I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Chronicles 23-25.

There are elements of the story of King Joash which make me wonder what else was going on.  Of course, those same elements also convince me that the story is true, since no one who was making up a story would make it up that way.  First we must understand the story.  The high priest, Jehoiada, was Joash’s stepfather and was married to the woman who had saved Joash’s life from his grandmother.  When Joash was seven years old, Jehoiada led the revolt in Joash’s name to overthrow his grandmother who had usurped the throne.  As part of that, and following it, Jehoaida led a religious reform resulting in a revival of worship of God and a turning away from idols.  Yet, it took Joash to order the repair of the Temple when he reached his majority.  We know from the parallel passage in Kings that Joash had to issue a second such order a few years later to get the repairs to actually happen.  Why didn’t Jehoiada immediately implement the Temple repairs when Joash first ordered them?

Which brings us to another element in this story.  After Jehoiada’s death, King Joash turned away from God to worship idols.  Perhaps King Joash was a weak king who followed the lead of the strongest personality around him.  The passage suggests as much when it tells us that it was some of his advisors who convinced him to turn to idol worship.  Further, it appears that it was those same advisors who convinced him to order the stoning of his step-brother after his step-brother confronted him about his unfaithfulness to God.

Finally, we have the account of Joash’s son Amaziah.  Early in his reign, Amaziah turned from idol worship, although the passage suggests that this was not wholehearted.  This leads me to wonder if Amaziah did so because of the fact that zealots for God had assassinated his father.  Initially, Amaziah organized the army and followed the advice of men of God. (Side note: the description of how Amaziah organized the army suggests that Joash had allowed the army to be poorly run).  As a result, he had a great victory.  But instead of giving credit to God and becoming more committed to God, he adopted the idols of those he defeated as his own gods.  So, we see that Amaziah’s reign followed a similar trajectory to that of his father.  He started out serving God, but when he came fully into his power he turned from Him.  We should recognize that many people follow a similar trajectory and ward against making the same mistake.