Welcome back to today's episode of the Bible Journey Daily Podcast. It is wonderful to be here again today. It's the beginning of autumn here in the UK, and the weather has already turned. But I hope it's a great day wherever you are. Welcome again as we continue our steady study and walk through the Book of Two Chronicles, an Old Testament book that still today exposes the spiritual realities that can shape the rise and fall of God's people and God's individual lives. But before we begin, I just want to say thank you to those of you out there who support this ministry and my situation through prayer. Truly, without your wonderful prayerful support, I don't even believe that this would be even happening. You are part of the reason that this podcast reaches, you are part of the reason that I'm still able to keep going, and I'm deeply grateful for each and every one of you. Anyway, today's episode is titled The Reality of Idolatry. You know, idolatry is not only sinful, but I believe the Bible very candidly says it's also stupid. When you hear the word idolatry in this day and age, we tend to picture a sort of uncivilized person bowing down before some carved image, and yes, of course, that is one form of idolatry, but it is definitely not the only form. According to the New Testament, believers, Christian believers, can be guilty of idolatry. Paul says in Colossians chapter 3, verse 5 that greed is a form of idolatry. John warns in his first letter in chapter 5.21. He asks the dear children that he's writing to, as he calls them, to keep themselves from idols. And Paul, in his warning to the Corinthian church, tells them to flee from idolatry. And remember, he's not writing to unbelievers or pagans, but he's writing to a Christian church. So he obviously believed that Christians are always at risk of falling into idolatry. So idolatry is clearly not something that just happens in primitive cultures, it's something that happens in the human heart. And when believers fall into idolatry, it's not only sinful, but it's stupid. The message that idolatry is a foolish thing, irrational, and destructive things comes even from the Lord Himself. And God Himself delivered that message many times, and one of the earliest here is found in a King of Ancient Judah. The story that is recorded for us in today's chapter 25 of what we call the second book of Chronicles. So let's settle together and let's explore the reality of idolatry and let's see what this ancient king can teach us about the danger of having what I'm calling missed placed devotion, because that is actually what idolatry really is. So welcome to today's episode of the Bible Journey Daily Podcast. So you may want to turn with me and follow along, and if that's the case, it's 2 Chronicles chapter 25. So let's see what the Lord has to say to us today. Verse 1. So Amaziah is the son of Joash, the king we studied in our previous chapter yesterday, and he ascends to the throne at 25. And it tells us he reigns for nearly 30 years over the southern kingdom of Judah. Verse 2 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but not wholeheartedly. So this in a way, this one little verse is a is the chronicler, the writer's summary of Meazi's entire life. He did what was right, yeah, but not wholeheartedly. So what does that actually mean? Well, it means he obeyed, but selectively. He followed, but partially, and he served, but sometimes he did it with reservations. It continues. So one of Ameazi's first official acts was to avenge his father's assassination that we saw at the end of yesterday's chapter. But notice his restraint. He did not put the children of these people to death, and in that way he acted in accordance with what is written in the law in the book of Moses, which the Lord commanded, saying, Parents shall not be put to death for their children, nor children be put to death for their parents. Each will die for their own sin. So Amease obeys the law of Moses, as laid out in Deuteronomy 24, 16. He punishes the guilty, but he refuses to punish the innocent. He spares the children of these, well, effectively, assassins of his dad. And this is a good beginning, isn't it? It shows a heart that is inclined to respect God's word, even if it's not fully devoted. He then builds his army, verses five and six. He called the people of Judah together and assigned them according to their families to commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds for all Judah and Benjamin. He then mustered those twenty years old or more, and found that there were three hundred thousand men fit for military service, able to handle the spear and the shield, and he also hired a hundred thousand fighting men from Israel for a hundred talents of silver. So he organizes Judah's military force. He assembles an army, three hundred thousand trained soldiers. These are men capable and trained to a great physically capable and trained to a degree where it says they can handle a spear and sh and shield. But Amesia wants more than this, so he hires another hundred thousand mercenaries from the northern kingdom of Israel, and he pays one hundred talents of silver for them. Now a talent we know today weighs roughly 35 kilos, 75 pounds in weight. So a hundred talents, that's about three and three quarter tons of silver. This is a massive amount, a massive investment. Amazier is obviously preparing for war and he wants to have overwhelming strength. But then in the next verses he receives a warning. It says, But a man of God came to him and said, Your Majesty, these troops from Israel must not march with you, for the Lord is not with Israel, not with any of the people of Ephraim. Even if you go and fight courageously in battle, God will overthrow you before the enemy, for God has the power to help or to overthrow. So this prophet confronts him and he warns him plainly not to take Israel's mercenaries with them, because God is not with Israel at this time. If you rely on them, he says, you will lose. And you will lose God's help in the battle. And even if you and your human human strength fight courageously, God will allow the enemy to win. And this is one of the key spiritual truths of this chapter, being that victory does not come ultimately from numbers, it comes from God. Amezii could be strong in battle, but if he disobeys God, he will in fact fail. Ameziah then asked the man of God, but what about the hundred talents I paid for these Israelite troops? The man of God replied, The Lord can give you much more than that. So Amaziah's concern here is not really spiritual, is it? It's financial. He's worried about all this money he's spent, the investment he's made in building up his military. He's worried about the silver that he's paid out, but the prophet effectively responds and says, The Lord can give you more than that. In other words, this is telling us that obedience is never actually going to be a financial loss, although it may appear that way in the shortcome. God can repay you when you surrender in obedience to him, and he can pay you far more just besides if it's in his will. So he sends the mercenaries home. Verse 10. So Amaziah dismissed the troops who had come to him from Ephraim. They were furious with Judah, and they left for home in a rage. So it tells us he disobeys the prophet and he dismisses the mercenaries, but they're furious. They feel cheated. You see, they probably expected plunder as well as this payment, and they expected to be part of this victory, and now they just return home frustrated, and that sense of frustration and anger will soon erupt. Next first, Amazai strengthened himself and led his army to the valley of Salt, where he killed ten thousand men of Seir. Now this valley of Salt mentioned here lies at the southern end of the Dead Sea, which is in the border region with Edom. So Amezi effectively attacks Edom, and it says he wins decisively. Then, verse 12, the army of Judah also captured ten thousand men alive, and they took them to the top of a cliff and threw them down so that they were all dashed to pieces. Wow, this is really brutal, isn't it? Now it may be a fact that it's wanting to reflect back Edom's previous cruelty, or it may just be this was the normal wartime practice of the era. But it is certainly illustrating Amazia's desire to make a decisive statement. Now it's clear he recorded as a part of the historical reality of ancient warfare and what's going on here, but remember Amazai is a king who is not always listening to God when he makes these decisions. So it doesn't absolutely apply that God approved of this action, it just records it. But then something else happens. These rejected mercenaries from Israel we've heard about, they decide to take this opportunity while he's fighting battles to make their revenge. It says in verse 13 meanwhile, the troops that Amaziah had dismissed, they raided towns belonging to Judah, and they killed 3,000 people and carried off great quantities of plunder. So they got that plunder they wanted, didn't they? The mercenaries take their revenge and they raid Judah's towns and they kill thousands of people and they steal the stuff that they have. So though Amazes half-hearted to obedience, in some way was right, the mixed priorities of his actions still come with consequences. And this is another important lesson. Obedience may cost you something financially, but disobedience can cost you much something much more important than a financial loss. In fact, it can cost you everything. So in summary, these mercenaries that Amazai dismisses, furious at their loss, at the plunder that they expected to earn, instead they raid into the towns of Judah, killing thousands and carrying off great quantities of possessions. Their revenge is brutal, and Judah suffers because of Amazai's earlier wrong decision. So so far we've seen Amazai's rise to power and his military victory over Edom, but also the consequences of his misplaced devotion coming home to roost. But now the story takes an even darker turn. The next section reveals Amazai's turn to idolatry, because he chooses to bring some of those idols back with him to his home. Verse 14. When Amazai returned from slaughtering the Edomites, he brought back the gods of the people of Seir, and he set them up as his own gods, and bowed down to them and burned sacrifices to them. Now this is astonishing. It was common in the ancient Near East for victorious armies to carry off idols of conquered nations as trophies. But Amazia does more than collect trophies, it actually says, did you notice he worships them? He bows down before these gods of Edom and he burns incense to them. He treats them now as if they are part of his own planoply of gods. And this is the part that is not only sinful, it is also stupid. It's not even logical, because the gods he's now worshipping are the gods of a nation he's just defeated. He's bowing down to gods that could not save their own people, and he's honoring idols that proved powerless in the battle that he's just won. That's why idolatry is also stupid. But then in verse 15, we it tells us the anger of the Lord burned against him, and he sent a prophet to say, Why do you consult this people's gods, the gods which could not save their own people from your hand? And that's the central message of the chapter. God asked Amaziah a question that is dripping with sort of, how shall I describe it, divine sarcasm? Why worship gods that couldn't even rescue the people that have just helped you defeat? So idolatry here has been positioned as not only rebellion, not only irrational, but a foolish, illogical, stupid thing. It is the essence of spiritual stupidity. Amaziah is bowing down to gods that have already proven themselves to be useless. So how does Amaziah react to this news? So while the man of God was still speaking, the king said to him, Have we appointed you as a royal commander? Stop, else you be struck down. So he effectively steps in and interrupts the trop the prophet and he threatens him. He essentially says, Who made you my advisor? Shut up, stop talking, or I'll kill you. Now this may indeed be a veiled reference to Zachariah, the prophet murdered by Amaziah's own father Joash. So he's obviously here repeating the sins of the previous generation. And the prophet responds to this by saying, I know that God has determined to destroy you because you have done this and have not listened to my counsel. But Amaziah refuses to listen, he rejects God's warning, and he has silenced God's messenger, and now judgment is certain. Verse 17. After Amazai consulted his advisers, he sent a challenge to Joash, Jehoash, King of Israel, come let us face each other in battle, he said. So he's refused to listen to God's prophet, but he eagerly listens to his own advisors, and he decides he's going to challenge the king of Israel to a battle. This is foolish pride, a pride-driven decision. And Jehoash, the king of Israel, interestingly, responds with a parable. He says, 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 a thistle. Now the meaning is clear. Ameazah is the thistle. He's small, fragile, and insignificant in Jehorash's eyes. And Jehorash is that cedar, the strong, established, mighty tree, and the wild beast represents the army that will crush Ameazah of Judah. And Johas explains the parable plainly in the following verse. You say to yourself, he says that you defeated Edom, and now you are arrogant. But stay at home. Why ask for trouble and cause your own downfall and that of Judah too? So Jehoash here, he warns Amezah, says you're proud, you're boasting, and you're picking a fight that you cannot win. Just stay home, or we will destroy both you and your nation. But of course, he refuses to listen. It says, Amaziah would not listen, for God determined to hand them over to Jehoash because they sought the gods of Edom. So Amazal here to listen is actually been seen as part of God's judgment, God hardening his heart. He has rejected God's prophet, hasn't he? He embraced those Moabite idols, and he followed his pride, and he listened to those foolish advisers, and now God effectively hands him over to his own defeat. Verse 21. So Jehoash, King of Israel, went up, and he and Amazet and Amaziah, King of Judah, faced each other in battle. And then it says, Judah was routed in Israel, and every man fled to his home. So the southern kingdom Judah is defeated by the northern kingdom of Israel. Amaziah's pride leads to a national humiliation, and his idolatry leads to military disaster. It is his stubbornness that has led to national collapse. And every man flees to his home is just a biblical way of saying that the army is completely routed and disintegrates. So Amaziah's own life is unraveling, but the root cause of it, remember, is that step into idolatry. The defeat is then underlined in verse 23. Jehoash, king of Israel, captured Amaziah, king of Judah, and he broke down the wall of Jerusalem from Ephraim Gate to the corner gate, a section about four hundred cubits long. So Jehoash, king of the Northern Kingdom, defeats our king Amaziah, the king of the previously more inclined towards God, Judah. And he marches to Jerusalem and he tears down a massive section of the city wall. This represents about two hundred meters in total. This is humiliation on a national scale. Then verse 24, he took all the gold and silver and all the articles found in the temple of God that have been given into the care of Obed Edium, together with the palace treasures and hostages, and returned to Samaria. So Jehoash plunders all the stuff from the temple, including those sacred articles. Those things that remember were previously placed under the care of Obed Edom's family while the palace was being built, but then eventually placed into the palace treasury. He takes all of that and he even takes hostages as well. Now this is the only place in the Bible where hostage taking is explicitly mentioned among Israel or Judah anyway. But one commentator summarizes everything that we've seen here, the tragedy of it all in this way. It said, Instead of building up Jerusalem, its walls are destroyed. Instead of gaining wealth, Judah is plundered. Instead of enjoying a large family and a growing nation, hostages are taken, and instead of peace there is war. Instead of victory there is defeat, and instead of loyalty from the people, there is conspiracy and death again. Amaziah's life is unraveling and it all traces back to his half-hearted devotion when he decided to turn his attention and his devotion to other things. But Amaziah lives for fifteen more years. It says, Then the son of Joash, Amazai, King of Judah, lived for fifteen years after the death of Jehoash, son of Jehoraz, king of Israel. As for the other events of Amazai's reign from the beginning to the end, are they not written in the book of Judah and Israel? In the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. So he outlives Jehoash by fifteen years, but these years are marked by steady decline, instability in the land, and a growing resentment towards him among his own people. And the chronicler, the writer here, points us also to the official royal records, that of course these events are recorded in the book of the Kings, but he's also hinting at something deeper going on here. The fact that the first part of Amazai's reigns was overall marked by obedience, but the latter part which led to these catastrophic consequences was marked by his departure from the Lord. And then finally, in the closing verse, we hear he is assassinated. From the time that Amazai 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, and he was brought back by horse and buried with his ancestors in the city of Judah. So once this guy had turned from the Lord, the Lord effectively turned against him, even using his own people as instruments. Of judgment. Amazias flees to this place called Lake. Now that's about twenty-five miles southwest of Jerusalem. But he cannot outrun the consequences of his choices. He's effectively hunted down, is killed, and then brought back and buried in Jerusalem, but without any real pageantry, pomp, or honor. His reign ends in disgrace, defeat, and death. So Amazai's story is tragic, yes, but it is also meant to be deeply instructive to both who the chronicler is writing to, and indeed to anybody reading this today. And the writer selects three key events, I think, to teach us three important spiritual truths. The first being that Amazai obeyed the Mosaic Law well at the beginning of his reign, anyway. He dealt with his father's assassins according to the law of Scripture. And he spared he spared the innocent, and it is said that he did that because at that point he honored God's word. And then the second lesson is that he obeyed God, but he obeyed God partially in his war with Edom. He hired mercenaries instead of seeking the Lord first. He listened at that point to the prophet that God sent, and he dismissed them at great financial loss. But his partial obedience in making that wrong misstep still brought the consequences of it. He lost the money he paid, and he lost the lives of some of his people, and then later he did that terrible thing of importing and bringing back home the gods of Edom. So the third big lesson is here, Amesiah disobeyed God by turning to the idolatry of Edom and by attacking Israel late in his reign. This all flows from divine judgment, ultimately arising out of his idolatry and his human pride that he felt because of his recent victory over Edom. And the consequences of his idolatry and his pride are devastating. Judah's enemies in the northern kingdom effectively turn and destroy part of Jerusalem. The wall itself, the temple is plundered, and Amaziah is humiliated, and he will eventually, as we see, as we saw, he was assassinated. Harable of the arrogant thistle we see is meant to echo and really place all of this as a result of his foolish pride. The same pride seen in Judges chapter 9, a reminder that pride always precedes destruction, that famous saying, pride comes before a fall. So what is the takeaway from this passage? Well, for that we simply have to go back to the very beginning and one of our opening verses, verse 2, which positioned this whole chapter by saying, This guy did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but not wholeheartedly. Amazia's problem was not that he never obeyed, it was that he never obeyed fully. He was half-hearted, he was divided in his loyalties, he was inconsistent, and he was spiritually unstable because of that, and the fact that half-hearted devotion always will lead to spiritual disaster. So the bottom line of this passage of today's chapter is to tell us don't be half-hearted in your relationship with the Lord. Be whole-hearted. Jesus himself said, No one can serve two masters. And James wrote in the first chapter of his letter, a double-minded man is unstable in all he does. And Paul urged the Ephesian church to serve the Lord with all of their hearts. So Amazai stands here as this Old Testament warning to every believer, even today, that partial obedience is still disobedience, and that half-hearted devotion is always a dangerous thing, and that idolatry is not only sinful, it is also stupid. It is illogical, it is stupid, and pride will always lead to a fall. So there's a lot to learn there, and I hope we do learn from it and can apply it in our lives today. Thanks for being with me today. Thank you for joining me for this episode of the Bible Journey Daily Podcast. This story really is a reminder that idolatry is not only sinful, hopefully we know that, but that it is irrational, it is foolish, it is this destructive thing, but it always begins with having divided loyalties, a divided heart. Now, in our next episode, we'll move into 2 Chronicles chapter 26, where we'll meet another king, Uzziah, a man who also begins well, prospers greatly, and then falls through pride. This again is a powerful chapter that can help us understand how to guard our hearts from pride and to stay humble and to walk in the strength that God provides and not our own. So, once again, a heartfelt thank you for those who support this ministry through Patreon. Your generosity is the thing that makes this aspect of my life possible, and I am as ever deeply grateful. But until tomorrow, may the Lord keep you wholeheartedly, may you gain the insights from what we've looked at today, and may that enable you to stay wholehearted, your worship remain pure, and your devotion remain undivided with loyalties to other things of this world. Thanks for being with me today. Bye-bye for now.