Amaziah’s Pride and Jeroboam’s Prosperity

Through the contrasting fates of Amaziah, king of the southern kingdom of Judah, and Jeroboam II of the northern kingdom of Israel, today's passage shows how God's work differs from human religious common sense. Amaziah, who did what was right in God's eyes, was carried away by small successes, grew proud, and in the end met a miserable death, while Jeroboam, judged an evil king, was used through God's compassion as an instrument to make the nation prosper. This shows that the logic of retribution, in which good people are always blessed and evil people always punished, does not always apply.

We easily tend to think that our good deeds or circumstances are evidence of God's approval or blessing. But visible success is not necessarily the result of God's approval, and having troubles does not mean we have been abandoned by God. This passage emphasizes that God leads history within a sovereignty far greater and vaster than human wickedness or goodness, and that God's complete grace and will matter more than our righteousness or effort.

Rather than focusing on the situation or circumstances we are in, it is important to look at what God has willed. How can we confess that our prosperity or suffering is not our own merit but God's grace, and take the attitude of standing humbly before God?