God’s Word for You
2 Chronicles 25:13-17 Come, let us meet
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Friday, May 2, 2025
13 But the men of the army that Amaziah sent back, keeping them from going with him into battle, fell on the cities of Judah from Samaria to Beth Horon. they killed three thousand people from those cities, and they took a lot of plunder.
This incident apparently set Judah and Israel at war. Beth Horon was actually a pair of ancient fortresses, Upper and Lower Beth Horon, which had been rebuilt by Solomon (2 Chronicles 8:5). The phrasing of this verse is unusual, and although it sounds as if Samaria was a city of Judah, it was not; it was the capital of Israel. It seems most likely that the Ephraimites returned to Samaria after Amaziah discharged them, and having returned, their anger boiled over and they marches on Judah, raiding towns and villages along the way until they raided the two Beth Horon fortresses.
14 Now after Amaziah returned from the slaughter of the Edomites, he brought along the gods of the people of Seir, set them up as his own gods. He worshiped them and made offerings to them. 15 The LORD was angry with Amaziah and sent a prophet to him, who said to him, “Why are you seeking the gods who could not deliver their own people from your hand?” 16 But as he was speaking the king said to him, “Have we made you a royal counselor? Stop! Why should you be put to death?” So the prophet stopped speaking, but he said, “I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this and have not listened to my advice.”
The approaching war with Israel is introduced by the foolish act of Amaziah, who stole the little god-statutes of the Edomites and decided to worship them. He was hoping for luck or some other nonsense.
The main idol of Edom had become Qos, pronounced with a long “o,” either “Kose” or “Kosh.” His name appears in the Bible only in the name “Barkos” in Ezra 2:53 and Nehemiah 7:55. In fact, some people have wondered why this deity is not directly named in the Bible, and there are some interesting speculations, but we really don’t know.
The Lord sent yet another prophet to Amaziah, whose argument made perfectly logical sense: Why would anyone conquer a nation, capture its gods, and then bow down to those gods that couldn’t rescue the people who had been worshiping them before the war? Why not worship the God who actually gave you the victory, and had even promised that victory beforehand? For “God has the power to help or overthrow” (25:8).
Jeremiah warned about false gods: “This is what the LORD says. Do not learn the ways of the nations, or be frightened by signs in the heavens, although the nations are frightened by them. The rituals of the peoples are worthless. They cut down a tree in the forest. Then the hands of a craftsman work it with an ax. They decorate it with silver and gold, but they have to nail it down with hammers, so that it will not tip over. Their idols are like a scarecrow in a melon patch. They cannot speak. They must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them. They can do no harm, nor can they do any good. No one is like you, LORD. You are great and your name is powerful” (Jeremiah 10:2-6). Isaiah talks the same way (Isaiah 41:7).
Amaziah simply told the prophet to shut up. He also threatened to put the man to death, which is what his father had done to the prophet Zechariah, and so the threat certainly had teeth. But on his way out, the prophet turned (I’m imagining the turn but nothing else) and said, “God has determined to destroy you, because you haven’t listened to my words, and because of what you have done.”
17 Then King Amaziah of Judah consulted with his advisors and sent a challenge to King Jehoash son of Jehoahaz son of Jehu of Israel, saying, “Come, let us meet face to face.”
Amaziah let the prophet go, but then he had a meeting with his advisors and decided that they had to answer this attack by Israel with an attack of their own. It was a reasonable response, and hadn’t the Lord said to Amaziah, “The Lord is able to give you much more”? But now he was planning an attack after throwing away his faith for some clay or wooden figurines. Dolls with weird crowns and creepy eyes.
His challenge mentioned King Jehoash’s lineage. He was the third king in the second dynasty of the northern kingdom. In the early days there had been many assassinations, but Omri’s line had gone as far as his great-grandson, and now a new line descended from the powerful Jehu was on the throne. The challenge also bypassed subordinates. “Let’s see each other face to face.” Perhaps he was willing to allow a political answer to the trouble. If Jehoash of Israel claimed that the raid was not by his order, he could punish the raiding party and offer peace once again with Judah. And maybe Amaziah wanted to see the eyes of his counterpart while this was going on, for “the wise man has eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness” (Ecclesiastes 2:14), and haughty, arrogant eyes are despised by the Lord (Proverbs 6:17).
But which of the two kings was being haughty and arrogant? They had both won minor victories. They had both turned away from the Lord. What did either of them hope to win?
When people forget about their need for the Lord God, they run the worst risk in life. This is why we to keep reading his word, so that his law and the accounts of those who broke his law can show us our sins and our need for a Savior, and so that the gospel can reveal our Savior in dazzling and joyful light. Consider what Amaziah said to Jehoash, and place the very same words in the lips of Jesus our Savior on Judgment Day! What better words will there be? “Come, let us meet face to face!”
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.