Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb20070513.htm

1 AND 2 CHRONICLES: GAINING DIRECTION OUT OF THE AIMLESSNESS OF APOSTASY
Part V: Gaining Direction From God's Work In The Rest Of Judah's Davidic Dynasty, 2 Chronicles 13-36
I. Learning To Heed God Wholeheartedly For Full Blessing
(2 Chronicles 25:1-28)
  1. Introduction
    1. Obedience to the Lord brings His blessing where disobedience brings judgment -- that is a timeless truth.
    2. However, the degree of obedience or its lack also determines the degree of blessing or its lack, a fact made evident in the life and times of Judah's king Amaziah (as follows):
  2. Learning To Heed God Wholeheartedly For Full Blessing, 2 Chronicles 25:1-28.
    1. Judah's king Amaziah did what was initially right in God's eyes, but not wholeheartedly, 2 Chron. 25:1-2.
    2. Accordingly, he enjoyed only partial divine blessings (as follows), 2 Chronicles 25:3-13:
      1. Amaziah unusually but rightly heeded the Mosaic Law by destroying only those men who had killed his father without slaying their children along with them, 2 Chron. 25:3-4 with Deuteronomy 24:16.
      2. However, he failed to trust the Lord in seeking to plan for war against the Edomites, and he violated the Lord's clear precedents in making an ungodly alliance to fight that war, 2 Chronicles 25:5-6:
        1. Judah's kings were not to number their soldiers as that indicated reliance on human might rather than God, cf. Deut. 17:14, 16; 2 Sam. 24:1, 3; Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978 ed., ftn. to 2 Sam. 24:1.
        2. Also, since the days of king Jehoshaphat, God's prophets had clearly told Judah's kings that alliances with the apostate Northern Kingdom of Israel was sin, cf. 2 Chronicles 19:2; 20:35-37.
        3. Thus, when Amaziah numbered his soldiers and hired mercenaries from the Northern Kingdom to fight against Edom, he sinned in faithlessly trusting in human might and in harming his walk with God with an errant alliance versus pleasing God with his whole heart, 2 Chronicles 25:5-6!
      3. God thus sent a prophet to warn Amaziah to send the mercenaries away or suffer loss in the battle due to a resulting withdrawal of God's blessing, 2 Chronicles 25:7-8.
      4. Amaziah responded, asking how he could retrieve the 100 talents of silver (120,000 ounces!) he had paid to the mercenaries to help in the battle, 2 Chronicles 25:9a! (Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. to 2 Chron. 25:6-10)
      5. God's prophet replied that God was able to give Amaziah much more spoil in defeating Edom than what he would lose from sending the mercenaries away with his payment to them, so Amaziah sent the mercenaries away before the battle as an exercise of faith in God, 2 Chronicles 25:9b-10a!
      6. Amaziah then fought the Edomites and defeated them because of God's help, 2 Chronicles 25:11.
      7. However, in a show of human might that disregarded God's involvement, the men of Judah terrorized 10,000 captured Edomite soldiers by throwing them over a cliff to dash them to pieces, 2 Chron. 25:12.
      8. In fitting justice for this partial obedience, God let the dismissed mercenaries become so angry at Amaziah for their missing out on the plunder of Edom that, as they returned home, they killed 3,000 of Amaziah's people in Judah, and carried their plunder back to Israel, 2 Chronicles 25:10b, 13!
    3. When Amaziah fully turned away from God, His blessing ceased, and Amaziah had a sad end: 25:14-28:
      1. In unbelief in God, Amaziah brought the idols of the defeated Edomites back to Judah, set them up as his gods, and worshiped them, 2 Chron. 25:14. God sent a prophet to ask why Amaziah worshiped the gods that had failed to protect their own people of Edom from him in battle, 2 Chronicles 25:15.
      2. Amaziah charged the prophet to stop speaking or he would be killed, so the prophet ceased giving his message, and told Amaziah that God had determined to destroy him for not heeding his word, 25:16.
      3. Amaziah then tried to fight Israel to retaliate for the destruction its men had wrought in Judah, but God's blessing was withdrawn, making the effort fail, and Amaziah had a sad end to his life, 25:17-28.
Lesson: When Amaziah obeyed God, but not wholeheartedly, God's blessing came in his behalf with a mix of a troubling lack of divine blessing. When Amaziah turned completely away from the Lord, Amaziah experienced only a total lack of divine blessing and a sad end to his life.

Application: May we follow God's Word not only in its obvious clarifications (as Amaziah did in heeding Deuteronomy 24:16), but in the INTENT of God's will that we not rely on ourselves, but on Him. Then we will have only God's full blessings intended for us and not a troubling lack of it!