Amaziah was born in the 15th year of his father: Joash and was 25 years of age. Joash grew up in seclusion having been whisked away from the deadly rampage of his wicked grandmother. Joash was taught the things of God but spent 7 years being taught that in risky-seclusion. His son, our man for this lesson, grew up in the midst of family, would have known his maternal grandparents, priests, courtiers, and an open life as First Prince of the kingdom.
Not only so, but also, he knew Jehoiada. He saw the conclusion of the Temple’s restoration and dedication. He experienced the Jewish religious rites. He may have heard Zechariah prophesy against his father, and certainly experienced the loss of his assassinated father. After this, he came to the throne, legitimately. No intrigue. No obscurity. No sudden appearance and rise. Just a rise to the throne upon his father’s demise. He was 25 years old. His father served 40 years.
He secured the kingdom. He got to the place where he was acknowledged, did not suffer a coup, and then settled into life with its pomp, circumstance, and the administration of day-to-day events on the national and regional scenes. Next up: an execution…a righteous one.
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