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by Katie Erickson

In last week’s post, I wrote about how Athaliah became the queen of Judah for a brief time. She attempted to murder every one of her heirs so that none of them could become the next ruler, but one child survived – the infant Joash. He was essentially smuggled out by his sister Jehosheba and hidden in the temple for 7 years. When the time was right, the high priest Jehoiada organized a plan to crown Joash as king right under Athaliah’s nose.

Joash became king when he was just 7 years old (2 Kings 11:21). Joash reigned as king of Judah for 40 years. Overall, Joash was a good king and sought to honor God, but he did not remove the high places, which is where the people worshiped idols and false gods. Joash was advised by Jehoiada, the high priest who hid him in the temple before he became the king (2 Kings 12:2-3).

Joash’s first recorded edict as king was to collect money from various offerings and religious taxes and use it to repair any damage to the temple. The money would be given to the priests, and then the priests were to use it to fix the temple. However, after 23 years, King Joash realized that the temple was still not repaired! King Joash asked Jehoiada why the work was not done when the priests had received the money to do it, but no answer is given in the Scriptures as to why that was the case. So, they essentially made a collection box so that the people of Judah could contribute to the temple’s repairs. Men were appointed to supervise the work on the temple, and they were able to pay for the laborers to do the work and the materials needed to fully restore the temple (2 Kings 12:4-16).

It seemed as though things were going pretty well for Joash in his reign as king. The temple was now repaired and everyone was satisfied with it. But, then King Hazael from Aram attacked Judah and set his sights on Jerusalem. King Joash had to figure out what to do to stop this attack, so he took all of the valuables out of the royal temple treasury and gave it all to King Hazael, who then stopped attacking Jerusalem (2 Kings 12:17-18).

But then, things got even worse – Jehoiada died. After his death, the officials of Judah (basically King Joash’s advisors) abandoned worshiping God and instead worshiped false gods and idols, namely Asherah. God sent prophets to the people to try and bring them back to worship Him, but they did not listen (2 Chronicles 24:17-19).

One such prophet was Zechariah, who was Jehoiada’s son. He explained to the people that because they had forsaken God, God would forsake them. King Joash and his officials didn’t like that message, so they stoned him to death in the courtyard of the temple. It is noted in Scripture that King Joash did not remember how Jehoiada, Zechariah’s father, had shown him such kindness by literally saving his life and hiding him in the temple for 7 years. As Zechariah died, he told King Joash, “May the Lord see this and call you to account” (2 Chronicles 24:20-22).

Then, the Arameans came back to finish what they had started. This time, they did invade Judah and took Jerusalem, killing all the leaders. The Arameans had a smaller army than Judah, but God used them to judge Judah since they had turned away from Him. Joash was not killed but only severely wounded in the battle. His officials were mad at him for murdering Jehoiada's son Zechariah the prophet, so while he was wounded, they killed King Joash in his bed (2 Chronicles 24:23-25).

King Joash’s reign in Judah started out great, even though he was just 7 years old. But perhaps his young age influenced that, as he had the wise and Godly counsel of Jehoiada the high priest to guide him in those early years. While he did not do everything according to what God would desire by leaving the high places of idol worship intact, the nation did follow God for the early years of Joash’s reign. But King Joash did organize the repair of the temple, which was done to honor God and the people’s worship of Him.

The high priest Jehoiada’s influence on Joash can be clearly seen when the nation turned to idol worship after his death. God did not just let that slide because the people had repaired the temple and mostly worshiped Him years before. No, King Joash needed to be judged for his change of heart, and he was. Although Judah had sent away the Arameans prior to that by giving them the riches from the temple, this time God allowed the Arameans to inflict much damage on Judah, including wounding King Joash so that his officials could finish the job and kill him.

Who is influencing your life? Do you have a Jehoiada in your life who is helping you stay on the right track of following God? While that is a great thing like it was for King Joash, be careful that you are not only following God because of that person’s influence in your life. Our faith must be our own. While having people to guide us in life is very important, their faith cannot save us. We must learn from them but truly have a changed heart so that we are worshiping and following God because we desire to give Him glory and honor, not because that other person follows God.

Make your faith your own and recommit your life to truly following God today, not because that’s what the people around you are doing but because of who God is and what He has done in your life.

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