Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20040404.htm

1 AND 2 KINGS: ENJOYING GOD'S BLESSINGS IN AN APOSTATE ERA
Part XLIX: Blessing By ALWAYS Sensing Our Accountability To God
(2 Kings 14:1-22 with 2 Chronicles 25:14-20)
  1. Introduction
    1. God blesses His people when we sense our accountability to Him and thus humbly trust and obey Him.
    2. Yet, in gaining God's blessings for such righteous living, we can foolishly come to think we EARNED these blessings and lose our sense of accountability to God, and turn sinful to our loss of God's blessings!
    3. The life of king Amaziah illustrates this truth, and motivates us always to be accountable to God:
  2. Blessing By ALWAYS Sensing Our Accountability To God, 2 Kings 14:1-22 with 2 Chr. 25:14-20.
    1. When king Amaziah sensed his accountability before God, the Lord gave him success, 2 Kings 14:1-7:
      1. Amaziah, the son of Judah's king Joash, came to power and began to reign in relative righteousness as his father had started to do in his tenure as king, 2 Kings 14:1-4 with 2 Kings 12:1-3.
      2. In fact, Amaziah sensed a higher degree of accountability to God than other kings of his era would do:
        1. As soon as he came to power, Amaziah executed the two men who had murdered his father in accord with how murderers were to be treated under the Mosaic Law, 2 Kings 14:5; Numbers 35:33.
        2. Yet, sensing his accountability to God under the Law, Amaziah spared the sons of his father's murderers unlike what Ancient Near Eastern kings "customarily" did in eradicating such parties who might seek revenge in the future, Bible Know. Com., O.T., p. 565; Amaziah thus let God protect him from retaliation by these sons, focusing instead on his accountability to God to heed His Law, 2 Kings 14:6 with Deuteronomy 24:16. [Incidentally, the reference to Deuteronomy 24:16 in this preexilic (before the Babylonian Captivity) 2 Kings 14:6 verse "shows that Deuteronomy was not written as late as some critics of the Bible hold," Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, ftn. to 2 Kings 12:6!]
      3. God thus blessed Amaziah, giving him victory over Edom that had rebelled against Judah, and that so Amaziah could protect his southern trade routes, 2 Kings 12:7; Ibid., Bible Know. Com., O.T. , p. 565.
    2. Nevertheless, Amaziah became sinfully enamored with God's gracious blessing itself, leading him to lose his sense of accountability to God that resulted in his sin and loss of God's blessing:
      1. According to the companion account of Amaziah's life found in 2 Chronicles 25:14, Amaziah brought back to Judah the foreign gods of the Edomites whom he had defeated and began to worship them!
      2. This angered God, so He sent Amaziah a prophet to critique his sin: God's messenger asked Amaziah why he illogically worshipped the very gods who could not protect his foes from himself, 25:15!
      3. The reason Amaziah had turned to such sin is exposed by his reply to this prophet's words: Amaziah responded, and Ryrie paraphrases it: "[H]ave we appointed thee a counselor to the king?" (Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. To 2 Chron. 25:16) Amaziah no longer felt he was ACCOUNTABLE to GOD, but ARROGANTLY held HIMSELF ABOVE such accountability by claiming God's PROPHET was to be ignored as AMAZIAH had not ASKED for his ADVICE! Amaziah's SUCCESS at Edom by God's BLESSING was VIEWED by Amaziah in a WORLDLY, SINFUL way!
      4. Consequently, God judged Amaziah's arrogance and disobedience to his own great loss:
        1. Amaziah threatened to harm God's prophet for critiquing his idolatry, so the prophet foretold God would destroy Amaziah for idolatry and for discounting God's Word through him, 2 Chr. 25:16b.
        2. So, in keeping with the Mosaic Covenant at Deuteronomy 28:15, 25, God let Amaziah's pride lead him foolishly to start a war against Israel's king in which Amaziah was routed and his riches taken off by Israel's king, 2 Chr. 25:17-19, 20 with 25:21-25 and 2 Kings 14:8-14, 17-18.
        3. He finally lost ALL God's help: Amaziah fled before conspirators who caught up with him and slew him, the very fate he had first trusted God to AVOID happening, 2 Kings 14:19-22 with 5-6!
Lesson: When Amaziah SENSED his ACCOUNTABILITY to GOD, he humbly respected God's Word and heeded it, enjoying God's blessing; however, when he came to view this BLESSING as HIS OWN PERSONAL ACHIEVEMENT rather than what God had GRACIOUSLY GRANTED him, Amaziah arrogantly lost his sense of accountability to God, disobeyed His Word and finally lost God's blessing.

Application: May we ALWAYS sense our NEED to be ACCOUNTABLE to God -- ESPECIALLY as He BLESSES us -- that we NOT take any credit to ourselves for what is GOD'S GRACIOUS GIFT!