Study Desk

The account of the sons of Joash, the prophecies about him, and the record of his restoration of the Temple of God are written in The Commentary on the Book of the Kings. His son Amaziah became the next king.

But a man of God came to him and said, "Your Majesty, do not hire troops from Israel, for the Lord is not with Israel. He will not help those people of Ephraim!

If you let them go with your troops into battle, you will be defeated by the enemy no matter how well you fight. God will overthrow you, for he has the power to help you or to trip you up."

Amaziah asked the man of God, "But what about all that silver I paid to hire the army of Israel?" The man of God replied, "The Lord is able to give you much more than this!"

But the king interrupted him and said, "Since when have I made you the king's counselor? Be quiet now before I have you killed!" So the prophet stopped with this warning: "I know that God has determined to destroy you because you have done this and have refused to accept my counsel."

But Amaziah refused to listen, for God was determined to destroy him for turning to the gods of Edom.

He carried off all the gold and silver and all the articles from the Temple of God that had been in the care of Obed-edom. He also seized the treasures of the royal palace, along with hostages, and then returned to Samaria.

Uzziah sought God during the days of Zechariah, who taught him to fear God. And as long as the king sought guidance from the Lord , God gave him success.

God helped him in his wars against the Philistines, his battles with the Arabs of Gur, and his wars with the Meunites.

But when he had become powerful, he also became proud, which led to his downfall. He sinned against the Lord his God by entering the sanctuary of the Lord 's Temple and personally burning incense on the incense altar.

They confronted King Uzziah and said, "It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord . That is the work of the priests alone, the descendants of Aaron who are set apart for this work. Get out of the sanctuary, for you have sinned. The Lord God will not honor you for this!"

King Jotham became powerful because he was careful to live in obedience to the Lord his God.

Because of all this, the Lord his God allowed the king of Aram to defeat Ahaz and to exile large numbers of his people to Damascus. The armies of the king of Israel also defeated Ahaz and inflicted many casualties on his army.

In a single day Pekah son of Remaliah, Israel's king, killed 120,000 of Judah's troops, all of them experienced warriors, because they had abandoned the Lord , the God of their ancestors.

But a prophet of the Lord named Oded was there in Samaria when the army of Israel returned home. He went out to meet them and said, "The Lord , the God of your ancestors, was angry with Judah and let you defeat them. But you have gone too far, killing them without mercy, and all heaven is disturbed.

And now you are planning to make slaves of these people from Judah and Jerusalem. What about your own sins against the Lord your God?

The king took the various articles from the Temple of God and broke them into pieces. He shut the doors of the Lord 's Temple so that no one could worship there, and he set up altars to pagan gods in every corner of Jerusalem.

He made pagan shrines in all the towns of Judah for offering sacrifices to other gods. In this way, he aroused the anger of the Lord , the God of his ancestors.

He said to them, "Listen to me, you Levites! Purify yourselves, and purify the Temple of the Lord , the God of your ancestors. Remove all the defiled things from the sanctuary.

Our ancestors were unfaithful and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord our God. They abandoned the Lord and his dwelling place; they turned their backs on him.