Tilting at Windmills: November 2022

My intent is to finish this series out in the next two episodes- one involving what was left of good kings in Judah, one of the drizzling, moaning end of things. We'll see how the space runs, though. Today we start with a brief look at Amaziah, the son of Joash- that same Joash who sold the goods from the temple to Syria last week. Kings and Chronicles hit on two aspects that start to explain this most hard to explain of kings: he did what was 'right', but not with a loyal heart (2Chr 25:2), and he did what was right, but like his father Joash did, and not like his ancestor David (2 Kin 14:3). Basically, he copied his father, in going by the letter of the law and not the intent. As the story starts, you see hope for him; he intended to end the revolt in Edom, and was going to pay mercenaries from Israel to help him. A certain prophet, never named, told him to get rid of the mercenaries- as for the expense, "The Lord is able to give you much more than this" (2 Chr 25:9). But the problem was, he OBEYED... as a result, he routed Edom, which brought up 2 far greater problems.

The first is the perspective of men. Atheists love to denigrate God as "that big imaginary daddy in the sky"- they demand that "faith" be put in something you can touch. And when Amaziah got the loot of Edom, he got their idols, too- gods he could touch. So he turned to them, and the king who listened to the prophet once then turns this way:

2Ch 25:15 Therefore the LORD was angry with Amaziah and sent to him a prophet, who said to him, "Why have you sought the gods of a people who did not deliver their own people from your hand?"
2Ch 25:16 But as he was speaking, the king said to him, "Have we made you a royal counselor? Stop! Why should you 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."

At this point, Amaziah the foolish, who adopted gods of a people he had crushed in his stupidity, made the attack on Israel which began with Jehoash of Israels speech about the thistle we read last week. Israel routed his army, sacked Jerusalem, and left him so weakened he had to flee to Lachish to finish out his term- and there he was killed. That put his son Azariah/Uzziah on the throne, and Uzziah followed the Lord wholly- for the most part. Uzziah's devotion to God, his reconstruction of Temple worship, led God to give him victory in everything he did... but, there was a caveat:

2Ch 26:5 He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God, and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him prosper.

Who this prophet or priest named Zechariah was, we don't know; but the problem here, yet again, is being loyal WHILE a mentor is present. But we have to assume, this didn't last forever...

2Ch 26:16 But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the LORD his God and entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense.

This is same sin Korah committed against God and Moses and Aaron in the desert:

Num 16:3 They assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said to them, "You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?"

And, if you recall, God caused the earth to split open and swallow them alive. Just as Moses warned Korah:

Num 16:8 And Moses said to Korah, "Hear now, you sons of Levi:
Num 16:9 is it too small a thing for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to himself, to do service in the tabernacle of the LORD and to stand before the congregation to minister to them,
Num 16:10 and that he has brought you near him, and all your brothers the sons of Levi with you? And would you seek the priesthood also?

Just so, the priesthood warned Uzziah:

2Ch 26:17 But Azariah the priest went in after him, with eighty priests of the LORD who were men of valor,
2Ch 26:18 and they withstood King Uzziah and said to him, "It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the LORD, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have done wrong, and it will bring you no honor from the LORD God."

All this did was made Uzziah mad- the reaction too many times when a king was given a command from God. So he turned to defy them- and was struck with leprosy. He had to spend the rest of his life cut off from the people- almost as if the earth had swallowed him whole- and his son Jotham took over.

Jotham was the one king nothing was said personally bad about- he followed God just as Uzziah had before his fall. But the one thing he couldn't do is inspire his people:

2Ch 27:2 And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD according to all that his father Uzziah had done, except he did not enter the temple of the LORD. But the people still followed corrupt practices.

Or his son, it seems; he was followed by Ahaz, who modeled himself after the sinful kings of Israel. A contemporary of the later reign of Pekah in Israel, he is the one who received Isaiah's 65-year prophecy we talked about last time. Not that it made any difference to Ahaz; he became one of the most disgusting idolators in Judah's history, to the point that the Chronicler makes this telling off-hand comment:

2Ch 28:22 In the time of his distress he became yet more faithless to the LORD--this same King Ahaz.

Or as my paper Bible puts it- "This was THAT King Ahaz". So, unheeding of Isaiah, Ahaz went out to sustain the second disastrous defeat at the hands of Israel- this time, Pekah nearly jumped God's gun in depopulating Israel. But the prophet Obed stopped him:

2Ch 28:11 "... Now hear me, and send back the captives from your relatives whom you have taken, for the fierce wrath of the LORD is upon you."

Amazingly enough, Pekah listened, and his purported two hundred thousand captives were returned home. Ahaz's reaction? You read it above in 2 Chr 28:22. He closed and locked the doors to the Temple and allowed NO worship of God. He even went so far as to import the design of a pagan altar he saw in Damascus. Even more amazingly, he left an heir most unlike him- Hezekiah.

Hezekiah totally rededicated the Temple and rebuilt the worship of God. As I mentioned last week, he even invited Israel to the renewed worship- and got laughed at, for the most part. He was so dedicated to God that the prayers of himself and Isaiah availed on the Lord, and He destroyed an Assyrian army from Sennacherib in their sleep- a defeat so telling, Sennacherib would soon be assassinated by his sons.

But once again, something has to go wrong. The Chronicler makes it sound like the Assyrian disaster was the motivator, the writer of Kings leans toward the news of Hezekiah being miraculously healed on his deathbed; either way, ambassadors from the rebel king in Babylon, Merodech-Baladin, paid a visit to Hezekiah. In his pride, he gave up a little too much info:

2Ki 20:14 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, "What did these men say? And from where did they come to you?" And Hezekiah said, "They have come from a far country, from Babylon."
2Ki 20:15 He said, "What have they seen in your house?" And Hezekiah answered, "They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them."
2Ki 20:16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the LORD:
2Ki 20:17 Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the LORD.
2Ki 20:18 And some of your own sons, who shall be born to you, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon."

M-B would be re-conquered by Esarhaddon of Assyria, and the prophecy seemed very far off indeed- in fact, it was coming within a century. However, Hezekiah was happy it wouldn't come on HIS watch- an attitude I find a little concerning in a "good" king- And his son Manasseh took the throne.

Manasseh fancied himself the Monster of the Midway, and not only did he turn back his father's reforms, but...

2Ki 21:16 Moreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides the sin that he made Judah to sin so that they did what was evil in the sight of the LORD.

Legend says he had Isaiah sawed in two. But eventually, his evil caught up with him, and...

2Ch 33:11 Therefore the LORD brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon.

Just so you know, the word translated "hooks" literally means they hooked him THROUGH the nose. But a funny thing happened on the way to forgotten death:

2Ch 33:12 And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.
2Ch 33:13 He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.

So a semi-repentant Manasseh finished out his reign in conjunction with his son, Amon. Unfortunately for Amon, the example he learned from was "Evil Manasseh" and not "Repentant Amon"; and after 2 years of running things on his own, his own servants killed him.

So we'll stop here, but review what we learned:

One king wasn't whole heartedly with the Lord, but just enough for politics; his own actions named him a fool.

One king, without his mentor, let pride get the best of him.

One king was whole heartedly for the Lord, but failed in the discipline of discernment; trusting the wrong people would lead to disaster.

Our lesson: No matter how well we've run the race, letting up for a minute can destroy everything we've done.

But wait, one king more teaches us a more valuable lesson- it's NEVER too late to repent.