2 Chronicles 25:9, commentary and pictures

Amaziah had paid a hundred talents to hire the army of Israel for his campaign against Edom when the man of God told him not to take that army with him. His anxious question was what would become of the hundred talents already given, and the answer was that the Lord was able to give him much more than the money he would lose. He followed the counsel, separated from the idolatrous Israelites, went without Israel's army, and won.

The verse belongs to the reign of Amaziah, the disloyal king of Judah who followed Joash and was followed by Azariah, or Uzziah. His place stands in the succession from Jehoshaphat through Jehoram, Ahaziah, Athaliah, and Joash down to the dwindling out of the kingdom in Zedekiah and its close in B.C. 586.

Amaziah was unstable in contrast to Jehoshaphat, serving God and accepting the prophet's testimony when it pleased him. When reproved for the course he was pursuing he resented it at once, answered with threats, and would not listen, so God determined to destroy him. He later worshiped the gods of the defeated people though those gods had been unable to deliver them. His history illustrates that doing duty brings blessing while departing from God brings strife and captivity and great loss, and that God is willing to turn to help His people and work mightily for them when they seek Him with all the heart. His course is also the history of many others who follow their own counsel instead of the prophet's counsel.

Honoring God and leaving a wrong course is worth more than earthly riches, for trust in God matters more than preserving worldly profit. Trust in God makes His people able, while relying on their own strength leads to discouragement. Financial loss should not keep anyone from obeying God or from giving up reliance on an ungodly alliance, because God is able to abundantly make up what is surrendered or lost in obedience.

The promise applies to losses that may come from avoiding unnecessary work on the Sabbath, for God is able to provide more than what is lost in such obedience. It applies to accepting financial loss rather than compromising conscience, since it is better to suffer for principle and for Christ than to profit by compromising it. It means that a Christian with hundreds or thousands of dollars who hesitates to meet mission calls should invest the money freely instead of holding it back. Those who give in trusting, childlike faith receive more and yet more to use for God, calling for complete consecration in which all possessions are put into God's work, as Noah put all he possessed into the ark and as mission workers put funds and farms into the work of the third angel's message.