2 Chronicles 25:17 - Meaning and Application

Here we see a fallen prince first humbled by a neighbor, then killed by his own people.

Amaziah’s pride was fully shamed by Joash, king of Israel. This part of the story was already told in (2 Kings 14:8) and following, but it is repeated here in more detail. Amaziah sent a foolish challenge to Joash (2 Chronicles 25:17), and Joash answered with sharp scorn, along with friendly advice that Amaziah should stay quiet and be content with what he had (2 Chronicles 25:18-19). Amaziah refused to listen and kept pressing his challenge (2 Chronicles 25:20-21), and then came his defeat (2 Chronicles 25:22) and the trouble he brought on himself and his city (2 Chronicles 25:23-24).

This story proves two of Solomon’s proverbs. First, pride brings a person low, because it leads on toward destruction and often becomes the very reason for it. “He who lifts himself up will be brought down” (Proverbs 29:23). Second, anyone who rushes into a quarrel will likely not know what to do when the other person has humiliated him (Proverbs 25:8). A person who loves conflict may get more of it than he ever expected.

There are also two details here that were not in Kings. Amaziah did seek advice before challenging the king of Israel (2 Chronicles 25:17), but not from a prophet. He did not ask a man who spoke for God. He asked his officials, the kind of men who would flatter him and tell him to go up and succeed. It is good to seek counsel, but only from people who are fit to give it. Those who will not take advice from God’s word, which would lead them rightly, are often left to the bad advice of others, advice that ruins them. Let those who refuse wisdom be made fools.

Amaziah’s bad judgment was also the punishment for his sin against God (2 Chronicles 25:20). It was from the Lord. God left him to himself, so that he would act foolishly and bring disaster on himself and his people, because they had abandoned God and turned to the gods of Edom. Those who will not be persuaded to do what is right for their souls are often given over to their own plans, and those plans bring harm even in their outward affairs.

We also see a poor prince pursued violently by his own subjects. After he turned away from the Lord, or from the time he departed from the Lord (2 Chronicles 25:27), the hearts of his people also turned from him, and they began to plot against him in Jerusalem. It is likely they were angered more by his reckless war against Israel than by his worship of Edom’s gods. In the end, the plot became so serious that he fled Jerusalem and went to Lachish, perhaps to hide in a private place or to find safety in a strong city. But they followed him there and killed him.

This shows that his death was done deliberately. It was not the work of one angry servant or two, but of a larger group bold enough to carry it out openly. However wrong they were, God was still right.