THE PENALTY FOR ARROGANT DISOBEDIENCE

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In Christ, Mark

** Writer’s Note: Today I am heading overseas for a few weeks. I will try to post as well as I can but there may be a break in The Christian Walk if I end up without Internet access. If that happens, I will resume upon my return in early August.

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Amaziah then marshaled his strength and led his army to the Valley of Salt, where he killed ten thousand men of Seir. The army of Judah also captured ten thousand men alive, took them to the top of a cliff and threw them down so that all were dashed to pieces.

Meanwhile the troops that Amaziah had sent back and had not allowed to take part in the war raided towns belonging to Judah from Samaria to Beth Horon. They killed three thousand people and carried off great quantities of plunder.

When Amaziah returned from slaughtering the Edomites, he brought back the gods of the people of Seir. He set them up as his own gods, bowed down to them and burned sacrifices to them. The anger of the Lord burned against Amaziah, and he sent a prophet to him, who said, “Why do you consult this people’s gods, which could not save their own people from your hand?”

While he was still speaking, the king said to him, “Have we appointed you an adviser to the king? Stop! Why be struck down?”

So the prophet stopped but said, “I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this and have not listened to my counsel.”

After Amaziah king of Judah consulted his advisers, he sent this challenge to Jehoash son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, king of Israel: “Come, let us face each other in battle.”

But Jehoash king of Israel replied to Amaziah king of Judah: “A thistle in Lebanon sent a message to a cedar in Lebanon, ‘Give your daughter to my son in marriage.’ Then a wild beast in Lebanon came along and trampled the thistle underfoot. You say to yourself that you have defeated Edom, and now you are arrogant and proud. But stay at home! Why ask for trouble and cause your own downfall and that of Judah also?”

Amaziah, however, would not listen, for God so worked that He might deliver them into the hands of Jehoash, because they sought the gods of Edom. So Jehoash king of Israel attacked. He and Amaziah king of Judah faced each other at Beth Shemesh in Judah. Judah was routed by Israel, and every man fled to his home. Jehoash king of Israel captured Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Joash, the son of Ahaziah, at Beth Shemesh. Then Jehoash brought him to Jerusalem and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate—a section about four hundred cubits long. He took all the gold and silver and all the articles found in the temple of God that had been in the care of Obed-Edom, together with the palace treasures and the hostages, and returned to Samaria.

Amaziah son of Joash king of Judah lived for fifteen years after the death of Jehoash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel. As for the other events of Amaziah’s reign, from beginning to end, are they not written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel? From the time that Amaziah turned away from following the Lord, they conspired against him in Jerusalem and he fled to Lachish, but they sent men after him to Lachish and killed him there. He was brought back by horse and was buried with his ancestors in the City of Judah.

2 Chronicles 25:11-28

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As I look at society today, it saddens me that more and more people are embracing the ways of the world while abandoning and ignoring the One who brought them into it. Presented with a buffet table of temptations and trappings, we don’t hesitate to jump right in and spend a lot of time trying as many offerings as we can in life. Standards and values have given way to a laissez-faire, anything-goes liberalism and it is flaunted as the norm and not the exception these days. Sinfulness trumps righteousness regularly. We are a nation of people proud and arrogant in their immorality. In fact, anyone who dares espouse conservative principles and criticize immorality these days are vilified by a liberal majority that includes our media. We’re in a place where what was once wrong is now very right and what was very right is now wrong.

It’s in the midst of this current situation that this word of God speaks loudly and we had best pay attention:

Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:18

If this scripture was raised up as a warning today in our current cultural climate, I guarantee you it would be ignored and even scoffed at. People think our nation is invincible, bullet-proof. Certainly the mighty United States of America could never be destroyed or fall at the hands of any other power. We’re too mighty and powerful for that to happen.

To this attitude, I would offer up plenty of examples of other mighty empires who carried themselves the same way. None of them lived to tell about it. Go back and look at the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks and Romans. All rose to power and all fell.

Indeed, God’s word has proven true time and time again. And it will continue to do so against any nation or empire that chooses to oppose the Lord God Almighty.

We see another point-in-case in today’s scripture as we look at the end of the reign of Judah’s King Amaziah. As we were introduced to him, things seemed fine. Scripture told us that Amaziah had done what was right in God’s sight although not wholeheartedly. Perhaps this explains why he was so easily entrapped by his successes, so much so that he chose to worship other gods and then arrogantly reject the Lord’s questioning of such worship. As we will see, Amaziah’s pride would become Judah’s – and his own – destruction.

God’s word tells us that after he followed guidance from of a man of God and sent away a hundred thousand troops he had purchased from Israel, Amaziah led Judah to victory over the Edomites of Seir. God had delivered the Edomites into Amaziah’s hand but instead of worshiping Him and giving him the glory. We read where Judah’s king brought back the gods of the people of Seir, setting them up as his own gods, bowing down to them, and burning sacrifices to them. This obviously did not set well with God whose anger burned against Amaziah.

Now at this point, God could have passed judgment on Amaziah for his actions but we know that God is a God of grace and mercy. And so He gave Amaziah a chance to right his wrongs, sending a prophet to perhaps reason with Judah’s king. The prophet’s question from God was simple:

“Why do you consult this people’s gods, which could not save their own people from your hand?”

Perhaps the same question could be posed to people equally straying from God today:

“Why do you worship the world when the world cannot save you?”

In the instance of Amaziah, we will see where his arrogance and pride overshadowed sensibility and I’m afraid today we would find the same attitude prevailing if people were questioned.

How did Amaziah answer the prophet’s question? Look at his words of sarcasm:

“Have we appointed you an adviser to the king? Stop! Why be struck down?”

In other words, the king didn’t want to hear what the prophet had to say and if the prophet wanted to say more, he would speak his last words.

The prophet did stop but not with leaving Amaziah with God’s verdict and it was no surprise that it would be destruction. Truly, pride and a haughty spirit did precede it.

Amaziah was numb to these words and simply went about his own business. He was on his own program, operating separate from God as he consulted his advisers and decided to challenge Jehoash the king of Israel to battle. Jehoash tried to convince Amaziah that this was a fight he should not entertain but Amaziah’s pride and arrogance once again got the best of him. He simply would not listen and so scripture tells us that God worked matters so that Amaziah and Judah would be delivered into the hands of Jehoash. Such was the penalty for shunning God for the false gods of Edom.

And so it was. Jehoash and the Israelites faced off against Amaziah and his Judean forces at Beth Shemesh and at the battle’s end, Judah was routed by Israel. Jehoash captured Amaziah and brought him to Jerusalem, breaking down the wall from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate—a section about four hundred cubits long. Jehoash then took all the gold and silver and all the articles found in the temple of God that had been in the care of Obed-Edom, together with the palace treasures and the hostages, and returned to Samaria.

Judah had been destroyed and it was their leader’s arrogant disobedience that caused it.

Friends, we had best pay close attention to this word from God today. God is not just going to stand by idle while His people continuously display an arrogant disobedience and disrespect for Him. We need to remember that there is going to come a day when the heavens and the earth will be no more. God will send His Son Jesus back as the King of all kings and Lord of all lords. Every knee will bow before Him and judgment will happen.

The arrogant and disobedient, those who chose the world over salvation through Jesus Christ, will be destroyed on that day. Their pride will be their downfall and it will be their worst day ever.

Those who humbled themselves, rejecting the world’s ways for the ways of the Lord, those who chose to live in accordance with the One, Jesus Christ, who said He was THE way and THE truth and THE life (John 14:6), those people will join Jesus in the air and be taken to the new Jerusalem where life will last forever, free from the sinfulness that afflicts us today.

God gives us free will to choose to live as we want to. No one is coerced or forced to follow Him, His word, or His way. We do need to understand though that there are negative consequences for our negative decisions. If we choose sin over righteousness, we can expect to pay the penalty for our arrogant disobedience. And there isn’t anyone who won’t fail and fall into destruction from sin if they walk that path.

Only a proud and arrogant person would feel otherwise.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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