II Kings 14; II Chronicles 25
Imagine this… Your favorite NFL team wins the Super Bowl. Hoorah! The team owner then immediately trades the entire team — coaching staff, star quarterback, everybody — for the team with the worst record in the league. Sports commentators go nuts. Everyone jeers. Boo! Hiss! But against all better counsel the owner persists and seals the deal. Predictably, the Super Bowl Champions drop to the bottom of the league the next season. Who could be so stupid?
Apparently, Amaziah, king of Judah, is:
After Amaziah came from striking down the Edomites, he brought the gods of the men of Seir and set them up as his gods and worshiped them, making offerings to them. Therefore the LORD was angry with Amaziah and sent to him a prophet, who said to him, “Why have you sought the gods of a people who did not deliver their own people from your hand?”
II Chronicles 25:14-15
Just as with our imagined football team, things do not go well for Amaziah after that, especially when he picks a fight with big brother Israel. But this is no game. It is deadly serious.
Unfortunately, Amaziah is not alone. Our choices may not present themselves quite so obviously to us as our silly football example or Amaziah’s idolatry. But which of us can say we haven’t made similarly bad choices in one way or another? We know that money, for example, cannot buy happiness, yet we pursue it as if it could. We know that status and prestige do not really satisfy, yet we pursue those, too. We know that our true identity and worth is in Christ, yet we look for identity everywhere else. We know that physical beauty is only skin deep, yet we spend enormous resources on apparel, make up, hair care, cosmetic surgery, etc., bowing down to our own vanity. We look for approval from our fellow humans, and we neglect to please the only One Who really matters.
Surely Amaziah has plenty of company.