2 Kings 14

Amaziah who is king of Judah is pretty cocky since he has defeated Edom in battle.  He “sent an envoy to Jehoash” who is king of Israel, “challenging him to a fight”.  This sort of reminds me of a couple of young boys wanting to see who is more powerful, but these are the kings of two kingdoms.  Jehoash shows a bit more maturity and tries to talk reason into Amaziah.  He says “you now think you’re a big shot…..why bring defeat on yourself”.  Of course Amaziah won’t let it go and they do war and his army gets destroyed along with some of the city of Jerusalem.  His kingdom is also looted and he is captured.  All because Amaziah “wouldn’t take no for an answer”.  Guys – sometimes we get stupid and stubborn in life.  We approach God and He says no, but we just won’t give up.  We think we know best, we think we see better.  We just get plain stupid at times.  God wants us to live life that is filled with blessing and success.  After all, Jesus came “that you may have life in all abundance”.  But at the end of the day God doesn’t force that upon us, we have to choose it.  If we insist on doing battle with the enemy, we likely will get that chance.  If we insist on playing with fire, we likely will get burned.  The lesson of Amaziah here is very applicable to our lives every moment of every day.  We choose how we face the temptations that are in front of us.  God tells us in His word that “no temptation has overtaken you…without a way of escape”.  We don’t have to choose to do battle, except for the stubborn nature that is within us.  I see it over and over in the lives of men everywhere that we believe we are infallible and able to deal with every temptation.  It will only be this once….I am only going to look this once….it won’t happen again….and on it goes.  What was the bottom line of Amaziah’s fall – PRIDE.  Scripture tells us that pride goes before the fall.  Pride causes us to believe we can do more than we can and do it without God.  Read this section of scripture and see what happens.  God has a very important message for us as guys.  Life matters!