Much More Than That

Kevin DeYoung post:  Kings of Judah: Amaziah’s God of Plenty

2 Chronicles 25:1-28
“The Lord is able to give you much more than this.” (v. 9b)

Amaziah’s reign was far from perfect, but it did include a great victory.

Amaziah marshaled together 300,000 fighting men to fight against Edom. Just to be safe, he hired 100,000 Israelite mercenaries for a hundred talents of silver. But a man of God warned the king otherwise, saying “the Lord is not with Israel” (v. 7). “But what about the hundred talents I paid for these Israelite troops,” asked Amaziah (v. 8). The man of God replied with one of my favorite lines in the Bible, “The Lord can give you much more than that” (9). So Amaziah dismissed the troops and won the battle.

God seems to enjoy victory most when it seems most improbable. He turned away most of Gideon’s men, accomplished salvation through death on a cross, and displays his glory in jars of clay. God loves to beat the odds. And he loves it when we trust him for more than we can ask or imagine. Some people think this means that God will make them rich and healthy. That’s the wrong application of this passage. But never taking risks for God is also wrong. Recklessness is bad, but so is faithlessness. “Depend on it,” Hudson Taylor famously remarked, “God’s work done in God’s way, will never lack God’s supplies.”