He was raised by a godly priest, and never had any contact with his evil parents. So when he began to rule he was righteous and God blessed him. That however, is not the end of the story…
I have often mused about how children turn out the way they do. One person told me that you can tell in the 7th grade what kind of student the child will be as a senior. I’m not sure about that, but I certainly can see that children don’t always follow the pattern of their parents. Uneducated parents can raise a scholar, and scholarly parents can raise a…..well, you know. The same holds true for godly parents who can raise children that lack faith. And, on the opposite side of that, I have seen ungodly parents whose children love the Lord and are serving Him wholeheartedly. The whole thing amazes me, really. If I had one wish, it would be that my whole family knew the Lord and served Him personally. I don’t expect them to become ministers, but I really would like to see them all in heaven. I worry sometimes that my grandchildren won’t know enough about God to make the right decision.
So, I applaud our good friend Jehoiada the priest. He took a great risk in saving Joash’s life and keeping him alive in the temple. As a young boy (only 7 when he became king) he listened to what Jehoiada told him, and ruled wisely. Evidence of his devotion is given in the example of how he repaired the temple.
I hadn’t realized what disrepair the temple had fallen into. In 2 Chronicles it tells us that it was pillaged by worshippers of Baal, and all the sacred objects were stolen and used in false worship. No wonder God is so angry. The depth to which we can descend in our spiritual depravity continues to amaze me. I am also amused that the money poured into the temple coffers and the priests had done nothing to repair the very temple they were serving in. I mean, come on now….the money was given, the repairs needed are obvious and the king has decreed that you should be fixing the place up. What in the world is it going to take to move you off of your hind end? Everyone wants this to happen, and yet still it’s deadlocked. I wonder, do we have the same problem in our time? Are there things that God (the King) wants to happen, that He has provided resources to accomplish and that the people are all desiring….but still it doesn’t happen, because those in charge of leading the repair haven’t acted? I certainly don’t want to be be counted in that group! But, I know that it happens. Maybe the task was so large that they didn’t know where to start. Maybe they couldn’t agree on who to hire, or what to work on first. Maybe they were looking at plans after plans and different options for how the work should proceed, and actually thought they were quite busy….when they hadn’t done a thing. Maybe they were simply afraid of not having enough…this is the worst one of all. Maybe they had been without for so long that they didn’t know how to have resources. Instead of using them, their nature now compelled them to hoard the money, waiting for days when the money would again dry up.
I fear this is the state of many of our churches today.
The King had to take over the job himself in order to get around their defeated mindset.
You would think that such a king would love the Lord his whole life, and would serve him devotedly, but oddly, that isn’t the case. In fact king Jehoiada goes completely off the rails as he gets older. I think he dies at the age of 47, so we aren’t talking Alzheimers here; he wanders off into false worship! The only piece of information that we have that would serve as a clue is the death of the priest Jehoiada. When Jehoiada dies king Joash seems to fall apart. I mourn the fact that Joash kills Jehoiada’s son the prophet Zechariah. What a very sad day for the southern kingdom, to have risen so far and improved so much in their worship, only to have this happen, and have their whole government implode on them. Because of Joash’s pagan tendencies, the southern kingdom is defeated in battle, and Joash is severely wounded. His advisors, sensing a moment of weakness kill him, undoubtedly because of what he did to Zechariah. This is probably why Zechariah’s last words are mentioned here. God has heard, and is going to bring judgment.
I looked back a second time at 2 Chronicles to see exactly why Joash had wandered. It seems the leaders of Judah influenced him after Jehoiada’s death. That got me wondering if Joash was really a follower instead of a leader. He was good as long as the voices behind him were good…but when those voices turned evil, the king himself turned. I wonder, what should a person who is prone to follow do, if they find themselves in charge? Perhaps a wise move would be to surround themselves with godly people who give wise spiritual advice, and who are humble enough to realize that even though they have vision, it is going to be up to someone else to see those insights put into practice. Joash needed a humble leader to guide him. Apparently, that’s what Jehoiada was. Do you know any humble leaders? People who are able to lead simply by offering insight and advice to the recognized leader? Perhaps we don’t speak of this often enough in the church. If God is calling you to be a humble “leader of leaders”….a kind trustworthy soul who doesn’t require the spotlight or fame in order to remain motivated to serve, then you have a high calling indeed. The spiritual development of many people may rest with you. Success or failure, victory or defeat, these may both be influenced by your insights. Being humble, you may not accept that as reality, but here it is in the Bible in black and white. Remove Jehoiada and the king wandered. And when the king wandered, the nation plummeted.
Different topic:
There is a small section here in 2 Kings about Jehoash who was king in the north. I think the only reason it’s mentioned his because the tables are turned on the king of Aram, and the northern kingdom begins to win battles again. What happened? I mean, the king is still evil, so why are they winning all of a sudden? This passage lets us know (in advance of the victories) that God is favoring king Jehoash because he loves the people and is taking pity on them. And, Jehoash is grieving the coming death of Elisha. The king is recognizing the authority and power of God…even though he is rarely putting it into practice in his own life. God speaks through Elisha one last time and tells the king that he will defeat the king of Aram. Three times, actually. Hey, I wonder if you can draw a parallel between the failure of the priests to act in building the temple, and the failure of Jehoash to strike the ground more than three times. Both of them offered up anemic responses to God’s revelation. They should have built aggressively and didn’t. The king should have struck the ground many times, and didn’t. Feeble response receives small blessing.
Thinking of that, I wonder if the words of Jesus could apply: “with the measure you use it will be measured back to you”. I wonder if our response to God’s revelation about Himself determines just how much he blesses us? I wonder, if we are lazy in our worship, not expressing ourselves, not staying engaged, allowing our minds to wander….you know what I mean. Would that feeble response to God’s presence cause the Lord to limit the blessing that He permits?
When God reveals Himself in even the smallest way, I want to be sure to acknowledge it, and celebrate it, so that God will be pleased. I’m not afraid to confess it….I want the Lord to bless me, and my family and this church and this community.
Don’t you?
Faithfully,
PR