Jehoiadah was a great
man. He carefully hid Joash (or Jehoash) for 6 years until he was ready enough to reign.
Athaliah was untenable. She had to go.
He summonsed the
leaders of hundreds throughout Judea and also the captains of the guard and
showed Joash to them under oath.
They agreed that she
had to go and it was time for Joash to be king. The years he had spent with the
child cemented his faithful heart. It’s a powerful idea.
I truly believe that the first 6 years of a
child’s life are definitive to their later moral choices and submission to authority.
If you don’t bring
them up in the admonition of God in that 6 year window, you will fail to
imprint on them your own critical values and ideologies.
After that discipline has
to give way to instruction, so if they are not corrected and taught the fundamentals
by then, they risk being influenced by others.
The priest organized his
forces into three to guard the palace, the temple and the city gates, and then
they brought out Joash, anointed him and proclaimed him with praises.
The queen heard and
came to see what the commotion was about, but Jehoiada had set his guards around
the boy with a warning to kill anyone who came in range of him.
She did just that, but
he did not want her to die in the house of God, so despite protestations of
treason she was taken out to the horse gate and executed.
Her reign was over and
she paid justly for killing the rest of Jehoshaphat’s offspring. She had also
killed her husband, Jehoram’s 6 brothers and had ruled through his weakness.
Joash was set on the
throne of David and the people rejoiced greatly.
She clearly was not
missed and was never good for Judah, but they despised her influence over Baal and Ashteroth worship the most, which led to an immediate destruction of all
shrines to Baal.
That too was in direct
retaliation for the damage she had caused to the house of God and the afflictions
he had imposed on all who worshiped God.
Jehoiada also restored
the priesthood and the priestly ordinances instituted by David. The land knew
peace again. It would be a wonderful reign.
Joash began to reign (2 Kings 12 and 2
Chronicles 24)
He ascended the throne
in Jehu’s second year and reigned for 40 years. His faithful guide and
counselor
was Jehoiada.
What a contrast to the way Athalia had manipulated the throne of her husband to reign through him, while Jehoidah only sought the best for his own king and never abused his position.
God help all those who lead to serve with integrity and honor.
The first act of Joash
was to follow the ancient commands of Moses by sending a treasury collection
box to all the people throughout Judea, for repairs to the house of God.
He berated Jehoiada
for having not initiated the program. Money poured in and the king’s scribe and
the high priest kept the funds to pay for the repairs to
every breach in the temple.
Eventually Jehoiada died
during Joash's reign, at the ripe old age of 130. His son Zechariah inherited his
seat, and he was as zealous for the Lord as his father had been.
Sadly, the end of
Jehoiada left Joash without sound counsel. He never quite outlived the great
man and was weakened by his departure.
There is a good lesson in that. Don't ever get ahead of yourself and never despise good counsel.
Thus, many turned back
to Baal worship and when Zechariah tried to stop it they stoned him and Joash
did nothing to stop it or to honor Jehoiada’s memory.
And so his reign
petered out. It started so well and he was a good king until Jehoiadah died,
then he went into decline.
The Syrians, under
Hazael, sensed the power vacuum and came against Jerusalem, but instead of
inquiring of the Lord or taking a stand against the Syrians, he bought peace from
Hazael with the precious things in the temple.
By then he had become
unpopular and those loyal to Jehoiadah
resented his action against Zechariah, so they slew him in his bed in Millo.
That ended his long
reign of 40 years. Amaziah reigned in his stead.
(c) Peter Missing @ bethelstone.com
