Reading in 2 Kings 12, we find ourselves in the middle of another “page turning” story. It is engaging and full of significant action. It drives home the importance of good stewardship and organization for accomplishing what Yahweh entrusts to us.
To reconnect with the context, in 2 Kings 11 Jehoiada, a priest, sets Joash on the throne as king. He was restoring the kingdom to a rightful heir after Athaliah had murdered many of her own grandchildren to take the throne. Joash was seven years old when he became king and did right in the sight of the LORD while Jehoiada instructed him.
Joash (Jehoash) Reigns over Judah
1In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Zibiah of Beersheba. 2Jehoash did right in the sight of the LORD all his days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him. 3Only the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.
The Temple to Be Repaired
4Then Jehoash said to the priests, “All the money of the sacred things which is brought into the house of the LORD, in current money, both the money of each man’s assessment and all the money which any man’s heart prompts him to bring into the house of the LORD, 5let the priests take it for themselves, each from his acquaintance; and they shall repair the damages of the house wherever any damage may be found.”
6But it came about that in the twenty-third year of King Jehoash the priests had not repaired the damages of the house. 7Then King Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and for the other priests and said to them, “Why do you not repair the damages of the house? Now therefore take no more money from your acquaintances, but pay it for the damages of the house.” 8So the priests agreed that they would take no more money from the people, nor repair the damages of the house.
9But Jehoiada the priest took a chest and bored a hole in its lid and put it beside the altar, on the right side as one comes into the house of the LORD; and the priests who guarded the threshold put in it all the money which was brought into the house of the LORD. 10When they saw that there was much money in the chest, the king’s scribe and the high priest came up and tied it in bags and counted the money which was found in the house of the LORD. 11They gave the money which was weighed out into the hands of those who did the work, who had the oversight of the house of the LORD; and they paid it out to the carpenters and the builders who worked on the house of the LORD; 12and to the masons and the stonecutters, and for buying timber and hewn stone to repair the damages to the house of the LORD, and for all that was laid out for the house to repair it. 13But there were not made for the house of the LORD silver cups, snuffers, bowls, trumpets, any vessels of gold, or vessels of silver from the money which was brought into the house of the LORD; 14for they gave that to those who did the work, and with it they repaired the house of the LORD. 15Moreover, they did not require an accounting from the men into whose hand they gave the money to pay to those who did the work, for they dealt faithfully. 16The money from the guilt offerings and the money from the sin offerings was not brought into the house of the LORD; it was for the priests.
17Then Hazael king of Aram went up and fought against Gath and captured it, and Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem. 18Jehoash king of Judah took all the sacred things that Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah, his fathers, kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own sacred things and all the gold that was found among the treasuries of the house of the LORD and of the king’s house, and sent them to Hazael king of Aram. Then he went away from Jerusalem.
Joash (Jehoash) Succeeded by Amaziah in Judah
19Now the rest of the acts of Joash and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 20His servants arose and made a conspiracy and struck down Joash at the house of Millo as he was going down to Silla. 21For Jozacar the son of Shimeath and Jehozabad the son of Shomer, his servants, struck him and he died; and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David, and Amaziah his son became king in his place.
Verses 2 and 3 highlight that Joash did right while having benefit of the instruction of the priest who helped him. He was young and he listened to council. However, we see that he failed to remove the high places where false worship took place, even as he worked to restore the house of Yahweh. It would seem that Joash and Jehoiada had a blind spot regarding either the need or the courage to remove the high places. In the end Joash delivers mixed results… some good and some disappointing.
Digging further in the passage, we see a powerful example regarding the importance of how we steward and organize ourselves to accomplish tasks for the LORD.
When they started collecting money and giving it to the priests to restore the temple, they took the money and never made repairs. Perhaps they did not have the skills or the time? Perhaps they were simply not held accountable. I do not know how long before they had to face stewardship by the King, but it took that to get the repairs on the right path. They had to make a change after assessing the first approach and then have the money directly paid to the workmen to make the repairs. This was more successful. It is a good reminder that stewardship is necessary to ensure we get the expected outcomes even within ministry. It may not be by wickedness that it fails, but it could be we do not have the right organizational structure and approach for the task at hand.
It is interesting to note that the workmen did not require detailed stewardship. They were faithful. So let us not assume we need to micro manage everything in order to be successful either. We need to assess each situation and evaluate the right level of stewardship. We do need to validate progress and results are as expected in some manner.
As part of stewardship when you have something valuable, you also need to think about security to protect it. In this case Joash did not have an army prepared to defend that which he was investing in to restore. They lost many valuable objects as payment for the hostile king to leave.
Overall we see mixed results in Joash’s leadership. He had some good and some bad. We can learn from both. Sadly, when Jehoiada died, Joash acted wickedly, but we can study that more when we get to 2 Chronicles 24, which gives more history on Joash.
I invite you to pray with me:
Father, please open my eyes to what you want me to accomplish on your behalf. Give me the wisdom and courage and help from others I need to boldly and effectively pursue what you call me to do. Please remove any blind spots for areas in which I do not see clearly the wickedness still present in my family or my self as we have been blended with the culture around us. Thank you for being with us and for your grace and mercy to love us even when we are not perfect in accomplishing all that you desire.
Shalom
Devotion by John in service to Christ
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