Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible recap.

Today we open in the Southern Kingdom of Judah with the new King Amaziah on the throne.

You may recall from yesterday that his dad, Joe Ash, who had become King at age 7, was

killed by some of his servants, and that's when Amaziah ascended the throne.

And one of his first acts was to avenge his father's death by killing the men who killed

him.

One thing that was really popular back then, even though it wasn't sanctioned by God,

was to kill the families of those who threatened the King's reign.

But Amaziah doesn't.

He obeys God's commands and refuses to punish the children for the sins of the Father.

God commanded his people not to carry out justice generationally, even though he sometimes

does.

He's the decider of what's just.

He can be trusted with that kind of thing.

In general, Amaziah was a pretty good king, especially at first.

But 252 tells us that even his good actions weren't done with a fully yielded heart.

And this shows up and now he handles a few of the things God commands, initially that

he left the high places of idle worship intact.

It's starting to seem like the high places are like the last five pounds.

If you've ever been on a diet, you know what I mean.

Amaziah decides to go to war against their long-standing enemy, the Edomites.

And he hires 100,000 soldiers from Israel to join his army in Judah.

...