Daily Devotional for Thursday, June 4

Amaziah’s Paganism

“Now it came to pass, after that Amaziah was come from the slaughter of the Edomites, that he brought the gods of the children of Seir, and set them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself before them, and burned incense unto them,” 2 Chronicles 25:14.

There are times after you have had victory in a tough challenge that you are inclined, because of human nature, to relax and bask in the spoils of your victory. In these moments you are susceptible to getting comfortable and being filled with pride, which puts you in a position to have everything you have accomplished destroyed.
Amaziah’s fall into paganism fits this description. Second Chronicles 25:14, “Now it came to pass, after that Amaziah was come from the slaughter of the Edomites, that he brought the gods of the children of Seir, and set them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself before them, and burned incense unto them.” King Amaziah and his army had slaughtered the Edomites. Coming home to relax after this battle, Amaziah ignored God and took for granted the victory God’s instructions had provided. Amaziah gave the credit of the victory to the pagan gods of the Edomites even though God sent the prophet to warn him against doing so. This showed that the process of falling into paganism begins in your heart (his desire) moves to your head (his thinking), proceeds to your hands (his actions) and results in dishonoring the Lord by worshiping idol gods. Believing that you can take a break from living righteous before God as a Christian even after God gives you victory is a dangerous place for your spiritual life. In your life as a Christian, God’s Word tells you to, “Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation, The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak” (Mark 14:38).

ALERTNESS VERUS UNAWARENESS
“Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness” (2 Peter 3:17).

Andrew McClung