Once Amaziah became king of Judah, he mustered his army and found he had 300,000 choice men fit to handle spear and shield.1 But this was less than a third of what his forefather Jehoshaphat had, and no doubt he felt vulnerable. He decided to hire 100,000 reinforcements from neighboring Israel with 100 talents of silver. 100 talents of silver was something like 13,500 pounds of silver. Wow!
But a prophet approached Amaziah and said, in effect, “Don’t let that hired army go with you into battle because God is not with Israel. If you do, you will go down in battle, for God has power to help and to bring down.”2
But Amaziah, having spent a fortune, says, “What about all that silver I’ve already spent?” Amaziah was weighing the cost of obedience.
And so it is with us. Silver or obedience? Which is of more value?
Note the prophet’s reply: “The Lord has much more to give you than this.” In other words, You’re worried about a few thousand pounds of silver? Listen, that’s chump change to God. The Lord has much more to give you than this. You just worry about doing what He says because He wants to give you a whole lot more than this. Just don’t blow it by being disobedient.
Has the silver got you by the throat?
O God, “Your law is more valuable to me than millions in gold and silver!”3
2 2 Chronicles 25:7,8
3 Psalm 119:72, NLT