As Amaziah consolidated and organized his military force (perfectly reasonable), he concocted an idea to hire 100,000 mercenaries from Israel. from a worldly stand point, this seems like a great idea - more men to fight = a better chance of military victory. He paid over three tons of silver for the men.
The problem with this thinking is that it leaves out the supernatural intervening of God in the affairs of men. This kind of thinking is deism - God exists, He made the world, but is far away and does not intervene in the affairs of this world. Although the Old and New Testaments both teach that God does intervene and controls all things ultimately (sovereignty of God), Amaziah and we live our lives more like deists.We make unholy alliances that look good on paper (date and marry "nice" unbelievers, get into business partnerships with sharp unbelievers, etc.) put aside God to go after worldly pursuits (skip church because we have too much work to do, don't read our Bibles because we have to leave early for work, etc.).
The man of God replied, "The LORD can give you much more than that." Fundamentally, we have to decide if we believe this or if we believe, "Only I through my best efforts can obtain that." The former is never to be used as an excuse for laziness. We should be good stewards and work hard, but only to the extent that we never forsake God and the things of God.
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