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

Today’s passage begins when the high priest puts the seven year old Joash on the throne of Judah by staging a coup against his grandmother, who had herself staged a coup to take the throne upon the death of her son.  This passage and others which reference King Joash tell us that he enthusiastically worshiped the Lord while Jehoiada, his foster father and the high priest who put him on the throne, lived, but that he turned to worshiping Asherah poles and other idols once Jehoiada died.  I have always struggled to understand how and why Jehoiada had gone wrong in raising Joash.  Today, some understanding came to me.  Usually when we read the account of Joash restoring the temple we focus on what it says about his desire to worship and serve God.  However, today it struck me that it also tells us a bit about what Jehoiada got wrong.  Initially Joash delegated restoring the temple to the priests and Levites, who answered to the high priest, Jehoiada.  Unfortunately, the priests and Levites did not act on the king’s command.  We do not know why Jehoiada failed to oversee the restoration of the temple.  A likely explanation is that he was too busy administering the government of Judah to take on that responsibility.  So, instead of having trained Joash to rule Judah, and then gradually turned responsibility for doing so over to him, Jehoiada continued to administer everything, distracting Joash with overseeing the restoration of the temple.  It seems likely that for as long as he lived Jehoiada discouraged Joash from taking on his responsibilities as king.

I use 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.

Early in his reign, Joash was fervent in his devotion to God.  However, when his stepfather died, he fell under the influence of wicked men and began worshiping idols.  When Joash was confronted about this by his stepbrother, Joash had him put to death.   Then we have his son, Amaziah, who also did right in the eyes of God early in his reign, only to take the gods of Edom as his own after conquering that kingdom.  Both Joash and Amaziah stand as warnings to anyone who enthusiastically obeys God in their youth.  Our faith must endure for our entire lives.  While both Amaziah and Joash did good, in the end they faltered and fell short of what they could have been.

I use 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.

Both Joash and his son Amaziah started out their reigns honoring God, but both turned away from God in their later years.  Joash, in particular, started out enthusiastically serving God.  He went beyond the efforts of his stepfather, Jehoiada the priest, in repairing the Temple and refurnishing it, but once Jehoiada died he fell under the influence of advisors who encouraged him to commit idolatry.  Joash’s son, Amaziah, started out faithfully following the words of God’s prophets, but once he had success he turned to worshiping the idols of those he had defeated.  In both cases, these kings began to think they need not listen to God’s prophets as they got older.  Let us not follow their example and turn from following God.

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

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.