Good Loses to Bad? - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 2 Kings 14:12,

"Judah was routed by Israel, and every man fled to his home."

Following a victory over Edom, the king of Judah, Amaziah, called out King Jehoash of Israel to fight.

We are told King Amaziah was one of the eight good kings of the 20 monarchs of Judah. "He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord... " Verse 3. On the other hand, we are told, as was the case of all of northern Israel's kings, King Jehoash was evil, "He [King Jehoash] did evil in the eyes of the Lord and did not turn away from any of the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit; he continued in them." 2 Kings 13:11.

When Amaziah called out Jehoash to fight, Jehoash attempted to dissuade him, "You have indeed defeated Edom and now you are arrogant. Glory in your victory, but stay at home! Why ask for trouble and cause your own downfall and that of Judah also?" Verse 10. We are told, "Amaziah, however, would not listen, so Jehoash king of Israel attacked." Verse 11.

Amaziah was routed by Jehoash and captured by him.

Here we have an account of a "good" king being defeated by a "bad" king. Why? And, why is this presented to us in the Scriptures?

I might surmise that Amaziah had become proud and arrogant, as Jehoash pointed out, after his defeat of Edom (in spite of the fact that he was a good king.) As such, the proverb might be observed, "Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall." Proverbs 16:18. I suspect that might be the moral of the story. There is also no mention of the Lord's direction to Amaziah to call out Jehoash to fight.

Another observation I have is that just because someone "did what was right in the eyes of the Lord", not everything they do might be right in the eyes of the Lord. In any event, what we have here is a good king losing to a bad king in a military context. The Lord did not ensure the good man won, or the bad man lost.

I think there is a "take-away" for me here somehow… Might it have been that the good king needed an "adjustment" from the Lord? If so, then we see here a bad person used by the Lord to bring about what he desired in a good person's life.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

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