II Chronicles 25:9 …The LORD is able to give thee much more than this
To read about the kings in the book of Kings and Chronicles can be very confusing. For one thing, there are a lot of them. For another thing, a lot of the kings have the same name and sometimes the same king can be called by a couple of different names. Something else that can be confusing is understanding how to characterize some of these kings.
For example, II Chronicles 25 says of King Amaziah in verse 2 that he “did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, but not with a perfect heart.” So, is this guy good or bad? What does it mean that he is good, but not completely? You can read the rest of his story in II Chronicles 25 and conclude that he was not a good king.
So, what are we talking about here? Well, let me ask you, “Ahab and Jezebel, good or bad?” Obviously, they are bad. How about Goliath the Philistine, good or bad? Well, he was bad. What about David the shepherd boy, king, and warrior, good or bad? Well, I love David, but he did some horrible things.
What about you? Are you a good person? That is a little difficult, isn’t it? Unless you just say, “I am born a sinner,” it can be complicated. Are you a good person? Well, when? What minute are you asking about and for whom are you asking? At the end of the day, your life is characterized by your choices. It is not your genetics or family history; it is what you choose. There is no good reason for bad choices. There might be pragmatic reasons for bad choices, but there is no morally good reason for a bad choice.
First, bad choices yesterday do not obligate you to wrong decisions today. Amaziah bought a mercenary army to help him defeat his enemies. God said, “No, I have the power to help and to cast down. You don’t need these hired soldiers. I want you to send them home.” In verse 9 Amaziah said to the man of God who had given him God’s message, “But what shall we do for the hundred talents I have given to the army of Israel?” In other words, “I’ve spent a lot of money on these guys. I can’t let them go now.” The reply was, “Better to lose the army than to lose the battle.” The man of God answered, “The LORD is able to give thee much more than this.”
This is a sunk cost fallacy. Sunk cost is unrecoverable expenses that should not influence future decisions. All of us have made bad decisions in the present because we have to keep going down the path we chose poorly in the past. For instance, have you ever been reading a boring or bad book that you have slogged through for a hundred ninety pages and think, “I’ve got to finish it because I have started it,” or maybe you bought some ice cream on sale and by the time you got to it, it was freezer burned with ice crystals on it. It was no good, but you muscled it down because you bought it. Your thinking was, “I’ve spent money, so I’ve got to endure this bad thing.”
We do this in more profound ways as well. Parents may say, “I can’t tell my kids no because I did the same thing.” In other words, we are being blackmailed, letting our past blackmail our children’s future. Sometimes there are expectations of what we are supposed to do. We think,” I can’t respond reasonably because people expect me to be passionate and fiery and fly off the handle, so I have to be consistent.” No, you don’t have to be consistent. “I’d rather be right than consistent,” said Winston Churchill. Now, I’d rather be both, but I would rather be right than consistent. No one likes a quitter, but there are some things I should quit. If I smoke and it is ruining my health, that would be a good thing to stop.
Bad choices yesterday do not obligate you to the wrong decisions today. You are free. “The LORD is able to give thee much more than this.” You can trust God that if you will do the right thing, it will be a good thing. There is no good reason for bad choices.
I would also say that good choices do not entitle you to wrong choices today. King Amaziah lost his purchased army, but he won the battle because God was with him. Then the Bible says incredibly in verse 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.” That is crazy. What did God say to him? Verse 15 says, “Why hast thou sought after the gods of the people, which could not deliver their own people out of thine hand?”
Sometimes we have made good choices in the past and feel that entitles us to do something wrong today. We think, “I’ve done good things. I’ve been disciplined and I deserve a little bit of leeway this weekend.” There is no moral reason for a bad choice. You are not a victim. You are a free agent. You have choices and God will give you grace to do what you choose to do if you do the right thing. “God hath power to help, and to cast down,” said the prophet. Bad choices yesterday do no obligate you to wrong decisions today, and good choices in the past do not entitle you to wrong choices today. There is no good reason for a bad choice.