[0:00] If you have your Bibles, I'd like to ask you to turn with me to 2 Kings chapter 14. And I guess you guys didn't find it as funny as I did, but I thought it was kind of funny. You guys can laugh, you know, it's church. We have a good time. Tonight we're going to talk about the overconfident king, Amaziah.
[0:13] I hate these names. Amaziah, I think that's what his name is, A-M-A-Z-I-A-H. I should get points for being able to spell it, but pronouncing is another thing, okay? So just bear with me as I try to talk about King Amaziah, okay?
[0:25] The overconfident king. Before we do that, I want to tell you a story. We had a guy by the name of Ed Dunlop. He was a child evangelist fellowship evangelist. I think I said evangelist twice in that one. But he came to Vision Baptist Church, and while he was here, this guy was, I think he's known all the way.
[0:40] I mean, I think a lot of people know about Ed Dunlop, at least in the southeast. I mean, he's like a kid's guru. He's excellent with stuff, and he's written books, and he's been a part of a staff on a huge church out in Chattanooga.
[0:51] I mean, he's just, I mean, he's booked, he was booked for like two years straight. And, I mean, he was just, he's just a well-known, well-to-do evangelist. And he came in there, and here I was, just a stupid little student, and he said a verse.
[1:01] He scored a verse, and I was like, ah, Romans chapter 8. And he's like, no, I think that's Romans 7. And I was like, no, you must be wrong. And I was like very confident in that fact. And all of a sudden, I looked to the right of me, and I see Kristen Pearson.
[1:14] She's like, what are you doing? She's like, I guess it was Kristen Mize now, but Kristen Pearson at the time, she's like, what are you doing? And I'm arguing with this evangelist on what verse he was meaning to say. I was really confident, and then I went back and I read the verse.
[1:24] I'm like, you're an idiot. You know what I mean? And so I look like a fool in front of him and everyone else, but that's just who I am. You know what I mean? I have this act of being overconfident, even when I shouldn't be. But we're going to learn about a king today that's very overconfident.
[1:37] I mean, he actually has this big, huge battle. He has this battle, and he wins, and he has this victory. But after this victory, I mean, everything just goes downhill from there. And as you go through this story in 2 Kings 14, you see this presumptuous king, this guy that just is overconfident, arrogant, but he starts off really good.
[1:57] And I think in our lives, we can get overconfident. I think we can get way overconfident. Actually, if you put your finger there in 1 Kings 14, and jump over with me, if you would, to 1 Corinthians 10, verses 12.
[2:09] And this is what the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 10, verses 12. He says, Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed, lest he fall. Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed, lest he fall.
[2:22] The truth in that verse is this. If you think that you're standing, if you think that you're doing right, take heed, because you're probably going to fall. And sometimes in our Christian lives, we have this ability, this act, like myself, especially me, this is definitely a story that I needed.
[2:36] We have this act of being overconfident, right? We have an overconfidence in ourselves. Not maybe so much in God, but in ourselves. And when that happens, there's usually bad things that follow that. And that's what we're going to see in 1 Kings 14, or 2 Kings 14.
[2:50] Now, the Bible has stories throughout all the Old Testament, right? And some of the New Testament. Now, 2 Kings, there's another story that goes along with it, parallel with it, in 2 Chronicles 25.
[3:00] So we're going to be flipping back from 2 Kings 14 to 2 Chronicles 25, just so you know where I'm going, okay? So 2 Kings 14 and then 2 Chronicles 25. Say it with me, 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles.
[3:11] Okay, you guys are following with me. Okay, awesome. So, this is how the story goes. Remember this. This is the main point. This is the main point. Don't be overconfident, okay? You walk out of here, just remember this one point. Don't be overconfident.
[3:22] Don't be overconfident. You that think you stand, take heed, lest you fall. This is how the story goes, okay? Amaziah was born into royalty. He was the great to the seventh power grandson of Solomon.
[3:36] Okay, I don't know how you do that, but it's like great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandson to Solomon. He is the ninth king of Judah. Get this. He was the ninth king of Judah, depending on who you count as the king of Judah.
[3:47] The nation of Israel was now split into two parts, okay? You had Israel on the north part and Judah on the south part, okay? And King Amaziah was the king on the southern part, okay? He's the south side.
[3:58] Israel's north side, okay? So we get that, okay? And they actually, the children of Israel, Israel as a whole, they can't cohabitate. These people were wicked, wicked people. They can't get along.
[4:09] They were very, very wicked. They were worshiping false gods. That's pretty surprising back in the day, especially when you think about a people that God miraculously brought up out of Egypt, opened waters.
[4:19] He miraculously gave them land. Now these people are worshiping false gods. These people are leading people away from God and His commandment. It was a dark time. Get this. It was a dark time in Israel's history.
[4:31] So during this time, Amaziah actually gets appointed to his kingship. Get this. After his father was assassinated. He gets his kingship. He gets appointed. He gets, I don't say they're ordained, but what do they do for kings?
[4:45] I forget. But anyways, we'll go back to that one. Anyways, he gets it because his dad was assassinated by his own servants. In 2 Chronicles, if you've got your Bible, turn with me. 2 Chronicles chapter 24 and verse 24 through 25.
[4:57] This is what the Bible says. And the army of the Syrians came with a small company of men. And the Lord delivered the great host into their hands. Because Amaziah's dad, Joash, was a wicked guy, God gave Judah into the hands of the Syrians.
[5:11] And because they had forsaken the Lord God their fathers. Because he just says it right there. So they executed judgment against Joash. Verse 25. And when they were departed from him, for he left him in a great diseases.
[5:23] He was sick now. His own servants conspired. Get this. Amaziah's dad's own servants conspired against him for the blood of the sons of Jehoiada, the priest.
[5:35] And they slew him on his bed. And he died. And they buried him. That's awful nice. You know, they kill him and then they bury him in the city of David. But they buried him in the sepulchers of the king. So here is Joash, Amaziah's dad.
[5:46] And he is assassinated in his bed by the hands of his servants. So in a timeline, if we're going to go through this with Israel, now we are now at the king, King Amaziah. And he comes up on our radar.
[5:58] Now Amaziah gets his kingship because his dad was assassinated. We already went over this in his bed. And he begins to reign, get this, when he is 25 years old. Just a young guy. I mean, we're just talking about an old guy. This is a relatively young guy.
[6:09] He becomes a ruler over the nation at 25 years old. You realize we have laws set up that the president can't be younger than 35, right? 35 or 32. Was it 35? I think it's 35.
[6:19] For my civics class, it does me well. That was so long ago. But we have laws set up that we can't have young people rule this nation. And Amaziah, at 25 years old, he begins to rule the nation of Israel.
[6:30] Look in 2 Kings 14, verses 1. In the second year of Joash, son of Jehoaziah, I told you this, all these names, get me mixed up, king of Israel, reigned Amaziah, the son of Joash, the king of Judah.
[6:41] He was 25 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 20 and 9 years in Jerusalem. Amaziah is now the king. Amaziah, like most people, he has a pretty good start. And that's what the scripture is going to tell us in 2 Kings 14.
[6:53] He has a pretty good start. He's definitely not like the other kings of Israel. He's not like Ahab, that wicked king Ahab. He's actually one of the good guys this time. He's one of the good guys. The Bible actually speaks highly of them in 2 Chronicles 25.
[7:05] Those stories, like I said, they go parallel. But in verse number 2, the Bible says, 2 Chronicles 25, it says that Amaziah did what was right in the sight of the Lord. 2 Chronicles 25, verse 2, it says, And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but with not a perfect heart.
[7:23] Yes! We finally got a good one, right? He did what was right. 2 Kings 14, verses 3 says, And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord. It looks like we got ourselves a winner.
[7:34] It looks like we have a guy that's going to start doing right. I don't know who this guy is, per se, but it really seems like he has a good one. He wasn't as perfect as David, but who was as perfect as David, right?
[7:44] David was a great king. Who's going to be like David? He had a perfect heart towards the Lord, right? Nobody can bat a thousand. But Amaziah, as he starts out, it looks like he's doing right. Now, I just want to say something.
[7:55] When we say a perfect heart towards the Lord, you know what that means? I know Brother Gardner's taught on that a couple of times. But when we hear the word a perfect heart towards the Lord, it means that they're not worshiping other gods.
[8:06] Okay? So when they say Amaziah did what was right, but he didn't have a perfect heart, it means that Amaziah, he did what God commanded of him, but he wasn't out there. I mean, he wasn't always worshiping Jesus or worshiping God, the God of Israel.
[8:18] He wasn't only worshiping the one and true only God, and that's a huge deal. And we'll see in his life story how Amaziah gets derailed. But if you think, but if you're here and you think that it's not necessary to have a perfect heart towards God, I want to let you know this.
[8:31] It's a huge deal. Leaving your heart, letting your heart go astray, and worshiping other gods is a huge deal. And we'll see this through the life of Amaziah. Yeah, he fails to abide in those limits because of his overconfidence.
[8:42] So what happens? Well, he comes, he becomes, Amaziah becomes this king. I'm just going to tell you this story. Wait, don't bore you guys. Okay? So he becomes king, right? Now, when he becomes king, he finds out that the guys that killed his dad, the servants, he finds out who they are, and he has them murdered.
[8:55] Not murdered. He has them taken care of. He has them whacked. He has them killed. He has them, I don't know how you would say it, but justice happens. Okay? Justice happens. And he does it according to the law of Moses.
[9:07] He does it according to the law of Moses. Look in your Bibles. Look what it says in 2 Kings 14, verses 5. As soon as it came to pass, as soon as the kingdom was confirmed in his hand, he slew the servants which had slain his father, but the children of the murderers he slew not.
[9:24] Why didn't you kill their families? According to that which was written in the book of the law of Moses, wherein the law the Lord commanded, saying, The father shall not be put to death. This guy starts off pretty good, right?
[9:35] He starts off doing what God says, right? He takes vengeance on his dad's house. He has the guys that conspired to kill his dad. He has them taken care of, but he doesn't touch the sons because he knows what God's word says.
[9:46] And God's word points that out. But something else happens in that. After that story, something else happens. You see, Amaziah decides that he's going to get ready for war. There's this lost territory that Judah had.
[9:57] It was known as Edom. And he starts gathering these people together. And he starts gathering the men of Judah. And he starts making some captain over thousands and some over hundreds. And he starts preparing for this war.
[10:07] And he does this because of their families. And he makes sure that the guys that are leading these men over the thousands and the hundreds, that these are the right type of guys, he seems like he's organized. He seems like he's doing what was right. And he goes throughout all Judah.
[10:20] And he makes sure that the tribe of Benjamin was coming. And while he was preparing these men to start out and go after a war after Edom, he has the census. And when he goes through the census, he makes sure he counts and sees how many guys they have.
[10:31] And at the end of the census, they find out they have over 300,000 men. Get this. 300,000 men. And these aren't just any regular old Joes. But these guys know how to use a spear. And they know how to use a shield.
[10:41] You look at it in 2 Chronicles chapter 25. These guys are practiced men. These guys know what they're doing. And so Amaziah seems like, man, to me, he has everything put together. He starts preparing for war.
[10:52] He realizes he has 300,000 men. And he starts saying, okay, okay, I'm starting to run the numbers. I think I'm going to need a little bit more people. And so what he does is he has some mercenaries that he hires from Israel. And he goes up to Israel and he says, I'll take 100,000 of your guys' troops.
[11:06] We're going to go down to Edom and we're going to reclaim some territory that we need. They'll say, well, how much are you going to pay us? He says, how about 100 shekels of silver? Or 100 talents of silver? That's what he says in 2 Corinthians chapter 25.
[11:17] Go read that whole story right there. And so he prepares for war. And now he has 400,000 men ready for war. And I can just imagine. I like to imagine this stuff. You know, just go back.
[11:27] Because I'm going to tell you. Do you realize, I just did the numbers. And I just thought this would be good because I thought Brother John would like this. Do you realize how much 100 talents of silver is? That's 6,658 pounds of silver. I know you guys don't really care.
[11:38] But I just got to get this off my chest. You know how much 6,658 pounds of silver is worth today? $1.4 million. Okay? So he got 100,000 soldiers for $1.4 million.
[11:49] Someone got gypped. Either that or the price of silver has gone up and down. And it's not a good thing to invest in. So I just wanted to put that plug in there for you, Brother John. Don't invest in precious metals. But anyways. He gets this steel.
[12:01] He gets this steel for these 100,000 men. And as he's... I like to use my imagination. I said, I think as soon as he gets in his chariot and he walks up and all those guys are behind him. 400,000 men. And this king gets up there and he grabs those reins and the horses in front of him.
[12:13] And as soon as he gets ready to go, all of a sudden a prophet comes up. God's man. Uh-oh. What's happening? And as Amaziah gets up, he gets down out of his chariot. He goes over to the prophet. And the prophet says, what are you doing, man? He says, we're getting ready for war.
[12:23] Look in 2 Chronicles 25, verses 7-10. There a man of God came to him and he said, O king, let not the army of Israel go with thee. For the Lord is not with Israel.
[12:34] To wit, with all the children of Ephraim. O king, don't take those mercenaries with you. King, don't take those men that you got from Israel with you. Those guys that you spent 100 talents of silver on.
[12:45] Don't take those guys with you. The Lord isn't with those guys. If the Israelites go with you, God is going to make sure that you guys get beat. That's what he says. Look in 2 Chronicles 25, verses 8.
[12:56] But if thou will go, do it, and be strong in battle. God shall make you fall. He will make you fall before your enemies. For God hath the power to help and to cast down. Man, what a saying.
[13:07] He's ready for war. He's going out for war. He's got everything set up. Everything's organized. He's got men over thousands. He's got men over hundreds. He's got probably everything planned out. He's got those guys from Israel.
[13:17] He's got them ordered and they're ready to go to war. And the man of God comes up to him and says, Don't take them to war because if they go to war with you, God's not going to be with you and you're going to get beat. So what do you think Amaziah says? He says exactly what I would say.
[13:28] I already paid them. What am I going to do? What am I going to do with that 100 talents of silver that I just gave them? What am I going to do? I just spent, I spent $1.4 million in silver to these guys.
[13:38] What am I going to do now? Verse 9. And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do for the 100 talents which I have given the army of Israel? And the man of God answered. He said, Get this. Know this, Amaziah.
[13:49] God is able to give you much more than this. If you just follow God, He is able to give you much more than this. You just follow God and you follow His leading and you just obey God and you just follow after Him.
[14:00] Keep your eyes on Him. And He'll take care of you. He'll take care of you. So what does Amaziah do? He separates them and the army comes out with him from Ephraim and they go home again. He goes to his men from Israel and says, You guys can't come.
[14:13] They go home and they get upset. But you know what happens? Amaziah takes those 300,000 men. He goes down there. They have war. They take it and they slaughter people. I mean, they win. They get victory.
[14:23] And the Bible says, Get this. They get much spoil. There's a truth right there that you can learn. You do things God's way, you don't have to worry about what you're losing. Does that make sense? Amaziah was saying, Hey, I already spent money on this.
[14:34] What am I going to do? I've already spent so much money on this. God's able to give that back. And during the war and the battle, the men made much spoil. I wonder how much that was. I'm hoping it's a lot more than 100 talents worth of silver.
[14:45] Because God can take your mess ups and your mistakes, even though whenever you look at it and you say, There's no way that this is going to be able to, How am I going to afford this? And he says, God's able to take care of you. He's going to be with you.
[14:57] And Amaziah just follows the plan of God and he does it. So Amaziah goes out and he does exactly what God says, verse 11 through 13. And Amaziah strengthens himself in 2 Chronicles chapter 25. He strengthens himself.
[15:08] He leads the people. They went into the Valley of Salt. Underline this because this is going to be very important. And they smote the children of Seir 10,000. And then another 10,000 left alive. Did the children of Israel carry away captive?
[15:18] And they brought them onto the top of the rock and they cast them down off the rock. And they were all broken in pieces. But the soldiers of the army of Amaziah sent back that they should not go back with him to battle. And they fell upon the cities of Judah and Samaria and Bethron.
[15:30] And he smote 3,000 of them. And they took, get this, much spoil. They win much spoil. Yes! He's doing well. He's doing well. But remember back to what we said at the beginning, the one point. Don't get too overconfident.
[15:42] Don't be overconfident. Let him that thinketh he stand take heed, lest he fall. He wins. God gives much spoil. Like I said, I wonder if it was just more than a hundred talents of silver. This king seemingly knocks it out of the park.
[15:55] His dad was assassinated and he took care of those guys according to the word of God. Way to go, king. He prepared for war against the Edomites at a young age. And at his feet, in my mind, that's huge.
[16:05] 25-year-old that could prepare for war? Way to go, buddy. You know what I'm saying? That's awesome. He prepared for war. But when God told him, through God's man, that he needed to change something, Amaziah follows through and he does what he's supposed to do.
[16:17] Victory is his and he gets a lot of spoils. But look what happens. Jump with me if you could go back to 2 Kings 14, verse 7. This is what the Bible says. And he slew in Edom, in the Valley of Salt, 10,000.
[16:27] And he took Selah by war. And he called the name of it Jokthil, unto this day. That name Jokthil, I don't even know if I'm saying it right. It means God's destroys. God destroys. What a victory.
[16:38] But like what one Scottish preacher said, let us be watchful after the victory as before the battle. Because after this great victory of King Amaziah, that's when we see him begin to fade away. That's when we get to see him to become presumptuous, arrogant, over-cocky.
[16:52] Does that make sense? And he begins to fail and he gets overconfident and we will see his failure. Could you imagine being a young king and just had a huge victory? You know, the Bible warns us against novices and offices of the pastor.
[17:07] Do you guys know that? Do you guys know that? And I think it's for this reason. 1 Timothy 3, verse 6, he says, Not a novice. You're looking for a pastor? Don't get a novice. Why? Because 1 Timothy 3, 6 says, Lest he be lifted up with pride and he fall into the condemnation of the devil.
[17:22] A novice gets prideful. He lifts himself up and then he falls quickly and he falls hard. And I believe that's exactly what happens to Amaziah. He got lifted up real quick.
[17:32] He was doing a whole bunch of good things, a lot of victories, but he falls hard. In 2 Chronicles 25, verse 14, it says this, Now it came to pass, after that, Amaziah was come from the slaughter of the Edomites.
[17:44] Get this, underline this. I told you to underline one thing in verse 11 of 2 Chronicles 25. Look what it says in verse 14. That he brought the gods of the children of Seir.
[17:56] And he set them up to be his gods. And he bowed himself before them and burned incense to them. That doesn't make sense. He just destroyed those guys. And they were worshipping those gods.
[18:08] You understand that? But somewhere in that victory, he got a little overconfident. Somewhere in that victory, he thought, Man, I really don't need God. Everything's going well for me right now. And he took back their gods.
[18:20] That's dumbfounding to me. Why would you take the gods of the losers? You know what I mean? Why not take the gods of the victors? But he takes the gods of the losers, brings them back, and he begins to bow down and worship them.
[18:31] What in the world are you thinking? How arrogant are you? You really think you're that good? You really think you're the stuff? Amaziah? God gets angry with them.
[18:42] He gets so angry with them. But God's not like us whenever we get angry with people. God goes and talks to them. That's what God does. He gets angry with them. He says, Okay, man of God, prophet, I want you to go talk to this guy. I want you to go talk to him.
[18:52] And this is where the story goes. The prophet goes and he says, look at verse 15. Wherefore, the anger of the Lord was kindled against Amaziah. And so what does God do?
[19:03] He sits down and he festers and he gets bitter, right? No. So he sends unto him a prophet. We got a problem? I'm telling you about it. And the prophet says unto him, Why have you sought after the gods of the people, which could not deliver their own people out of thy hand?
[19:18] That's pretty bold to say to a king. Why have you gone after gods that wasn't able to take care of those other people that you just killed? And it was while this prophet was talking to Amaziah that the king stopped the prophet in his tracks.
[19:30] He stopped them and he says, you look, follow along with verse 16. He says, Who are you? Are you part of my counsel? Do you get to talk to me that way? Do you really think you could speak to me that way?
[19:41] Do you have the right? Are you a part? Art thou made of the king's counsel? Do you really think you get the right to speak to me? What an overconfident punk. What an arrogant guy.
[19:52] What presumption this guy has to tell God's man. After God sent him a message, you really think you could speak to me? He says, keep on reading. He says, Forbear. Why should thou be smitten?
[20:03] Why shouldn't I kill you right now? Man, do you see the pride that's lifted up in this man's heart? Do you see the overconfidence? He had a little victory here, a little victory there. Man, he got too big for his shoes, right? And all of a sudden, he doesn't need God.
[20:15] He's worshiping other gods. And when God comes to speak to him, he doesn't listen to him. The prophet ends up and he says, Man, you know what? You're not going to hearken to this counsel. But we'll just keep on reading and see what he says. He says, Why shouldst thou be smitten? And the prophet forbade.
[20:25] And he said, I know that God hath determined to destroy you. Wow. And thou hast done this and hast not hearkened unto my counsel. Can I tell you for Amaziah, it only gets worse. Amaziah sends word to king of Israel, the northern king.
[20:39] And he says, Hey, man, I want to meet you face to face. Come on, big boy. We're going to duke it out. The northern king, the king of Israel, responds back and he says, Just because you think you have one little victory, don't think I'm going to crush you. You just go back home and you let your glory.
[20:50] You just go back in glory. Enjoy your win. Enjoy your win. That's not enough for Amaziah. He doesn't hear. The Bible says he does not hear. According to 2 Kings chapter 14, he does not hear in verse 11.
[21:04] And Amaziah would not hear. Therefore, Jehoash, the king of Israel, went up. Because Amaziah was overconfident and he was pompous and he was arrogant. He says, Man, let's go duke it out.
[21:15] And the king of Israel says, You don't want any of me. Just go back and you enjoy your battle. And the king of Judah, Amaziah, wouldn't have any of it. He wouldn't hear any of it because he was too overconfident.
[21:26] And then what happens after that? It's bad. I've got to round this up real quick. Judah gets their tail whipped. The men run back to their tents. They meet at this place. Ah, man. What's... That's another word that's hard to pronounce.
[21:38] They meet at a place. Beheth Shemesh. I don't even know how to say it. But anyways, Beheth Shemesh. They meet at this place. Judah, Amaziah's guys, his boys, his army, they run back to their tents.
[21:50] The king of Israel takes Amaziah and they go to Jerusalem. And they destroy almost a tenth, one tenth of a mile of the wall that was built up around Jerusalem. And the king of Israel goes in there and he ransacks and he takes everything out of Jerusalem.
[22:04] He steals all the gold, all the vessels, everything out of the house of the Lord. He steals everything out of Amaziah's house. He takes all of his personal treasures.
[22:15] He takes all his servants. And he goes back and he leaves Jerusalem high and dry. The people of Jerusalem get upset. Obviously so. Obviously so. They go and conspire to kill Amaziah.
[22:26] Amaziah runs and he flees out to the southwest little town called... Was it Lachish or something like that? L-A-C-H-I-S-H. I-S-H. There's a go. Yeah, yeah. So he flees to that town, okay?
[22:37] He flees to that town. They find him there. They kill him. They bury him. And they write it down in his story. And here we are 2,000 years away or over 2,000, almost 4,000, 3,000 years later. We're learning about King Amaziah.
[22:48] And I want to ask you why. Why did we learn about this story? We just learned a story about an overconfident, pompous king. He knew what was right. He knew what was right. But he got too big for his britches, as we would say. He got too arrogant.
[22:59] He knew what was right. And when God spoke to him... Get this. This breaks my heart when you think about this. He refused to hear him. He refused to hear him. When people... He was obviously trying to start a fight in Israel.
[23:11] When they said, don't. Let's not do this. You don't want any of me. He refused to hear him. Why? Because he didn't take heed to himself. He thought he stood and he fell hard. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 10, verses 12. The story is simple and so is the application.
[23:24] Wherefore... 1 Corinthians 10, 12. Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. If you think that you stand today, take heed lest you fall.
[23:34] The verse before that says that there are some stories that were written in the Old Testament for your examples. You're in examples. So, the application is this. You think you're standing? You feel pretty confident? Take heed unless you fall.
[23:45] Yeah. Come on. Take heed. Be good. At the end of all...