Then Amaziah sent messengers to Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, Come, let us look one another in the face.
Amaziah has just crushed Edom, and his next move is not worship but a summons to Jehoash — also called Joash — king of Israel. The words sound like an invitation to meet, but they are a challenge to battle: why does a king who had done right in God's eyes pick a fight with his own people?
Commentators trace the challenge back to the win over Edom. They also note who was really to blame for the quarrel with Israel.
But success with Amaziah (as with most of us) puffs him up. Filled with pride at his conquest of the Edomites, he shamelessly challenged the king of Israel to meet him in combat, saying, "Come, let us look one another in the face." The offended Ephraimites had indeed harmed some of his subjects without cause. Yet for this the king of Israel was less responsible than Amaziah himself, who had hired them to join his army.
The danger is not unique to Amaziah.
There are secrets of defeat as there are secrets of victory, and the believer's chief danger lies in victory. The soul gains that victory in real dependence upon God. Then, if it dwells on the results, it willingly gives itself some of the credit — and the next defeat dates from that moment.
Edom was an outside enemy. Israel was family — the ten tribes split from Judah generations earlier.
Amaziah's success against the enemies of the Lord seems to have awakened his pride — the pride of thinking he could subdue the ten tribes of Israel too. When Rehoboam gathered a great army with the same aim, God sent word to him, "You shall not go up or fight against your relatives the people of Israel" (1 Kings 12:24). Divisions between brothers are not going to be healed this way. If Israel had attacked, the case would be very different. But Amaziah should have known better than to start a conflict with his brothers the people of Israel.
Something worse lies behind the boast. Amaziah had brought Edom's gods home with him, and he would not hear the prophet who came to him.
"You have done this" means his seeking after the gods of Edom, and afterwards not listening to the prophet's counsel… To sin is to deserve condemnation. But to refuse mercy and reproof brings out God's determination to destroy (Prov. 1:24-31). His own pride and folly become the immediate cause of his ruin. His victory over Edom lifted him up, and he challenges the king of Israel… Yet for this act of foolish pride he took advice — whose advice? Like Rehoboam he sought the mind of flatterers.
The victory itself became the trap.
Even his victory becomes an occasion of stumbling for him. He brings the gods of the Edomites to Judah and bows down before them. He does not listen to the protests of a new prophet.
Joash sent back an answer Amaziah had not reckoned with. Who delivers a rebuke is part of the point here.
Amaziah foolishly decided to attack his brothers, the ten tribes of Israel. Joash sent him a crushing reply. He used a parable that belittled Amaziah by calling him a "thistle" challenging a cedar tree, and a wild beast trampled the thistle (v. 9). So the unbeliever reproved the believer. Joash saw that Amaziah's defeat of Edom had filled him with the pride that thought he could defeat Israel too. He advised Amaziah to stay at home, for in meddling with trouble he would fall, and Judah with him (v. 10).
Amaziah had misjudged the man he challenged.
He collides with a pride even greater than his own.
Amaziah was not the last king of Judah to ignore this warning. A descendant of his fell the same way.
Josiah, like his ancestor Amaziah in 2 Kings 14:8-14, meddled with strife that he should have stayed away from. It brought about his death… The Lord has surely given it as a warning to His people: do not meddle with strife to which He has not called them.
One figure in Scripture stands in complete contrast to Amaziah.
Pride still goes before a fall, and a haughty spirit before destruction. God's Word gives us many examples of this. All of them stand in clear contrast to that One who humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross.
- Victory. Edom fell to Amaziah — and the win, not a loss, is what exposed him. The believer's greatest danger comes right after success.
- Idolatry. He brought Edom's gods home and silenced the prophet who confronted him. Refusing reproof is what turned sin into settled judgment.
- Challenge. His summons to Israel was pride looking for a stage. It aimed at his own brothers — never the way division gets healed.
- Warning. The rebuke came through an unbeliever: a thistle picking a fight with a cedar. Stay home; why meddle to your own hurt?
- Fall. He would not hear, and Judah fell with him. The opposite path is the One who humbled Himself to the death of the cross.
And Jehoash king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, The thorn-bush that is in Lebanon sent to the cedar that is in Lebanon, saying, Give thy daughter to my son as wife; and there passed by the wild beast that is in Lebanon, and trode down the thorn-bush.
Fresh from crushing Edom, Amaziah of Judah challenged Joash of Israel to fight. Joash answered with a mocking story about a thistle and a cedar — so who do the plants stand for, and why did Amaziah want a second war?
One writer reads the parable as a portrait of the two kings and the army about to march:
A thistle on Lebanon (Amaziah) sent to a cedar on Lebanon (himself, Joash), saying, "Give your daughter to my son for a wife." Then a wild beast of Lebanon (Joash's army) passed by and trampled down the thistle. And Joash adds, "Stay now at home; why should you meddle to your hurt, so that you fall, you and Judah with you?" Good, sound advice, this.
Commentators differ here. Another writer reads the parable as family history, and sees pride on both sides:
Amaziah collides with a pride even greater than his own. Joash answers him with a very transparent parable. Jehoram of Judah was the thorn-bush of Lebanon, and the husband of Athaliah the daughter of Ahab. He had sent to Jehoram of Israel, the cedar of Lebanon, asking for a wife from the house of Ahab for his son Ahaziah. Jehu, the wild beast in Lebanon, had trampled down Ahaziah, the king of Judah. And now his successor, instead of humbling himself, was glorying in his victory over Edom! Here Joash's irritation breaks out: his own soldiers had been treated as worthless, since Judah alone had been enough to conquer Edom.
On either reading the sting is the same. Judah had once come begging to Israel's royal house, and the outcome was ruin.
The two plants are not chosen at random. The cedar of Lebanon carries a settled meaning through Scripture:
In Scripture the cedar always stands for power or exaltation, if not pride. When the king of Israel wanted to pour contempt on the king of Judah, he compared himself to a cedar and Judah's king to a thistle (2 Kings 14:9). … When judgment comes on the great of the earth, the prophet Isaiah says it is the day of the LORD on the cedars of Lebanon (2:13). These mark the cedar as the symbol of dignity and power.
The thistle sits at the other end of the scale. It belongs to a family of words in Scripture for what the ground grows under the curse:
The thistle signifies a worthless person in the parable of Jehoash, king of Israel. 2 Kings 14:9.
One victory had gone to Amaziah's head. Another writer traces the chain from success to swagger to collapse:
His own pride and folly become the direct cause of his ruin. His victory over Edom lifted him up, and he challenges the king of Israel. See the scorn Joash pours on him! Amaziah, driven by his own vanity, would not hear. That was the first step on the path to his downfall. His defeat was the first public stroke of God's judgment, which was now certain, for this came of God (2 Chron. 25:20). Man's pride and folly, when persisted in, become the forerunner of God's judgment.
There is an irony here that is easy to miss. The scornful king of Israel gives the wiser advice, and the believing king will not take it:
Joash sent him a crushing reply. He used a parable that belittled Amaziah by calling him a "thistle" challenging a cedar tree, and a wild beast trampled the thistle (v. 9). So the unbeliever reproved the believer. Joash saw that beating Edom had filled Amaziah with the pride that thought he could beat Israel too.
Joash's closing question — why meddle and bring harm on yourself? — outlived the quarrel. Generations later another king of Judah made the same mistake:
"Why should you meddle to your hurt, so that you fall?" said the king of Israel to Amaziah, Josiah's ancestor, years before (2 Kings 14:10). Josiah should also have known the proverb: "Whoever meddles in a quarrel not his own is like one who takes a passing dog by the ears" (Prov. 26:17). And another: "It is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife, but every fool will be quarreling" (Prov. 20:3).
- Victory. Amaziah's win over Edom was real, but it fed a pride that made him think he could take on Israel too.
- Insult. Joash answers with a parable. A worthless thistle asks a cedar, the symbol of power and dignity, for a royal marriage.
- Trampling. The wild beast that flattens the thistle carries the warning: this quarrel ends with Judah crushed.
- Counsel. The sound advice comes from the unbeliever, and the believer refuses it. Good counsel is not measured by the mouth it comes from.
- Ruin. Pride that will not let go opens the door to judgment. Amaziah fell, and Judah fell with him.
Thou hast indeed smitten Edom, and thy heart has lifted thee up boast thyself, and abide at home; for why shouldest thou contend with misfortune, that thou shouldest fall, thou, and Judah with thee?
Amaziah of Judah had just beaten Edom, and the win went to his head. He challenged Jehoash of Israel to war, and Jehoash answered with a warning: what does a win do to the heart, and who pays when the winner overreaches?
Amaziah's victory over Edom was real, and that is what made it dangerous. One writer sees the same pattern in most people, not just kings:
But success with Amaziah (as with most of us) puffs him up. Full of himself after conquering the Edomites, he rudely challenged the king of Israel to meet him in battle, saying, "Come, let us look one another in the face."
Another writer notes where the rebuke came from:
So the unbeliever corrected the believer. Joash saw that Amaziah's win over Edom had filled him with pride, and that pride thought he could defeat Israel too.
Jehoash's advice comes attached to the story of the thistle and the cedar in the previous verse. Commentators read that picture in two ways. The common reading treats it as a straight put-down of the man in front of him:
"The thistle that was in Lebanon (Amaziah) sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon (himself, Joash), saying, Give your daughter to my son as a wife: and there passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon (Joash's army), and trampled down the thistle." … Good, sound advice, this.
Another writer hears in it a piece of family history the two kings both knew, and finds a second pride hidden in the man giving the advice:
He runs into a pride even greater than his own. Joash answers him with a parable that is easy to see through. Jehoram of Judah was the thorn-bush of Lebanon, the husband of Athaliah the daughter of Ahab. He had sent to Jehoram of Israel, the cedar of Lebanon, asking for a wife from the house of Ahab for his son Ahaziah. Jehu, the wild beast in Lebanon, had trampled Ahaziah the king of Judah underfoot … And now his successor, instead of humbling himself, was glorying in his victory over Edom!
"Why should you provoke trouble" is the heart of the counsel. Later Scripture treats this as a settled principle, and one of Amaziah's own descendants ignored it and died for it:
"Why should you meddle to your hurt, that you should fall?" said the king of Israel to Amaziah, Josiah's ancestor, years before (2 Kings 14:10). Josiah should also have been familiar with the proverb, "copied by the men of Hezekiah," "He who passes by, and meddles with strife belonging not to him, is like one who takes a dog by the ears" (Prov. 26:17). And another: "It is an honour for a man to cease from strife: but every fool will be meddling" (Prov. 20:3).
Amaziah also picked his fight with his own relatives. God had already ruled on such a war:
When Rehoboam gathered a great army with the same object in view, God sent word to him, "You shall not go up or fight against your relatives the people of Israel" (1 Kings 12:24). Separations between relatives are not going to be healed in this way. … If Israel had attacked, the case would be very different. But Amaziah should have known better than to start a fight with his relatives, the people of Israel.
Amaziah refused the warning. One writer weighs what refusing correction costs a man:
To sin is to deserve condemnation, but to refuse mercy and correction brings out God's determination to destroy (Prov. 1:24-31). His own pride and folly become the immediate cause of his ruin. His victory over Edom lifted him up, and he challenges the king of Israel. … it was the first step on the path that led to his downfall, and his defeat was the first public stroke of God's judgment.
The closing words warn that Judah falls with its king. Amaziah's own name pointed away from the self-confidence he acted on:
His name means "strength of Jah"; but we read, "he strengthened himself" (2 Chron. 25:11); his self-sufficient character contradicted his name — something still common today.
- Victory — the win over Edom was real. The danger came next, and it came from inside: success puffs up most of us the same way.
- Warning — the rebuke came from an unbelieving king. God can send truth through a mouth you would rather not hear.
- Meddling — Proverbs calls it folly to jump into a quarrel that is not yours. Amaziah's descendant Josiah forgot that too.
- Refusal — sin deserves condemnation, but refusing mercy and correction is what brings out God's determination to destroy.
- Fall — "you and Judah with you": a leader's pride is never private. The man named "strength of Jah" fell because he strengthened himself.
But Amaziah would not hear. And Jehoash king of Israel went up; and they looked one another in the face, he and Amaziah king of Judah, at Beth-shemesh, which is in Judah.
Amaziah had just crushed Edom, challenged Jehoash of Israel, and got a stinging refusal. This verse is the hinge: he stops listening, and the two armies meet on Judah's own soil.
One writer traces the whole collapse back to what filled Amaziah after Edom fell.
He was lifted up by the victory he had won over Edom. So he takes the gods of Seir, which could not save their own people, and bows down before them. He then turns a deaf ear to the prophet who rebukes him. But pride comes before ruin, and a proud spirit before a fall. Amaziah makes war against Israel, suffers a shameful defeat, and is taken prisoner. Jerusalem itself is laid waste.
One writer hears an old habit in the way Amaziah brushed the prophet off, and draws a line between sinning and refusing correction.
The stern, impatient word "Stop!" seems to imply that this was not the first time the prophet had reproved the king. To sin is to be worthy of condemnation, but to refuse mercy and reproof brings out God's determination to destroy. His own pride and folly become the immediate cause of his ruin. His victory over Edom lifted him up, and he challenges the king of Israel. Joash treats him with contempt! Amaziah, driven by his own vanity, would not hear. That was the first step on the path that led to his downfall, and his defeat was the first public stroke of God's judgment, which was now certain.
A man who shuts one voice out does not go on in silence. He finds another.
Puffed up by his conquest of the Edomites, he shamelessly challenged the king of Israel to meet him in battle, saying, "Come, let us look one another in the face." … He "took advice," we read, in doing this. Like his father Joash, "the counsel of the ungodly" led him into disaster. … So God let him take other counsel, since he refused His own, and that led to his ruin.
The warning Amaziah brushed aside did not come from a prophet. It came from the king he had challenged.
When Amaziah foolishly decided to attack his relatives, the ten tribes of Israel, Joash sent him a crushing reply. He used a parable that belittled Amaziah by calling him a "thistle" challenging a cedar tree, with the result that a wild beast trampled the thistle. So the unbeliever reproved the believer: Joash saw that Amaziah's victory over Edom had filled him with the pride that thought he could defeat Israel too. He advised Amaziah to stay at home, for in meddling with trouble he would fall, and Judah with him.
The march to Beth-shemesh looks like one proud man's miscalculation. The parallel account in Chronicles gives a deeper reason.
Amaziah does not listen to this warning. Chronicles tells us that "it was of God, that He might deliver them into the enemy's hand, because they had sought after the gods of Edom." Judah is beaten, Amaziah taken prisoner, Jerusalem broken down. All the treasures of the king and of the temple are carried off as spoil, along with hostages. Amaziah had claimed to serve and honour his God. From the moment he leaves Him to serve other gods, he meets Him as a consuming fire.
The meeting place carries its own weight. Amaziah lost on his own ground.
A town on the north border of Judah, set apart for the Levites. … Here Jehoash king of Israel defeated Amaziah king of Judah.
A later king of Judah, Josiah, repeated the mistake.
Josiah, like his forefather Amaziah in 2 Kings 14:8-14, meddled with strife that he should have kept away from. It brought about his death. … Surely the Lord has given it as a warning to His people not to meddle with strife to which He has not called them.
- Victory. Edom fell to Amaziah, and the success puffed him up. The victory he could not handle set up his fall.
- Deafness. Pride's first act is to stop the ears. Amaziah waved off the prophet, then waved off Jehoash. Refusing reproof is what brings out God's determination to destroy.
- Substitute counsel. No one goes on without advice. Having refused God's, he took the counsel of the ungodly, and God let him have it.
- Collision. The thistle met the cedar at Beth-shemesh, on Judah's own ground. Jehoash beat Judah, took Amaziah prisoner, broke down Jerusalem, and carried off the treasures of the king and the temple.
- Warning. The defeat was of God, because Judah had turned to the gods of Edom. The story stands as a warning to God's people: do not meddle in strife He has not called you into.
And Judah was routed before Israel; and they fled every man to his tent.
Amaziah of Judah had beaten Edom. He then dared the king of Israel to meet him in battle. This verse records the answer: his army broke and ran. Commentators ask what turned one victory into this collapse.
One writer traces the rout back to Amaziah's own heart:
But Amaziah stubbornly refused to listen, and took his army to fight Israel. Amaziah's pride at the time was such that he felt no need of consulting the Lord. Can we wonder that the Lord then let Israel defeat Judah badly, so that they fled for their lives?
Another writer finds the same pattern all through Scripture, and one great contrast to it:
It is true that Amaziah, proud after defeating Edom, had challenged Joash to battle. Joash had replied, warning Amaziah where his reckless challenge would lead, but Amaziah would not listen. God then let Israel rout him. Pride still goes before a fall, and a proud spirit before destruction. God's Word gives us many examples of this. All of them stand in clear contrast to the One who humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross.
The defeat was not unannounced. One writer notes who gave the warning, and who ignored it:
When Amaziah foolishly decided to attack his own countrymen, the ten tribes of Israel, Joash sent him a crushing reply. He used a parable that belittled Amaziah, calling him a thistle challenging a cedar tree, with the result that a wild animal trampled the thistle (v.9). So the unbeliever corrected the believer, for Joash saw that beating Edom had filled Amaziah with the pride that thought he could beat Israel too. He advised Amaziah to stay at home, because if he meddled with trouble he would fall, and Judah with him (v.10).
The parallel account in Chronicles gives the reason behind the rout. It reaches back further than the challenge:
Amaziah does not listen to this warning. Chronicles tells us it was of God, "in order that he might give them into the hand of their enemies, because they had sought the gods of Edom" (2 Chr. 25:20). Judah is beaten and Amaziah taken prisoner. Jerusalem is broken down. All the treasures of the king and of the temple are carried off as plunder, along with hostages (vv. 12-14). Amaziah had claimed to serve and honour his God. From the moment he leaves Him to serve other gods, he meets Him as a consuming fire.
There is an irony in the way the verse names the two sides. Amaziah had earlier hired soldiers from Israel, and now Israel routs him:
2 Chronicles 25 shows us how Amaziah ended after his ungodly alliance with Israel. They were hired to their own shame, but to the greater shame of the man who could hire them. The end of it is fighting between the two who should never have joined. And further, Judah should have been the more faithful side, since they had the truth in a way Israel did not — yet the men of Israel put them to flight.
The flight opened the road to Jerusalem, its wall, and the treasures of God's house. One writer turns that loss into a warning:
What a lesson is this for us! If we meddle where we have no right, we will find the wall that separates us from the world broken down. Worse still, the precious things that belong to the Lord, which we hold in trust, will be stolen from us! Let us pay close attention to the words Paul wrote to Timothy, "O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you" (1 Tim. 6:20).
Amaziah picked a quarrel God had not given him, and a later king of Judah repeated the mistake:
Like his forefather Amaziah in 2 Kings 14:8-14, Josiah meddled in a fight he should have kept out of. It cost him his life. He should not have meddled with the wars of the king of Egypt. The king of Egypt had even warned him to stop opposing God, "lest He destroy you" (2 Chr. 35:21). This was the one dark blot on the bright history of good king Josiah. The Lord has surely given it as a warning to His people: do not meddle in strife He has not called them to.
- Cause. Amaziah's pride after beating Edom led him to pick a fight, and he did not consult the Lord before going.
- Warning. An unbeliever warned him, in a parable about a thistle and a cedar, and he would not listen.
- Verdict. The rout was of God — judgment for seeking the gods of Edom, not an accident of war.
- Irony. Judah held the truth in a way Israel did not — and Judah was the side that ran.
- Cost. A fight God never gave him left Jerusalem's wall broken and the treasures of God's house carried off.
And Jehoash king of Israel took Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Jehoash son of Ahaziah, at Beth-shemesh, and came to Jerusalem, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim to the corner-gate, four hundred cubits.
Amaziah of Judah beat Edom, and the win went to his head. He challenged Jehoash of Israel, lost at Beth-shemesh, and then watched the victor tear open six hundred feet of Jerusalem's wall — so how did a king who started well end here?
One writer notes where the attackers struck, and how they got inside:
This is the first time the walls of Jerusalem had ever been injured. It was on the north — the only side from which the city is easily accessible. Josephus states that Joash gained entrance into the city by threatening to kill their captive king if the people refused to open the gates.
Amaziah's ruin started before the battle did:
His own pride and folly become the immediate occasion of his ruin. He was lifted up because of his victory over Edom and challenges the king of Israel. Joash treats him with contempt! Amaziah, driven by his own vanity, would not hear. That was the first step on the path that led to his downfall. His defeat was the first public stroke of God's judgment, which was now certain, for this came of God (2 Chron. 25:20). Man's pride and folly, when persisted in, become the forerunner of God's judgment.
The defeat had a cause, and it was not military:
Amaziah and all Judah were humiliated before the idol-worshipping Israelites, though Amaziah's life was spared. But 2 Chronicles 25:14 shows us why God allowed this shameful defeat of Amaziah by Israel. When Amaziah had defeated the Edomites, he brought Edom's idols back to his own house and bowed down to them and offered incense to them. God sent a prophet to reprove him for this, but Amaziah refused his message with contempt. So Amaziah had slipped far from his first actions of obedience to the Lord.
What does a man meet when he leaves the God he claimed to serve?
Amaziah does not listen to this warning. "It was of God," Chronicles tells us (2 Chron. 25:20), "in order that he might give them into the hand of their enemies, because they had sought the gods of Edom." Amaziah meets his God, whom he had professed to serve and honour, as a consuming fire from the moment he forsakes Him to serve other gods.
The order of events carries a warning: first the wall goes, then what it guarded:
The king of Israel captured Amaziah himself. He came to Jerusalem and broke down the wall from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate, a length of 400 cubits (about 600 feet). He took all the articles of gold and silver that were in the house of the Lord. What a lesson this is for us! By meddling where we have no right, we shall find the wall of our separation from the world broken down. Worse still, the precious things belonging to the Lord which we hold in trust will be stolen from us!
One part of God's people wrecked the capital of the other, and the same thing still happens:
There is nothing new under the sun. Today, sad to say, believers also challenge one another to combat. They forget that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against mighty satanic hosts of spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places. Instead of praying for the peace of Jerusalem, they break down its walls. That makes it hard to keep godly separation and protection from evil. The precious vessels of God's house are taken, just as was later done by Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king. And hostages — we try to force our brothers' good behaviour through such pressure! What a loss for God when we believers treat one another like this!
- Cause — pride. A win over Edom lifted Amaziah's heart. Pride held on to runs ahead of God's judgment.
- Root — idolatry. He brought Edom's gods home and bowed to them. He refused the prophet sent to reprove him. The defeat was God's answer.
- Breach — the wall. Four hundred cubits fell on the north side. It was the first damage Jerusalem's walls had ever taken, and a hostage king bought the enemy his way in.
- Loss — the treasure. Once the wall goes, the gold and the vessels of the house of the Lord go too. Meddling where we have no right costs us what we hold in trust.
- Warning — each other. One part of God's people did this to the other. The same spirit still breaks down walls meant to keep evil out.
And he took all the gold and the silver, and all the vessels that were found in the house of Jehovah, and in the treasures of the king's house, and hostages, and returned to Samaria.
Jerusalem's wall lay open, and now the temple itself is stripped. An idol-worshipping king carries off the gold, the silver, the vessels of God's house, the palace treasure and human hostages, all the way north to Samaria. The question is not how Israel won. It is why God let the treasures of His own house go to the wrong side.
Amaziah had just crushed Edom, and the win went to his head. One writer traces the fall step by step:
Amaziah, up to a certain point, walks with God, but in weakness and with an unsteady step. He leans on human strength, but he listens to the prophet, and this keeps him from defeat... His victory over Edom lifts him up. He takes the gods of Seir, gods that could not save their own people, and bows down before them. He then turns a deaf ear to the prophet who rebukes him. But pride goes before confusion, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Amaziah makes war against Israel. He is defeated in disgrace, taken prisoner, and Jerusalem itself is laid waste.
The stripping of the temple was not a military accident. Chronicles gives the reason behind the defeat:
Amaziah does not listen to this warning. Chronicles tells us "it was of God" (2 Chr. 25:20), "that He might deliver them into the enemy's hand, because they had sought after the gods of Edom." Judah is beaten and Amaziah is taken prisoner. Jerusalem is broken down. The enemy carries off all the treasures of the king and of the temple as spoil, along with hostages (vv. 12-14). Amaziah meets his God, whom he had claimed to serve and honour, as a consuming fire from the moment he forsakes Him to serve other gods.
Idolatry, once tolerated, leaves a man open to every other bad influence:
Amaziah's foolish stubbornness refused to consider such a serious warning. He did not realize that God was moving him in this bad direction, because he had adopted the idols of Edom (v. 20). When someone gives himself up to idolatry, he can expect to give in to any evil influence. He has chosen folly instead of wisdom.
Joash was the worse man of the two, yet God gave him the victory. One writer explains why:
So Amaziah shows a measure of righteousness. But in the end his heart is lifted up, and he challenges the king of Israel. One solemn fact stands out. God will never approve the arrogance of a righteous man. He will sooner take the side of the bad man who is challenged than the side of the righteous man who arrogantly challenges him... God will always be where righteousness is. And wherever righteousness fails, even in God's own people, God sets His face against it.
The gold and silver were not Amaziah's private wealth. They belonged to God's house, and losing them is the sharp end of the lesson:
Amaziah himself was captured. The king of Israel came to Jerusalem and broke down the wall from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate, a length of 400 cubits (about 600 feet). He took all the articles of gold and silver that were in the house of the Lord (vv. 13-14). What a lesson this is for us! If we meddle where we have no right, we shall find the wall of our separation from the world broken down. Worse still, the precious things that belong to the Lord, which we hold in trust, will be stolen from us! Let us pay close attention to the words Paul wrote to Timothy, "O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust" (1 Tim. 6:20).
The verse ends with hostages. One writer sees the same thing when believers turn on each other:
There is nothing new under the sun. Today, sad to say, believers also challenge one another to fight. They forget that our struggle is not against flesh and blood. It is against mighty satanic armies of spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places. Instead of praying for the peace of Jerusalem, they break down its walls. That makes it hard to keep up godly separation and protection from evil. The precious vessels of God's house are taken, just as was later done by Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king. And hostages — we try to force our brothers' and sisters' good behaviour through such pressure! What a loss for God when we believers treat one another like this!
- Pride — Victory over Edom lifted Amaziah's heart, and a haughty spirit went before the fall.
- Provocation — He picked a fight God never called him to, and Judah was beaten with him.
- Permission — The defeat was of God, because Judah had sought the gods of Edom. The God Amaziah claimed to serve met him as a consuming fire.
- Plunder — Judah held the temple treasures in trust; they never owned them. Meddling still costs us our wall of separation and the precious things left in our care.
- Principle — God stands with righteousness itself, not with reputations. He sets His face against every failure, even in His own people.