The story of Amaziah, King of Judah, is a similar story for many persons of moderate but legitimate faith, a mixture of blessing and cursing in their lives caused by conflicting conduct in the persons themselves. These lives are neither effective witnesses of spiritual devotion nor consistent witnesses of constructive humanism. They can neither embrace fully nor reject fully the faith under which they are related, nor the social world in which they find themselves. Commonly they conduct themselves according to some inner inclination that guides them toward their preferred end for each occasion, even if the result contradicts what they may have done on some date earlier, or what they may do in some future situation – even tomorrow.
Amaziah cited particular passages in the law that he applied in the administration of the affairs of Judah. Rather than execute the children of opposing royals, he spared them because Scripture proclaimed the children should not pay for sins of the fathers. When mustering soldiers he started with those twenty years of age, because that was the age Moses listed as the first year for a man’s military service. When he was counseled by the prophet of the Lord he followed what he wanted to follow and insulted the prophet when he disliked what he heard. In the end it cost him his kingdom, his life, and his legacy with God. He may be in heaven, but well down the line when immortal awards are bestowed. The judgment of believers will be in the moment of awareness that the human performance was significantly less than it could have been and should have been. This clarification may be a purgatory experience not found in theology books.
The uneven performances of believers in Christ, and their ambivalences about the meaning of the Church, prayer, obedience, righteousness will be a matter of significant embarrassment at the seat of Christ. God must tote up the score, because he is perfect. He must parcel out justice, and determine the few stripes/many stripes of the ultimate judgment. His final act of forgiveness, before expunging the old record, will include this ambivalence in performance. But there will be some residue in the progress of the creative experience of heaven that includes the dream of earth and its mortality. It will be a different life than that of the angels, or the seraphim, or life in nature. We will be identified as we are known. In some way, that manages omissions that ought not to have been omitted. To gain heaven is enough, even if we are part of a peasant group there, but even that awaits accounting. Who knows what the differences are? We can know that what we are now has something to do with who we shall be. Our present ambition should be that that God-related status should be at a premium for us. God appears to have a good, better and best.
We ought to be concerned about renewal, the achievement of spiritual potential. That is helped when the carnality of society and our own lives, is overcome, displaced, with righteousness. It was in renewal that Hezekiah is reported as seeking the Lord and working wholeheartedly. (2 Chronicles 31:21) The matter is worthy of meaningful attention. It is a concern to apply to prayer, faith and life objectives. We only have hints about the transitional experience from mortality to immortality. We do know that there is some meaning, and all implications suggest that the gestation period of nature has something to do with what follows. The wise person makes some inquiry into the matter, even if, at the end of it, the decision is neutral or negative. God honors the person who picks up challenge about meaning for life. It is in life that God reveals himself, and that attention to human life helps in finding meaning for here and hereafter. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020