Amaziah, however, would not listen, for God so worked that He might hand them over to Jeohash, because they sought the gods of Edom. — 2 Chronicles 25:20
God doesn’t trust just anybody to lead His people. Sooner or later he will put that leader to the test, and that test will reveal the character of the leader.
King Amaziah is a case in point. About 130 years after the nation of Israel divided into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah, Amaziah becomes king of Judah. He attempts to consolidate his power by hiring a mercenary army from the northern kingdom of Israel to help him regain control of the nearby nation of Edom.
Wrong move! A prophet instructs King Amaziah to release these 100,000 mercenaries, forfeiting the almost four tons of silver the king paid to hire them. Amaziah dismisses the mercenaries and they are ticked! So, while Amaziah and his men are fighting Edom, the dismissed soldiers raid the towns of Judah, kill 3,000 people and carry off plunder.
What a mess! Amaziah’s obedience, it seemed, brings both victory and defeat, both honor and tragedy.
This is the kind of gauntlet that great men and women of God pass through. Will they trust God when God doesn’t make sense?
Amaziah’s answer, regrettably, is no. He rejects God, turns to the gods of defeated Edom, tries to pick a fight with the northern Kingdom of Israel, loses, accomplishes nothing more worth mentioning, and dies of assassination.
What went wrong? I believe God was giving Amaziah the opportunity to become one of the greatest kings of all time. But when Amaziah’s cards were dealt, he played them poorly, running away from God rather than running toward Him.
If you are a leader of a family, a ministry, a church and the heat is on, please understand that God wants you to succeed. You may be experiencing graduate level testing, but God wants to skim off all the impurities that surface and make you into the man or woman of God He designed you to be.
Be encouraged!
Dwight
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Visit DwightClough.com for more information. Dwight and his wife Kim are active members of Lake City Church in Madison.