Context & Key Themes
2 Chronicles 25 is the chapter of Amaziah — a king who begins with a single compromising phrase attached to his obedience and never recovers from what it signals. He does right in the eyes of the Lord, but not with a whole heart. He executes the servants who killed his father, sparing their children according to the law. He hires a hundred thousand men of Israel to supplement his army against Edom. A man of God warns him: if you take the Israelite troops, God will make you stumble before the enemy. Amaziah asks about the money he paid. The man of God says God can give you much more than this. He releases the Israelites. He defeats Edom. Then he brings back Edomite gods and sets them up as his own gods. A prophet confronts him. He dismisses the prophet. He challenges Israel to battle. Israel’s king warns him with the thistle and cedar parable. He does not listen. He is captured, the temple is plundered, and eventually his own people conspire and kill him. Joash his son reigns in his place.
Key Verse
“He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, yet not with a whole heart.”
— 2 Chronicles 25:2
Summary
Amaziah is twenty-five years old when he begins to reign and reigns twenty-nine years. He does right in the eyes of the Lord, yet not with a whole heart. When the kingdom is established for him, he kills his servants who had struck down the king his father. He does not put their children to death, according to what is written in the Law, in the Book of Moses. Amaziah assembles Judah and numbers them according to their fathers’ houses, setting commanders of thousands and of hundreds, for all Judah and Benjamin. He finds them to be three hundred thousand choice men, fit for war. He also hires a hundred thousand mighty men of valor from Israel for a hundred talents of silver. A man of God comes: O king, do not let the army of Israel go with you, for the Lord is not with Israel, with all these Ephraimites. But if you think it is necessary, act, and be strong for the battle. God will make you stumble before the enemy, for God has power to help or to cast down. Amaziah says: but what shall we do about the hundred talents that I have given to the army of Israel? The man of God answers: the Lord is able to give you much more than this. Then Amaziah separates them and the band of soldiers from Ephraim return home, furious with Judah. Amaziah takes courage and leads his people and goes to the Valley of Salt and strikes ten thousand men of Seir. Judah captures ten thousand more alive, brings them to the top of a cliff, and throws them off so they all die. But Amaziah brings back the gods of the men of Seir and sets them up as his gods and worships them. The anger of the Lord burns against Amaziah and he sends a prophet who says: why have you sought the gods of a people who did not deliver their own people from your hand? While the prophet is speaking, Amaziah says: have we made you a royal counselor? Stop! Why should you be struck down? So the prophet stops, but says: I know that God has determined to destroy you because you have done this and have not listened to my counsel. Then Amaziah the king of Judah takes counsel and sends to Joash the son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying: come, let us face each other in battle. Joash king of Israel sends to Amaziah: a thistle on Lebanon sent to a cedar on Lebanon, saying, give your daughter to my son for a wife. Then a wild beast passed by and trampled down the thistle. You say you have struck down Edom, and your heart has lifted you up in boastfulness. Now stay at home. Why should you provoke trouble so that you fall, you and Judah with you? Amaziah will not listen. They meet in battle and Judah is defeated. Joash captures Amaziah at Beth-shemesh. Joash comes to Jerusalem and breaks down four hundred cubits of the wall from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate. He takes gold and silver and all the vessels in the house of God with Obed-edom and the treasuries of the king’s house, and hostages, and returns to Samaria. Amaziah outlives Joash. They make a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem and he flees to Lachish. They send after him to Lachish and kill him there. His son Uzziah reigns in his place.
Reflection
The phrase not with a whole heart at the chapter’s opening is the Chronicler’s master key to everything that follows. Amaziah obeys when it is convenient and profitable. He sends home the Israeli troops when a prophet tells him God is not with them — but asks about the money first. He defeats Edom — and then brings home Edom’s gods and worships them. He hears a prophet’s rebuke — and tells him to stop, threatening him. He challenges Israel to battle — and hears an extremely clear warning from the very king he is challenging, a warning dressed in a parable he cannot possibly misread — and will not listen. Each choice is the choice of a man whose obedience is conditional, whose faith is performative, whose heart was never fully in the project of seeking God.
Joash’s parable of the thistle and the cedar is worth recalling here because Amaziah had already received the exact same prophetic message from a man of God in this same chapter. Both the prophet and the parable are saying the same thing: what you did was real but what you are about to do is going to destroy you. The prophet warned about the Edomite gods. The parable warns about Israel. He ignores both. A divided heart does not just produce bad choices. It produces the inability to hear correction even when the correction is unmistakable.