2 Chronicles 25:7-10 sits inside this longer paragraph.
5Moreover Amaziah gathered Judah together, and ordered them according to their fathers’ houses, under captains of thousands and captains of hundreds, even all Judah and Benjamin. He counted them from twenty years old and upward, and found that there were three hundred thousand chosen men, able to go out to war, who could handle spear and shield. 6He also hired one hundred thousand mighty men of valor out of Israel for one hundred talents of silver. 7A man of God came to him, saying, “O king, don’t let the army of Israel go with you, for Yahweh is not with Israel, with all the children of Ephraim. 8But if you will go, take action, and be strong for the battle. God will overthrow you before the enemy; for God has power to help, and to overthrow.”
9Amaziah said to the man of God, “But what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel?” The man of God answered, “Yahweh is able to give you much more than this.”
10Then Amaziah separated them, the army that had come to him out of Ephraim, to go home again. Therefore their anger was greatly kindled against Judah, and they returned home in fierce anger. 11Amaziah took courage, and led his people out, and went to the Valley of Salt, and struck ten thousand of the children of Seir. 12The children of Judah carried away ten thousand alive, and brought them to the top of the rock, and threw them down from the top of the rock, so that they all were broken in pieces. 13But the men of the army whom Amaziah sent back, that they should not go with him to battle, fell on the cities of Judah, from Samaria even to Beth Horon, and struck of them three thousand, and took much plunder.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv7–9 And therefore to think to have help of them,…
And therefore to think to have help of them, whom the Lord favoreth not, is to cast off the help of the Lord.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv7–10 2Ch 25:7 But there came a man of God…
2Ch 25:7 But there came a man of God to him, saying, O king, let not the army of Israel go with thee; for the LORD [is] not with Israel, [to wit, with] all the children of Ephraim.
Ver. 7. But there came a man of God to him.] This was, say the Hebrews, {a} Amos, the father of the prophet Isaiah, being brother to Amaziah; but that is but a conjecture.
Read full note →
Let not the army.] What marvel that Christians prevail so little against the Turks, considering what soldiers they make use of!
{a} Sedar Olam.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv7, 8, 10 The Lord is not with Israel; he hath forsaken…
The Lord is not with Israel; he hath forsaken them, and for their sakes will curse thy forces, if thou joinest thyself with them.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv7–10 But if thou wilt go, do it, be strong…
But if thou wilt go, do it, be strong for the battle,.... An ironical expression; if thou wilt not be advised, take them with thee, and try what thou canst do; exert all thy courage, and use thy military skill, and mark the issue:
God shall make thee fall before the enemy; notwithstanding the number of thy troops, and those of thy auxiliaries; though some take them to be spoken seriously, and read the words, "but go thou"; that is, alone, without the hired troops, and fight boldly and courageously; or otherwise "God shall make thee fall", &c.
Read full note →
for God hath power to help and to cast down; to help with a few, and to cast down with many; to help without the hired Israelites, and to cast down with them.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv7, 8, 10 Let not, &c. - It is comfortable to employ…
Let not, &c. - It is comfortable to employ those, who we have reason to hope, have an interest in heaven, but dangerous associating with those from whom the Lord is departed.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv7, 9, 10 Verse 7. The Lord is not with Israel] "The…
Verse 7. The Lord is not with Israel] "The WORD of the Lord is not the helper of the Israelites, nor of the kingdom of the tribe of Ephraim." - Targum.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv7, 9, 10 2Ch 25:7-8. Let not the army of Israel go…
2Ch 25:7-8. Let not the army of Israel go with thee — It is comfortable to employ those who, we have reason to hope, have an interest in heaven; but dangerous associating with those from whom the Lord is departed. For the Lord is not with Israel — He hath forsaken them; and prosperity shall not attend thy counsels and undertakings, if thou joinest thyself with them. But if thou wilt go, do it — It is an ironical concession, like that of Micaiah to Ahab, Go and prosper.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv8, 10 If the present text is regarded as sound, this…
If the present text is regarded as sound, this passage must be taken ironically. But most recent commentators supply a second negative, and render it: “But go thou alone, act, be strong for the battle - God shall then not make thee to fall.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv8–9 And. Heb. "But if thou wilt go, do; be…
And. Heb. "But if thou wilt go, do; be strong; (he speaks ironically) God," &c. Sept. "if thou thinkest that thou art strong with these, the Lord," &c. Amasias ought to have known that no dependance was to be placed on Israel, while they despised God, C. xv. 2.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv7, 10 there came a man of God--sent to dissuade Amaziah…
there came a man of God--sent to dissuade Amaziah from the course he was following, on the ground that "the Lord is not with Israel." This statement was perfectly intelligible to the king. But the historian, writing long after, thought it might require explanation, and therefore added the comment, "with all the children of Ephraim." Idolatry had long been the prevailing religion in that kingdom, and Ephraim its headquarters. As to the other part of the prophet's advice (Ch2 25:8), considerable obscurity hangs over it, as the text stands; and hence some able critics have suggested the insertion of "not" in the middle clause, so that the verse will be thus: "But if thou wilt go [alone], do, be strong for the battle; God shall not make thee fall before the enemy."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv7–10 7. the Lord is not with Israel] Cp. 2Ch_13:8-12.
7. the Lord is not with Israel] Cp. 2Ch_13:8-12.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv7–10 (7) The Lord is not with Israel.—Comp. 2Ch_19:2; 2Ch_20:37;…
(7) The Lord is not with Israel.—Comp. 2Ch_19:2; 2Ch_20:37; also 2Ch_16:7.
To wit, with all the children of Ephraim.—Added as an explanation of the term Israel. Ephraim was the name of the northern kingdom (Hos_5:11; Hos_5:14; Hos_6:4, and passim).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv7–10 (See foregoing chapter, ver. 19.) The name of this…
(See foregoing chapter, ver. 19.) The name of this man of God does not transpire. To wit, with. These three words, all in italic type, if entirely omitted, and not even the preposition adopted, as in the Revised Version, into the ordinary type, will leave the intention of the writer clearer rather than less clear.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v9 And Amarish said to the man of God, But…
2Ch_25:9
And Amarish said to the man of God, But what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel?
Read full note →
Self-made difficulties
I. The path of duty was clearly before Amaziah. Send the army of Israel away.
II. He hesitated to tread it because there was a self-made difficulty in the way. So with many to-day.
1. Worldly pleasure.
2. Worldly interests.
(1) A bad business, one you cannot ask God to bless.
(2) A legitimate business that is not conducted on Christian principles.
3. Worldly companions.
4. Bad habits.
III. God recognises the difficulty. The Lord is able to give thee much more than this. When our first missionaries went to India, Dr. Cope died on the voyage. Some letters of introduction to English gentlemen in India had been written. When his friends arrived they went on shore and told how Dr. Cope had died and been buried in the deep sea. As they knew nothing of the language of India they asked advice, and the advice given was, Take the first vessel that sails for England and go home again. One of the young men of the party said, That is out of the question. I came here to preach the gospel, and, God helping me, I mean to do it. They said, If you bring God into the matter, that alters it altogether. Bring God into your pleasure and into your business, and that will alter them altogether. (Charles Garrett.)
God able to remunerate fidelity
I know a widow whose husband died and left her with a little family to struggle for. She opened a little shop in the suburbs of the city, when one of the agents of a wine-merchant waited upon her to ask her to be an agent for the sale of strong drink. She said, Never a drop shall enter my house. He said It will help you so much. She said, If it helps me some, it will harm me more. I have children around me, and whether I prosper or not, I will not gain anything to the injury of my fellow-creatures. She has done wonderfully. An intimate friend of mine went to see her, and said, I cannot understand how you get on, and why so many come to your shop, for they pass a number of good shops to come to yours. She said to her boy, George, you are fond of ciphering; get down your slate and put down how far off a man must live from my shop that God cannot bring him there. That settled it. God is able to give more than this. (Charles Garrett.)
Rigid integrity may stand in the way
There can be no doubt that a certain flexibility and elasticity of soul and conscience may make a man get on, as concerns this world, when rigid integrity would stand in his way. Nothing would be easier than to mention striking instances in which men threw away their chance of the highest places by an act of injudicious honesty. A trader who never puffs his wares as better than they really are may not drive such a business as the brazen individual who never spares the trumpet. A preacher who sets forth sound doctrine to people who have not been accustomed to it, and who do not want it, may make himself for a time obnoxious enough. But let us speak the truth and live the truth, no matter what we may lose by it. (Charles Garrett.)
What shall we do for the hundred talents?
I. The command given. Let not the army of Israel go with thee.
1. It shows us Gods disapproval of union with the enemies of the truth. The children of Ephraim had departed from the Lord, His favour was withdrawn from them: Judah, if he hope for success, must send such helpers away. Yes, truly the friendship of the world is enmity with God. To join affinity with such, as Amaziah did, is to run into temptation and a snare.
2. But the command of God thus given leads us to notice, further, that His disappointment of our hopes is in mercy, not in wrath. Perhaps to the mind of Amaziah this only was wanting to ensure victory: his army was strong, and could he but procure this aid from Israel all would be secure; and yet no sooner are they come than the command is given. It is often thus in Gods dealings with our souls. Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. Could I but be placed in such circumstances, saith one, Were but this diffficulty removed. is the thought of another, then should I grow in grace, and prosper in my soul. But it cannot be, and you are discouraged. And yet it is in mercy, not in wrath, that your wishes are crossed.
3. Observe that the command calls for immediate compliance. Not after aid received in the battle, but now in the face of danger, at the risk of injury from those sent away, injury, too, that was not feared without cause (2Ch_25:13). Gods command will not bear delay.
II. the difficulty started. And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do for the hundred talents that I have given to the army of Israel? With some awe upon his mind, a conviction of the necessity of obedience, Amaziah liked not the cost. This is the difficulty proposed, What shall we do for he hundred talents? There was the divided mind On the one side was his fear of the displeasure of the Lord, without whose help he well knew he could not prosper; on the other side the hundred talents weighed down his purpose--he could not brook the loss of so large a sum. Ah! who would not obey God if he might do it without cost? Who would not be the servant of Christ, if he might be so without pains? Sin must be parted with. What shall we do for the hundred talents? We go to the man that has long yielded to his evil habits. We tell him of the door of mercy yet open. The sigh breaks forth as we speak. He owns it too true. He is almost persuaded to be a Christian. But, no, What shall we do for the hundred talents?
III. The unanswerable reply. And the man of God answered, The Lord is able to give thee much more than this.
1. Observe--There is no promise of the restoration of the sum. The command of God was the solid ground on which the prophet claimed obedience of the king. And it is even here we too rest our appeal. Thus saith the Lord. In urging on you to yield yourselves unto God, we cannot--we may not--tell you that no difficulties are in the way. We have indeed that overwhelming motive to present, the safety of the soul.
2. Amaziah is referred to the almighty power of Him whose command he is called on to obey. God is able to give thee much more than this. As though the prophet had said, Thou art ready to sorrow for the hundred talents uselessly bestowed if now to be forfeited, but whose is the silver and the gold? Grudge not, then, this sum at His word, who bids thee yield it for thine own welfare. For is it dignity, the estimation of others, that you fear to give up? are these the hundred talents you are unwilling to part with? What dignity of earth can be compared to that high-sounding and real--not empty--title, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ?--Ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Is it riches, or pleasures, the vanity of life, that seem not vain to you? God is able to give, yea, will give you much more than this. He will give you pardon, that blessed gift--pardon for all thy sins, thy multiplied, aggravated, fearful transgressions--And in the world to come eternal life. (F. Storr, M.A.)
Soul or silver
Amaziah seemed to be a soldier, and little else. He was devoured by military ambition and vainglory. He coveted the domains of his neighbors. He was greedy of conquest. He dared not attack Israel, but on the other side lay the lands of the Edomites. He wanted to fight. There was probably no reason why he should, for the children of Seir had evidently done nothing to provoke an attack, or we should have had an account of it. But Amaziah must have more territory, and impelled by such noble patriotism, he disciplined his people into a large army. Desiring to be on the safe side, he bargained for one hundred thousand men of Israel, and, in order to secure them, he laid down a bounty of one hundred talents of silver. With these men of Ephraim, hired with the silver talents, he possessed an army of about four hundred thousand men. All things are in readiness, and he is about to start out on his grand mission of punishing a people who held lands near him, when a prophet confronts with the intelligence that if he takes the troops of Israel with him he shall be defeated. Now comes a struggle in the kings mind. He was bent upon war, and could not brook the idea of defeat, but to insure victory he must send the Ephraimites home. Now, he had given these men a hundred talents of silver! What about them? The command of God had touched his pocket-nerve, and it had sent a sensitive thrill through his whole being. Amaziah is not the only man that has been compelled to choose between obedience and self-denial.
I. Consider, then, the fact that mens apparent interests are sometimes opposed by the commands of God. Very frequently mens practices find such opposition; and their desires are fulfilled very often against the clamourings of their consciences. But I have affirmed something beyond this--that a mans wholesome interests, as they appear to his view, are sometimes in direct opposition to Gods commands. I do not think that a man will be allowed to enter upon a course inimical to Gods will who starts out by committing his way entirely to Divine guidance. God looks out for such a man, and orders his ways so that his interests and the Divine will conform. But a great many start out in the pursuit of business without any consideration of God. With the majority of men, when the time comes to meet the question, What shall I do? the answer is prompted more by expediency than by duty. One man argues, I can make more money in dry goods than in groceries, so Ill deal in dry goods. But theres more money in whisky, so I think Ill open a saloon. He looks at trade from his own standpoint. I believe that some men really think that they are justified in such a course; they think that a man ought to look after his own interests; that that is the first thing to be consulted; and there never was a greater mistake made in this selfish world! The truth is, that when a man deliberately marks out a course in life, and determines to pursue it, without any consideration of God or his fellow-men, he is engaged in a very dangerous business. There are some other things to consider besides making money. Soul-culture, helpfulness of his fellows, influence for Christ, the increasing light of a pious life; these things are to be taken into the account, or he may look for some period of his life when the alternative will be between obedience and self-denial, or disobedience and defeat.
II. Where this is the case apparent interests are to be sacrificed. God looks upon temporal matters as if they were subordinate to a higher good. Men look upon them as if they were the highest good attainable. God puts His service and the duties of religion above everything else. Men regard religion as a secondary consideration. Do you never hear men say, I would engage in religious matters if I had time? You mark a mans absence from the holy Sabbath worship; he complains, I feel so tired when Sunday comes, I must rest. So you see men think more of their hundred talents of silver than of obedience to God. But they have Amaziahs protest: What shall we do for the hundred talents of silver? The answer is plain enough. Let them go. What! cries the overworked business man, leave my store full of customers just because it is the hour of prayer? What! cries the professional man, suspend my important studies for unprofitable religious occupation? Not much! What! cries the mechanic, work hard all week and Sunday too? What shall we do for the hundred talents that are involved? In such embarrassing situations the thing to do is what Amaziah did. He sent home the men of Ephraim, and he lost the hundred talents of silver. If your business stands between you and God, let it go!
III. For I beg you to note that the alternative lies between total defeat and increased good. Amaziah was made to select between receiving the value of his invested money and suffering disaster in the prosecution of his scheme. He might do as he pleased, but he might know what to expect. That is the alternative placed before all men. Disobedience leads to defeat. Men may discard the commands of God, but not with impunity. Obedience to the Divine will is the only safeguard against temporal and spiritual disaster. It is a matter that enters into a mans private life. It does not concern those employments alone which are confessedly unrighteous, it is a law affecting the man who persists in a course when God has called him in another direction, as well as he who persists in iniquitous practices. In either case the safest thing to do is to give up the silver, without one hesitating thought. (Lansing Burrows.)
Consequences
The subject brought before us in the text is the weighing of consequences.
1. In a certain sense it is the doing of a fool to disdain consequences; and it is the glory of a rational being that he can calculate, and weigh, and be guided by, consequences.
2. And yet there are cases in which to resolutely refuse to take into view what may be the consequences of our conduct, is heroism; is Christianity in its highest and noblest development. Such was the case with the three Jews in Babylon; Moses; Paul.
3. Amaziahs history will make it plain to us, when we should weigh consequences and be guided by them; and when we should disregard them, and refuse to take them into account at all. He was not wrong in naming the money loss to the prophet. He was wrong in regarding this difficulty as a fatal objection to his obeying Gods command. He not only states his difficulty, but seems disposed to act upon it.
4. This brings us to the great principle which should guide all wise Christian people in regard to the consideration of consequences. Wherever we are sure that duty leads, wherever we are sure God bids us go, then that way we should go, whatever and however painful the consequences may be. In all other cases a prudent Christian man will weigh the consequences of what he may think of doing, and be guided by the consideration of them.
5. To disdain consequences is not to be done in a boasting, vainglorious spirit. The true proof of a man disdaining consequences is that he should disdain them, not when they are in the distance, coming, but when they are present realities; when they are come.
6. The prophets reply to the kings difficulty is worthy of being laid to heart: The Lord is able to give thee much more than this. This means that it is worth our while to obey Gods will; that though at first we may lose by doing so, we shall gain more than we shall lose. This truly is not a disdaining of consequences; it is a fuller and truer weighing of them. It is to look further on: it is to throw eternity into the scale of duty and interest. (A. K. H. Boyd.)
Gods power to remunerate
I. How commonly the question is urged, What shall we do for the hundred talents? We are not of those who would make light of the sacrifices which must be made by such as would live godly in Christ Jesus. Christ speaks of a yoke, of taking up the cross, of forsaking all, of cutting off the right hand, of plucking out the right eye. So that the parallel is most exact between the circumstances of ourselves and those of Amaziah.
1. Consider the case of the young who are urged to the remembering of their Creator and the setting of their affections on things above. If by entreaty and warning we prevail on them to hesitate ere they launch on a course of disobedience to Gods commands, the thought of all we ask them to surrender comes upon them with great power, and they feel as though it were unreasonable to summon them to such a sacrifice. And therefore their speech is virtually, What shall we do for the hundred talents?
2. Take again the case of the tradesman whose interest seems to demand the profanation of the Sabbath. In asking him to close his shop on the day that perhaps procures him more profit than can be wrung from all the rest of the week, you ask him to make what on mere human principles is scarcely a credible sacrifice.
II. How sufficient an answer there is in the statement, The Lord is able to give thee much more than this. It is the apparent conflict between interest and duty which often induces disobedience to God. Duty and interest can never be really opposed. The righteousness of Gods moral government requires that whatever He has made it our duty should also be our interest to perform. But still there is an apparent conflict. This world would cease to be a place of probation if it were always manifest that duty and interest lie in the same direction. When tempted to do wrong for the sake of present advantage, let us magnify the remunerating power of God. If David could say, Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee, no text can be more suitable than this one for the talisman of the merchant as he prosecutes the enterprises of commerce, The Lord is able to give thee much more than this. (Henry Melvill, B.D.)
The claims of duty
The claims of duty are stronger even than those of affection. The tenderst tie on earth should never induce us to set them aside. The sense of duty which distinguished some of the patriots of ancient Rome was extraordinary. After the expulsion of King Tarquin, a conspiracy was formed for the purpose of effecting his return. It was found out by the authorities; and it was also found that Titus and Tiberius, the two sons of Brutus, the consul, were the principal conspirators. People naturally speculated as to how the consul would act in the matter; but he put an end to all controversy by condemning his two sons to death along with the rest; nay, on the day of execution, he commanded the sentence of the law to be carried out on them first of all. But, you may say, perhaps he did not love his sons as fathers generally do. On the contrary, the crowd who watched his countenance on the occasion could perceive that there was a terrible struggle within; so that they pitied the grief of the father no less than they admired the bravery of the patriot. Here, then, was a man who preferred duty to affection--the safety of his country to the life of his sons. (Henry Melvill, B. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v9 2 Chronicles
2 Chronicles
PRUDENCE AND FAITH
Read full note →
2Ch 25:9.
The character of this Amaziah, one of the Kings of Judah, is summed up by the chronicler in a damning epigram: ‘He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart.’ He was one of your half-and-half people, or, as Hosea says, ‘a cake not turned,’ burnt black on one side, and raw dough on the other. So when he came to the throne, in the buoyancy and insolence of youth, he immediately began to aim at conquests in the neighbouring little states; and in order to strengthen himself he hired ‘a hundred thousand mighty men of valour’ out of Israel for a hundred talents of silver. To seek help from Israel was, in a prophet’s eyes, equivalent to flinging off help from God. So a man of God comes to him, and warns him that the Lord is not with Israel, and that the alliance is not permissible for him. But, instead of yielding to the prophet’s advice, he parries it with this misplaced question, ‘But what shall we do for the hundred talents that I have given to the army of Israel?’ He does not care to ask whether the counsel that he is receiving is right or wrong, or whether what he is intending to do is in conformity with, or in opposition to, the will of God, but, passing by all such questions, at once he fastens on the lower consideration of expediency-’What is to become of me if I do as this prophet would have me do? What a heavy loss one hundred talents will be! It is too much to sacrifice to a scruple of that sort. It cannot be done.’
A great many of us may take a lesson from this man. There are two things in my text-a misplaced question and a triumphant answer: ‘What shall we do for the hundred talents?’ ‘The Lord is able to give thee much more than this.’ Now, remarkably enough, both question and answer may be either very right or very wrong, according as they are taken, and I purpose to look at those two aspects of each.
I. A misplaced question.
I call it misplaced because Amaziah’s fault, and the fault of a great many of us, was, not that he took consequences into account, but that he took them into account at the wrong time. The question should have come second, not first. Amaziah’s first business should have been to see clearly what was duty; and then, and not till then, the next business should have been to consider consequences.
Consider the right place and way of putting this question. Many of us make shipwreck of our lives because, with our eyes shut, we determine upon some grand design, and fall under the condemnation of the man that ‘began to build, and was not able to finish.’ He drew a great plan of a stately mansion; and then found that he had neither money in the bank, nor stones in his quarry, to finish it, and so it stood-a ruin. All through our Lord’s life He was engaged rather in repressing volunteers than in soliciting recruits, and He from time to time poured a douche of cold water upon swiftly effervescing desires to go after Him. When the multitudes followed Him, He turned and said to them, ‘If you are counting on being My disciples, understand what it means: take up the cross and follow Me.’ When an enthusiastic man, who had not looked consequences in the face, came rushing to Him and said: ‘Lord, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest,’ His answer to him was another pull at the string of the shower bath: ‘The Son of Man hath not where to lay His head.’ When the two disciples came to him and said: ‘Grant that we may sit, the one on Thy right hand and the other on Thy left, when Thou comest into Thy kingdom,’ He said: ‘Are ye able to drink of the cup that I drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized withal?’ Look the facts in the face before you make your election. Jesus Christ will enlist no man under false pretences. Recruiting-sergeants tell country bumpkins or city louts wonderful stories of what they will get if they take the shilling and put on the king’s uniform; but Jesus Christ does not recruit His soldiers in that fashion. If a man does not open his eyes to a clear vision of the consequences of his actions, his life will go to water in all directions. And there is no region in which such clear insight into what is going to follow upon my determinations and the part that I take is more necessary than in the Christian life. It is just because in certain types of character, ‘the word is received with joy,’ and springs up immediately, that when ‘the sun is risen with a burning heat’-that is, as Christ explains, when the pinch of difficulty comes-’immediately they fall away,’ and all their grand resolutions go to nothing. ‘Lightly come, lightly go.’ Let us face the facts of what is involved, in the way of sacrifice, surrender, loss, if we determine to be on Christ’s side; and then, when the anticipated difficulties come, we shall neither be perplexed nor swept away, but be able quietly to say, ‘I discounted it all beforehand; I knew it was coming.’ The storm catches the ship that is carrying full sail and expecting nothing but light and favourable breezes; while the captain that looked into the weather quarter and saw the black cloud beginning to rise above the horizon, and took in his sails and made his vessel snug and tight, rides out the gale. It is wisdom that becomes a man, to ask this question, if first of all he has asked, ‘What ought I to do?’ But we have here an instance of a right thing in a wrong place. It was right to ask the question, but wrong to ask it at that point. Amaziah thought nothing about duty. There sprang up in his mind at once the cowardly and ignoble thought: ‘I cannot afford to do what is right, because it will cost me a hundred talents,’ and that was his sin. Consequences may be, must be, faced in anticipation, or a man is a fool. He that allows the clearest perception of disagreeable consequences, such as pain, loss of ease, loss of reputation, loss of money, or any other harmful results that may follow, to frighten him out of the road that he knows he ought to take, is a worse fool still, for he is a coward and recreant to his own conscience.
We have to look into our own hearts for the most solemn and pressing illustrations of this sin, and I daresay we all of us can remember clear duties that we have neglected, because we did not like to face what would come from them. A man in business will say, ‘I cannot afford to have such a high standard of morality; I shall be hopelessly run over in the race with my competitors if I do not do as they do,’ or he will say, ‘I durst not take a stand as an out-and-out Christian; I shall lose connections, I shall lose position. People will laugh at me. What am I to do for the hundred talents?’ But we can find the same thing in Churches. I do not mean to enter upon controversial questions, but as an instance, I may remind you that one great argument that our friends who believe in an Established Church are always bringing forward, is just a modern form of Amaziah’s question, ‘What shall we do for the hundred talents? How could the Church be maintained, how could its ministrations be continued, if its State-provided revenues were withdrawn or given up?’ But it is not only Anglicans who put the consideration of the consequences of obedience in the wrong place. All the Churches are but too apt to let their eyes wander from reading the plain precepts of the New Testament to looking for the damaging results to be expected from keeping them. Do we not sometimes hear, as answer to would-be reformers, ‘We cannot afford to give up this, that, or the other practice? We should not be able to hold our ground, unless we did so-and-so and so-and-so.’
But not only individuals or Churches are guilty in this matter. The nation takes a leaf out of Amaziah’s book, and puts aside many plain duties, for no better reason than that it would cost too much to do them. ‘What is the use of talking about suppressing the liquor traffic or housing the poor? Think of the cost.’ The ‘hundred talents’ block the way and bribe the national conscience. For instance, the opium traffic; how is it defended? Some attempt is made to prove either that we did not force it upon China, or that the talk about the evils of opium is missionary fanaticism, but the sheet-anchor is: ‘How are we ever to raise the Indian revenue if we give up the traffic?’ That is exactly Amaziah over again, come from the dead, and resurrected in a very ugly shape.
So national policy and Church action, and-what is of far more importance to you and me than either the one or the other,-our own personal relation to Jesus Christ and discipleship to Him, have been hampered, and are being hampered, just by that persistent and unworthy attitude of looking at the consequences of doing plain duties, and permitting ourselves to be frightened from the duties because the consequences are unwelcome to us.
Prudence is all right, but when prudence takes command and presumes to guide conscience, then it is all wrong. In some courts of law and in certain cases, the judge has an assessor sitting beside him, an expert about some of the questions that are involved. Conscience is the judge, prudence the assessor. But if the assessor ventures up on the judgment-seat, and begins to give the decisions which it is not his business to give-for his only business is to give advice-then the only thing to do with the assessor is to tell him to hold his tongue and let the judge speak. It is no answer to the prophet’s prohibition to say, ‘But what shall I do for the hundred talents?’ A yet better answer than the prophet gave Amaziah would have been, ‘Never mind about the hundred talents; do what is right, and leave the rest to God.’ However, that was not the answer.
II. The triumphant answer.
‘The Lord is able to give thee much more than this.’ Now, this answer, like the question, may be right or wrong, according as it is taken. In what aspect is it wrong? In what sense is it not true? I suppose this prophet did not mean more than the undeniable truth that God was able to give Amaziah more than a hundred talents. He was not thinking of the loftier meanings which we necessarily, as Christian people, at a later stage of Revelation, and with a clearer vision of many things, attach to the words. He simply meant, ‘You will very likely get more than the hundred talents that you have lost, if you do what pleases God.’ He was speaking from the point of view of the Old Testament; though even in the Old Testament we have instances enough that prosperity did not always attend righteousness. In the Old Testament we find the Book of Job, and the Book of Ecclesiastes, and many a psalm, all of which were written in order to grapple with the question, ‘How is it that God does not give the good man more than the hundred talents that he has lost for the sake of being good?’ It is not true, and it is a dangerous mistake to suggest that it is true, that a man in this world never loses by being a good, honest, consistent Christian. He often does lose a great deal, as far as this world is concerned; and he has to make up his mind to lose it, and it would be a very poor thing to say to him, ‘Now, live like a Christian man, and if you are flinging away money or anything else because of your Christianity, you will get it back.’ No; you will not, in a good many cases. Sometimes you will, and sometimes you will not. It does not matter whether you do or do not.
But the sense in which the triumphant answer of the prophet is true is a far higher one. ‘The Lord is able to give thee much more than this,’-what is ‘more’? a thousand talents? No; the ‘much more’ that Christianity has educated us to understand is meant in the depths of such a promise as this is, first of all, character. Every man that sacrifices anything to convictions of duty gains more than he loses thereby, because he gains an inward nobleness and strength, to say nothing of the genial warmth of an approving conscience. And whilst that is true in all regions of life, it is most especially true in regard to sacrifices made from Christian principle. No matter how disastrous may be the results externally, the inward results of faithfulness are so much greater and sweeter and nobler than all the external evil consequences that may follow, that it is ‘good policy’ for a man to beggar himself for Christ’s sake, for the sake of the durable riches-which our Lord Himself explains to be synonymous with righteousness-which will come thereby. He that wins strength and Christ-likeness of character by sacrificing for Christ has won far more than he can ever lose.
He wins not only character, but a fuller capacity for a fuller possession of Jesus Christ Himself, and that is infinitely more than anything that any man has ever sacrificed for the sake of that dear Lord. Do you remember when it was that there was granted to the Apostle John the vision of the throned Christ, and that he felt laid upon him the touch of the vivifying Hand from Heaven? It was ‘when I was in Patmos for the Word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus.’ He lost Ephesus; he gained an open heaven and a visible Christ. Do you remember who it was that said, ‘I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ’? It was a good bargain, Paul! The balance-sheet showed a heavy balance to your credit. Debit, ‘all things’; credit, ‘Christ.’ ‘The Lord is able to give thee much more than this.’
Remember the old prophecy: ‘For brass I will bring gold; and for iron, silver.’ The brass and the iron may be worth something, but if we barter them away and get instead gold and silver, we are gainers by the transaction. Fling out the ballast if you wish the balloon to rise. Let the hundred talents go if you wish to get ‘the more than this.’ And listen to the New Testament variation of this man of God’s promise, ‘If thou wilt have treasure in heaven, go and sell all that thou hast, and follow Me.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v7 Used in a collective sense for the northern ten-tribe…
Ephraim
Used in a collective sense for the northern ten-tribe kingdom, called also "Israel."
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv7, 9 a man of God
a man of God
"a prophet of God"
Read full note →
Israel ... the people of Ephraim
These are two names for the same group people.
throw you down before the enemy ... throw down
Here the prophet speaks of military defeat as if the king would be thrown down on the ground. AT: "enable your enemy to defeat you ... defeat" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
God
Ephraim
power
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v7 25:7-8 The phrase a man of God was a…
25:7-8 The phrase a man of God was a way to refer to a prophet (as in Deut 33:1; 1 Sam 2:27; 9:6-10; 1 Kgs 13:1-31). • The kingdom of Israel was politically foreign and spiritually apostate. Relying on Israel’s troops for military strength would bring spiritual compromise and God’s opposition.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.