Bible Commentaries

Amaziah

2 Chronicles 25:2).

That is the history of the Church in a sentence; that, too, is the history of many a man who sometimes wonders whether he will die, or live; whether he will fall over the abyss into the bottomless pit, or whether he will take wing and fly away to the gate of the morning. The Scriptures insist upon knowing and revealing the state of the heart. Everything depended upon that in the estimate of biblical judges; and everything depends upon that in the appraisement of God himself,—not what is the intellect, the head, the genius, the acquisition, the treasure held by the hand; but what is the supreme emotion, the uppermost wish, the dominating desire, the purpose that struggles through all things that embody the life. Our answer to that question settles everything. Could we have a perfect heart we should know the meaning of consecration. We are not consecrated until the heart is filled with divine fire, sanctified by divine ministry, permeated by the Holy Ghost. So we are called upon to grow, to advance, to become wiser, to add to our faith virtue, and to continue the mysterious addition until the pillar of a noble life is crowned with the capital of brotherly kindness and charity. What a marvellous thing is a double life! Men are not all insincere who are adjudged to be double-minded. There is a psychological mystery about this, as well as a spiritual enigma. Let us beware of rough-and-ready estimates of characters. Many a man wants to be good who cannot; that is to say, he cannot realise all his desire and purpose. No one can tell what he suffers; we see the things which he does, but we do not see the temptations which he has resisted; we see when he has gone one mile towards the wrong place, but if he had gone at the speed dictated by the satanic impulse which was focussed in terrific temptation, he would have been there, he would have been all the way, he would have been in the very centre of the flame. It is easy to judge men, saying how imperfect they are, how poor in knowledge, how feeble in character, how mixed in the quality of motive and purpose. Only God knows what some have to do in order to go to church at all. It is almost like winning in a wrestle with death; it will be set down among the battles of the universe which have been crowned with victory. Blessed be God, man is not judge; the Father keeps the judgment in his own hand; and with what graciousness must his face be irradiated when he sees some men moving in the direction of the sanctuary, how reluctantly soever; and when they cross the threshold, who can tell the joy that is in heaven? Judging one another thus, if we judge at all, there will be found to be many better men in the world than we have often reckoned. The statistics are all wrong that are not founded upon charity, love, comprehensiveness of feeling, yea, that sacred enthusiasm which will not let any man be outside who can possibly be brought within. "In my Father's house are many mansions"—many compartments, many chambers, many provinces; they have not all the same aspect or the same garden-land, they do not all accommodate the same wealth of summer; still they are included within the golden circle, and men may grow out of them up into higher possessions—for heaven is but another name for progress.

Amaziah being thus double-minded felt the less difficulty in working out a certain law:—

"Now it came to pass, when the kingdom was established [or, the sovereignty (power) was confirmed] to him, that he slew his servants that had killed the king his father [After establishing his own government he punished the murderers of his father with death; but, according to the law in Deuteronomy 24:16, he did not slay their children also, as was commonly the custom in the East in ancient times, and may very frequently have been done in Israel as well.—Keil]. But he slew not their children, but did as it is written in the law in the book of Moses, where the Lord commanded, saying, The fathers shall not die for the children, neither shall the children die for the fathers, but every man shall die for his own sin" ( 2 Chronicles 25:3-4).

Here we find two opposing forces—revenge on the one side, and forbearance on the other. It is here that human criticism so often fails. It is hard not to deal one blow at the son as well as the father. It is almost impossible to distinguish between the one and the other. It requires divine faculty to discriminate, and to use a sword with fineness of justice. Who has not been offended with the son because of something the father has done? Who has not renounced the whole family because one member of it has been found guilty of offence? God doth not thus judge us. He has one in a house, and two in a family, and three in a commonwealth; he will not confound the wise and the unwise, the good and the bad; as he hath himself two hands, so he will make two divisions—on the one side shall be the sheep, and on the other the goats, and he will prepare for the destiny of each. Our criticism is rough; we condemn whole nations. If we find that a man who has done something wrong belongs to a certain nationality, we simply send the whole nation down to the bottomless pit. Again, blessed be God, man is not the judge. He will, with fingers of justice that cannot mistake, take the sister from the side of the brother; two women shall be grinding, the one shall be taken, and the other left; yea, two shall be in one bed, and one shall be taken and the other left; it is in this discrimination, this individualisation of judgment, that God shows the fulness of his wisdom and the majesty of his sovereignty. Observe how all this is declared and established in the law of Moses, which is in very deed the law of God. The Lord has trained men by certain dispensations to the use of this very criticism which is so easily abused. "The fathers shall not die for the children, neither shall the children die for the fathers." When the Lord laid down that law he taxed human forbearance to the uttermost. It may not seem to be so in reality, but test the matter by human consciousness and by human action. Have we not wronged whole families? Have we not often thrown in the child as if he were part of the father, and let both be crushed by the mill of revenge? When a man is in hot blood it is difficult to stop with the death of the father: another life would gratify him; he is mad enough to slay a whole house now, and if he should strike the whole family with the sword he will explain himself by a reference to his ill-temper at the moment,—as if ill-temper could ever excuse or mitigate any offence! But it is just thus, by calling a sudden Halt! that God educates men to self-control, to nobleness of conduct, and trains them to distinguish between justice and injustice—justice precisely administered, and justice roughly dealt out. It is in the fineness of the discrimination that we reveal the extent of our spiritual education.

A most gracious word is the last in the fourth verse, "Every man shall die for his own sin": literally, Every man shall die in his own sin. Where, then, the foolish law that says a man shall die because somebody has sinned; that is to say, shall die eternally, and never know the joy of forgiveness, because some man has somewhere at some time offended against God? One thing we cannot help: every man suffers when any one connected with him sins. No one can help the working of that law. It is a beneficent institution. From some points of view it seems to be severe, but the severity of one aspect is the beneficence of another. No man can do good and keep all the issue of it to himself. If sometimes we would slay the son because the father has been bad, at other times we welcome the son to hospitality because the father was a brave, chivalrous soul to us in the days of the wilderness and in the storms of the winter. For thy father's sake, we say, come in, and tarry long: would God he were with thee at this moment, for then the joy of thy presence would be doubled! The way of the Lord is equal. He has not a motion of one hand only. The Lord 2 Chronicles 25:5-10 :—

5. Moreover Amaziah gathered Judah together, and made them captains over thousands [rather, arranged them by the houses of their fathers under captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds], and captains over hundreds, according to the houses of their fathers, throughout all Judah and Benjamin; and he numbered them from twenty years old and above [compare Numbers 1:3; 1 Chronicles 27:23. Twenty was regarded as the military age], and found them three hundred thousand [Asa's army had been nearly twice as numerous (ch. 2 Chronicles 14:8). The great diminution of force must be ascribed to the Edomite, Arabian, Philistine, and Syrian wars (ch. 2 Chronicles 21:8-16; 2 Chronicles 24:23-24), and in part to the general decadence of the kingdom, attributable mainly to moral causes] choice men, able to go forth to war, that could handle spear and shield.

6. He hired also an hundred thousand mighty men of valour out of Israel [from the northern kingdom] for an hundred talents of silver.

7. But there came a man of God to him, saying, O king, let not the army of Israel go with thee; for the Lord is not with Israel, to wit, with all the children of Ephraim.

8. But if thou wilt go [But go thou alone, 2 Chronicles 25:15).

This is the ruthless mockery of righteousness. God always accuses the sinner of being foolish. Said he to Amaziah: "The gods you have stolen could not deliver their own people: what good can they be to you? "The sinner is a bad logician; the sinner is not only a criminal, he is a fool. How God crushes this poor king!—"Why hast thou sought after the gods of the people, which could not deliver their own people out of thine hand?" Sin will not bear cross-examination. The sinner makes a bad figure in the witness-box. We have only to listen to him, and we have no need of further evidence. Subpoena no witness, and ask for no other affidavit; let the man tell his own tale, and when he has done you will say that he has made out a case against himself to which there is no answer. Spirit of the living God, pity us! Who can stand in judgment? God be merciful unto me a sinner! Do not ask me any questions. Give me standing-room at the cross. If I may but touch the hem of the Sufferer's garment I shall be healed!

Prayer

Thou only, O blessed One, art the fountain of joy. Thou hast invited us to come to the fountain and be satisfied with the gladness of God. An open way hast thou provided, even Jesus Christ thy Son, who himself declares thy love and reveals the fulness of thy resources, and bids us welcome to the river of God, which is full of water. Thou canst make all men glad, if they will be made glad. But some are sullen, obstinate, self-willed, yea, the children thou hast nourished and brought up have rebelled against thee, and have fallen below the ass and the ox, which know their masters and do their will. Come to us still in tenderness and pity and love; cast us not away in thy wrath; for when thou dost cast men away, who can find them again? We cannot tell where thou dost cast the apostate—behind thy back: but who can measure the distance from the light? We mourn, we wonder, we pray that our souls may not come into that secret. We would stand before God's face and be blessed with the light of his benediction, inspired and comforted by all the tenderness of his heart. That we have such a desire is a proof that thou hast not forsaken us, for as thou dost make the field fruitful so dost thou make the human heart to respond to all thy goodness. Surely we should be blind if we denied the presence of thy care and love and activity in all the scheme of life which comes under our review? We ourselves are living monuments of thy goodness; thou hast put our bones together, and strung our sinews, and set our heart a-pulsing. Behold, we did not make ourselves. We are the work of thy hands, and not the work of our own invention. We can destroy, but we cannot create; we can take down the temple, but in three days we cannot build it again. We work under God: there is one builder: we are but fellow-labourers with God. Help us, therefore, to look to the Creator for redemption and sanctification, for the completion of his own work in brightness and beauty and glory. Thou wilt not leave the tower half-built; thou wilt not forsake the work of thine own hands; thou wilt not turn thy back upon us, and thus plunge us into infinite night. Our hope is in the living God; our sin shall not separate us for ever from our Father, for the blood of Jesus Christ thy Son cleanseth us from all sin. May we read thy Providence aright; may we know that thou art training us for some purpose; may we understand that when thou dost quicken our faculty it is for use; when thou dost enlarge our outlook it is that we may be inspired to do more work; when thou dost gladden us with peculiar vision it is that we may be assured that the tabernacle of God is with men upon the earth. Pity our poor little lives; they seem to be on the surface, so much so that a footstep could crush them. Pity our erring hearts; they find a kind of intermediate joy in serving the devil. We are fearfully and wonderfully made: we do not drink the cup to the dregs, but we drink much of it, and it is in very deed sweet to our taste. God forbid that we should drink the death portion. Stand by us; give us a light above the brightness of the sun to shine upon the mystery of our life; and lead us, past every temptation, past the dwelling-place of the serpent, past the black river which we call death, and land us all in heaven. This prayer we say in the name of Jesus—name to sinners dear. Amen.