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All right, 2 Kings chapter number 14. So let's start off here with the title. I'm going to title this how not to lose a stare down, how not to lose a stare down. And what I mean by that is in this chapter here, we're going to read a story about a king named Amaziah and he's from the southern kingdom of Judah. And basically what he winds up doing is he winds up challenging a king in the northern kingdom of Israel to a face off. And we'll get to that scripture here in a little bit. But the crazy thing is, though God is obviously more on the side of Judah specifically because they have the oracles, they have the temple, they obviously produce the most amount of righteous kings. But for some reason, Amaziah actually loses this face off. He actually loses this battle. And we need to figure out why. Why in the world does that happen? And so that's what tonight's sermon is going to be about. But 2 Kings chapter number 14, if you would look down at verse number 1. So the Bible says this, it says in the second year of Joash, son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel, reigned Amaziah, the son of Joash, king of Judah. Whoops, is that better? Okay, so I had to turn the mic on there. So verse 1 of chapter number 14, what do you see? You see the two names there that are the same. You see Joash in the beginning of the verse and you see a Joash in the end of the verse. And that's why I've got these charts here, okay? So if you have your chart, if you wouldn't mind pulling that out, we're gonna go over this. If you're watching online, again, just put something in the chat or just email and I will send it to you. We have it all ready to go. It kind of helps as you're studying through the kings and through the prophets to kind of give you some bearing there of where you're at. So I'm gonna break this down as simple as I can, okay? So regarding the nation of Israel, starts off as 12 tribes, okay? It starts off as 12 tribes just known as the nation of Israel, known as the United Kingdom. Now after the time period of the judges, if you remember, the children of Israel decided that they wanted kings. Their first king was a king by the name of Saul. Second king was David, followed up by Solomon. Now after Solomon's reign, you move into the period of what we call the divided kingdom. And that's what we're largely dealing with. Now the divided kingdom, what you have is you have the northern kingdom of Israel, which is made up of ten tribes, and sometimes it's called Ephraim. You'll see that oftentimes throughout the books of the kings and chronicles. You'll see that the northern kingdom is referred to as Ephraim. Then you have the southern kingdom of Judah, okay? Now after the exile, so after Israel, the northern kingdom gets wiped out, they get replaced. The Bible says that they are gone, never to be able to come back. You'll see a few kings later that the southern kingdom of Judah goes into captivity. They go into Babylonian captivity, and that is basically passed down to the Persians, then the Greeks, and then the Romans. And so after this time period which we're studying tonight called the divided kingdom, I guess you would move into what we're gonna call, I don't know, the province period. We'll just call it the province period. So where Judah is literally just a province of the reigning world empire, and then obviously now the Israel of God is spiritual, okay? So with that being said, on your chart there, you've got this breakdown of the kings listed under the southern kingdom, and then you have the kings listed under the northern kingdom. Now Judah, the southern kingdom of Judah, they have 20 people that reign, okay? The reason why I say 20 people is because they have 19 kings and one queen. Remember Athaliah? So obviously she's not a queen, or I'm sorry, she's not a king, but she did reign over the nation there. So you have 20 people that reign before they went into captivity. The northern kingdom of Israel had 20 kings, okay? So just for tonight's study, just so that you know where we're at, cuz we took a little bit of a break with our guest preacher last week. So if you look down on your chart there under the southern kings of Judah, tonight we're gonna be dealing with Joash, which is the eighth king from Rehoboam, and Uzziah gets a little bit of a mention there, okay? Look over at the northern kingdom of Israel. So if you look at Jehu's name, Jehu's number 11, tonight we're gonna be dealing with Joash and Jeroboam II, all the way to the beginning of Zechariah, okay? So that kinda gives you a little bit of understanding of where we're at and how far down the list. So you can see that on the northern kingdom of Israel side, we're what, gonna be by the time we get to chapter 15, we're gonna be 15 kings in. Remember, there's only 20. So we're getting to the end of the northern kingdom of Israel, but we're not even halfway done with the southern kingdom of Judah, okay? Just something to keep in mind as you're reading through the Bible to give you a little bit of perspective and some groundwork to where we are at. All right, so let's get started here. Look down at verse number 1 of 2 Kings, chapter number 14. One more time, it says in the second year of Joash, son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel, reigned Amaziah, the son of Joash, king of Judah. And you ask, why do they name their kings after each other? And it's a result of the ecumenical practices that had taken place prior to this time period, okay? Look at verse number 2, it says, he was 20 and 5 years old when he began to reign, and reigned 20 and 9 years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jehoadan of Jerusalem. Now that's interesting, because a lot of times when you're reading through the kings, you very rarely ever see the mother mentioned, okay? And so here we see that Jehoadan is mentioned. She would be one of the two wives of Joash, king of Judah, okay? So if you remember when we were reading through Joash's life, how Athaliah, his grandmother, was going around trying to destroy all the seed royal, how Joash was hid at his eighth birthday, basically, when he was eight years old, he was brought out, made manifest. They captured Athaliah and put her to death outside of the temple. And from that point on, Joash reigned over the southern kingdom of Judah, okay? Now, the Bible says that while Jehoiada the priest was with him, that he made good choices, that he did that which was right in the sight of And obviously, when Jehoiada had passed on, went to heaven, some people that had bad influence came in and Joash started to harken to them, made some bad decisions, and even had a prophet, the prophet Zechariah, killed in the temple, okay? But Jehoiada the priest, the Bible says, took two wives for Joash. And we get Jehoiada, and as I mentioned here, we don't know anything else about her, other than her name is mentioned here, and 2 Chronicles chapter number 25, which we're gonna get to here in a little bit. So with that being said, look at verse number 3. It says, and he, this is Amaziah, and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, yet not like David his father. He did according to all things as Joash his father did. Now, I would say, you know, everybody gives a bad rap to the northern kings. You know, all other kings, they say they're all bad. And obviously, I disagree, especially on the account of Jehu. You know, I realize that Jehu did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. However, at least Jehu didn't kill a prophet of God in the temple, okay? So just something to keep in mind there. So that behavior and that attitude, you're gonna see tonight, actually did pass down to Amaziah. So look at verse number 4. It says, howbeit the high places were not taken away, as yet the people did sacrifice and burnt incense on the high places. We've spent a lot of time over the last couple years talking about this, you know, as we've been studying through the books of Samuel, first kings, and now second kings, that this is wrong. God did not want them going to the high places. That's what the pagans did. That's what the heathens did. But yet, you know, for whatever reason, these people just could not let go of that. That was like one of the hardest things for them to let go. In fact, you're not gonna really see that dealt with on a large scale until Josiah, king of Judah, comes on the scene, which is gonna be a long time from now. But what does that always lead to? Well, it always leads to more Baal worship, idolatry, and things of that nature. It does not make God happy. That's why you're reading about it. You see, if you're gonna get zealous for God, and you're gonna say, you know what, I'm gonna just go full board. God wants you to start working on getting rid of all these things that are exposed to you, okay? And the law was obviously exposed to Amaziah. You're gonna see that here in a sec. Look at verse five. It says, and it came to pass as soon as the kingdom was confirmed in his hand, that he slew his servants, which had slain the king, his father. We went over that conspiracy a couple of weeks ago. Remember his father, Joash, was put to death after he slew Zechariah in the temple. So what Amaziah does is he gets his revenge. He goes out and he finds the folks that had responsibility for that, and he took them out. However, he does follow the law of God here. Look at verse number six. It says, but the children of the murderers he slew not. According to that which is written in the book of the law of Moses, wherein the Lord commanded, saying, the father shall not be put to death for the children, nor the children be put to death for the fathers, but every man shall be put to death for his own sin. And you can find that in Deuteronomy chapter number 24, verse 16, if you wanna make a note of that. So let's move on here. Look at verse number seven. He slew of Edom, so this is Amaziah we're talking about, the king of the southern kingdom of Judah. He slew of Edom in the valley of salt 10,000 and took Salah by war and called the name of it Jochthiel unto this day. Now, something happens before this, and we're gonna get to that. We're gonna turn to 2 Chronicles 25 here in a moment. But look at verse number eight. It says, then Amaziah sent messengers to Jehoash, the son of Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, come let us look one another in the face. So you gotta ask yourself, where does this boldness come in? Where does this boldness come from here? And so far, if you were to just only read 2 Kings chapter 14, it doesn't seem like Amaziah's doing that bad. Because back here in verse number two, it says, or verse number three rather, it says that Amaziah did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, okay? But something's gonna happen with this face off. Something is going to happen in this battle that may be confusing if you don't rightly divide the word. So verse eight again, then Amaziah sent messengers to Jehoash, the son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, come let us look one another in the face. So basically it's like saying, hey, let's fight. Let's get together and let's just do this thing. Let's just have a battle here. Verse nine, and Jehoash, the king of Israel, sent to Amaziah, king of Judah, saying, the thistle that was in Lebanon, sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, give thy daughter to my son to wife. And there passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon and strode down the thistle. I love how these guys are just very swift with their words and their responses during this timeframe. You know, instead of just exchanging insults and cussing, you know, the king of Israel just thinks about this parable and he thinks about this little parable that he wants to send the king and he calls him a thistle. He's basically like saying, you're nothing but a thistle, just a little thorn, whereas I'm a cedar tree. You know, and to add insult to injury, you know, he throws in there the fact that he's comparing him to somebody who's just low on the scale, asking to marry into royalty. You see that there? And of course, that's going to severely anger king Amaziah. Look at verse number 10. Thou hast indeed smitten Edom, and thine heart hath lifted thee up. Glory of this and tarry at home, for why shouldest thou meddle to thy hurt? That thou shouldest fall, even thou and Judah with thee. So again, he's basically saying, hey, why don't you just be happy with your little tiny victory over those that eat them? Glory in that and just leave me alone because you and your entire nation are going to be destroyed if you come and mess with me. Verse 11, but Amaziah would not hear. Okay, notice that there. That is the narrator telling you that Amaziah would not hear. So the question is, hear what? Okay, and we'll answer that here in a moment. Therefore, Jehoash, king of Israel, went up, and he and Amaziah, king of Judah, looked one another in the face at Beshemest, which belongeth to Judah? So here you have the ultimate stare down, okay? And who started this? It was Amaziah. Amaziah wanted this stare down. He wanted this fight. He wanted this face off to happen because he was confident that he was going to win. Okay, something gave him confidence that he would prevail and be the victor. But what happens? Look at verse number 12. And Judah was put to the worse before Israel and they fled every man to their tents. Okay, so wait a second here. How do you go from an exhilarating victory over the Edomites and defeating them to a humiliating defeat, losing to a nation that's clearly not serving God, and you have the oracles of God? How does this happen? It's like we talked about this morning. You know, oftentimes on Sundays you'll find a theme. You know, and it's like, I didn't even plan this. Like this morning we talked about how did Peter go from Jesus saying, blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, to just a few verses later, get thee behind me, Satan. It's almost the same thing here. You're literally watching Amaziah go from what we would say hero to zero in 60 seconds, okay? And of course, we're gonna take a look at all that here in just a moment. So verse 13, and Jehoash, king of Israel, took Amaziah, king of Judah, the son of Jehoash, the son of Ahaziah, at Beth Shemeth, and came to Jerusalem and break down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim onto the corner gate, 400 cubits. Okay, so this guy does some damage. He comes in there and really makes his mark. Verse 14, and he took all the gold and silver and all the vessels that were found in the house of the Lord and in the treasures of the king's house and hostages and returned to Samaria. So the king of Israel here does some damage, okay? Takes monetary resources out of there, does damage to the wall, takes hostages, and I mean, it's just devastating. This is absolutely humiliating. How do you go from verse three, where it says that Amaziah did that, which was right in the eyes of the Lord, for him going over to Edom, having this victory, putting those people back under his thumb, back under subjection, to calling out a nation that's clearly violating the word of God, they're far removed from the days of Jeho, okay? How do you go from losing to them? How do you go from, I mean, from winning this battle and having these good things said about you to absolutely getting destroyed and getting mobbed? How does that happen? Well, let's find out. Go to 2 Chronicles chapter number 25, 2 Chronicles chapter number 25. This is where you have to go to fill in the story here. Because remember, 2 Kings is primarily geared, at least up until this point, to the northern kings of Israel. To get the other part of the story, we want to go to 2 Chronicles chapter number 25. Now, let's take a look at, let's see, let's look at verse number five. So the Bible says, moreover, Amaziah gathered Judah together and made them captains over thousands and captains over hundreds, according to the houses of their fathers throughout all Judah and Benjamin. And he numbered them from 20 years old and above and found them 300,000 choice men able to go forth to war that could handle spear and shield. So he's trying to recover the military here and he's doing an okay job. He's putting things together here because he has goals. He has some ambition. He wants to go out and win some battles. And so he's starting to be successful, but he kind of makes a foolish move here and he's gonna get rebuked for this. Look at verse six. He hired also 100,000 mighty men of valor out of Israel for 100 talents of silver, okay? So again, I mean, think about what's going on here. He's putting his military together. The Bible says he did that, which was right in the eyes of the Lord, okay? He wants to go up to Edom and he wants to smite these guys. And he thinks, okay, I've got 300,000 choice men. They can handle spear, they can handle that shield, but I need more people, okay? So he initially decides he's gonna go recruit out of Israel. And so he pays 100 talents of silver, but there's a problem. Look at verse number seven. It says, but there came a man of God to him saying, oh king, let not the army of Israel go with thee. Now look at this next phrase very carefully. For the Lord is not with Israel to wit with all the children of Ephraim. Okay, now again, like I said at the beginning of the sermon, sometimes it'll just be called the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Other times it will just be referred to as Ephraim because Ephraim was one of the largest tribes in Israel. So this just adds to the complication here, doesn't it? It's like, what in the world is going on? God is not with Israel. So why are we reading about Judah losing a battle to Israel? What happened, what's going on here? Well, let's keep reading, look at verse eight. But if, because it's his choice, okay, the prophet is going to give the king a choice to follow the word of God or not. It says, but if thou will go, do it, be strong for the battle God shall make thee fall before the enemy. For God hath power to help and to cast down. If you don't remember anything else I say today, please remember that. God hath the power to, what does it say? Help and to what? Cast down. The size of your organization does not matter. It's the heart that matters. Are you seeking the Lord? Are you a group, a congregation after the heart of the Lord? That is literally what the prophet is telling the king. Okay, look at verse nine. And Amaziah said to the man of God, but what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel? And the man of God answered, the Lord is able to give thee much more than this. If Amaziah would have hearkened to this truth from this day forward, not just for the next battle, but for this day forward, it would have saved him from losing that battle in Israel. Let's take a look, verse 10. Then Amaziah separated them to it, the army that was come to him out of Ephraim to go home again. Wherefore, their anger was greatly kindled against Judah and they returned home again, or returned home in great anger. So obviously, Amaziah is a little concerned about the money. Okay, he's like, wait a second. I reserved these guys for me. I paid a hundred talents of silver. What about that? And the prophet's like, it's nothing. Don't even worry about it. God can give you much more than that. Obedience is better than sacrifice, okay? Obedience is better, is literally the chief thing. And God wants to know, and God wants the nation to know, is your king, is your leader going to be obedient to the word of God? Yes or no? So he decides to just let them go and keep the money. Okay, but guess what? Ephraim's upset. Hey, they're like, wait a second. Are you telling me we're not gonna get glory for this coming battle? Okay, we don't like that very much. That does not make us happy. And I've done this study before in this church, talking about the Ephraimites and how they love to go to battle. And if you told them they couldn't fight, they get upset. I mean, go back to Judges and go all the way back here. It's really interesting. And you can just see their attitude here, okay? They wanted the glory. But remember, God didn't want the Ephraimites, he didn't want the Northern kingdom going with the Southern kingdom because God wasn't with them, okay? Think about all the prophets that they have ignored, okay? I mean, even, yes, Jehu made his mistakes, but after that, I mean, it was showtime again. You know, they're not gonna listen to Elisha. They're not gonna listen to any of these other guys. They're not gonna listen to Joel, Micah, Nahum. They're not listening to any of these guys, okay? And so God's saying, hey, if you're gonna go to battle, go without them, okay? What else does that tell you? Well, that tells you we don't need these liberal churches around here in order for us to be successful in what we're trying to do for God, okay? We don't need them because God is not with them. They do not obey the word of God. In fact, they mock the word of God, and you guys know this. Verse 11, and Amaziah strengthened himself. Anybody have a red flag go off when they see that, and Amaziah strengthened himself? There's nothing wrong with you following a strength training routine or something like that. We do that, but what this is talking about here is the fact that he is solely at this point, yes, he's gonna be obedient to the word of God, but he is basically self-focused here. He's focused on strengthening himself, and you don't see anywhere where he's calling out to the Lord for help, okay? Verse 11, and Amaziah strengthened himself and led forth his people and went to the Valley of Salt and smoked the children of Seir, 10,000, just like we read in 2 Kings 14. Look at verse 12. 2 Chronicles 25, look at verse 12. And other 10,000 left alive did the children of Judah carry away captive and brought them unto the top of the rock and cast them down from the top of the rock, that they were all broken in pieces, okay? Now, again, you want proof that God wrote the Bible, well, there you have it. God does not censor things like this. He wants you to understand what is taking place here, okay? These people were like, hey, we're gonna make a statement by doing this, and when I read this, I mean, that's a statement, okay? Could you imagine being in the military and actually having to do something like that? You know, I mean, this is just insane when I read this. They just went up to a top of a rock and just started throwing these guys off. And the Bible's just like, yeah, and broke them into pieces. Verse 13, but the soldiers of the army, which Amaziah sent back, that they should not go with him to battle, fell upon the cities of Judah from Samaria, even unto Beth-Horon, and smoked 3,000 of them and took much spoil. And what you're seeing right there is literally a shadow picture of what's to come from the battle when Amaziah faces Joash, the northern king of Israel. Okay, so now for the big telltale answer here. Why does Amaziah lose to Joash? What is it that happened that made him go from this exhilarating victory to a humiliating defeat? Well, here it is, and this is a sad part, a very sad part of Amaziah's life. Look at this in verse 14. Remember, okay, remember what they just did. They conquered these people. They're throwing them off the top of a rock and breaking these people into pieces. Okay, and you say, wow, that's pretty gruesome. Yeah, it is. But it's in the Bible for a reason, okay? Now think about this. Did anybody save them out of the hand of Amaziah? No. Did their gods save them? No. Verse 14. Now it came to pass after that Amaziah was come from the slaughter of the Edomites, this blows my mind, that he brought the gods of the children of Seir and set them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself before them and burned incense unto them. You ever hear somebody say, you know, I'm starting to really lose faith in humanity? Okay, this story will help with that. How do you go from, yes, I will obey the man of God, I will obey the prophet, to, you know what, I'm gonna conquer this group of people here with the help of God, with 100,000 less people, okay? I'm gonna conquer these people and seeing this battle take place, watching these people be thrown off the top of a rock and no one being able to help them, knowing the fact that they have their own gods, their own idols, and those idols couldn't help them. And Amaziah's like, I've got a great idea. Excellent idea, guys, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna take their gods to be my god. And in fact, I'll even burn some incense unto them. What in the world? So you wanna talk about how not to lose a stare down? How not to lose a spiritual battle? Don't be stupid. I don't know a better way to say it, don't be dumb. This is absolute insanity to me, craziness. But it's what happened and it's just absolutely mind-boggling. Look at verse 15. Wherefore the anger of, who? The Lord was kindled against Amaziah and he sent unto him a prophet which said unto him, why has thou sought after the gods of the people which could not deliver their own people out of thine hand? That's a great question. That's an excellent question. I mean, I wish I could just see the look on his face. Like, was there any emotion at all? Was there any thought? Was there even an excuse? Any kind of reason? Verse 16, and it came to pass as he talked with them that the king said unto him, art thou made of the king's counsel? So it's like, do you have a college degree? Are you a therapist? What's your background? How many people have you helped? Get your resume out. That's basically what Amaziah is saying. Talk about having your heart hardened. I mean, talk about literally pinning someone up against the wall with the facts where there's no way out and they're just like, who made you a judge? Are you a counselor? Is your job title counselor? Are you a doctor? That's my favorite one. Are you a doctor? I mean, literally, that's what's going on here. It says, forbear. Why shouldest thou be smitten? So he's like, stop, shut your mouth. Why should you be smitten? Why should you get hit? Then the prophet forbear and said, I know that God hath determined to destroy thee because thou hast done this and hast not hearkened unto my counsel. So it's funny here how Amaziah tells this prophet to be quiet and brings up the fact that he could be smitten, that he could be slapped across the face or however they were gonna do that. And he's like, yeah, I know you're gonna be destroyed by God. Okay, that's how you know you're dealing with a real prophet. When the world is telling him to stop, when professing Christianity is telling you to stop, and you're like, no, I'm not gonna stop. I'm gonna keep going. In fact, I will forbear after I say this, you're done. You're history, you're absolutely through. Look at verse 17. Then Amaziah king of Judah took advice, okay? So now he's gonna go down to the university or he's gonna go to the doctor's clinic and he's actually going to actually take some advice here, but it's the wrong advice. It's not the advice from the prophets of God. It's not advice from godly people. It says, and sent to Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, come let us see one another in the face. Now let's go back to 2 Kings 14. Okay, so why did Amaziah feel the need to step up to Joash, the king of the northern kingdom of Israel? Because of pride. He is fully inflamed, completely engulfed in pride. And where does that pride come from? It comes from ignoring the word of God. Go read through the book of Deuteronomy. Okay, we bring this up all the time. I think it's Deuteronomy 17 where God basically says, hey, there's coming a day when you guys aren't gonna like this system of judges. You're gonna want yourself a king. And guess what? When that day comes, you better make sure that that king writes down a copy of this law for himself. I don't think Amaziah did that. I just have a feeling that he neglected to do that. But in that passage, the Bible says, if that king does not do that, that his heart would be lifted up above his brethren. And you and I, a lot of people in here, we know that some of the most arrogant, puffed up Christians are the ones that don't read the Bible. They're the ones, like I had this today. And this lady, she's like, well, I go to church, I go to Jimmy Swaggart's church on TV. And now Jimmy Swaggart's a guy who got caught with prostitutes and stuff back in the day. Real popular televangelist, money preaching liar down in Louisiana. And I was trying to get the conversation going, trying to find out what she believed about salvation. And she says, well, I believe that you can't go to a bar and still go to heaven. I'm like, hmm, I wonder if she'd be shocked to find out that this guy's probably in heaven. And I brought some things up. I was like, well, she's like, well, you definitely can't kill somebody. You can't murder somebody and still go to heaven. I was like, well, what about David? Well, he repented for that. I was like, okay. What about King Saul who committed suicide? Well, you know, you just had an excuse. Are you of Jimmy Swaggart's counsel is basically kind of how she put it. She didn't quite say it like that, but that's basically what she meant. And that's the attitude of a lot of people today. And what is that? That breeds pride. Okay, that breeds pride. The Bible says that knowledge puffeth up. We're not against knowledge. Get all the knowledge you can. Listen to all the sermons that you can, but here's the thing. You better do the reading for yourself. You better have some application because like I always, God's intention for that knowledge is that it would be turned into wisdom. And the way that you do that, the bridge that you have to cross in order to do that is gonna require you to make some mistakes. And those mistakes are going to insert humility into your life, okay? And that's what you have got to understand. And as I, of course, doesn't do that. Follows the prophet earlier in his life here with the battle of the Edomites. It's okay, I'll go and follow that. I'll tell these Israelites to go back because God's not with them. And then all of a sudden, he takes their stupid idols and makes them his gods. Absolutely completely insane. And that is how he loses that face off. That is how he loses that stare down because he completely turned his back on serving God. He went to the world, we could say. And you know what? Yes, there are Christians all over the place that do the same thing that Amaziah does. They get hot for a season. Oh yeah, the world this, the world that, and the next thing you know, you see them fully engaged in the world. Though they haven't lost their salvation if they were saved to begin with. But the fact of the matter is they're gonna lose some battles. They're gonna lose some stare downs. They're gonna lose some issues in life and be confused as to why that even happened. And won't even be able to explain it to you why it is that they are losing and their life is just in perils and so on and so forth. So let's move on here, verse 15. Now the rest of the acts of Jehoash, now the rest of the acts of Jehoash, which he did and his might and how he fought with Amaziah king of Judah, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? And we just read that, so yes. Verse 16, and Jehoash slept with his fathers and was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel. And Jeroboam, his son, reigned in his stead. Now, if you go back to your chart, you'll see that this is Jeroboam and we have a two after that. This is the second Jeroboam, okay? Not to be confused with Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. Verse 17, and Amaziah, the son of Jehoash, king of Judah, lived after the death of Jehoash, son of Jehoaz, king of Israel, 15 years. So think about this. Amaziah had to live 15 years after he got mopped and humiliated by Jehoash, king of Israel, okay? Definitely not the way that we want to go down in our lives. Verse 18, and the rest of the acts of Amaziah, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And of course, you know that to be chapter 25. Look at verse 19. It says, now they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem and he fled to Lakish, but they sent after him to Lakish and slew him there. So because of Amaziah and how later in his life he turned from following God, so if you finish reading 2 Chronicles 25, you'll see he turns from following God. It doesn't say loss of salvation. He just turned from following God. He went fully back into the world and where did he learn that behavior from? From daddy, from his dad. He learned that from Jehoash, his father, who himself was rescued with a great rescue, okay? I mean, he was the last of the line of the seed of David. God protected him. God used Jehoiada the priest to nurture him, to raise him up, gave him wives. Should have just gave him one. Maybe that's part of the problem, but nonetheless, okay, gave him all of this stuff. Jehoiada dies. What does Jehoash do? He yokes up with the cool crowd, with the new evangelicals, and he starts to take advice from them. And the next thing you know, the temple's downgraded. Oh, it's not really this and that. You know, God's just kind of in all of us. And by the way, we don't like this fundamentalist guy. What was his name? Oh, Zechariah, the prophet. We don't like him talking about all this stuff and, you know, trying to bring us back to the word of God. Let's just kill him. Let's just shut him up. Let's just cancel him and we'll do it in the temple, okay? That attitude floated on to Amaziah, his son. This is why it is so important for us, and yes, we all make mistakes, but to serve God with all of our hearts because our kids are watching. You say, well, I don't have any kids. Well, there's some kid in here watching you, and you need to understand that. Verse 18. Verse 19 says, now they made conspiracy against him in Jerusalem and he fled to Lakish, but of course, it says, but they sent after him to Lakish and slew him there. Verse 20, and they brought him on horses and he was buried at Jerusalem with his fathers in the city of David. Now, sometimes you'll read through these kings and you'll see, well, this king was so bad, they didn't even bury him. They buried him separately, okay? He was such garbage, they didn't even bury him with his fathers. Amaziah did enough in his life, just like Joash did enough in his life to where they were like, okay, this king needs to be put down, but he did enough in his life to serve God where we'll go ahead and respect and honor him with the tradition of burying him with his fathers. Verse 21, and all the people of Judah took Azariah, this is also, his name is Uzziah, or Uzziah in 2 Chronicles, but it says, took Azariah, which was 16 years old, and made him king instead of his father, Amaziah. He built Elath and restored it to Judah. After that, the king slept with his fathers. So just a quick mention of him there. Now the chapter is gonna bring you back to the northern kingdom, because remember, that is the primary focus until they are carried away by the Assyrian Empire, which we're coming very quickly upon here in a couple weeks. Verse 23, it says this. In the 15th year of Amaziah, the son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel, began to reign in Samaria, and he reigned 40 and one years. So he's gonna wind up reigning longer than Amaziah reigned in Judah. Verse 24, and he did that, which was evil in the sight of the Lord. He departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. Now we're not gonna get deep involved into Jeroboam II's life, but if you study his life, you're gonna find that there are periods in his life where he listens to the prophets, and where he actually gets rescued by God, and a couple of those are gonna be mentioned here very quickly for us, but we're just about done. Let's see here, look at verse 25. He restored the coasts of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the Lord, God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant, Jonah the son of Amittai the prophet, which was of Gathhephir. Now on Wednesday nights, when we were going through our series, minor prophets, major problems. I brought you guys to this passage here just to kinda show you how during Jeroboam II's reign, there is a mention of Jonah the prophet here, okay? So you can kinda see now, maybe if you have your prophets chart, you can kinda put these together and say okay, I get it here, so we're past obviously the major prophets and you're starting to move towards the end of the Bible here, even chronologically. Verse 26, it says, for the Lord saw the affliction of Israel that it was very bitter, for there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel. And really you're just seeing God's abundant mercy and grace. I mean, we read earlier in the chapter, okay? God sent a prophet to Amaziah and said, send these clowns back because God is not with Israel. However, God is gonna show you how merciful that he really is and he's gonna help the northern kingdom out, despite Jeroboam II's sins of, you know, the golden calves and all of that stuff. Look at verse 27, it says, and the Lord said not that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam, the son of Joash. And one of the reasons why he saves them, this guy did evil on the side of the Lord, but he's not like Ahab, okay? He's not like Athaliah, he's not like Omri and these guys. He's, you know, just doing, he's just a worldly king. That's what the Bible is saying. But nonetheless, God is still trying to show his love for the nation. He's trying to give them every single chance that he possibly can before the coming invasion, before they're gonna be carried away captive. Verse, oh, and not to mention there, you know, you don't ever read in the Kings that Jeroboam and Jonah have any kind of beef. Okay, he seems to listen, he seems to hearken a little bit to the prophet. You know, he's not trying to kill him, which we've seen over and over again. He's not doing the Jezebel or the Ahab, like I'll just look over here while my satanic wife destroys the people of God. Okay, so he's not doing that. And God does count that, he does take that into consideration and goes ahead and rescues these folks. Verse 28, look at verse 27 again. It says, and the Lord said, not that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam, the son of Joash. Verse 28, now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam and all that he did and his might, how he warred, and how he recovered Damascus and Hamath, which belonged to Judah for Israel, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? And Jeroboam slept with his fathers, even with the kings of Israel, and Zechariah his son reigned in his stead. Zechariah being the 15th king from Jeroboam the first in the period of the divided kingdom. Okay, so keep those kings charts. We're gonna bust them out next week because we have probably what, four, at least four kings that chapter 15 is gonna blast through, so keep those. If you need one, let me know. I will get you one. But I mean, the big lesson today is obviously, you know, don't think, none of us, hopefully none of us in here are ignorant enough to think that we can just completely do a 180 on God, being saved, and expect him to still fight all our battles and everything to just go completely smooth, okay? It doesn't work like that. God will get your attention. Chastening is a real doctrine, and God will chasten those whom he loves. And obviously, he loved Amaziah, and Amaziah did some crazy things, and God said, okay, I'm gonna get your attention. And if you're not gonna play nice, guess what? I guess it's time to come home. And it doesn't say this, but I believe that is why his life ended at that 15-year mark after that battle, which is still pretty young because remember, he was only 25 years old when he began to reign, so he did not live a long and prosperous life like he maybe would have been able to had he hearkened unto the prophets and kept the sayings of the man of God. So again, you wanna win those battles, win those stare downs, win those face-offs, you wanna call out the queers and call out all these people and not lose, you gotta be doing what the Lord said, okay? You wanna be on his side in your heart. Let's stop right there for tonight and bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for your word, for your truth, and for allowing us to be able to meet here. And I just pray that you'd bless the fellowship after the service and bring us all back again safely on Wednesday. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Thank you.