Good, But Not Loyal -- 2 Chronicles 25

Introduction

In 1941, one of the most famous and influential movies in cinematic history was released:

-The lead actor also directed and produced it, an actor by the name of Orson Welles

-The movie was called Citizen Kane

-The story opens with Charles Foster Kane, one of the richest men in the world, dying in his mansion

-Before he dies, he utters a single word: “rosebud”

-The story then follows Jerry Thompson, a journalist tasked with finding out Kane meant when he said that last word

-The whole movie is Thompson investigating, travelling, and asking questions to find out what meaning of that word was

Well, in our text this evening, I want to lead us through an investigation this evening to try to discern the meaning of a verse this evening

Look at 2 Chronicles 25:1-2

2 Chronicles 25:1–2 NKJV

Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem. And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a loyal heart.

What does that mean?

-What does it mean that this king did what was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a loyal heart?

-When we observe people and their lives we can often come up with descriptions or evaluations of them, but our evaluations are not always accurate

-But what we have here is a divinely inspired evaluation

-This is what God thought of this king

-So what does this mean?

-That’s what we’re going to investigate together this evening

Background

-Many people believe the books of 1 and 2 Chronicles to be written by Ezra after the Exile

-Whether or not that’s true, the books seem to be written from a perspective of wanting to encourage those who survived the Exile and were returning to the land of Israel to be faithful to God

-Unlike the books of 1 and 2 Kings, these books follow only the Kings of Judah, starting with King David, and going all the way through Zedekiah

-When it comes to them emphases of the books, there is much attention paid to the worship of the people

-So for instance, much attention is given to the Temple and the Religious Feasts of the people throughout the book

-The author also gives us a very intimate look at the kings of Judah, showing us which kings had a God-facing heart, and which ones did not

-Up to this point, the books have covered the reigns of David, Solomon, and then cover the kingdom being split during the reign of Rehoboam and continuing to trace the line of kings in Judah

-In the previous chapter, the author tells us of Joash, a king who came to the throne at 7 years of age after being hidden from birth from his wicked grandmother Athaliah

-The author tells us that Joash was a good king as long as Jehoiada the Priest was around

-But when Jehoiada dies, Joash turns to other gods, and even kills the son of Jehoiada who tries to confront him over his sin

-Joash is later wounded in battle and then is assassinated by his own servants

-All of this was God’s judgment on Joash for his wickedness

When he died, his son Amaziah replaced him on the throne

So, let’s see:

-let’s do our detective work of the text

-Let’s make good observations and answer the question about what it means to be good kings, a king who did what was right, but not with a loyal heart

-Let’s see what this Inspired Account teaches us about God

-And let’s see how this ought to affect our lives today

1. Conformity to the Scriptures

look at vs. 3-4

-Now, remember, we have two sides to this Inspired evaluation of Amaziah

-And the first part of it is that “he did what was right in the sight of the Lord”

-We have 8 good kings in the Southern Kingdom of Judah after David and Solomon, and Amaziah is one of them

-So the author here is showing us, he’s giving us examples of why Amaziah is deemed a king who did right by the Lord Himself

-When he gets to the throne, he waits until his kingdom is established

-He makes sure that after Joash’s tumultuous reign, things settle down and he’s got the support and authority that he needs

-And then he goes about enacting judgment on the royal servants who killed his father

-However, he does not kill their children

-Now, maybe you’re thinking, “well I hope not! no one should do that!”

-And you’re right

-But from a political perspective, there may have been good reason to go ahead and kill the children of his father’s assassin’s as well

-Maybe there would be a fear that their children would want to get revenge eventually

-Or maybe it would have sent a stronger message of power for him to have killed the entire families of the assassin’s

Something like:

“This is what happens when you mess with me, I’ll come after you and your whole family”

Whatever the reasons that Amaziah could have done it, or may have been advantaged by doing it, he does not kill their children

Why?

-Vs. 4: because God’s Word says that he’s not supposed to

-God had decreed that children were not to be executed for the sins of their fathers

-And that was good enough for Amaziah

-Whatever edge Amaziah might have gained from wiping out the offspring of the assassins, he foregoes it

-So as we begin to fill in our report of Amaziah, trying to crack the case on what it means to be a good king without a loyal heart, we observe that Amaziah obeys Scripture

-He generally does the right thing

-He reads or hears something from God’s Word, and he obeys it

-He abides by it

-God’s Word says don’t do this, so he doesn’t

-At least outwardly, there is generally conformity to what God has said

-So this is part of what makes gives him the divinely inspired evaluation of a good king

-What might this look like in our context?

-Well, it might look like someone who looks pretty good on the outside

-They might be someone who doesn’t curse

-They don’t go out and party and get drunk

-They go to church

-They try to be kind to their spouse, their kids, and to others

-They do their devotions

-There is general outward conformity to God’s Word

-They seem, and in many ways are, a person who does what is right in the sight of the Lord

Let’s continue our investigation:

2. Willingness to Hear Instruction (on certain matters)

Look at what happens next

vs. 5-6

-We find out in the next few verses that Judah is planning on going to battle with Edom

-they were close in proximity to Judah, and Amaziah wants to strengthen his kingdom

-So, he rallies the troops and gets ready to go to battle

-And furthermore, he takes some money and goes to hire some Israelite mercenaries to help him in the fight

But he receives a word from the Lord:

-Vs. 7-8

-God sends a prophet to Amaziah and says, “hey, God isn’t with Israel! and if they come with you to battle, God’s going to cause you to be defeated!”

-And then this very poignant and fascinating line comes at the end of verse 8 that kind of foreshadows the entire story

-God has the power to help

and God has the power to overthrow

-and how is that decided?

-it’s based on the response of King Amaziah in this situation

So Amaziah has a question as he’s considering this:

vs. 9

-Can’t we relate to this?

-So often when it comes to our obedience to God, we’re doing the cost-benefit analysis

-How much is my obedience going to cost me?

-What will I be giving up to be obedient

-Guess what? Obedience to God doesn’t always seem like a very lucrative business does it?

-Not to our limited perspective

-But notice the reply

“God is able to give you much more than this”

-Isn’t that so true?

We’re worried about the financial cost of obeying God

-God can give you much more than you’re giving up

We’re worried about the time cost of obeying God

-God can give us so much more than we need

We’re worried about the emotional or relational cost of obeying God

-God can give us much more than this

You see, we never lose in the end when we obey God

Mark 10:29–30 NKJV

So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life.

Any “loss” we may think we incur when we obey God is never really a loss when we serve the One who owns the cattle on a thousand hills

And so look what Amaziah does:

Vs. 10

-he eats the loss

-he takes the embarassment and the anger

“sorry, you’ve all got to go home”

“Got to go home?? What are you talking about?? We just got here! We’ve brought all 100,000 of us and all our war gear. You can’t just send us home!”

“Yes I can. Yahweh told me that he’s not with you all. You’ve got to leave.”

And Amaziah, to his credit, heeds the instruction and sends the mercenaries home, despite the financial loss and despite their anger

And look what happens as a result:

-Vs. 11-12

God blesses him with victory because he received the prophets words

-God indeed has power to help

So in our investigation of what it means to do right but not with a loyal heart, that it includes humbly receiving instruction or correction (at least in some things)

-Amaziah did

-He was, after all, given the Inspired evaluation of being a king who did what was right in the sight of the Lord

He was confronted with correction/instruction from the Lord, and he obeys, despite the cost

-And when he did, God blessed

So what does this mean for us, as we continue to fill in our investigation?

-This kind of person is a person who outwardly conforms to God’s Word

-They may go to church

-Read their Bible

-Tithe

this kind of person may also be someone who really does try to heed biblical correction and instruction (at least some of the time):

-they may listen to the pastor when he preaches and they change

-they may take correction from those at their church

-they may respond well to biblical counsel

Let’s continue our investigation:

3. Worshipping other gods

-This is where we begin to see the 2nd half of the Divine Evaluation of Amaziah really come to the fore

Vs. 14

-After defeating the Edomites through God’s help, Amaziah takes those gods back home and worships them

-This is an absolutely stunning turn of events

-Why on earth would anyone do this??

vs. 15

-the absurdity of this is mind-blowing

-God Himself (through the prophet) asks why on earth Amaziah would worship the gods who couldn’t even rescue their own people?

-We look at this and can’t believe it

-We would certainly never do that, would we?

. . . would we?

-What about when we are in a hard situation financially?

-We’re really in trouble, so we cry out to the Lord and God providentially provides for us

-And then after we’re out of it, we think “I’ve gotta get more money so that doesn’t happen again” and we begin to work more, and get a second job, and start working on Sundays and Wednesdays, and stop giving to God’s work

-Is that situation much different than Amaziah’s?

-We start worshipping the thing that has no power to deliver?

-We turn towards our relationships, our career, our hobbies, our toys and trinkets

-And we worship them

-We reverence them

-We give them priority over God

-You see, worship is whatever we ascribe the supreme value to in our lives

-It is the thing that we put above other things

-And everyone is a worshipper!

-Everyone has something that they believe is worth giving their lives to

-And if that thing is anything other than God, than it’s idolatry

-How can we spot idolatry in our lives?

-Because, you might be sitting here and saying “None of us are going home and burning incense and bowing down to any physical items in our home.”

And that’s true for most of us in a Western context

So how can I spot idolatry in my life?

Let me ask you some questions:

1. What do I give my time to?

-How can it be that you don’t have time to be in God’s Word each day when you spend 2 hours every evening watching TV or a Show?

-How can it be that you don’t have time for prayer when you spend 2 hours a day or more on facebook, instagram, tiktok, or youtube?

-What is it I’m giving my time over to?

-This can be a good indication of idolatry

2. What am I giving my money to?

-Where does my money go?

-Aside from your mortgage, gas, insurance, and groceries, where does your money go?

-Is much of it spent on clothes?

-Hunting gear?

-things on Amazon?

-new gadgets?

-None of these things are bad, but if there’s not a much being spent on the work of the Lord and meeting the needs of the people of the Lord, this may be an indication of idolatry

3. What do I give my heart and mind to?

-When you’re in love with someone, you spend almost every moment thinking about that person

**Dating Ash**

-Let me ask you, what do you love?

-What do you think about?

-What have you given your emotions to?

-What have you given your mind to?

-Oftentimes what does not have our heart and mind is the Lord

-Instead, we give it over to sports, to entertainment, to relationships, to our career, to our money

-And it’s not wrong to enjoy those things or to think about them

-But very often, we are not truly loving and worshipping the Lord . . . we’re worshipping other things

4. Not repenting or heeding the rebuke about idolatry

look at vs. 16

You might be saying, “but Braden, you said that he listened to instruction earlier”

-he did

-But not about idolatry

-You see, one way that we can recognize idolatry is this:

when your idols get messed with, you lash out or melt down

-What is it that when it gets messed with, you can’t handle it?

-is it your kids?

-is it your self-image?

-is it your career?

-is it being perceived as a certain kind of person?

-it it being right?

-is it financial security?

-You see, idolaters can be ok with taking biblical advice or correction in some areas, but they don’t want to be confronted about their idolatry

-And Amaziah didn’t want to hear it

-He didn’t want to be confronted about his idolatry

instead:

5. Seeking out advice and counsel that let’s you keep your idolatry

-Notice vs. 17

-Amaziah seeks out other advice . . . he just doesn’t want the advice messes with his idolatry

-He wants advice that will let him continue worshipping other things

And because of his idolatry and lack of heeding and repenting, God had determined to destroy Amaziah

As we sit down with our notes and piece things together, here’s what we come up with to the question: what does it mean to do right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a loyal heart?

1. it means that you can be someone who really does do many of the right things:

-you go to church

-you read your Bible

-you pray

-you try to be nice

-try to be a good husband

-a good father

2. it means you can be someone who does take biblical advice and instruction (at least in certain areas)

-you listen to the sermons and try to change things

-you’re willing to hear out biblical counsel

-you’re willing to listen to that verse or that godly friend

3. But at the heart of it, you’re not a faithful and loyal worshipper of God alone

-you secretly or even instinctually worship other things

-God does not really consistently have your heart-worship

-Your heart wanders from idol to idol

-Or stays fixed on a certain idol

-And while you are a Christian, and you do try to do the right thing usually

-Your heart really actually belongs to something else

-Your money, your affections, your time, your thoughts — they belong to another

And doesn’t this evaluation fit the description in verse 2?

He “DID what was right in the sight of the Lord.”

-Many of the actions were there!

“but not with a LOYAL HEART.”

-He was a wavering worshipper at his core

Is there other Scripture to back up our conclusions?

Let’s look for ourselves:

1 Kings 11:4 NKJV

For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David.

same wording:

-what was Solomon’s problem: he was an idolater

1 Kings 15:1–3 NKJV

In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam the son of Nebat, Abijam became king over Judah. He reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Maachah the granddaughter of Abishalom. And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him; his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David.

What was the sins of Abijam’s father, Rehoboam? look back a few verses:

1 Kings 14:21–23 NKJV

And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king. He reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put His name there. His mother’s name was Naamah, an Ammonitess. Now Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked Him to jealousy with their sins which they committed, more than all that their fathers had done. For they also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and wooden images on every high hill and under every green tree.

he was an idolater

One more reference:

2 Chronicles 15:16–17 NKJV

Also he removed Maachah, the mother of Asa the king, from being queen mother, because she had made an obscene image of Asherah; and Asa cut down her obscene image, then crushed and burned it by the Brook Kidron. But the high places were not removed from Israel. Nevertheless the heart of Asa was loyal all his days.

this is kind of a surprising assessment if you know anything about Asa

-he starts off really well, but in the end, he chooses to trust in other nations to help him rather than trusting God

-He gets rebuked for this by a prophet, and he gets angry with the prophet and throws him in prison

-He ends up getting diseased in his feet, and instead of turning to God for help, he seeks the help of physicians instead

How can it say then that Asa was loyal all his days?

-throughout all his time as king, you know what Asa never struggled with?

Idolatry

-He never fell into idolatrous worship, despite his other sins

So the other references in Kings and Chronicles backs up our conclusion:

-the way that someone can do what is right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a loyal heart is idolatry

Conclusion

-Back in verse 13, the mercenaries that Amaziah sent home are not happy and they pillage and destroy in Judah

-Amaziah decides that he’s going to go fight Israel because of it

-He sends to king Jehoash in Israel to fight him

-Jehoash sends back to Amaziah that the victory with Edom has gone to his head. He tells Amaziah not to pick this fight, because he’ll lose

2 Chronicles 25:20 NKJV

But Amaziah would not heed, for it came from God, that He might give them into the hand of their enemies, because they sought the gods of Edom.

Amaziah and Judah lose bad

-Amaziah is captured by Jehoash

-Jehoash goes up to Jerusalem and tears down a bunch of the wall in Jersualem

-He pillages the temple and the palace, and then takes Amaziah and other hostages from Judah back home to Samaria

Eventually, when Jehoash dies, Amaziah is freed and returns to Jerusalem

-but even there, an assassination plot against his life arises

-Amaziah tries to flee to Lachish to escape, but they find him in Lachish and kill him

-He too, dies from a humiliating assasination, just like his idolatrous father

Is idolatry a big deal to God?

James 4:4–6 NKJV

Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”? But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”

God hates idolatry

-If anything, our idolatry is worse than Amaziah’s

-Amaziah was given victory over Edom by God’s grace

-We though, have received God’s grace in the Person of Jesus Christ

-God sent Him to die for us while we were yet sinners

-How can we spurn His love by giving over our hearts to other things

-Do we maybe do the right things

-Maybe we have outward conformity

-Maybe we do the right things

-But do we worship?

-Is our heart loyal to God?

-Do we treasure Him above all else?

How do we do that?

-spend time with Him in the Word and prayer

-Overwhelm your heart with God’s love and goodness found in the Gospel

-Think on Him

-Worship Him in corporately and privately

-Let us love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength