The Amaziah Protocol

2nd Chronicles 25, when you have that, please go ahead and stand.

Beginning in verse 5, then Amaziah assembled the men of Judah and set them by father's houses under commanders of thousands and under hundreds for all Judah and Benjamin. He mustered those 20 years old and upward and found that they were 300 ,000 choice men fit for war, able to handle spirit and shield.

He hired also 100 ,000 mighty men of valor from Israel for 100 talents of silver. But a man of God came to him and said, O king, do not let the army of Israel go with you, for the Lord is not with Israel with all these Ephraimites.

But go, act, be strong for battle. Why should you suppose that God will cast you down before the enemy, for God has power to help or to cast down? And Amaziah said to the man of God, but what shall we do about the hundred talents that I have given to the army of Israel?

The man of God answered, the Lord is able to give you much more than this. Then Amaziah discharged the army that had come to him from Ephraim to go home again. And they became very angry with Judah and returned home in fierce anger.

But Amaziah took courage and led out his people and went to the Valley of Salt and struck down 10 ,000 men of Seir. The men of Judah captured another 10 ,000 alive and took them to the top of a rock and threw them down from the top of the rock, and they were all dashed to pieces.

But the men of the army, whom Amaziah sent back, not letting them go with him to battle, raided the cities of Judah from Samaria to Bethlehem and struck down 3 ,000 people in them and took much spoil.

After Amaziah came from striking down the Edomites, he brought the gods of the men of Seir and set them up as his gods and worshiped them, making offerings to them. Then the Lord was angry with Amaziah and sent to him a prophet who said to him, why have you sought the gods of a people who did not deliver their own people from your hand?

But as he was speaking, the king said to him, have we made you a royal counselor? Stop. Why should you be struck down? So the prophet stopped but said, I know that God has determined to destroy you because you have done this and have not listened to my counsel.

Amen.

You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that You would make us people able to receive counsel, able to receive rebuke. I pray that we would learn from the example of Amaziah, who sets before us a negative example of what not to do.

In Jesus' name, amen. It is, of course, important in the Christian life to receive counsel, to receive counsel from the Word of God, but to receive it from brothers as well as they tell you the Word of God.

In this passage, we see an example of someone who fails to receive counsel, and it will be worthwhile to consider what it is that is going on in this that would cause him to do so so that we would not follow in the same footsteps.

First Corinthians chapter 10 says of the Israelites as they were tempted into idolatry and sexual immorality that many of them fell on the same day and that this was given for an example to us that we would not sin as they did.

Same thing is true here. Amaziah is given as an example for us that we might not sin as he did. So what should we learn from this passage? It will be helpful just to recount this story in short detail.

First, Amaziah goes about conquering another nation, specifically Edom. He takes with him 300 ,000 choice men, but he also hires 100 ,000 men from Ephraim. I had mentioned a moment ago that later Ephraim will split from the nation, and that has, of course, happened at this point.

Ephraim is now a distinct nation. It is the northern kingdom of Israel while Judah is the southern kingdom, and the kings of Judah have at this point been repeatedly rebuked for their alliances with Ephraim, with the northern kingdom of Israel.

But Amaziah wants victory, so he hires these for 100 talents of silver. And a man of God, that is a prophet, comes to him and tells him that this is not wise, that he needs to leave these behind. Amaziah says, what is he supposed to do?

What is he supposed to do with all the talents that he spent? The answer he gets is, cannot God give you much more than that in your victory? So he trusts the Lord, he goes out, and he is successful in defeating Edom.

So once he hears from a man of God, and he receives the rebuke, and it goes well for.

Him.

Then he goes and he sends again. This time, after having defeated Edom, he takes their gods, that is their idols, and all the spoils, they have all kinds of things they've collected, including idols. So he takes his idols and sets them up, making a place of worship for himself, and he worships.

These gods.

He serves them, making offerings to them. So the Lord is angry at him again, and he sends him another prophet, or perhaps it is even the same prophet. And that prophet tells him, he should not be doing these things, why would you serve the very gods that you've conquered?

If one nation goes in and defeats another nation, that shows that one god is stronger than another god, so why would you serve defeated gods? But Amaziah rejects this counsel, and he says, have we made you a royal counselor?

Stop. Why should you be struck down? In my studies in 2 Chronicles, as I saw this passage, this stuck out to me as a very important incident of someone rejecting counsel, because I have seen people reject counsel for very similar reasons.

I call this the Amaziah Protocol, that you have to be invited to give counsel before any counsel will be received, or you have to have some special status of authority to give counsel before any counsel would be received.

We need reproof. We need counsel frequently.

Why?

We are foolish people. Even the wisest among us is foolish when compared to God's Word, and no one is wise in all senses more than the next man. There are some senses where even the wisest might have an area of folly that someone much less wise has mastered better.

And so it is the case that God has given us brothers and sisters in order that we would be rebuked, in order that we would be reproved, in order that we would be counseled toward.

Wisdom.

And this is, of course, for our good. And this is something that is needed because clarity is not there for everyone, it is not implicit. A lot of people, in their response to rebuke, or the reason why they would reject reproof, I'm using those pretty interchangeably.

I think they have different connotations, but just know I'm just referring to the same thing when I talk about rebuke, reproof, or counsel. Sometimes those words are used with greater kinds of sins and other things, just lacking wisdom, etc.

But really, what I'm addressing is the whole gamut. Doesn't matter if it's a great sin, doesn't matter if it's just lacking some basic wisdom about something, counsel is frequently needed. But people don't always have clarity.

A lot of times people will reject reproof because the matter is not clear to them. In other words, they believe that it is only receiving rebuke is necessary when I've done something wrong. It's not clear to me that I've done something wrong, so I won't even hear out the reproof.

Well, the whole point of the reproof is because it may not be clear to you, and that is why you should hear it out. But a lot of times people will treat matters as having to be clear up front before the reproof would even be considered.

Additionally, it is needed repeatedly because we are people who are foolish repeatedly. Perhaps you've seen that video that floats around the internet of the sheep that falls into a pit and then the farmer pulls it out and he jumps and he falls right back into another pit.

That is very much what we are like. We are like the sheep that keeps falling into pits. We need repeated counsel. Notice that Amaziah received counsel before and is receiving counsel again. The fact that he listened to counsel once doesn't mean that he doesn't need to listen to it again.

He needs it repeatedly. This is another reason that people will often reject reproof. It's because they've already received it once, they don't need to receive it again, they've done their job in listening, they don't need to hear it anymore.

But it may be the case that there are multiple things someone needs to be reproved over. So counsel is needed because we are foolish, it is needed for clarity, it's needed repeatedly. Counsel ultimately comes from the authority of God.

This is important to understand. Any good counsel ultimately comes from the authority of God because truth is ultimately from God who is truth itself. Why is it that people reject counsel or treat counsel as though it is adversarial?

If you think about it, the whole point of counsel is to help someone, but many people receive it adversarially. Why is that? As though you're against them. Paul says in Galatians 4 .16, am I your enemy because I tell you the truth?

Right, of course no one's your enemy because you say the truth. Instead, someone who tells the truth is a friend. I believe the answer is very simply because this is the exact same activity of the accuser.

What power does the accuser have except to point out things that are true, to point out sins? The one who is not right before the Lord, even the believer who is in need of particular repentance in a certain area, may be touched with guilt because the enemy has gotten a foothold in his life so that he may speak with condemnation.

Condemnation.

If you understand the nature of the gospel, if you understand forgiveness, then counsel that's given, rebuke that's given, is not out of condemnation. God does not discipline His children in condemnation, rather He disciplines them in love, and counsel is given in love.

But the one who is not right with God as he ought to be, the one who is in need of reconciliation with God, I use that word reconciliation particularly because that's the word that Paul uses with the Corinthians, that they, even believers, need to be reconciled with God in order to receive His counsel rightly.

The one who is not reconciled to God as he ought to be will hear counsel as condemnation, and this is ultimately what is happening. And note that this is evident also in the way that people irrationally become emotional about counsel.

Notice Amaziah. On the one hand, when he is rebuked for a much…a lesser matter in terms of sin, but a greater matter in terms of consequence for him, how does he respond? Well, he's got to lose a hundred talents of silver, he has to lose a hundred thousand men such that maybe he could be defeated in battle, maybe his men could die, maybe he could…all kinds of horrible things could happen.

And yet he chooses to obey in this circumstance, yet in the other circumstance where he's serving the gods of Edom who he's defeated and has nothing to lose by getting rid of them, even from a human perspective, the value proposition here is so distorted, it's surprising that this is what he throws a fit over.

It shows that something more is going on. I believe that's something more. Clearly, if you take the passages of Scripture together, you take the whole context, speaks to the nature of the soul, the spiritual matter of guilt that would cause one to receive counsel adversarially rather than as a friend.

Consider how Amaziah treats the prophet. In order to hear his word, he must have some status. In the verse that is our particular verse for this text, for this sermon, verse 16, but as he was speaking, the king said to him, have we made you a royal counselor?

Stop. Have we made you a royal counselor? A couple of words that you should pick up on in there. First of all, royal. You would need to be a royal counselor in order to give the king counsel. It's not enough for you to have some other status, you have to have royal status.

If the king is even going to hear the matter out. Secondly, you have to be made this. You have to be invited into that status. This is how people often think about matters, especially when they are matters that might be closer to their own personal lives.

They feel that these are things that are too private to be spoken to. So, we're called to care for one another. Hebrews 12 talks about making sure that no one secretly, that no root of bitterness secretly grows up in the camp.

Root of bitterness in Deuteronomy is one who is secretly serving idols. How would you know this unless you are aware of private matters? Fact is that private matters are on the table when it comes to reproof.

It's not something that needs an invitation if the matter does happen to be known. And so, this is how many people think about this, that you need to be invited. But ultimately, authority comes from the Word of God itself.

So it doesn't matter if someone hasn't been invited. If they are giving the true words of Scripture, then it has authority. Consider the people who would hear a street preacher. They might think, well, I didn't invite you to tell me any of these things.

Why are you….

Why are you telling me that God will judge? Why are you telling me about the gospel? It doesn't matter what you're saying because I did not invite you to say any of these things. Now, we understand that he should listen not because this person has a particular right to an ear with them, rather because it's the Word of God that's being given that he should listen.

And so, that's ultimately where authority comes from. But then, in addition, there's the authority of a brother that we are each other's keepers as Cain was told when he says, am I my brother's keeper?

The answer there is clearly, yes, yes, he is supposed to be his brother's keeper. But now this is happening in reverse. It's not, am I my brother's keeper? Is my brother my keeper? Amaziah is asking this, is my brother my keeper?

Yes, yes, he is. And so, if someone who is a brother has a particular right to be heard, likewise a prophet has a particular right to be heard. Hebrews 13, 17 says that you should heed, it says in verse, yeah, 13, 17, obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who have to give an account.

Let them do this with joy and not with groaning for that will be of no advantage to you. So the one who hears from a prophet, the one who hears from one who is in a position that is designed to give people the word is supposed to be especially heard.

When it uses the word obey here, this is a middle voice word, which is kind of like a passive word, passive word for to heed. In other words, he's saying be persuaded by, be persuaded by your leaders.

There's a particular call to heed your leaders. So the authority that Amaziah is rejecting the prophet is having, the prophet actually does have. Now in addition to this, many people will require some kind of relationship in order to hear out counsel.

Maybe you've heard this before, that rebuke requires relationship. You have to have a relationship with someone. Well, for Amaziah, you see that he says, have we made you a royal counselor? That presumes he does have counselors that he is listening to.

And so there are some that he has some kind of relationship with and he's willing to hear them out, but he's not willing to hear out this prophet because he does not have the same relationship with them.

Once again, is this right? Have I become your enemy if I tell you the truth? No, the one who tells the truth is a friend, and so he should be heard out, even if he doesn't have the particular relationship that might make it easier to hear him out.

I know someone who once described a situation where he was dealing with a struggling organization and someone gave him a lot of advice that was unsolicited, and he said, I didn't have a relationship with this person, so I wasn't going to hear it.

He just took the advice, it was written to him, he tossed it. And this might sound very wise if the goal is some kind of psychological security, right? If you can be hurt by words, if sticks and stones can break your bones, but if the goal is actually to grow, then you would want to hear wise things, regardless of whether or not they come from someone with a relationship.

What's happening here is important to understand in certain categories. Why is it that there are some people that you would hear out more than you would hear out another? Because maybe as I'm talking, maybe it's crossed your mind, maybe it hasn't, but there are some people that you wouldn't hear out like you would hear out others.

You don't hear out every advertisement that you come across, you don't hear out every person who says anything, you don't have time for that. You only have time for certain people, and there are some people that you would listen to more than others.

Why is it that you should listen to some people more than others? Well, the answer is not merely or necessarily even in good intention, because that's what some people would make it about, oh, this person has to have good intention, they have to really care about me and have demonstrated that they really care about me in order for me to hear.

That is not what it is, because even someone who does not have your best interest in mind if he tells the truth, you would want to know that. Secondly, it does not have to do with an executive kind of authority, which is what Amaziah is talking about, a royal counselor, someone who has been given a status of real authority where they can command others underneath them.

Instead, this is a matter of judicial authority. There's a difference between those. Sometimes they're called an authority of command versus an authority of persuasion. Some people have the authority to command, like a police officer.

Other people have the authority to persuade, like a doctor. If a police officer says you have to get in the car, you have to get in the car. If a doctor says you have to get a surgery, you don't have to get the surgery, but you should really probably do it, and you might be being very unwise to not obey, but you're certainly unwise if you do not listen to him.

So it's a matter of judicial authority. Judicial authority can come, on one hand, from the role that someone has in your life. So if this is someone who's been placed over you, maybe as a father, a husband, or a pastor, et cetera, then you have a particular responsibility, just as we read in Hebrews 13, 17, in order to heed that person.

They might also, and so this is the case even of someone who may not be especially wise. You would still hear them out because God has placed them in a position of authority where you are responsible to hear them out regardless of how much wisdom they have.

Secondly, someone can have judicial authority by having demonstrated that they have much wisdom even if they don't have that particular role, and you would still want to hear them out. So this is what's going on is that some people have a greater judicial authority, and therefore it should be heard.

It doesn't primarily have to do with having demonstrated kind intentions. It doesn't primarily have to do with having been invited or anything like that. Instead, it has to do with judicial authority.

Some have more than others, but even a child giving the right kind of rebuke ought to be heeded, even a child, out of the mouth of babes. Now beyond authority coming from God, it is also important to understand that rejecting authority guarantees destruction.

Notice what happens to Amaziah. The prophet says, I know that God has determined to destroy you because you have done this and have not listened to my counsel. Then it goes on in the remainder of this passage to describe the destruction that he undergoes.

He is taken captive, he is later killed, his people, of course, defeated in some measure. So God destroys him. Now you know that for the one who does not turn to Christ upon hearing the wisdom of God, the one who hears the gospel proclaimed, hears wisdom from God given, rejects it, he likewise will face a great destruction.

He will face the eternal torments of hell. There is no greater destruction that one will face. But it is also the case for a believer who receives reproof, or excuse me, who rejects good correction that's coming from the authority of the Word of God, will face consequences for that.

It might not be such ultimate destruction. It won't be such ultimate destruction. There is no such condemnation in the Lord. Yet at the same time, there very well may be consequences for such actions when you reject reproof from one who gives it.

In particular, one that is certainly guaranteed, at least in small measures, if not greater measures for one who consistently rejects counsel, is judicial hardening. He says here, I know that God has determined to destroy you because you have done this and have not listened to my counsel.

Later on it says in verse 20, but Aunt Mosiah would not listen, for it was of God, in order that He might give them into the hand of their enemies, because they had sought the gods.

Of Edom.

So Aunt Mosiah hears from Joash, the king of Israel, very clear message that there's no way he can stand against Him. But Aunt Mosiah is so proud, and he's been hardened by the Lord at this point, that he would not receive counsel even from his enemy that's very clearly truth.

He doesn't receive that. And so this judicial hardening happens where because he has not listened to the Word of God once, he cannot listen to very simple truths. So judicial hardening happens. And this can happen in some measure for a believer too.

If you train yourself in lies, you will embrace lies. If you do not train yourself in truth, you will not receive truth. But there is also a habitual teachability that you can develop within yourself.

As you hear out good counsel, as you hear out good counsel from others, God will make you capable of hearing more. The kind of person who's not used to humbling themselves in the light of counsel, once he practices once, will find it easier the next time.

They can do it more and more and more because God gives the strength in order to be able to do such things. In Matthew chapter 13, verse 12, it says,. For to the one who has more, more will be given, and he will have an abundance.

But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is what happens. The one who doesn't use the opportunity that he has, further opportunities are taken away. The one who receives reproof and the opportunity he has to receive it, will continue to receive more and more.

And he will grow wiser and wiser because of these things. In Proverbs chapter 9, verse 9, it says,. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser. Teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.

Give to a wise man, and he will still be wiser. You might be inclined to think of wisdom like something that is like a saturation level or something. I'm scrambling to think of analogies. But if you imagine that there's, you know, two kinds of water.

One is very saline, you know, it's very salty. There's another that's not. Or two substances like that. You expect that, okay, one that's already saturated, it can't take up much more salt, right? Maybe that's how wisdom works.

One who is very wise have kind of tapped out the meter. They can't really grow much more in wisdom. But that's not how wisdom works. Wisdom's the other way around where the more you get, the more you get, and the more you get.

And it grows exponentially. This is the way a lot of things work. As the Bible explains and is very clear in nature itself. Think about riches. People lament the disparity that exists in riches. But this is the way riches naturally work.

Once you get a little bit of wealth, you can invest that and make even more wealth. Which you can invest and make even more wealth. That's why disparity exists. That's very natural for the one who is very good with money to have a lot of money.

Such that you would expect, if you understand the way scripture talks about these things, exactly what you see in nature. Which is where, okay, there are a lot of people that are very poor. Then the next set of people have grown in wealth incredibly.

And the next people have grown in wealth incredibly. Until you have that top little 1 that has astronomical wealth. Now, I'm not going to deny that some of that might be insidious. But the fact that people have a lot of wealth is not the insidious thing.

That is a natural thing for wealth to be something that you would have exponentially. Same is true with other matters. Think about intelligence, which is a closely related concept with wisdom. If you are able to understand things more, that means you're able to get into a better school.

Which means you're able to understand things better. Which means you're going to be able to go to the right resources you need to understand things, etc. And so that grows exponentially. Same is true in wisdom.

Wisdom is a matter that grows exponentially. And it grows so much that the one who is just a percentile over has an order of magnitude more wisdom than one in the other direction. This is illustrated in part in Proverbs 17 .10.

A rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding than a hundred blows into a fool. Why does it take more than a hundred blows to teach the fool something that a wise man gets in only a word? It is because of that disparity.

It's because of that exponential curve. And so the implication is that as you reject reproof, you are making yourself like the fool that needs a hundred blows in order to learn what a wise man can get in just a word.

But as you receive words when they are given rightly, or when right words are even given wrongly. As you receive those words, you become more and more capable such that you are growing in wisdom exponentially.

Don't miss out on that growth. Especially if you are young, especially you kids. Don't miss out because now is the time where as you heed the wisdom of your parents, it will grow exponentially. And it will pay dividends in the future.

You don't know what dividends are yet, but just know that it pays off very well. Not just a little bit, but very well to listen to your parents because that wisdom will grow into more wisdom which grows into more wisdom.

So as you are considering what this passage teaches us about receiving reproof, you must first grow in your understanding of your own weakness so that you would desire such things. The one who doesn't know he is hungry won't eat.

The one who doesn't understand his poverty won't seek riches. And we are an impoverished people when it comes to wisdom. We are people who need more and more wisdom. You should meditate on that to some degree in order that you would understand your need for such things.

And then understand the kind of advantage that you can have from having wisdom. A lot of people don't think about just how much better their life would be, just how much more glorifying it would be to God if they had more wisdom.

It is something that should be sought. Consider Proverbs 8, 11. Wisdom is better than jewels, and all that you may desire cannot compare with her. Few people contemplate that to the point that it ought to be contemplated, that wisdom really is something special that you should desire.

And the more that you ready yourself with a hunger for wisdom, the more that you will be ready to receive it when it comes to you even in uncomfortable circumstances. In Psalm 119, David says, How I love your law, it is my meditation all the day.

Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. This is one of my favorite parts of Psalm 119. If you don't know, Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the whole Bible, and it is all about the Word of God.

In fact, as I've counted through, and I don't take credit for this, Sarah mentioned this to me first. She had looked through to find this first. But every verse mentions the Word of God with some synonym for the Word of God, except for two, I think it's just two, that don't.

It is all about the value of the Word of God. This is one of my favorite parts of it. Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. This is one advantage. It makes you wiser than your enemies.

I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. It makes you more understanding than your teachers. I understand more than the aged, for I have kept your precepts.

You can be more understanding than even those who are your elders, those who should know more than you because they've lived a longer life. The Word of God has the capacity to give you much wisdom, and it's something you should desire greatly, to have that kind of wisdom.

Something else that you should be contemplating to cultivate the kind of humility you need in order to receive reproof is the Gospel. If you understand that there is no condemnation in Jesus Christ, that forgiveness has been given through the cross, He bore the burden for all your sin, if you have trusted in Him, then you can know that any kind of counsel you receive, any kind of reproof you receive, you don't have to worry about the sound of the enemy's voice reverberating when someone speaks to you.

I think that's what many people hear. Someone is speaking, but they hear the snake's tongue in the background saying the exact same words of accusation, accusation, you are condemned before God because you have done this thing.

If you know that you are safe in Jesus Christ, there's no voice of the enemy to condemn you. And so you can receive these things as words of life, not as words of condemnation, but as words of life, telling you the way of life, the way that God is calling you to walk in.

And as you meditate on the gospel, and you contemplate the forgiveness you have, you can also contemplate the gift of the Holy Spirit to enlighten your mind to receive these things. You have a capacity for wisdom that worldly ones do not have.

You have been given His Spirit. Now as you receive reproof, do so humbly. Recognize the source of the authority. If it is coming from someone that you don't particularly respect, hear it out for the words themselves and know that if they're coming from God's word, then you should hear it out.

Many people will reject even God's word if it comes from someone they don't respect. Be willing, when the time is appropriate, to hear out God's word. Likewise, distinguish the substance of the message from the delivery of the message.

If someone is communicating with you in a way where you don't sense that they have kind intentions, you don't sense that the whole point is to... that it comes from a place of ten years of having demonstrated that all this person cares about is only your good, still be willing to hear it because you need to hear the message.

Now it's good if that person does care for you, but that's not the basis on which you should be willing to hear it, though it may add to that judicial authority that this is a person who cares for me.

And receive it humbly. Now as you give reproof, give it confidently, knowing that it doesn't come from your authority in other senses, but from the authority of God's word. If it is truly coming from God's word.

If it isn't coming from God's word, don't give it at all. But if it is coming from God's word, give it confidently. Now there may be matters that you haven't perfectly discerned, that's okay to speak with some tentative hesitation, but when you have something that's clearly from God's word, give it confidently.

Give it with a right attitude. We are told not to rebuke older men as anything other than fathers. We are supposed to gently rebuke older men as fathers. So I'm not saying give it with a commanding or condescending tone, but rather give it confidently.

As far as other matters, you can certainly improve your ability to be heard with relationship, with a demonstration of kind intention, but these things are not absolutely necessary in order for giving reproof to be valid.

And sometimes there is not time to build up such things. Proverbs say that a soft word turns away wrath. Many people take that as meaning that only soft words are good. It's just telling you that soft words turn away wrath.

Sometimes it is right to give hard words, even though they will not turn away wrath. Turning away wrath isn't always the only goal. So likewise, you need to think about your speech in the different contexts where it's appropriate to speak different ways.

And even when you don't have time to demonstrate something as fully as someone might like. God has, in His kindness to us, given us His Spirit, and He has likewise given us brothers and sisters that we might receive counsel.

He has given us His Word out of His love for us. It would be wrong to receive such things as being adversarial, as being the words of the enemy. The enemy is capable of using the Word of God in condemnation.

He has done so many times. But if you are in Christ Jesus, it does not need to be received that way. And it can be received joyfully, receptively, with humility. And you might grow in wisdom and orders of magnitude that will increase your blessedness before the Lord.

Amen.

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank You once again for Your Word. We thank You for the wisdom that You give by Your Spirit. We ask that we would grow in wisdom, that we would have orders of magnitude more.

In Jesus' name, amen.