The Folly of Victorious Idolatry Text: 2 Chronicles 25:14-16
Introduction: The Intoxication of Success
There is a peculiar kind of spiritual blindness that afflicts men, not in the depths of their failure, but on the pinnacle of their success. Defeat can sometimes clarify the mind wonderfully. When you are flat on your back in the dust, you are often in a prime position to look up and see God. But victory, ah, victory is a heady wine. Success has a way of scrambling a man's wits, making him think he is the master of his own fate and the captain of his own soul. He wins a battle by the grace of God and promptly concludes he is a military genius who no longer needs to consult the Almighty.
This is the story of King Amaziah. He is a man who starts well, listens to the word of the Lord, and wins a great victory. But the spoils of that victory include not just plunder, but a fatal spiritual infection. He conquers the Edomites, and then, in an act of breathtaking stupidity, he gets conquered by their gods. He brings home the idols of a defeated people and sets them up for his own worship. This is not just a minor misstep; it is a complete theological meltdown. It is like a man being saved from a sinking ship and then deciding to worship the hole that let the water in.
The world is full of Amaziahs. We see men build successful businesses, ministries, or families, and then they begin to bow down to the very principles of the world they supposedly conquered. They adopt the world's metrics for success, its methods of operation, its idols of pragmatism, wealth, and influence. They win the battle and then surrender to the enemy's gods. This passage is a stark warning. It teaches us that the most dangerous moment for a Christian is not when he is embattled and struggling, but when he is triumphant and applauded. For it is then that pride whispers that the victory was his own, and that he is now qualified to be his own god, or at least to choose his own.
What we have here is a case study in the anatomy of apostasy. It begins with a victory, moves to an act of supreme folly, is met with a gracious divine warning, and concludes with a hardened rejection of that warning, which seals the man's doom. Let us pay close attention, for these are not just the annals of an ancient king; they are a mirror for our own hearts.
The Text
Now it happened that after Amaziah came from striking down the Edomites, he brought the gods of the sons of Seir, set them up as his gods, worshiped them, and burned incense to them.
Then the anger of Yahweh burned against Amaziah, and He sent him a prophet who said to him, “Why have you sought the gods of the people who have not delivered their own people from your hand?”
Now it happened that as he was talking with him, the king said to him, “Have we given you to be a royal counselor? Stop! Why should you be struck down?” Then the prophet stopped and said, “I know that God has counseled to destroy you, because you have done this and have not listened to my counsel.”
(2 Chronicles 25:14-16 LSB)
The Madness of Syncretism (v. 14)
We begin with the king's astonishing act of spiritual treason:
"Now it happened that after Amaziah came from striking down the Edomites, he brought the gods of the sons of Seir, set them up as his gods, worshiped them, and burned incense to them." (2 Chronicles 25:14)
To understand the sheer lunacy of this, we must remember the context. Amaziah had just been commanded by a prophet to dismiss 100,000 Israelite mercenaries he had hired, because the Lord was not with them. He obeyed, at great financial cost, and trusted in God alone. And God gave him a resounding victory over Edom. The God of Israel proved Himself to be the living God, the Lord of Hosts. The gods of Seir, on the other hand, had just proven themselves to be utterly impotent. They were MIA. They could not protect their own people from Amaziah's army.
So what does Amaziah do? He concludes that these useless, defeated gods are worthy of his worship. He brings these celestial POWs back to Jerusalem, sets them up, and bows down to them. This is worse than illogical; it is a spiritual insanity. It is like thanking the devil for your salvation. He is not replacing Yahweh entirely; he is adding to the pantheon. He wants Yahweh for the big military campaigns, apparently, but he wants these other trinkets for something else. This is syncretism, the blending of true worship with paganism, and it is an abomination to God.
God is not looking for a place on the board of directors of your life. He is the sole owner. The first commandment is not "Thou shalt have some other gods, but make sure I am the primary one." It is "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." The Hebrew means "in My presence" or "in My face." God will not tolerate rivals. To bring in other gods is to slap Him in the face. Amaziah's sin was not just a personal failing; it was high treason against the covenant King of Israel. He was polluting the holy city with the idols of a conquered, pagan nation, idols that had just been publicly humiliated by the power of Yahweh.
The Logic of God's Anger (v. 15)
God's response is immediate and righteous. His anger is not a petty tantrum; it is the holy reaction of a righteous King to treason. But notice how His anger manifests. It comes in the form of a gracious, logical, and pointed question.
"Then the anger of Yahweh burned against Amaziah, and He sent him a prophet who said to him, 'Why have you sought the gods of the people who have not delivered their own people from your hand?'" (2 Chronicles 25:15)
God sends a prophet. Before the judgment falls, grace appears. God does not strike Amaziah down on the spot. He sends a messenger to reason with him. This is the kindness of God, which is meant to lead us to repentance. The prophet's message is not a mystical oracle; it is a devastatingly simple argument. It is pure, sanctified logic.
The question is unanswerable. "Why are you worshipping gods who have a proven track record of failure? You just defeated their people. You are living proof of their impotence. If they could not save their own devotees, what on earth makes you think they can do anything for you?" This is the fundamental argument against all idolatry. Idols are useless. They have eyes, but cannot see; ears, but cannot hear. They are nothing. As Isaiah would later mock, a man cuts down a tree, uses half to warm himself and cook his dinner, and carves the other half into a god to whom he prays, "Deliver me, for you are my god!" (Isaiah 44:17). It is the height of folly.
This is the question we must ask of our own cultural idols. Why do we seek the approval of Hollywood, which cannot deliver its own people from misery and addiction? Why do we bow to the intellectual fads of the academy, which cannot deliver its own people from meaninglessness and despair? Why do we trust in government programs, which have a demonstrable record of making problems worse? We are chasing after the gods of the Edomites, gods that have been defeated again and again by the power of the gospel in history. God's question to Amaziah echoes down to us: Why?
The Arrogance of Rejecting Counsel (v. 16)
Amaziah has no answer for the prophet's logic. When a man's position is irrational, and he is confronted with the truth, he has two options: repent or lash out. Amaziah chooses the latter. He cannot answer the argument, so he attacks the messenger.
"Now it happened that as he was talking with him, the king said to him, 'Have we given you to be a royal counselor? Stop! Why should you be struck down?' Then the prophet stopped and said, 'I know that God has counseled to destroy you, because you have done this and have not listened to my counsel.'" (2 Chronicles 25:16)
The king's reply is dripping with pride and contempt. "Have we made you a royal counselor?" This is a jurisdictional challenge. He is saying, "Who do you think you are to speak to me this way? I am the king. You are a nobody. I didn't ask for your opinion." He pulls rank. When you cannot win the argument on the merits, you pull rank. This is the classic move of a man whose conscience has been pricked but whose heart is hard.
He then follows this up with a threat: "Stop! Why should you be struck down?" He threatens the prophet with violence. This is what happens when men love their sin more than the truth. They will seek to silence the truth-teller. The history of the church is filled with the blood of prophets who were struck down because they would not stop speaking the counsel of God to arrogant kings.
The prophet's response is chilling. He obeys the king's command to stop, but he gets the last word. "Then the prophet stopped and said, 'I know that God has counseled to destroy you, because you have done this and have not listened to my counsel.'" The logic is stark. God sent you His counsel through me. You have rejected that counsel. Therefore, God has now counseled your destruction. The door of grace, which was opened by the prophet's arrival, is now slammed shut by the king's rejection. The king who refuses to be counseled will be crushed. By refusing the word of God, Amaziah has signed his own death warrant. The very act of rejecting the warning becomes the final sin that makes the judgment inevitable.
Conclusion: The Counsel You Keep
The story of Amaziah is a tragedy in three acts. Act One: faithful obedience leading to victory. Act Two: prideful folly leading to idolatry. Act Three: hardened rebellion leading to judgment. The pivot point is his success. The victory God gave him became the occasion for his pride, and his pride led him to believe he no longer needed to listen to the inconvenient and uncredentialed voices of God's prophets.
This is the great danger for every successful Christian, every successful church, every successful movement. When God gives you victory over the Edomites, the temptation is to start collecting their idols. The temptation is to think that you have now graduated from the simple, sharp-edged rebukes of Scripture. You start to think you need more sophisticated counselors, men who will tickle your ears, men who are on the "royal council." You dismiss the faithful pastor or the plain-speaking friend as simplistic, as someone who doesn't understand the complexities you now face.
When you start asking for a man's credentials before you will hear the word of the Lord from him, you are in a dangerous place. When you threaten to silence the man who brings you a hard word from God, you are standing on the precipice of judgment. Amaziah wanted a counselor who was on his payroll, who would tell him what he wanted to hear. But God's counselors are on His payroll.
The final verdict on Amaziah is a terrible one. Because he would not listen to God's counsel, God counseled his destruction. The same is true for us. God's Word comes to us as a lamp to our feet, a guide for our path. It comes as a word of rebuke, of correction, and of training in righteousness. If we receive it, it is a counsel of life. But if we reject it, if we tell the prophet to be silent, that very same Word becomes a counsel of destruction. It stands as a witness against us. Jesus is the great Prophet, the ultimate Counselor. To reject His counsel is to invite certain ruin. But to receive it, to humble ourselves under His mighty hand, is to find grace, mercy, and life, even after we have been foolish enough to dally with the gods of Edom.