When Amaziah returned from slaughtering the Edomites, he brought back the gods of the people of Seir. He set them up as his own gods, bowed down to them and burned sacrifices to them. – 2 Chronicles 25:14

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 29, 2013): 2 Chronicles 25

A local radio show recently held a phone in episode about reincarnation - in honor of the more than 40% of people who say that they believe in reincarnation. The number is almost twice the results of any credible polls, but I do not necessarily doubt the results. We seem to be a society that is really willing to dabble in anything. We believe in very little, but we dabble in every area of spiritual belief. It is often the excuse we use whenever we read our horoscopes. We really don’t believe, we just want to be entertained. We are just dabbling.

Amaziah was considered to be a good king. Not a great king, but a good one. If we combine 2 Kings 14:3 with 2 Chronicles 25:2 we come up with a description of Amaziah  that says he was a king who did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but he was not as wholehearted in his religious diligence as David had been. Amaziah was, in every way, an echo of his father Joash. But the idea that Amaziah was good king seems strangely incongruous with the Amaziah as an idolater. After all, do not worship idols made God’s big ten don’t do list.

But the idea that Amaziah was like his father may explain what happened in Edom. Joash failed in that he allowed his lieutenants to follow other gods. Amaziah may have done the same thing. The idolatry that he is accused of might simply be that he allowed idolatry to happen within his group of officers. Because he had not prohibited the practice, in the eyes of God, Amaziah was guilty of the same idolatry that he allowed to happen within his army.

But that is not the only theory. It is thought by some that the idolatry of Edom was the worship of the sun. It might be that Amaziah was simply attracted by the attractive trinkets produced in the worship of that strange god, and therefore he set them up in his house. But because they were set up, again Amaziah was responsible for any worship of the trinkets that happened in his house in front of the trinkets.

Or it might be that Amaziah felt that he was able to control these strange gods. After all, he had defeated Edom, why was it such a stretch to think that he might be able to control their gods? But he was dabbling in something that was well beyond the bounds of his knowledge. And what damage could dabbling do to him anyway?

But God seems to take dabbling very seriously. Dabbling opens the door to something more serious. And whatever the reason for Amaziah’s dabbling, God was not pleased.  There was no room for both the dabbling of the king and the God of the land. One would have to leave and so Amaziah would have to make a choice.

We have to make the same choice. It is either God or the dabbling – it cannot be both.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 26