Sunday, July 13, 2014
Reading for today: 2 Kings 14 and 2 Chronicles 25

As I read today’s passage in 2 Chronicles (both these readings are an account of King Amaziah – but if you recall, they were written at different times in Israel/Judah’s history) the verse that caught my attention was the 2nd verse in chapter 25, “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but not wholeheartedly.” Not wholeheartedly… wow. Makes me think of lukewarm. Amaziah had a lukewarm heart. He “sort of” followed God, but not quite.

Amaziah became king after his father was assassinated. (Actually if you been keeping track the last three rulers before Amaziah were murdered – I’m thinkin’ that is not an occupation I want.) Anyway, Amaziah followed the Law and only had his father’s murderers executed and did not execute their sons. (This Law is found in Deut 24:16) So, Amaziah is obeying God and “doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord.”

Then Amaziah prepares to attack Edom and hires some mercenaries from Israel. These guys had turned their back on God so for Amaziah to align himself with them would have been against God’s law. In walks a faithful prophet and reminds Amaziah that success will only be at the hands of God. “it’s God who has the power to help you or overthrow you.” So he told Amaziah to get rid of those mercenaries and Amaziah listened. Except that he did whine a little about the money he was going to lose. Amaziah’s starting to show his “not whole-hearted” face when it comes to obeying God. Amaziah was more concerned about his possessions, but the prophet moved him to focus on what God can do for him. So Amaziah once again obeyed God and got rid of the soldiers-for-hire. But then, oh no…. Amaziah does something that makes me want to smack him upside the head… vs 14 tells us that he takes idols from Edom and sets them up and not only that, he worships them.

He just won a great victory, clearly it is from the hand of God, shouldn’t he be praising God and glorifying God and only God? But oh no….he turns to those stupid idols. What was he thinking? If it weren't so tragic it could almost be funny. The prophet comes to him and says (and I’m paraphrasing vs 15) You stupid idiot… if your army beat their army, then don’t you think that your God is more powerful than their god? What are you doing with those idols?

But Amaziah’s lukewarm heart has now become a cold heart. He has allowed the culture around him to influence him. And has turned his back on God.

Maybe that is why God spoke to the people of Laodicea in Revelation 3:14-19, about being lukewarm. Why he said he would spit them out. If we let our lukewarm nature, our ho-hum attitude towards God, become our Christian walk, then how easy it will be for the godless culture around us to infiltrate our lives and influence us to abandon our faith.

A lukewarm heart can have catastrophic effects on our spiritual lives. It is my prayer that we all will seek and serve God, not with a lukewarm heart, but whole-heartedly. As we said in church today, choose whom you will serve… as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

Blessings
PK