II Kings 14, II Chronicles 25
From Amaziah, king of Judah's Scrolls
I loved my dad very much. There was a time when he followed the ways of God closely. He taught me his love for God despite the choices he made to follow Baal towards the end of his life.
His officers may have felt they were doing good, but I, in good conscience, could not allow them to go unpunished for killing the king, my beloved father.
For my first act of business as king, I ordered my guards to take those officers responsible for murdering my father and put them to death.
For my second act of business as king, and one who chose to follow the commands of the God of our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, I chose not to execute the officer's sons. For it is written in the Book of the Law of Moses: "Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their fathers. Each is to die for his own sins."
I will not worship Baal, and will seek to do what pleases God. Some things, like removing the high places where people offered sacrifices and burned incense were difficult to take away from the people. I didn't want to cause a riot. As the new king, I needed the support of the people.
A time of war was quickly on us. I called the people of Judah together and assigned them according to their families to commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds. Those twenty years old or more numbered three hundred thousand men ready for military service.
To be sure I had enough fighting soldiers, I also hired a hundred thousand fighting men from Israel and paid them in advance a hundred talents of silver.
A man of God came to the palace and requested to speak with me before we set out for war. I agreed to a meeting.
"O King," he said, "these troops from Israel must not march with you, for the Lord is not with Israel. Not with any of them. Even if you go and fight courageously in battle, God will overthrow you before the enemy. God has the power to help you or to overthrow you."
I couldn't help but think about all the money I had already paid to the Israelite soldiers. "But what about the money I paid the Israelite troops?"
The man of God said, "The Lord can give you much more than that."
I looked into his eyes and saw sincerity. With that, I dismissed the Israelite troops, sending them home. The men were really angry about not being able to fight. At least they went home with money in their pocket.
Now I am very excited to see how God plans to help us win this battle without the hundred thousand fighting soldiers from Israel.
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1. Who was Amaziah's father?
2. What job did Amaziah do first? Why?
3. What job did Amaziah do second? Why?
4. With war upon Judah, Amaziah hired soldiers from ___________ to help.
5. A man of God came to Amaziah and told him ___________?
6. What did Amaziah decide to do with the hired soldiers?
2 comments:
Stumbled upon your site doing some searches on the exodus story. I noticed in your "about" description that you misspelled "dwell" (you have "dewll"). I know that it's potentially rude to point something like that out on my first visit here, but figured you'd want to know :)
On the contrary my new friend, I am very grateful. Typos happen. I'll go so far as to say I catch many (wish I could say most). I type too fast, think too fast, and edit too fast. I'm also a morning person. Good grief.
Thank you for calling this error to my attention. Please feel free to comment/crit anything on my site. The purpose is to glorify God. If there are errors, then the attention is on me…not where it belongs.
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