“After the kingdom was firmly in his grasp, he executed the officials who had murdered his father the king. Yet he did not put the children of the assassins to death, in accordance with what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses where the Lord commanded: “Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin.” (2 Kings 14:5-6)
King Amaziah walked in the ways of the LORD (except for the high places) and when he attacked his enemy, he attacked only those who had murdered his father. He spared the children. Clearly this was an act of righteousness on his part. He was obeying the Law of Moses. But what about Moses? Didn’t he seek to have the children destroyed in Numbers 31?
You can read more about that story in this post here. But it’s important to know that the situation was different. Moses was dealing with a people group who had betrayed and acted treacherously against Israel (Num 25) in order to cause them to stumble. This here was a situation where King Amaziah was going after individuals who had murdered his father, the King. He was bringing justice to these individuals, and not to a people group who had acted wickedly against him.
It’s the difference between a nation declaring war on another nation and rising up to fight them vs. a terrorist act where the individual is dealt with according to their crime. Where other kings before him had killed off whole households, King Amaziah acted righteously.
And that’s an important point to make. The Bible doesn’t record perfect moral examples. The Scriptures record the faults, the failures, the messes of the people of God but his redemption of their lives and in the nation of Israel. For those of us in the Christian world this is an obvious point. But for many other faiths in the world this is a point of confusion. They think the Bible is about showing the examples of how we should be rather than to see God as the redeemer of the story.
But here Amaziah is working to obey the Lord. In this, he is an example. He is doing what is right according to the law of Moses and that is explicity noted. Others perhaps have not done this, but Amaziah is and it’s being noted.
