II Chronicles 25: Many Wrongs Don't Make A Right

For a "good king" (vs. 2), Amaziah sure made a lot of serious mistakes.

First, King Amaziah hired, then fired, 100,000 Israelites as mercenaries for his war against Edom.  Initially, he had thought that the northern kingdom of Israel was a great place from which to acquire conscripted soldiers.  But a prophet of the Lord chastised him for this move: "O king, do not let the army of Israel go with you, for the Lord is not with Israel—all these Ephraimites" (vs. 7).  Amaziah protested that he had already paid a hundred talents of silver for them, but the man of God told him to just write that expense off as a loss.  So the king dismissed them - which the men took as an insult and returned home very disgruntled.

Second, there was a tremendous amount of bloodshed in the middle verses of this chapter.  Amaziah's forces kill 10,000 Edomites and then continue the slaughter by pushing another 10,000 of them off of a mountain.  In one of those passages that makes modern people shake their heads in disgust, the Bible says, "The people of Judah captured another ten thousand alive, took them to the top of Sela, and threw them down from the top of Sela, so that all of them were dashed to pieces" (vs. 12).  On top of this, Amaziah's own people suffered when those mercenaries he had unceremoniously dismissed turned against the villages of Judah in retaliation, killing 3000 Jews and taking much booty (vs. 13).

Third, Amaziah made a profound spiritual mistake when he adopted the false gods of the Edomites for his own.  To his shame, the Bible records, "Now after Amaziah came from the slaughter of the Edomites, he brought the gods of the people of Seir, set them up as his gods, and worshiped them, making offerings to them" (vs. 14).  Amaziah added to his wrong by threatening the prophet whom the Lord sent to warn him about his idolatry.  Even though the man of God pointed out Amaziah's foolishness in turning to worship gods who could not rescue their own people, Amaziah was bent on seeing through his poor choices to his own destruction (vs. 15-16).

Fourth, in response to the attacks of the Israelites, Amaziah challenges the King of Israel, Joash, to battle.  Joash sent back a salty reply to try to discourage the king of Judah from doing anything stupid, but Amaziah would not be dissuaded.  The king made the mistake of being stubborn.  "But Amaziah would not listen—it was God’s doing, in order to hand them over, because they had sought the gods of Edom" (vs. 20).

The result of all these mistakes was an epic military disaster.  The army of Judah fled before Israel, Amaziah was captured, the walls of Jerusalem were torn down, the city's treasuries were raided and the northern kingdom even took hostages.  It was a huge national embarrassment from which Amaziah never truly recovered.