History – 2 Chronicles 25-28

I was a lousy history student.  Somehow the idea of dates, past events, drama etc never excited me.

But history was written for a purpose… so that we might learn from the past… and hopefully not commit the mistakes of the past but repeat the successes – although history (pun fully intended) has shown us otherwise. (:

However, the History books of the Bible are different.  Cause although they read like any history book, there is the true and living God in there and this makes all the difference.  So I love the history books of the Bible…. what about you?

Bible Passage:  2 Chronicles 25-28

A few more kings today… Some started off good but could not hold on to the end.  Some were so rotten that you wonder … what are they thinking of?

The stories are quite straight forward.  Many of the lessons drawn from today’s passage are painfully obvious but worth repeating.  And if you allow me, let me just share some that came to mind…

Is It A Waste?

2 Chronicles 25 introduces us to king Amaziah.  2 Chronicles 25:2 could have very well be written on his tombstone…

And he did what was right in the sight of the LORD, but not with a loyal heart.

Indeed, Amaziah started off brightly by obeying the laws of Moses and heeding the warnings of the prophet of God.  But in the end, he turned to idolatory.  He chose to attack Israel, even when warned it was not right.  He died a tragic death… simply because he was not totally loyal to God.

However, there was one thing he did that set me thinking …. “Would I do that?”

The incident is found in 2 Chronicles 25:5-10.  Amaziah had chose to hire 100,000 soldiers from the Northern Kingdom of Israel… and paid quite a large sum of money for these men of valour.

But a prophet of God told Amaziah that he should not use them for God was not with the people of Israel.  And Amaziah obeyed and gave up the troops … even at a great financial loss.

Amaziah had many good qualities but he certainly could not see that it was not possible for his nation to be allied with Israel without offending God and His divine protection for his country.

This reminds me that God cannot be in fellowship with us if we tolerate fellowship with the ungodly.  We cannot partake of the Lord’s table and the table of the demons at the same time (1 Cor 10:21-22) and expect God to be with us.

We must choose between the two.

We cannot say we want to renounce all human aid, and be willing to trust in God completely and yet, seek worldy methods or partnerships to help us out.  No matter how strong the world may be… as long as align ourselves with them, we wil fail.  But if we wholly depend on God… “The LORD is able to give you much more than this.” (2 Chron 25:9).

But what I want to emphasise on now is this.

For some of us, we may have already entered into so close an alliance that we feel we cannot draw back anymore.  We have invested in our capital and have gone into great expenditure.

Perhaps, we have put in so much time, effort and sacrifice… and the end is in sight.

Will we willingly forfeit all this for God?

What?  And put to waste all our efforts and money?

Some would try and salvage the situation by making compromises.  If I was in Amaziah’s shoes, perhaps I might think that since they are no good going out to war, why not I deploy them as my defense troops… so that while I am attacking, I will know that my family and the rest of the country is safe from other attacks under their protection.  In this way…. I can at least get some returns for my investment.

I am sure you can come up with more innovative ideas… just to make sure we do not waste our money.  Or God’s money!

While the intentions seem to be noble and that we are not being irresponsible, there are some things where we just have to cut our losses… because the consequences can be even more disastrous.  In this case, the Israel soldiers could have brought idolatorous worship to the people.  Or led the people of Judah to commit abominable acts.  But worse still, God was against them… so by virtue of association… God would be also against Judah.

We have to always remember that with only God at their side and without external aid, Amaziah was able to defeat the Edomites.  God can do the impossible… as long as our hearts are perfect toward Him.

As a sidenote, you will notice that the soldiers of Israel committed grave misdeeds on their way back.  They were unhappy that they were sacked and they raided and killed many people.

This was the result of the folly and sin of Amaziah’s initial decision to use them.

We may have chosen to do a bad thing in the past.  But after coming into repentance and praying and receiving forgives, there could yet still be an after consequence which will follow us after some ill-considered act.

Sin may be forgiven.  But its secondary results are sometimes very bitter.

We must expect to reap as we sow.

So …. don’t be foolish and go against God.  Don’ sin.

Pride Goes Before A Fall

When Shalom was writing on the book of Numbers, he mentioned to me that when he was doing it, he felt so worked up when he read about the actions of the Israelites in their continual disobedience and sinning against God.

I know how he feels cause I get the same feeling when I read 2 Chronicles.

Why is it that a king can start off being obedient and God fearing – end up doing foolish things like worshipping idols and offending God?

Why is it that Godly fathers can have absolutely evil sons?

Why is it that despite all the fallen examples before them not serve as warnings for the kings and they commit the very same sins as their forefathers did?

Why?  Why?  Why?

I like to just refer to the example of Uzziah in 2 Chronicles 26:16-21.

Arrogance is an occupational hazad for those in authority.  Sitting in positions of power, prestige, and privelege can easily seduce people into thinking that they got there solely by their own abilities and assets.  Furthemore, they begin to think that rules that apply to others do not apply to them.

King Uzziah fell into that pitfall of pride ( 2 Chron 26:16).

He was young when he came to the throne and he was successful then because he honoured God and listened to the wise advice of prophet Zechariah (2 Chron 26:1-5).  But in his later years, after  he had achieved much military victories, he made the mistake of thinking so highly of himself that he wanted to perform temple rites that was only reserved for the priests.  This led to his downfall (2 Chron 26:16-21).

The Bible shows us many examples of people whose pride and ambition blinded and eventually destroyed them.  Look at the other kings and consider…. could pride have also led to their downfall?

Let us consider their outcomes and take them as a warning against thinking more of ourselves than we ought to think (Rom 12:3; 1 Cor 10:6, 11-13).

We may not be kings.  We may not even be leaders.  But everyone of us have our various gifts that allow us to excel in certain areas.  But the same warning applies to us as well.  Let us not, because of our limited successes, start to think more our ourselves and want to do things that actually beyond us – both in authority and ability.

With success… pride follows… naturally.

So let us examine ourselves always… to make sure that no trace of pride is in us.  And if you see a brother or sister becoming proud…  tell them.  Or at least, if you sense that I am being too big for my shoes… tell me.  Please.  I do not want to be an Uzziah.  And I suspect you don’t as well.