Amaziah - Employer of the Year

So actually the vast majority of this lesson was spent in a little summary of the last term for our benefit and our new member's... (welcome to the world of blogs Paul...)

Theeen after that we got to Amaziah. I'm gonna be honest and say that after reading 2 Kings 14 my memory still hasn't been jogged, soooo from reading 2 Kings 14 then.

So Amaziah was a king of Judah, the son of Joash. His contemporary in Israel was Jehoash, son of Jehoahaz. They didn't like each other much, and decided to battle at Beth Shemesh (even though Jehoahaz originally didn't really want to do it - "The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, 'Give your daughter to my son as wife'; and a wild beast that was in Lebanon passed by and trampled the thistle. You have indeed defeated Edom, and your heart has lifted you up. Glory in that, and stay at home; for why should you meddle with trouble so that you fall-you and Judah with you?" [2 Kings 14:9+10]. - basically Jehoash is saying that he could easily beat Amaziah, so what's the point?! Which I suppose is one way to make someone angry enough to fight you...). And yeah, Israel did win, just like Jehoahaz had said... he took all the gold and silver from the house of the LORD and the king's house, broke down a lot of the wall of Jerusalem. But he didn't kill Amaziah, actually Jehoash died before Amaziah. He just ruined Judah.

I'd forgotten to say that before this battle, Amaziah had taken revenge on the people who killed his father (but not their children, like it says in the Law: "Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their fathers; but a person shall be put to death for his own sin."). God describes him as doing the right thing in the sight of the LORD, but not like David did, just like his father did...there were still high places, and the people were still bad. And he killed lots of Edomites- which is why Jehoash includes that in his taunt.

Amaziah is assassinated by people in Jerusalem.

So I'm gonna read Chronicles now, and see what that says.

Chronicles says he did what was right, 'but not with a loyal heart' - so his heart wasn't REALLY in what he believed and did. He numbered the people... and then decided to hire 100,000 mighty men from Israel. We said that meant he didn't trust God to help him the battle. A man of God actually comes and tellls him not to do it because God isn't with the Israelites...and so Amaziah dismisses the Israelite troops, and then goes on to kill all of those Edomites. The dismissed troops are angry and raided Judah's cities and killed lots of people.

And Amaziah brought back gods from Seir and bowed down to them... and a prophet comes to tell him that God's angry. But Amaziah doesn't really seem to listen... and goes to war with Israel.

And that's it =)