24 Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for forty years. His mother’s name was Zibiah; she was from Beersheba. 2 JOASH DID WHAT WAS RIGHT IN THE EYES OF THE LORD ALL THE YEARS OF JEHOIDA THE PRIEST. 2 Chronicles 24
Joash, the child King, is a classic example of the effects of right and later wrong counsel in a life. The game of football or soccer has a huge following and is spoken of at great lengths by pundits. I’m not sure who made the famous quote that, ‘Football is a game of two halves’ and SO IS LIFE!
Joash rose to the throne through the intervention of Jehoiada the priest and rid Judah of the wicked Athaliah, who murdered the whole royal family. Joash alone was rescued by the wife of Jehoida the priest and hidden for six years in the temple.
4 Some time later Joash decided to restore the temple of the Lord. 5 He called together the priests and Levites and said to them, ‘Go to the towns of Judah and collect the money due annually from all Israel, to repair the temple of your God. DO IT NOW.’ But the Levites did not act at once.
King Joash, who had been raised in the temple decided to have it restored but the priests and Levites were slow to obey. He wanted to restore Temple of the Lord as the central place of worship in Judah. To undo the desecration by Athaliah’s sons who’d stolen the sacred objects for the worship of the Baals. He had to call his mentor Jehoiada before him and initiate the means of collecting, ‘the taxes that Moses the servant of the Lord had required in the desert’.
8 At the king’s command, a chest was made and placed outside, at the gate of the temple of the Lord. 9 A proclamation was then issued in Judah and Jerusalem that they should bring to the Lord the tax that Moses the servant of God had required of Israel in the wilderness. 10 ALL THE OFFICIALS AND ALL THE PEOPLE BROUGHT THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS GLADLY, dropping them into the chest until it was full.
There were Unity and Joy among the people as the work of restoration proceeded. The work progressed well and ‘they rebuilt the temple according to its original design’.
14 When they had finished, they brought the rest of the money to the king and Jehoiada, and with it were made articles for the Lord’s temple: articles for the service and for the burnt offerings, and also dishes and other objects of gold and silver. AS LONG AS JEHOIADA LIVED, burnt offerings were presented continually in the temple of the Lord.
Jehoiada died at the age of a hundred and thirty and he’d served God faithfully to the end of his long Life!
16 HE WAS BURIED WITH THE KINGS in the City of David, because of the good he had done in Israel for God and his temple.
This priest was honoured in death by the people of Judah as he had served God and them faithfully his whole life.
10 God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. Hebrews 6
May God bless and keep you today as you serve Him, Immanuel.