Amaziah is wholehearted…in the wrong direction.
16 But as he was speaking, the king said to him, “Have we made you a royal counselor? Stop! Why should you be struck down?” So the prophet stopped, but said, “I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this and have not listened to my counsel.” (2 Chronicles 25:16–ESV)
Note the first five words of verse 16, and Amaziah’s interjection: Stop! While the author divvies up the words of the prophet into complete sentences, the spoken words were sliced up by interruption. Amaziah marched his army to Edom and marched his words at the prophet, suggesting this prophet was on shaky ground. “If you keep going, you will be struck down,” implied the king with an ill-founded surety. The king was on the shaky ground, not the prophet.
If that surprises you, join the crowd. Amaziah’s former approach was prophet-friendly. He accepted the prophet’s council as God’s direction and acted on it, but unfortunately, that faithful reaction to God had at some point already ground to a halt. This was exposed with a prophet’s post-war visit. Amaziah vainly tried to stop up the words of God; the only thing that stopped was God’s grace, his protective counsel. Why? Perhaps he listened to ungodly advisors. I think we can uncover some plausible counsel Amaziah may have received when the prophet was away.
Amaziah’s potential motivations.
I think that a couple of things were motivating Amaziah at this flashpoint. First, he was riding a wave of popularity. Through wartime success, an associated national honor, and probable approval of his nation’s idolaters, his pride was triggered. That was his inner state.
Second, the last time he obeyed God, he sent the Ephraimites home. Those enraged mercenaries rampaged, killed 3,000 people, and plundered presumably hard-won Judean border towns. Those towns probably reverted to the northern kingdom. Sure Judah had gained back Edom but compared to Edom the towns lost were border towns, and towns comparatively close to Jerusalem.
I expect various ungodly factions spoke persuasively to Amaziah. Maybe they said, “You shouldn’t have listened to that prophet. He made no sense. Would we really have lost in Edom with 100,000 more seasoned troops? Of course, we won without them, but do you really think a bigger army would have made us lose? You sent them home, and they made a big mess of things.” Perhaps some of those voicing these concerns had lost family members dear to them. Maybe they were hateful.
Those words sound a lot like those which the snake in Eden spoke in the ear of Eve. “Did God really say,” Satan started. Satan’s worshippers may have started the same way. Eve listened. Amaziah listened.
Leaders better lead
When one is in a position of leadership, decisions must be made. Even so, certain men and women still freely voice their opposition among the leadership or as subversives voices among the people. The tide of opinion may run counter to your direction, your decisions.
Likely Amaziah had the voice of God on one side and the voices of men on the other. From the human vantage, Amaziah saw real-world upsides and downsides from dismissing the Ephraimite army. From the spiritual vantage, he had to by faith believe that they would have been destroyed at Edom had the Ephraimite army come along. One view is by sight, and the other by faith. While faith won the first battle I expect that his decision left a bitter taste in his mouth and doubt in his soul.
Could this be why God is gracious? Could it be that God saw the heavy burden placed upon this man in the choices for one approach or another? God knows our hearts and can see the sparks and challenges that fly here and there as we take our steps forward. Amaziah took a hard turn in the wrong direction, and God stepped in. Recognize grace in this; God stepped in not to boss, but to help. Help spurned will lead to bossing of a sort, but that, too, is for later.
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