The Almost Reformation: Amaziah's Compromise
Introduction: The Danger of Doing 'Right-ish'
We live in an age that despises sharp antithesis. Our culture, and sadly, much of the church, prefers the mushy middle. We want our kings, our pastors, and our politicians to be 'nice,' to be reasonable, to do what is 'right-ish.' We want a little bit of God's law, but not so much that it makes anyone uncomfortable. We want a dash of justice, but not the kind that actually executes murderers. We want to worship God, but we also want to keep our comfortable, convenient, and culturally-acceptable high places. This is the spirit of the age, and it is the spirit of King Amaziah.
The book of Kings is a relentless record of God's covenant dealings with His people, specifically with their kings. The king was the federal head of the nation. As the king went, so went the nation. When the king was faithful, the nation was blessed. When the king compromised, the nation rotted from the head down. And in this history, God gives us a clear, non-negotiable standard for faithfulness: King David. David was not a perfect man, not by a long shot, but he was a man after God's own heart. His heart was wholly devoted to Yahweh. He loved God's law, he established true worship, and when he sinned, he repented like a man whose bones were broken.
Amaziah, the king we consider today, is the poster boy for the almost-reformation. He is the patron saint of the half-measure. The text tells us he "did what was right in the sight of Yahweh," which sounds like a promising start. But it is immediately qualified with two devastating critiques: "yet not like David his father," and "the high places were not taken away." This is the story of a man who inherited a reformation, who had the law of God in his hands, and who managed to do just enough to be respectable, but not enough to be faithful. He was a B+ king in a kingdom that required A+ obedience. And in the covenant, a B+ is a failing grade. This passage is a warning to us about the mortal danger of the respectable compromise, the convenient syncretism, and the obedient-but-not-quite faith that plagues the modern church.
The Text
In the second year of Joash son of Joahaz king of Israel, Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah became king. He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jehoaddin of Jerusalem. And he did what was right in the sight of Yahweh, yet not like David his father; he did according to all that Joash his father had done. Only the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. Now it happened as soon as the kingdom was strong in his hand, that he struck down his servants who had struck down the king his father. But the sons of those who struck him down he did not put to death, according to what is written in the book of the Law of Moses, which Yahweh commanded, saying, “Fathers shall not be put to death for their sons, nor sons be put to death for their fathers; but each shall be put to death for his own sin.” He struck down 10,000 of Edom in the Valley of Salt and seized Sela by war and named it Joktheel to this day.
(2 Kings 14:1-7 LSB)
The Davidic Standard (vv. 1-3)
The account begins with the standard historical markers, but quickly gets to the spiritual evaluation.
"And he did what was right in the sight of Yahweh, yet not like David his father; he did according to all that Joash his father had done." (2 Kings 14:3)
Here is the central tension of Amaziah's reign. He did what was right. From a distance, his reign looked good. He wasn't a Baal-worshipper like Ahab. He wasn't sacrificing his children to Molech. By the standards of the pagan nations around him, or even the apostate northern kingdom of Israel, Amaziah was a fine, upstanding ruler. But God does not grade on a curve. He has an absolute standard, and that standard is personified in David.
Why David? Because David's heart was undivided. David loved the Lord, he loved His law, and he established the worship of God in Jerusalem according to God's commands. When David sinned, he was utterly broken by it. He didn't make excuses; he confessed and repented. The issue was not sinless perfection; the issue was the orientation of the heart. David's heart was oriented toward God like a compass needle points north. The hearts of kings like Amaziah were oriented toward God-plus-something-else. God plus political stability. God plus popular opinion. God plus personal convenience.
Notice the second qualifier: "he did according to all that Joash his father had done." His father Joash also started well, guided by Jehoiada the priest, but when his godly counselor died, he turned away from the Lord (2 Chron. 24). Amaziah's obedience was derivative. He was copying his father's early successes, going through the motions of a reformation he did not possess in his own heart. This is the religion of traditionalism, not true faith. It is doing the right things for the wrong reasons, or for no reason at all other than "that's how we've always done it." This kind of faith has no root, and it cannot stand when the pressure comes.
The Stubborn High Places (v. 4)
The specific nature of his compromise is then laid bare.
"Only the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places." (2 Kings 14:4 LSB)
What were the high places? Originally, before the Temple was built, men like Abraham and Samuel offered sacrifices to Yahweh on high places. But once God had chosen Jerusalem and placed His name there, all other places of sacrifice were outlawed (Deut. 12). The high places had become centers of syncretistic worship. It was a blending of Yahweh-worship with Canaanite practices. It was convenient. It was local. It was the people's preference. It was also rank disobedience.
Tearing down the high places was the true test of a reforming king. It meant confronting the will of the people. It meant centralizing worship in Jerusalem as God commanded. It meant declaring that God gets to decide how He is to be worshipped, not us. Amaziah failed this test. Why? Because it would have been hard. It would have been unpopular. It required a level of conviction that he simply did not have. He was willing to be righteous, so long as it didn't cost him anything.
This is a perpetual temptation for the church. We confess the right God, but we want to worship Him in our own way, on our own terms. We erect high places of emotionalism, or pragmatism, or entertainment. We tolerate doctrinal compromise because taking a stand is messy. We refuse to exercise church discipline because it's awkward. We want a faith that is convenient and comfortable, and we will sacrifice the clear commands of Scripture to get it. Amaziah's failure is our failure.
Partial Obedience in Civil Justice (vv. 5-6)
Next, we see an area where Amaziah did, in fact, obey the letter of the law, and it is commended.
"Now it happened as soon as the kingdom was strong in his hand, that he struck down his servants who had struck down the king his father. But the sons of those who struck him down he did not put to death, according to what is written in the book of the Law of Moses..." (2 Kings 14:5-6 LSB)
This is a bright spot. First, he fulfilled his duty as the civil magistrate to execute justice. He waited until his rule was secure, and then he applied the sword against the murderers of his father, as God requires (Gen. 9:6). He did not let sentiment or fear prevent him from punishing evildoers.
Second, and more remarkably, he restrained his justice according to the specific command of God's law. The pagan custom of the day was blood vengeance, where the entire family of a traitor would be wiped out. But Amaziah knew his Bible. He knew Deuteronomy 24:16, which explicitly forbids this. "Fathers shall not be put to death for their sons, nor sons be put to death for their fathers; but each shall be put to death for his own sin." This is a foundational principle of biblical justice: individual responsibility. Guilt is not corporate. It is not generational in a legal sense. Justice must be precise.
This is a direct rebuke to the collectivist ideologies that plague us today, whether from the Marxist left, with its notions of generational guilt and group oppression, or from certain corners of the racialist right. God's law judges individuals based on their own actions. Amaziah, to his credit, upheld this. He shows us that it is possible for a ruler to read God's law and apply it directly to matters of state. This is the foundation of true liberty and justice. But this one act of laudable obedience only highlights his failure with the high places. He was willing to obey when it consolidated his power and cost him little, but he was unwilling to obey when it required real, costly, reformation.
Righteous Conquest (v. 7)
The final verse in our section records a significant military victory.
"He struck down 10,000 of Edom in the Valley of Salt and seized Sela by war and named it Joktheel to this day." (2 Kings 14:7 LSB)
Edom were the descendants of Esau, and they were perennial enemies of God's people. This was not an act of imperialistic aggression; it was an act of covenantal judgment. God had given Judah dominion, and Amaziah was exercising that dominion by subduing God's enemies. This victory was a sign of God's blessing on his reign, a taste of the success that comes with even partial obedience. When a king acts in accordance with his God-given authority, whether in executing justice at home or in defeating enemies abroad, God grants him success.
This is a picture, in miniature, of the mission of the church. We are engaged in a holy war, not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. Our weapon is not the sword of steel, but the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. We are commanded to go into the world, to the strongholds of Edom, and to seize them for Christ. We are to tear down the strongholds of unbelief and rebellion and rename them for the glory of God. This is the postmillennial task of the church: to see the gospel advance, to see the nations discipled, and to see the crown rights of King Jesus acknowledged over every square inch of His creation. Amaziah's victory was a temporary, physical picture of the ultimate spiritual victory that Christ is winning through His church.
Conclusion: Tear Down Your High Places
The story of Amaziah is a tragedy of 'almost.' He was almost a great king. He had an almost-reformation. He was almost wholly devoted to the Lord. And that 'almost' was his ruin. Later in this chapter, we see how his heart, puffed up by his victory over Edom, leads him into a foolish war with Israel where he is utterly humiliated. His half-hearted obedience could not sustain him.
The lesson for us is sharp and clear. God is not interested in our almost-obedience. He is not impressed by our respectable compromises. He does not want us to do what is right-ish. He demands our whole heart. He demands that we worship Him in the way He has commanded, not in the ways we find convenient. He demands that we tear down every single high place in our lives.
What are your high places? What is the secret, tolerated sin you refuse to deal with? What is the area of your life, your family, your business, where you know what God's Word requires, but you refuse to obey because it would be too costly, too unpopular, too difficult? Is it your entertainment? Your finances? Your sexual ethics? Your refusal to submit to the authorities God has placed over you? That is your high place, and as long as it stands, your faith is the faith of Amaziah. It is a house built on sand.
The good news of the gospel is that we have a King who is not like Amaziah. We have a King who is greater than David. The Lord Jesus Christ did not come to have an almost-reformation. His obedience was perfect and complete. He did not leave a single high place standing. On the cross, He tore down the ultimate high place of our sin and rebellion. And He calls us to follow Him. He calls us to a radical, whole-hearted, uncompromising obedience, not to earn our salvation, but in grateful response to it. By His grace, through the power of His Spirit, let us be the kind of people who tear down our high places, and worship the Lord in spirit and in truth.