2 Chronicles 24:1-27

Joash is yet another one of the many kings in Judah and Israel that started well but did not finish well.  He was a man who was easily influenced by others, which was greatly to his benefit as long as Jehoiadah was alive.  The problems all started after Jehoiada died and he was influenced by evil men who filled him with pride and then led him down that path of destruction and idolatry.  All of us allow different people to influence us at different times in our lives, but we must be very careful about whom we allow to occupy that position in our lives.  God calls us to influence those who are around us and help them follow the Lord.

JOASH REBUILDS THE TEMPLE: As a young king, Joash, under the direction of Jehoiada, has the idols of Baal removed from Israel.  He is now a grown man and begins to take initiatives on his own.  He sees that the temple is in great disrepair and so he orders the Levites to collect money for the restoration process.  Apparently the Levites were not doing their job very well or were using the funds for other purposes as the job was not getting done.  Joash changes strategies and requires that the people pay a temple tax for the rebuilding of the temple, and the people gladly contribute with abundance and are faithfully bringing these funds to the temple.  Joash oversees this construction process and the house of the Lord is restored.  Joash does a great job as a leader and the people follow his instructions.  He must have experienced great joy and satisfaction during this time and he was the source of great joy and satisfaction for the people that he was leading.  The path of obedience is always one that brings joy to all who walk upon it.  The pleasures of sin are fleeting, but the joy of obedience is eternal.

JOASH REBELS AGAINST THE LORD: Jehoiada lived to be 130 years old, and Joash remained faithful as long as Jehoiada was his counselor.  However, when he died, the princes of the land came and filled Joash’s head with thoughts of grandeur.  They made him an object of worship and the praise of men became intoxicating to him so he began to give in to their requests and led the nation back down the path of idolatry.  Idolatry almost always starts out as a worshiping of self, but it inevitably leads to other forms of idolatry.  Once Joash started down the slippery slope of sin he was blinded by his own power.  God sent Jehoiada’s son, with whom Joash had grown up, in order to call Joash to repentance.  Joash had him stoned to death.  It is amazing to see how far Joash fell from his original standards.  It all started with pride, which led to idolatry, which led to murder and outright rebellion against God.  We must be very careful not to start down the path of pride and rebellion because the end of that path is a very scary place.

JOASH RECEIVES JUDGMENT FROM GOD: God would not tolerate this unfaithfulness and rebellion so He used a small army from Syria to come and attack Judah and they ended up wounding Joash so severely that he had to be cared for in his bed and then the men of the palace avenged the blood of Jehoiada’s son and took Joash’s life.  He was remembered as an unfaithful king and was not buried with the kings of Judah.  Jehoiada had been given that honor and Joash had everything he needed to be honored as well.  Instead, he tried to honor himself and ended up dying in disgrace.  I wonder where all those princes were who started influencing Joash to go into idolatry.  They pretended to worship Joash in order to manipulate him into doing what they wanted and then they left him alone to die alone a broken and defeated man.  Sin never paints the final picture of judgment it only reveals the passing pleasures of the moment.  We must learn to look to the future and be wise to follow the instruction of God’s Word which will always leave us well prepared for our eternal future.