Half a heart. Image by Pezibear from Pixabay

The Bible makes many promises to anyone who trusts, serves, and loves God with a whole heart. None of these promises apply to anyone who trusts with only half a heart. Let’s consider the case of King Amaziah.

It’s too bad today’s Christians know so little of Old Testament history, because the stories there have as  much drama as anything on TV or in the movies. Plus, they illustrate basic spiritual principles. We know quite a bit about David, whom the Bible calls “a man after God’s own heart.”

In contrast, 2 Kings 14 and 2 Chronicles 25 tell how Amaziah “did what was right in the sight of the Lord, but not wholeheartedly” (2 Chronicles 25:2). He “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but not as his father David had done. In everything he followed the example of his father Joash” (2 Kings 14:3).

Joash’s grandmother, the ungodly queen Athaliah, tried to murder all of David’s living descendants, but someone carried baby Joash to the temple. The high priest Jehoiada raised him for seven years, then installed him as king. As long as Jehoiada lived, Joash reigned as a godly king.

As soon as Jehoiada died, counselors who cared nothing about serving God caught his ear. Prophets scolded him for listening to them, including Jehoiada’s son. Joash ordered him stoned to death. Immediately, he began to suffer political, diplomatic, and military losses. Eventually two of his officials assassinated him.

Amaziah’s reign

Public domain from Wikimedia Commons

Amaziah became king and executed his father’s murderers. Following the law to the letter, he did not execute their children.

Half-hearted obedience, however, can easily lead to resentment. Did he hate the officials who murdered his father? If so, he might have been reminded of them every time he saw the children and wished he could have had more complete revenge.

Failure to deal with one moral issue opens the door for more.

Amaziah chose to go to war with the neighboring kingdom of Edom. According to 2 Chronicles 25:5-6, he had 300,000 men ready for military service. In 2 Chronicles 26:13, his godlier son Uzziah considered his 307,500 troops a powerful army. But acting in fear instead of faith, Amaziah decided to hire 100,000 mercenary troops from Israel, the northern kingdom.

At that time, confusingly, the king of Israel was named Joash. When this Joash had become king, he inherited a weak kingdom from his father, with only 10,000 foot soldiers and fewer than a dozen  more with horses and chariots (2 Kings 13:7). He was only marginally more powerful.

Amaziah rebels against God

Amaziah fled to Lachish, 2 Chron. Xxv 27 / The art of the Bible, comprising the old and new testaments: with numerous illustrations (London: G. Newnes, 1896)

A prophet warned Amaziah that he would win the battle by himself, but not if the troops from Israel  joined him. He protested that he had already paid them, but finally agreed to dismiss them.

The behavior of these mercenaries shows them as a type of Satan:

• They came eagerly when called.
• They left unwillingly when dismissed.
• Although they had been paid in full, they sought revenge even though Amaziah had done them no wrong.
• Instead of switching sides and fighting for Edom, they chose to pick on defenseless civilians, like cowards.

Exodus 30:12-16 specifies the right way to count the people. Each man counted was supposed to pay a nominal ransom for himself, otherwise, a plague would come on the land. Following God only half-heartedly, Amaziah must have neglected to collect the ransom. He reaped the plague in the form of raids on his villages.

A godly man would have heeded the prophets’ words and repented. Amaziah got angry with God. The loss of the money he paid the Israelites and their subsequent behavior counted for more in his eyes than his victory over Edom. To get back at God, he brought the idols of Edom—the enemy he had defeated––to Jerusalem and set them up in the temple.

The lesson for modern Christians

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What does this have to do with us?

• Half-hearted obedience to God can lead only to repentance or full-scale rebellion.
• When people reject the living God, they have nowhere else to turn except to defeated and discredited idols. For us, Jesus defeated all false gods on the cross. Too many still worship them.
• Idols appeal to the flesh and don’t make any demands that simple rituals can’t fulfill. Well, some of them demand the sacrifice of children, but even that can feel easier and more comfortable than giving up sin and drawing near to God.

Amaziah issued a challenge to Joash, ending an alliance that had lasted five generations. He was militarily stronger. He had a just grievance. In the natural, he should have won. But he was still in a state of unrepentant sin and rebellion against God. He suffered not only defeat, but thorough humiliation. And it still never occurred to him to repent and get right with God.

He spent the rest of his life running from rivals who apparently couldn’t stand being ruled by such a  loser. Eventually they tracked him down and killed him. Up to the end, he must have served God half-heartedly if at all, and wondered why God never helped him.

He could have followed the example of David. Instead he followed the example of his father Joash.

Christians have the privilege of following the example of Jesus. Are you following Jesus? Or Amaziah?