Don't Be a Half-Pint When it Comes to the Heart
(2 Chronicles 25:1-16)
One thing I’ve heard pretty frequently from people who don’t fully understand what it means to be a Christian is that they are trying to live a life in balance: they just want to make sure that their good deeds outweigh their bad. I know many people think this way, but there is a term coined specifically for this way of thinking: ridiculous. Seriously. All this mentality does is determine what is the minimum effort one can give in order to be “OK.” Many of us find ourselves doing this. I can remember working a 9-5 salaried job right after college; our boss joked cynically about nailing things down so they didn’t get swept away by the great gust of wind at exactly 5:00 every afternoon (as all of us rushed to get out). We didn’t have any vested interest in staying beyond 5.
I know many of us have given less than our all, but have you ever been given the bare minimum? Maybe you’re a boss, and you’ve seen your employees just barely do enough to merit a paycheck. Maybe you’re a teacher, and you’ve seen students who could (or should) be A students satisfied with any passing grade. Maybe you’re a parent and your kids barely help around the house. Maybe you’re married and your spouse seems to have time and energy for everyone but you. Maybe you’re a child and your parents seem to always be schlepping you all over the place, but they don’t ever seem to listen to you.
What does it feel like to get the bare minimum?
Today’s character is someone who gave the minimum, but he started so well. Today we’re looking at King Amaziah, whose name combines the term “strength” and “Jehovah” into a wonderful name. 2 Chronicles 25 starts out telling us that “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.” Isn’t that all we can ask for? Isn’t that what the Lord asks for? For His people, especially His leaders, to do what is right in His eyes?
Unfortunately, the verse goes on to say, “but not wholeheartedly.”
Amaziah was an important guy, King of Judah, and he did a lot of good stuff. He even specifically followed Moses’ law (and broke the national trend of killing the entire family of his father’s murderers), but when it came to his heart, he was a half-pint.
Understanding the time and what was going on, it was natural that Amaziah counted his fighting men; Judah was a country at war. He had a standing army of 300,000, but he decided that this wasn’t enough, so he hired an additional 100,000 from Israel for about 3 ¾ tons of silver. Today’s exchange rate would make that about $1.5 million.
Now, I don’t know much about raising an army, nor about the exchange rate from BC to 2009, or about how many fighting men were necessary, but I do know this: this episode follows chronologically well after God led Gideon to drastically reduce the number of Israel’s fighting men “in order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her” (Judges 7:2). God wants the glory that is rightfully His. So an unnamed prophet comes to Amaziah and tells him (2 Chronicles 25:7-9) “O king, 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.”
Amaziah asked the man of God, "But what about the hundred talents I paid for these Israelite troops?"
Amaziah demonstrates his divided heart here: I think he even trusts that God will indeed triumph, but his heart is divided over money. He is worried about the $1.5 million.
But verse 9 continues: The man of God replied, “The LORD can give you much more than that.” This is one of my favorite scriptures. It is true. The Lord can give you more than whatever you’re settling for. The Lord could give Amaziah much more than money. The Lord can give you much more than “just settling.”
One of the greatest dangers to our faith is “just settling.” We just settle for our parents’ religion. We just settle for a mountaintop experience once a year, once in a while, or once in a lifetime. We just settle for things that used to work. We just settle for having a one hour a week relationship with the church instead of a vibrant daily walk with Jesus.
The unfortunate thing about just settling is that it is all really simply giving God less than He’s worth. You want to know what God thinks of it? Revelation 3:15-16 gives us a good picture: I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
I love the way Eugene Peterson puts it in his paraphrase The Message: I know you inside and out, and find little to my liking. You're not cold, you're not hot—far better to be either cold or hot! You're stale. You're stagnant. You make me want to vomit.
Giving to God half-heartedly, just settling, makes God want to puke. God wants your all.
But even worse is this: after we’ve become satisfied with giving half our hearts, we begin to slip even more. 14 When Amaziah returned from slaughtering the Edomites, he brought back the gods of the people of Seir. He set them up as his own gods, bowed down to them and burned sacrifices to them.
Duh. This is probably the stupidest verse of the Bible. Not that a verse of the Bible is stupid, but Amaziah is. God just told him, though a prophet, that the LORD could do much more for him, that he didn’t need to hire Israelite mercenaries, that God would win the battle. So he dismissed the mercenaries and won the battle. Then he says, “Gee, I think it would be a good idea to take their useless idols and worship them. After all, it’s obvious that they’re garbage, because they didn’t help their people win the battle. But I still think I ought to take them and worship them. Duh.” I don’t know what incited him to steal their idols, but goes way beyond “just settling.” It’s plain stupid. But some of you know how it goes. You’ve walked with God, hand-in-hand, and you know the freedom God gives you. But instead of using this freedom to enjoy the life God meant for you to live, you use it to become enslaved.
Maybe you were extremely poor, and now that you’re not anymore, you’re a slave to money. Maybe you’ve been controlled – maybe by family, maybe by religion, or by whatever, but now that you’re free from that, you rebel against control by going out of control. Maybe you grew up in a home where alcohol was completely forbidden, and now you’re free, so now you’re always drunk.
The ancient Hebrews had a word for this kind of behavior. Idiot! V. 15 The anger of the LORD burned against Amaziah, and he sent a prophet to him, who said, “Why do you consult this people's gods, which could not save their own people from your hand?”
v. 16 While he was still speaking, the king said to him, "Have we appointed you an adviser to the king? Stop! Why be struck down?"
So King Amaziah has gone from following God and “doing what was right in the Lord’s eyes” to blatantly ignoring the word of God. So the prophet gives him the bad news: 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.”(v. 16b)
And that’s just what happened, as Amaziah went on to provoke Israel, he met his match. 2 Chronicles 25 ends this way: 27 From the time that Amaziah 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 there. 28 He was brought back by horse and was buried with his fathers in the City of Judah.
We have a lot to learn from Amaziah. He started out so well, but he was half-hearted. He had everything going for him. He was the king of Judah. He walked in the favor of the Lord. God showed him His favor and gave him a taste of His goodness and provision, telling him “I can give you more than you ever dreamed was possible, something much better than $1.5 million.” But by the time he dies, Amaziah is running away from his people, in hiding, in fear for his life. He has turned away from the God who loves him and provides for him to worship the impotent gods of Edom.
What can we take from Amaziah?
First, we have to learn how to be accountable. We all make mistakes, but how we respond to those mistakes is crucial. What do we do when someone from God tells us that “The Lord can give you much more than that”?
Second, don’t just settle. Don’t just settle for a relationship with God that only lasts for ten days at Camp Sychar. Don’t just settle for the warm fuzzy feeling you once had. Don’t just settle for a minimal Bible knowledge. Don’t just settle for church membership.
Don’t settle for being half-hearted in following God.
Third, give God your all. Don’t give Him half-heartedly. It nauseates God to see us, His beloved people, who He created in His image, for whom His Son Jesus died, just lamely lukewarm. It makes Him want to puke. This means you have to evaluate how you spend your money. You have to evaluate how you spend your time. How you treat people. What you put into your body. What you put into your mind. Don’t allow your freedom to enslave you.
Because you see, in the person of Jesus Christ, God gave us His all. He gives you much more than any worries over finances, troubles, anything.
One thing I’ve heard pretty frequently from people who don’t fully understand what it means to be a Christian is that they are trying to live a life in balance: they just want to make sure that their good deeds outweigh their bad. I know many people think this way, but there is a term coined specifically for this way of thinking: ridiculous. Seriously. All this mentality does is determine what is the minimum effort one can give in order to be “OK.” Many of us find ourselves doing this. I can remember working a 9-5 salaried job right after college; our boss joked cynically about nailing things down so they didn’t get swept away by the great gust of wind at exactly 5:00 every afternoon (as all of us rushed to get out). We didn’t have any vested interest in staying beyond 5.
I know many of us have given less than our all, but have you ever been given the bare minimum? Maybe you’re a boss, and you’ve seen your employees just barely do enough to merit a paycheck. Maybe you’re a teacher, and you’ve seen students who could (or should) be A students satisfied with any passing grade. Maybe you’re a parent and your kids barely help around the house. Maybe you’re married and your spouse seems to have time and energy for everyone but you. Maybe you’re a child and your parents seem to always be schlepping you all over the place, but they don’t ever seem to listen to you.
What does it feel like to get the bare minimum?
Today’s character is someone who gave the minimum, but he started so well. Today we’re looking at King Amaziah, whose name combines the term “strength” and “Jehovah” into a wonderful name. 2 Chronicles 25 starts out telling us that “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.” Isn’t that all we can ask for? Isn’t that what the Lord asks for? For His people, especially His leaders, to do what is right in His eyes?
Unfortunately, the verse goes on to say, “but not wholeheartedly.”
Amaziah was an important guy, King of Judah, and he did a lot of good stuff. He even specifically followed Moses’ law (and broke the national trend of killing the entire family of his father’s murderers), but when it came to his heart, he was a half-pint.
Understanding the time and what was going on, it was natural that Amaziah counted his fighting men; Judah was a country at war. He had a standing army of 300,000, but he decided that this wasn’t enough, so he hired an additional 100,000 from Israel for about 3 ¾ tons of silver. Today’s exchange rate would make that about $1.5 million.
Now, I don’t know much about raising an army, nor about the exchange rate from BC to 2009, or about how many fighting men were necessary, but I do know this: this episode follows chronologically well after God led Gideon to drastically reduce the number of Israel’s fighting men “in order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her” (Judges 7:2). God wants the glory that is rightfully His. So an unnamed prophet comes to Amaziah and tells him (2 Chronicles 25:7-9) “O king, 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.”
Amaziah asked the man of God, "But what about the hundred talents I paid for these Israelite troops?"
Amaziah demonstrates his divided heart here: I think he even trusts that God will indeed triumph, but his heart is divided over money. He is worried about the $1.5 million.
But verse 9 continues: The man of God replied, “The LORD can give you much more than that.” This is one of my favorite scriptures. It is true. The Lord can give you more than whatever you’re settling for. The Lord could give Amaziah much more than money. The Lord can give you much more than “just settling.”
One of the greatest dangers to our faith is “just settling.” We just settle for our parents’ religion. We just settle for a mountaintop experience once a year, once in a while, or once in a lifetime. We just settle for things that used to work. We just settle for having a one hour a week relationship with the church instead of a vibrant daily walk with Jesus.
The unfortunate thing about just settling is that it is all really simply giving God less than He’s worth. You want to know what God thinks of it? Revelation 3:15-16 gives us a good picture: I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
I love the way Eugene Peterson puts it in his paraphrase The Message: I know you inside and out, and find little to my liking. You're not cold, you're not hot—far better to be either cold or hot! You're stale. You're stagnant. You make me want to vomit.
Giving to God half-heartedly, just settling, makes God want to puke. God wants your all.
But even worse is this: after we’ve become satisfied with giving half our hearts, we begin to slip even more. 14 When Amaziah returned from slaughtering the Edomites, he brought back the gods of the people of Seir. He set them up as his own gods, bowed down to them and burned sacrifices to them.
Duh. This is probably the stupidest verse of the Bible. Not that a verse of the Bible is stupid, but Amaziah is. God just told him, though a prophet, that the LORD could do much more for him, that he didn’t need to hire Israelite mercenaries, that God would win the battle. So he dismissed the mercenaries and won the battle. Then he says, “Gee, I think it would be a good idea to take their useless idols and worship them. After all, it’s obvious that they’re garbage, because they didn’t help their people win the battle. But I still think I ought to take them and worship them. Duh.” I don’t know what incited him to steal their idols, but goes way beyond “just settling.” It’s plain stupid. But some of you know how it goes. You’ve walked with God, hand-in-hand, and you know the freedom God gives you. But instead of using this freedom to enjoy the life God meant for you to live, you use it to become enslaved.
Maybe you were extremely poor, and now that you’re not anymore, you’re a slave to money. Maybe you’ve been controlled – maybe by family, maybe by religion, or by whatever, but now that you’re free from that, you rebel against control by going out of control. Maybe you grew up in a home where alcohol was completely forbidden, and now you’re free, so now you’re always drunk.
The ancient Hebrews had a word for this kind of behavior. Idiot! V. 15 The anger of the LORD burned against Amaziah, and he sent a prophet to him, who said, “Why do you consult this people's gods, which could not save their own people from your hand?”
v. 16 While he was still speaking, the king said to him, "Have we appointed you an adviser to the king? Stop! Why be struck down?"
So King Amaziah has gone from following God and “doing what was right in the Lord’s eyes” to blatantly ignoring the word of God. So the prophet gives him the bad news: 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.”(v. 16b)
And that’s just what happened, as Amaziah went on to provoke Israel, he met his match. 2 Chronicles 25 ends this way: 27 From the time that Amaziah 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 there. 28 He was brought back by horse and was buried with his fathers in the City of Judah.
We have a lot to learn from Amaziah. He started out so well, but he was half-hearted. He had everything going for him. He was the king of Judah. He walked in the favor of the Lord. God showed him His favor and gave him a taste of His goodness and provision, telling him “I can give you more than you ever dreamed was possible, something much better than $1.5 million.” But by the time he dies, Amaziah is running away from his people, in hiding, in fear for his life. He has turned away from the God who loves him and provides for him to worship the impotent gods of Edom.
What can we take from Amaziah?
First, we have to learn how to be accountable. We all make mistakes, but how we respond to those mistakes is crucial. What do we do when someone from God tells us that “The Lord can give you much more than that”?
Second, don’t just settle. Don’t just settle for a relationship with God that only lasts for ten days at Camp Sychar. Don’t just settle for the warm fuzzy feeling you once had. Don’t just settle for a minimal Bible knowledge. Don’t just settle for church membership.
Don’t settle for being half-hearted in following God.
Third, give God your all. Don’t give Him half-heartedly. It nauseates God to see us, His beloved people, who He created in His image, for whom His Son Jesus died, just lamely lukewarm. It makes Him want to puke. This means you have to evaluate how you spend your money. You have to evaluate how you spend your time. How you treat people. What you put into your body. What you put into your mind. Don’t allow your freedom to enslave you.
Because you see, in the person of Jesus Christ, God gave us His all. He gives you much more than any worries over finances, troubles, anything.
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