2 Chronicles 25:1-2, 14, 20, 27 [1] Amaziah became king when he was 25 years old and reigned 29 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan; she was from Jerusalem. [2] He did what was right in the Lord’s sight but not wholeheartedly.
[14] After Amaziah came from the attack on the Edomites, he brought the gods of the Seirites and set them up as his gods. He worshiped before them and burned incense to them.
[20] But Amaziah would not listen, for this turn of events was from God in order to hand them over to their enemies because they went after the gods of Edom.
[27] From the time Amaziah turned from following the Lord, a conspiracy was formed against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish. However, men were sent after him to Lachish, and they put him to death there.
Over and over again, in the Old Testament, we read about kings that either did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, or did what was right in the sight of the Lord. However, even when many of them started out doing right, they ended up going sideways, and ultimately ended their walk with God badly. In Amaziah's case, he did what was right, but God tells us that there was something that Amaziah lacked that led to his downfall. Amaziah's mind was bent on doing what was right, but his heart never caught up to his mind. Sadly, there are many of us who are no different. We have received Jesus as Savior, and we proclaim that we are His followers; but somehow, that doesn't seem to penetrate our hearts. What results is a life of compromise, where we try to walk with one foot in Christianity, and one foot in the world. We build a facade that looks good on the outside, and makes people think we are walking with God, but in our hearts we are far from Him. We indulge in our secret sins, and eventually the corruption that is in our hearts slowly begins to erode the facade we worked to build up and display before the world. We must not be fooled. Our God sees right through what we try to portray outwardly. Like Amaziah, God will allow circumstances to develop that will eventually expose, to our shame, who we really are. I praise God that He is a forgiving God who is willing to restore us, when we repent and confess our sins. Amaziah's choice to not be wholeheartedly committed to God ultimately led to his death. Let us not let our lukewarm commitment to God lead to the death of our testimony for Him; for when we bring shame to ourselves, when He exposes us, we also bring shame to His Name. Let us do right in the sight of the Lord, not just for outward show, but let us do it wholeheartedly for the glory of God, in true appreciation for what Jesus did for us.
Today, God extends an invitation to you to accept His free gift of salvation (Romans 6:23). Will you accept it? Anyone who calls on the Name of Jesus, by faith, in repentance, confessing your sins, will receive eternal life. Do not put off calling on Him, and receive His free gift of salvation (Romans 10:13).
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