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2 Chronicles 25:1-13 - Furious Israelites Destroy Towns in Judah · The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal

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Speaker 1: Life Audio.
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Speaker 2: Hi, Faith listeners, Welcome and good morning. Thank you for
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Speaker 2: tuning in to the Bible Explain podcast on this Monday morning,
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Speaker 2: and for sharing a cup of coffee with me as
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Speaker 2: we delve into scripture to start our week out on
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Speaker 2: the right foot. We're going to be in Second Chronicles
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Speaker 2: chapter twenty five today talking about a brand new king
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Speaker 2: in Israel's history. This is King Amasia, and King Amasia
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Speaker 2: is kind of a bizarre king because he does a
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Speaker 2: lot of good things but also a lot of really
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Speaker 2: bad things. So we'll get into some of the good
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Speaker 2: things that he does today in Second Chronicles twenty five,
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Speaker 2: so stay tuned for that. So we only have eleven
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Speaker 2: more chapters in the Book of Second Chronicles. I'm super
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Speaker 2: excited to go through Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther Job. Those are
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Speaker 2: some of the books that we have coming up, and
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Speaker 2: those are all just fantastic books. Especially excited to get
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Speaker 2: into the Book of Job because it's going to be
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Speaker 2: a big challenge for me to research and present that
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Speaker 2: book because if you've ever read the Book of Job,
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Speaker 2: there's a lot of things in it that are very perplexing,
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Speaker 2: and I'm deeply excited to get into it.
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Speaker 1: With all of you, guys.
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Speaker 2: But I'm also excited to study the Book of Esther
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Speaker 2: as well with all of you, because that's kind of
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Speaker 2: like a light well not light, but it's lighter than
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Speaker 2: some of the other books. And it's talking about a princess,
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Speaker 2: which is always fun for a girl like me to discuss.
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Speaker 2: But for now, let's go ahead and read it Second
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Speaker 2: Chronicles twenty five And of course, before I begin this episode,
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Speaker 2: take a moment to grab your Bible and your cup
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Speaker 2: of coffee as you listen to this message from a sponsor. Okay,
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Speaker 2: now that you've grabbed your Bible and your cup of
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Speaker 2: coffee or your cup of tea for you crazy tea drinkers,
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Speaker 2: let's read Second Chronicles twenty five one through thirteen and
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Speaker 2: discuss this brand new king in Israel's history, King Amasia.
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Speaker 2: I'll be reading as I usually do, from the web.
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Speaker 2: Amazia was twenty five years old when he began to reign,
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Speaker 2: and he reigned twenty nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's
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Speaker 2: name was Jehodin of Jerusalem. He did that which was
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Speaker 2: right in Yahweh's eyes, but not with a perfect heart. Now,
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Speaker 2: when the kingdom was established to him, he killed his
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Speaker 2: servants who had killed his father, the king. But he
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Speaker 2: didn't put their children to death, but did according to
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Speaker 2: that which is written in the law of the Book
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Speaker 2: of Moses, as Yahweh commanded, saying, the fathers shall not
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Speaker 2: die for the children, neither shall the children die for
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Speaker 2: the fathers. But every man shall die for his own sin. Moreover,
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Speaker 2: Amazia gathered Judah together and ordered them according to their
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Speaker 2: father's houses, under captains of thousands and captains of hundreds,
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Speaker 2: even all Judah and Benjamin. He counted them from twenty
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Speaker 2: years old and upward, and found that there were three
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Speaker 2: hundred thousand that chosen men able to go out to war,
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Speaker 2: who could handle spear and shield. He also hired one
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Speaker 2: hundred thousand mighty men of valor out of Israel for
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Speaker 2: one hundred talents of silver. A man of God came
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Speaker 2: to him, saying, oh, King, don't let the army of
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Speaker 2: Israel go with you, for Yahweh is not with Israel
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Speaker 2: with all the children of Ephriam. But if you will
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Speaker 2: go take action and be strong for the battle, God
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Speaker 2: will overthrow you before the enemy. For God has power
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Speaker 2: to help and to overthrow. Amazia said to the man
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Speaker 2: of God, But what shall we do for the hundred
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Speaker 2: talents which I have given the army of Israel. The
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Speaker 2: Man of God answered, Yahweh is able to give you
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Speaker 2: much more than this. Then Amazia separated them the army
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Speaker 2: that had come to him out of Ephriam to go
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Speaker 2: home again. Therefore their anger was greatly kindled against Judah,
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Speaker 2: and they returned home in fierce anger. Amazia took courage
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Speaker 2: and led his people out and went to the valley
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Speaker 2: of Salt and struck ten thousand of the children of Sir.
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Speaker 2: The children of Judah carried away ten thousand alive and
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Speaker 2: brought them to the top of the rock and threw
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Speaker 2: them down from the top of the rock, so that
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Speaker 2: they were broken into pieces. But the men of the army,
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Speaker 2: whom Amasias sent back that they should not go with
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Speaker 2: him to battle, fell on the cities of Judah from
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Speaker 2: Samaria even to beth Horn, and struck of them three
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Speaker 2: thousand and took much plunder. We talked previously last week
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Speaker 2: about joe Ash who was the young king that reigned
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Speaker 2: for a very long time for about forty years, but
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Speaker 2: towards the end of his life his reign was no
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Speaker 2: longer blessed because he did a lot of really bad things,
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Speaker 2: including killing a prophet in the middle of the streets.
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Speaker 2: And this prophet was somebody who was very well known,
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Speaker 2: very well loved in Judah, and so that made the
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Speaker 2: people of Judah actually look pretty unfavorably, I guess, towards
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Speaker 2: joe Ash, so that at the end of his life,
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Speaker 2: two of his servants killed him, conspired against him and
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Speaker 2: killed him, and they killed him specifically because of that
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Speaker 2: prophet that joe Ash had killed.
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Speaker 1: So joe Ash.
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Speaker 2: Unfortunately did a lot of bad things towards the end
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Speaker 2: of his life. He started out very good, but towards
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Speaker 2: the end of his life kind of lost. It brought
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Speaker 2: a lot of idolatry into Judah and Jerusalem, whereas it
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Speaker 2: was not as common in the days of joe Ash.
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Speaker 2: But unfortunately it just kept creeping into Judah. No matter
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Speaker 2: how much any king or high priest or prophet tried
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Speaker 2: to get rid of it, it just seemed to always
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Speaker 2: like just creep right back in. It was never very
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Speaker 2: far away. And here's the thing. When it crept back in,
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Speaker 2: it crept in very fast. Like it was not moving
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Speaker 2: at a glacial pace. It moved very quickly into Judah,
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Speaker 2: whereas it seemed like whenever a king would try to
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Speaker 2: push it out, it took forever to get that stuff
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Speaker 2: out of Judah, but it would come in very easily
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Speaker 2: and very quickly the second a king would compromise. And
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Speaker 2: that's how it is with sin, you know, just in general,
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Speaker 2: in our own lives, we might think, oh, you know,
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Speaker 2: we can partake a little bit. It's not really going
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Speaker 2: to affect us if we only do a little sin.
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Speaker 2: But as we all know, it does affect us. And
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Speaker 2: the second we give in to a tiny, little sin,
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Speaker 2: we give ourselves permission to do even more tiny sins,
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Speaker 2: which then lead to bigger and bigger sins. So it's
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Speaker 2: better to just avoid the tiny sin because it's so
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Speaker 2: amazing how fast sin can creep in our lives. And
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Speaker 2: then suddenly we look around and we're like, wow, like
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Speaker 2: I am in this deep? How did I get here?
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Speaker 2: Like a month ago, I felt like I was really
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Speaker 2: on track with God, and now look at myself, And
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Speaker 2: then you have a whole bunch of shame and problems,
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Speaker 2: and it's hard to get rid of those sins because
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Speaker 2: they become habits in your life. So yeah, sin creeps
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Speaker 2: in very easily if we allow it to, and that's
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Speaker 2: what happened with idolatry in Judah and Israel in general.
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Speaker 2: So unfortunately, even though joe Ash at the beginning of
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Speaker 2: his life did a lot of work to get rid
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Speaker 2: of idolatry, it crept back in at the end of
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Speaker 2: his life, and he even gave into it and was
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Speaker 2: worshiping Ashra and Bail and some of the other gods
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Speaker 2: as well. So then he died. And actually scripture makes
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Speaker 2: it clear that when joe Ash died they did not
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Speaker 2: give him a very honorable burial. He was not buried
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Speaker 2: with the kings. He was buried somewhere else in Judah,
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Speaker 2: and that kind of shows how favor he was with
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Speaker 2: Judah towards the end of his life. But now that
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Speaker 2: he has died, Amasia, his son takes the throne, and
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Speaker 2: that's where we leave off today. It says in verse
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Speaker 2: one that Amazia was twenty five years old when he
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Speaker 2: began to reign, and he reigned twenty nine years in Jerusalem,
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Speaker 2: so he had a relatively long reign, not the longest
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Speaker 2: of anybody we've seen, but twenty nine years is not
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Speaker 2: a short reign.
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Speaker 1: For sure.
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Speaker 2: It says that his mother's name was Jehodain of Jerusalem,
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Speaker 2: so that means that she was a native of Jerusalem,
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Speaker 2: most likely from the tribe of Benjamin or Judah. It
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Speaker 2: says that Amasia did that which was right in Yawai's eyes,
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Speaker 2: but not with a perfect heart. Whenever we see the
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Speaker 2: term perfect heart, that does not mean sinless perfection. Even
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Speaker 2: the kings that had a perfect heart like Asa and
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Speaker 2: King David, and King Hezekiah and King Josiah, which are
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Speaker 2: the only kings I believe that Scripture mentions as having
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Speaker 2: a perfect heart, even those kings you can see did
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Speaker 2: a lot of sin. Every single one of them actually
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Speaker 2: sinned in some way. Having a perfect heart does not
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Speaker 2: mean sinless perfection.
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Speaker 1: It means having.
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Speaker 2: A sincerity for God, like a genuine sincerity. For example,
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Speaker 2: King David had that perfect heart toward God. He was
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Speaker 2: a sincere man. He only wanted to worship Yahweh all
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Speaker 2: of his days. Same with King Asa, Hezekiah and Josiah,
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Speaker 2: two of which those kings we have not talked about yet.
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Speaker 2: But all of those kings had a perfect heart because
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Speaker 2: they were genuinely sincere toward God. Unfortunately, Amasia did good things,
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Speaker 2: but did not have that sincere heart. And this, unfortunately,
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Speaker 2: is probably the state of most people who claim to
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Speaker 2: be Christians. They do good things, they may believe in Jesus,
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Speaker 2: they may even evangelize for Jesus, but they don't have
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Speaker 2: a sincere heart because other things are constantly taking precedence
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Speaker 2: in their lives. These are the type of Christians that
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Speaker 2: have a tendency to check off boxes. In fact, I
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Speaker 2: was one of these Christians. Once upon a time, I
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Speaker 2: would check off a box, like a Christianity box.
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Speaker 1: I would go to church and I'd.
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Speaker 2: Play the piano and do my service for the week,
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Speaker 2: and then I wouldn't think about it till the next
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Speaker 2: week came around.
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Speaker 1: That was the type of Christian I was.
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Speaker 2: I just wanted to check a box off and get
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Speaker 2: brownie points with God, kind of take the benefits of
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Speaker 2: Christianity without truly living the lifestyle. But that is not
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Speaker 2: following God with a sincere heart. You can't just turn
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Speaker 2: Christianity off and on whenever you want to. When you're
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Speaker 2: a Christian. That means that it flows into every aspect
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Speaker 2: of your life. Now, that does not mean that you
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Speaker 2: can only do things that are Christian in nature, like
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Speaker 2: you can only work as a missionary or a pastor
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Speaker 2: or something like that. Absolutely not like you can go
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Speaker 2: out into the secular world and be a Christian. In fact,
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Speaker 2: that's what Paul tells us to do. He says, be
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Speaker 2: in the world, but do not be of the world.
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Speaker 2: And that's what having a sincere heart is and what
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Speaker 2: being a Christian means. You're in the world, but you're
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Speaker 2: not allowing the world to influence you the way it
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Speaker 2: would other people or other Christians that maybe don't have
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Speaker 2: a sincere heart. Unfortunately, King Amasia allowed the world to
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Speaker 2: influence him. He did not have that sincere heart toward God.
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Speaker 2: And second King's chapter fourteen goes a little bit more
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Speaker 2: into depth with how Amasia did not have a sincere heart.
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Speaker 2: It says in verse three he did that which was
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Speaker 2: right in Yawai's eyes, yet not like David his father.
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Speaker 2: He did according to all that joe Ash his father
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Speaker 2: had done. However, the high places were not taken away.
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Speaker 2: The people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places.
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Speaker 2: So that's one of the ways that Amasia did not
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Speaker 2: have a perfect heart with God. He didn't take any
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Speaker 2: action to help the spiritual darkness in Judah. It seems
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Speaker 2: like he just didn't care. He just allowed idle worship
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Speaker 2: to continue on, even though he may not have been
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Speaker 2: an idolater at this point in his life. He just
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Speaker 2: allowed people in his country to continue worshiping idols. Unfortunately,
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Speaker 2: now we do find out shocker that he does start
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Speaker 2: worshiping idols later on, of course, of course, but to
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Speaker 2: start out at least he did worship Yahweh. But still
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Speaker 2: he did not have that care for the spiritual needs
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Speaker 2: of his people. It says in verse three that when
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Speaker 2: the kingdom was established to Amasia, he killed his servants
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Speaker 2: who had killed his father, the king, but he didn't
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Speaker 2: put their children to death, but did according to that
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Speaker 2: which is written in the law of the Book of Moses,
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Speaker 2: as Yahweh commanded, saying, the fathers shall not die for
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Speaker 2: the children, neither shall the children die for the fathers.
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Speaker 2: But every man shall die for his own sin. And
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Speaker 2: that is verbatim from Deuteronomy twenty four, verse sixteen, which
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Speaker 2: was a law that families could not get put to
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Speaker 2: death for the sin of one individual, so like if
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Speaker 2: the father committed some sort of crime that was for
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Speaker 2: capital punishment. The children should not be put to death
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Speaker 2: for that if they did not participate in that sin.
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Speaker 2: Now we do see on some occasions God punishing entire families,
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Speaker 2: but that is because the entire family participated in the sin.
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Speaker 2: But let's say just the father went out and committed
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Speaker 2: some sin. The children should not be put to death
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Speaker 2: for that because they didn't commit the sin. And same
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Speaker 2: goes for the parents of the children. Like say the
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Speaker 2: child goes out and commits some sort of heinous act
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Speaker 2: that warrants the death penalty. The parents, if they did
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Speaker 2: not participate in that crime, should not be put to death.
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Speaker 2: And with this law, God was changing the mindset of
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Speaker 2: the people at the time, because you know, when somebody
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Speaker 2: committed a sin that was dishonorable for the entire family,
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Speaker 2: and the entire family could be and usually were, put
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Speaker 2: to death for the sin of one individual of the family.
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Speaker 2: So the honor of the family was at stake if
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Speaker 2: somebody committed a sin. But when God made that law,
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Speaker 2: he said, uh h, that's not how things should be done.
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Speaker 2: Every man should be put to death for his own sin,
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Speaker 2: not for the sins of other people. That's just not fair,
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Speaker 2: and that's what Amazia did. I mean, that was a
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Speaker 2: good thing that he tried to do here. He did
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Speaker 2: not put the children to death for the sins of
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Speaker 2: their fathers who had killed Amazia's father. And by the way,
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Speaker 2: it was not wrong for Amasia to put these guys
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Speaker 2: to death because they took vengeance upon themselves. They acted
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Speaker 2: together to kill joe Ash the king, and they should
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Speaker 2: not have done that. They were vigilantes, and Amazia had
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Speaker 2: to establish his kingdom and make sure that these guys
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Speaker 2: weren't going to put him to death someday. So Mazia
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Speaker 2: did the right thing by punishing these men who had
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Speaker 2: killed his father, but by fallowing the law of God
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Speaker 2: right here where he didn't put the children to death,
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Speaker 2: Amasia was actually kind of sticking his neck out because
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Speaker 2: avengers of blood were still a thing. I don't know
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Speaker 2: if you guys remember me talking about that a long
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Speaker 2: time ago, but an avenger of blood was somebody who
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Speaker 2: would kill anybody who killed their family member. So the
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Speaker 2: children could potentially become the avengers of blood for their
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Speaker 2: fathers and go and target King Amasia. And this was
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Speaker 2: like commonplace, this was cultural back in these days. So Amazia,
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Speaker 2: by following God's law and not putting the entire family
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Speaker 2: to death for the crimes of these two men kind
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Speaker 2: of was sticking his neck out, potentially putting his life
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Speaker 2: on the line by not killing the children of these guys.
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Speaker 2: But that was one good thing that Amasia did. Scripture
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Speaker 2: commends him for this. Now, in verses five through eight,
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Speaker 2: this goes into a story of Amazia gathering together some
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Speaker 2: troops to go after the Edomites. It says more, Amasia
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Speaker 2: gathered together Judah and ordered them according to their father's houses,
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Speaker 2: under captains of thousands and captains of hundreds, even all
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Speaker 2: Judah and Benjamin. He counted them from twenty years old
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Speaker 2: and upward and found that there were three hundred thousand
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Speaker 2: chosen men able to go out to war who could
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Speaker 2: handle spear and shield. Now that's interesting because it says
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Speaker 2: there's only three hundred thousand men in Judah that are
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Speaker 2: able to actually go out to war. That means that
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Speaker 2: the number has dwindled significantly from when we last saw it.
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Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure King Jehashafat had about five hundred thousand
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Speaker 2: men that were able to go out to war, and
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Speaker 2: I think Asa also did as well. So the number
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Speaker 2: of fighting men in Judah has drastically gone down. And
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Speaker 2: that kind of shows a problem in Judah because whenever
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Speaker 2: we see throughout history a nation not having enough fighting men,
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Speaker 2: that often means there's a lot of weak men in
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Speaker 2: that society. Old adage goes, weak men produce problems, and
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Speaker 2: problems produce strong men. Strong men produce good times, and
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Speaker 2: good times produce weak men. It just goes around in
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Speaker 2: a circle. But that shows the spiritual problem that was
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Speaker 2: happening in Judah at this time as well. You know,
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Speaker 2: a lot of the attributes of God talk about his
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Speaker 2: strength and his power and his willingness to help. God
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Speaker 2: doesn't give us a spirit of fear, but a spirit
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Speaker 2: of power and love and of a sound mind. So
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Speaker 2: strength comes from God. So if a nation does not
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Speaker 2: have enough fighting men, you could honestly connect that to
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Speaker 2: a spiritual problem where not enough men are gaining strength
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Speaker 2: from Yahweh because they're just not following Yahweh. So Judah
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Speaker 2: did not have enough fighting men in order to go
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Speaker 2: out to war. So what does Amazia do here? It
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Speaker 2: says that he hired one hundred thousand mighty men of
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Speaker 2: valor out of Israel for one hundred talents of silver,
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Speaker 2: so one hundred talents of silver would have been about
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Speaker 2: six one thousand, six hundred pounds of silver. But Amazia
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Speaker 2: never should have hired the Israelites because Israel at this
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Speaker 2: point in time was becoming a very weak nation. But
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Speaker 2: also the Israelites were not in line with God. There's
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Speaker 2: a lot of problems happening in Israel at this point,
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Speaker 2: and God kept telling the kings stop trying to make
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Speaker 2: treaties with Israel. I am not on Israel's side. Stop
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Speaker 2: doing it. And Amazia did not learn from his forefathers
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Speaker 2: and went ahead and made this treaty with the Israelites
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Speaker 2: so that he could get one hundred thousand of them
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Speaker 2: to go to war with him against the Edomites. But
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Speaker 2: a man of God, it says in verse seven, came
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Speaker 2: to Amazia saying, O, king, don't let the army of
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Speaker 2: Israel go with you, for Yahweh is not with Israel
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Speaker 2: with all the children of Ephriem. But if you will
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Speaker 2: go take action and be strong for the battle, God
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Speaker 2: will overthrow you before the enemy. For God has power
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Speaker 2: to help and to overthrow. So essentially what that means
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Speaker 2: is that if Amasia takes the Israelites with him into battle.
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Speaker 2: God will not be with Amasia or with the Judaites,
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Speaker 2: and they will be defeated in this battle because God
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Speaker 2: is not with the Israelites, and he does not want
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Speaker 2: the people of Judah making treaties with them or counting
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Speaker 2: on them in any way at all. God is not
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Speaker 2: with the Israelites, is what he says. But if Amasia
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Speaker 2: goes out to battle without the Israelites in faith with
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Speaker 2: his meager amount of men of three hundred thousand, if
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Speaker 2: he does that, God has the power to help, is
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Speaker 2: what this nameless prophet says. He says, God has the
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Speaker 2: power to help or to overthrow. So essentially, Amazia, you
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Speaker 2: get your choice. Are you gonna let God help you
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Speaker 2: or are you gonna let God overthrow you?
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Speaker 1: You have that choice.
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Speaker 2: So Mazia says to the man of God, but what
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Speaker 2: shall I do for the hundred talents which I which
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Speaker 2: I gave the army of is He's like, but I
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Speaker 2: already paid these guys. What am I gonna do now?
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Speaker 2: You know? Like, I can't get my money back. And
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Speaker 2: the Prophet's like, okay, God can give you a lot
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Speaker 2: more than one hundred talents. Just send the men home
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Speaker 2: with their one hundred talents. It's not gonna break you.
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Speaker 2: So Amazia listens. Actually he does, in fact listen to
19:18
Speaker 2: the man of God. And it says that Amasia separated
19:21
Speaker 2: them the army that had come to him out of
19:23
Speaker 2: Efriem to go home again. Therefore, their anger was greatly
19:28
Speaker 2: kindled against Judah, and they returned home in fierce anger.
19:31
Speaker 2: So whenever we see a verse in the Old Testament,
19:34
Speaker 2: repeat something twice, that is for emphasis. So two times
19:40
Speaker 2: in this verse it says that the Israelites who were
19:43
Speaker 2: dismissed were furious. It says that twice. And the reason
19:47
Speaker 2: they are probably angry was because they wanted to go
19:52
Speaker 2: out to war in order to get plunder for themselves.
19:56
Speaker 2: This was something exciting for them, and also they were
19:58
Speaker 2: just nasty people as well. Well. They might have enjoyed
20:01
Speaker 2: war like the thrill of killing, because they end up
20:05
Speaker 2: just killing people on their way back home, which we'll
20:07
Speaker 2: talk about in a second.
20:08
Speaker 1: But they're furious, most likely.
20:10
Speaker 2: Because they're not going to get the money they want,
20:12
Speaker 2: but also because they feel dissed, so they start returning
20:16
Speaker 2: home in fierce anger.
20:17
Speaker 1: Is what scripture says.
20:18
Speaker 2: So Amazia took courage and led his people and went
20:22
Speaker 2: out to the Valley of Salt and struck ten thousand
20:24
Speaker 2: to the children of Seer. So that would have been
20:26
Speaker 2: the Edomites. Now, the Edomites had rebelled against Judah many
20:30
Speaker 2: years prior to this, which that has talked about in
20:33
Speaker 2: tewod King's chapter eight, And I won't go into that
20:36
Speaker 2: right now, but just know that the Edomites had once
20:39
Speaker 2: been under the rule of Israel, and now they were not.
20:42
Speaker 2: And the Edomites often caused a lot of problems for
20:44
Speaker 2: the Israelites in general, both Judah and Israel. The Edomites
20:48
Speaker 2: absolutely despised and hated the Israelites from the very beginning. Actually,
20:53
Speaker 2: when they were in the wilderness, they refuse to give
20:55
Speaker 2: them any help whatsoever, which is interesting because they were
20:58
Speaker 2: very closely related. Abraham was one of their fathers, and
21:01
Speaker 2: so was Isaac. Where it broke off was Isaac's two children,
21:06
Speaker 2: Jacob and Esau. Jacob ended up being renamed to Israel
21:10
Speaker 2: and starting the Twelve Tribes of Israel, whereas Esau went
21:14
Speaker 2: off and created the Edomites, which Edam and Esau mean
21:17
Speaker 2: the same thing, which is the color red. Interestingly enough,
21:21
Speaker 2: so that is how closely related the Edomites were to
21:24
Speaker 2: the Israelites, and yet the Edomites despised the Israelites in
21:29
Speaker 2: every possible way. I'm sure the Israelites also despised the
21:31
Speaker 2: Edomites as well. So now Maazia goes to war against them,
21:36
Speaker 2: and they were super successful and talks about this really
21:39
Speaker 2: violent story of how they brought ten thousand men up
21:45
Speaker 2: to the top of a rock and the Judites threw
21:48
Speaker 2: them down from the top of the rock so that
21:50
Speaker 2: they were broken in pieces. That's a really nasty way
21:53
Speaker 2: to die. I have the biggest fear of heights. You
21:56
Speaker 2: guys might not know this. I am horrified of heights.
22:00
Speaker 2: My husband and I went to the Hoover Dam back
22:03
Speaker 2: in December as part of our ten year anniversary trip,
22:07
Speaker 2: and I was sick for the rest of the day,
22:10
Speaker 2: just like looking down from that high of a height.
22:13
Speaker 2: I had never been up that high in my entire life,
22:16
Speaker 2: and looking down was dizzying for me. I got so
22:21
Speaker 2: dizzy and so sick that I had to take like
22:24
Speaker 2: dramamine when I got back to the hotel and just
22:26
Speaker 2: like lie down and the entire room was spinning. That
22:29
Speaker 2: is how terrified I am of heights. So when I
22:31
Speaker 2: think about these men getting brought up to the top
22:34
Speaker 2: of this rock and getting thrown down, oh man, horrifying
22:39
Speaker 2: to me, Absolutely horrifying. But things were very violent back
22:42
Speaker 2: in these days. And just because scripture describes something does
22:45
Speaker 2: not mean it prescribes it. By the way, I think
22:48
Speaker 2: a lot of people misunderstand that that they think that, oh,
22:52
Speaker 2: because it's talked about in scripture, it's okay to do. No,
22:55
Speaker 2: it is not okay to do. It describes things that
22:58
Speaker 2: happened in history. That does not mean that you go
23:01
Speaker 2: out and do it, or that it's okay to do
23:03
Speaker 2: this to your enemies. This is history that we are
23:06
Speaker 2: reading right here. But the point is that Amasia was
23:09
Speaker 2: very successful in this battle. Now, Edom never came back
23:13
Speaker 2: under Judah, by the way, I don't believe so anyway.
23:16
Speaker 2: I think they always rebelled and maintained their sovereignty. But
23:21
Speaker 2: still Amasia was very successful during this time. However, while
23:25
Speaker 2: all this is going on, while Amazia is battling against
23:29
Speaker 2: these people of Edom, where God is on Amasia's side,
23:33
Speaker 2: it says that the Israelites that Amazia dismissed were just
23:37
Speaker 2: like destroying cities on their way back to Israel like
23:41
Speaker 2: cities in Judah because they were mad at the king
23:45
Speaker 2: and wanted plunder for themselves. It says that they fell
23:49
Speaker 2: on the cities of Judah from Samaria even to beth Horn,
23:52
Speaker 2: and struck of them three thousand men and took much plunder.
23:57
Speaker 2: I don't think Amazia does anything about this. Scripture that
24:01
Speaker 2: I know of, does not say anything about the repercussions
24:04
Speaker 2: for these men who killed innocent civilians just for a
24:09
Speaker 2: little bit of plunder because they were angry that they
24:11
Speaker 2: got dismissed and weren't able to go out to war.
24:14
Speaker 2: But of course, this isn't just history that we're reading.
24:16
Speaker 2: This is the Word of God, and every single Old
24:19
Speaker 2: Testament story can absolutely apply to our lives. I'm not
24:25
Speaker 2: one of those people that say, oh, you can't apply
24:28
Speaker 2: scripture to your life because you know it was only
24:31
Speaker 2: written for a certain person or a certain group. No,
24:33
Speaker 2: no scripture was written for them, but it's also for us.
24:36
Speaker 2: It was also written for us, So there is something
24:38
Speaker 2: that we can learn from every portion of scripture. In fact,
24:43
Speaker 2: we just read that verse recently on the New Testament
24:45
Speaker 2: side of stuff, that all scripture is God breathed and
24:49
Speaker 2: good for instruction. So what can we learn from Second
24:52
Speaker 2: Chronicles twenty five, this portion that we just read. We
24:57
Speaker 2: can learn that we have to follow God with a
25:01
Speaker 2: sincere heart, that's called a perfect heart. If we're going
25:05
Speaker 2: to be Yahweh followers, we should be Yahweh followers, not
25:09
Speaker 2: just in name only. And the second thing we can
25:12
Speaker 2: learn is that the people older than us do have
25:16
Speaker 2: a lot of wisdom. Amasia did not listen to the
25:20
Speaker 2: kings who came before him. He went out and did
25:23
Speaker 2: the exact same thing that his forefathers had done by
25:27
Speaker 2: hiring the Israelites and making a treaty with them, and
25:29
Speaker 2: it turned out to burn him really bad. And the
25:32
Speaker 2: third thing we can learn is that when we make mistakes,
25:35
Speaker 2: God forgives us, like he forgave Amasia and allowed Amasia
25:39
Speaker 2: to go out to war in spite of his treaty
25:42
Speaker 2: that he made with the Israelites. But consequences for our
25:45
Speaker 2: sins still happen. If Amasia had never hired those one
25:50
Speaker 2: hundred thousand men from Israel, they would never have gone
25:53
Speaker 2: into Judah in the first place, most likely, and wouldn't
25:56
Speaker 2: have gotten the chance to kill all these innocent sevine
26:00
Speaker 2: billions and is to destroy their homes and take everything
26:03
Speaker 2: that they have. So there's a lot of wisdom that
26:06
Speaker 2: we can gain from the scriptures, and there's also a
26:08
Speaker 2: lot of wisdom in the rest of this passage, which
26:09
Speaker 2: we will discuss on Wednesday, because we're going to go
26:12
Speaker 2: into the sin that Amasia commits right after he's very
26:17
Speaker 2: successful in this battle against the Edomites, So we will
26:21
Speaker 2: go into that on Wednesday. So, faithful listeners, thank you
26:24
Speaker 2: so much for listening this far into the episode. I
26:27
Speaker 2: will say goodbye right after this ad from a sponsor. So,
26:32
Speaker 2: as all of you faithful listeners know, we are in
26:34
Speaker 2: the Book of Titus over on the New Testament side
26:37
Speaker 2: of stuff. Tomorrow we'll be finishing up Titus chapter one
26:40
Speaker 2: and talking about rebuking the.
26:42
Speaker 1: People who fail to do good.
26:45
Speaker 2: So that's going to be a really good topic that
26:47
Speaker 2: I hope you guys tune in to the podcast for.
26:50
Speaker 2: So I will see all of you guys tomorrow morning,
26:52
Speaker 2: six am or whenever you choose to wake up and
26:55
Speaker 2: listen until tomorrow. Happy listening, and God bless. I just
27:05
Speaker 2: want to take a second to thank the team at
27:07
Speaker 2: Life Audio for their partnership with me on the Bible
27:09
Speaker 2: Explain podcast.
27:10
Speaker 1: In fact, if you go to lifeaudio dot com you.
27:12
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