‏ 2 Kings 14

* Amaziah's good reign. (1-7) Amaziah provokes Jehoash king of

Israel, and is overcome. (8-14) He is slain by conspirators.

(15-22) Wicked reign of Jeroboam II. (23-29)

1-7 Amaziah began well, but did not go on so. It is not enough

to do that which our pious predecessors did, merely to keep up

the common usage, but we must do it as they did, from the same

principle of faith and devotion, and with the same sincerity and

resolution. 8-14 For some time after the division of the kingdoms, Judah

suffered much from the enmity of Israel. After Asa's time, it

suffered more by the friendship of Israel, and by the alliance

made with them. Now we meet with hostility between them again.

How may a humble man smile to hear two proud and scornful men

set their wits on work, to vilify and undervalue one another!

Unholy success excites pride; pride excites contentions. The

effects of pride in others, are insufferable to those who are

proud themselves. These are the sources of trouble and sin in

private life; but when they arise between princes, they become

the misery of their whole kingdoms. Jehoash shows Amaziah the

folly of his challenge; Thine heart has lifted thee up. The root

of all sin is in the heart, thence it flows. It is not

Providence, the event, the occasion, whatever it is, that makes

men proud, secure, discontented, or the like, but their own

hearts do it. 15-22 Amaziah survived his conqueror fifteen years. He was

slain by his own subjects. Azariah, or Uzziah, seems to have

been very young when his father was slain. Though the years of

his reign are reckoned from that event, he was not fully made

king till eleven years afterwards. 23-29 God raised up the prophet Jonah, and by him declared the

purposes of his favour to Israel. It is a sign that God has not

cast off his people, if he continues faithful ministers among

them. Two reasons are given why God blessed them with those

victories: 1. Because the distress was very great, which made

them objects of his compassion. 2. Because the decree was not

yet gone forth for their destruction. Many prophets there had

been in Israel, but none left prophecies in writing till this

age, and their prophecies are part of the Bible. Hosea began to

prophesy in the reign of this Jeroboam. At the same time Amos

prophesied; soon after Micah, then Isaiah, in the days of Ahaz

and Hezekiah. Thus God, in the darkest and most degenerate ages

of the church, raised up some to be burning and shining lights

in it; to their own age, by their preaching and living, and a

few by their writings, to reflect light upon us in the last

times.