SERIES: Enlightening Epitaphs of the Kings and Prophets
Joash: “Because You Have Forsaken the Lord, He Has Forsaken You.”
Introduction: Three weeks ago one of our Elders, Lynn Beckemeier, brought a powerful message on mentoring–the incredibly valuable practice of pouring one’s life into another person so as to produce another mature disciple of Jesus Christ. Most of the time this is a very effective process; after all, it was time tested by Jesus Himself. But once in a while the mentoring relationship fails to produce its desired result. Once in a while a disciple becomes so dependent upon or even subservient to his or her mentor that when the mentor is removed from the equation, the mentee goes down the tubes spiritually. This could be attributable to a character flaw in the protege or the mentor, or both.
I think of a relationship between two men I knew well in Wichita years ago. They weren’t far apart in age, but they were worlds apart in maturity. The one man spent years pouring his life into his friend, and so long as he was right there, encouraging, rebuking, and holding him accountable, everything went pretty well. But when God removed the mentor for a season, it was almost no time before the younger man had backslidden into former habit patterns that were terribly destructive.
I’ve seen this kind of situation happen elsewhere. Sometimes the stabilizing influence is a parent, or a pastor, or a teacher, or a youth worker. So long as that person is prominent in the relationship, the learner seems to stay on the straight and narrow, and he evidences progress. But when that parent dies, or the pastor leaves, or the teacher retires, or the youth worker moves on, disaster strikes. That’s what happened in our story today from 2 Chronicles 23 and 24. The OT king we want to study is Joash, and the epitaph we will use to summarize his life is found in chapter 24, verse 20: “Because you have forsaken the LORD, he has forsaken you.”
We’re going to spend a bit more time on historical background today than usual, because we’re passing through several generations as we move from Jehoshaphat last week to Joash this week–covering the half-century from 850 to 800 B.C. But I think you will see the value of it if you track with me.
Historical background
Jehoram succeeded his father Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat was a good king, by and large, but as we examine the story following his death, it appears that he failed at his most critical task–parenting. I have some sympathy for him, though, because I think the always-difficult task of rearing children must be especially hard for someone with the kind of responsibilities and privileges a king has. I think an argument can be made that the busier a parent is and the more wealth he has at his disposal, the greater the temptation there is to relegate child rearing to others–nannies, camp directors, sports coaches, private schools, etc. Jehoshaphat had seven sons who grew up with great privilege. He gave them all expensive gifts, according to 21:3, but to Jehoram he gave the kingdom–not because he was the wisest or the most mature, but simply because he was the first-born–probably not a sufficient reason.
Jehoram was married to Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. You perhaps remember that one of Jehoshaphat’s greatest weaknesses was his penchant for peace with the Northern Kingdom, which drove him to compromise at several key points in his life. One of the most damaging compromises was his decision to seek a political alliance with Ahab by obtaining Ahab’s daughter Athaliah to marry his son Jehoram. This daughter of Jezebel was nearly as wicked as her mother, and just as much of an idol worshiper. Singlehandedly she came close to destroying the Southern Kingdom of Judah, as we shall see.
Upon assuming the throne, Jehoram promptly killed all six of his brothers, so as to eliminate any future competition. Just imagine executing the siblings you grew up with until age 32! Now I can understand doing something like that at age 12 or 16 (just kidding!), but at 32 you would think they had worked through their adolescent jealousies and come to appreciate one another as adults. But the love of power overwhelmed any sense of family loyalty. Elijah, who at the time was very near the end of his ministry, wrote Jehoram a letter of condemnation regarding this deed.
You have walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and you have led Judah and the people of Jerusalem to prostitute themselves, just as the house of Ahab did. You have also murdered your own brothers, members of your father’s house, men who were better than you. So now the Lord is about to strike your people, your sons, your wives and everything that is yours, with a heavy blow. (2 Chronicles 21:13-14)
Jehoram was punished by God with a lingering illness. Here is how Jehoram’s judgment is described: “After all this, the LORD afflicted Jehoram with an incurable disease of the bowels. In the course of time, at the end of the second year, his bowels came out because of the disease, and he died in great pain.” I don’t know what this disease was–whether diverticulitis, colitis, cancer, or some other chronic ailment–but it was extremely painful and it was fatal. The Scriptures give Jehoram the worst imaginable epitaph a person could receive: “He passed away, to no one’s regret.”
I’ve done a lot of funerals in my 28 years of pastoral ministry. Some have been delightful experiences, as tributes and praises poured in from all quarters. I think of the memorial service nearly 13 years ago for Gary Jost (one of the founding members of our church), or three years ago for George Andrews, a beloved and faithful Elder, or just six months ago for Gloria Reinholdt (and I could mention many others). People couldn’t stop giving glowing reports about these individuals and how they had impacted so many lives.
At other memorial services, however, I have had little option but to just preach the Word, because there wasn’t much good to say about the person–even their loved ones didn’t have much to say. But I don’t think I’ve ever done a funeral for a person of whom it could be said, as it was of Jehoram, “he passed away, to no one’s regret.” There was not a single person–not a relative, a palace guard, a cook, or a chamber maid, who missed him. That is sad indeed!
Ahaziah succeeded his father Jehoram. All of the monarchs we are looking at today are from the southern kingdom of Judah, but they all had a common fatal attraction for the northern kingdom of Israel–that idol-worshiping nation that was on its last legs spiritually. They must have thought the kinship of blood to be stronger than spiritual kinship, but that should never be the case. Ahaziah was the youngest son of Jehoram, but he received the throne because all of his brothers were killed by Arab raiders. He was 22 years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for only one year. We learn several sad things about him.
His mother Athaliah encouraged him in doing wrong. What a tragic epitaph for any mother! Thankfully, most mothers work overtime to turn their children’s paths toward God and toward wisdom and integrity. It’s almost beyond imagination when once in a while we read in the news about a mother who encourages her daughter to become a prostitute or her son to become a thief or a drug pusher. But that is what Athaliah did, only worse–she encouraged her son to become a pagan idolater and a murderer. She obviously inherited her conscience from her own mother, Jezebel.
Not surprisingly, Ahaziah did evil in the eyes of the Lord. That’s what verse 4 tells us. In fact, it goes further, “He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, as the house of Ahab had done, for after his father’s death they became his advisers, to his undoing.” The “they” in that verse seems to refer to officials of the northern Kingdom. Ahaziah started listening to advice from Israel’s ambassadors instead of listening to godly advisors in his own kingdom of Judah.
He died at the hands of Jehu. We don’t have time to examine the whole story, but Jehu, who had been commissioned by God to destroy the house of Ahab, was busy executing judgment on Ahab’s son and successor in the Northern Kingdom when Ahaziah got caught in the crossfire and Jehu executed him, too.
Athaliah succeeded her son Ahaziah. Suddenly this evil woman found herself in a position to seize the throne. Her husband had killed all his brothers; all of her own sons were dead; so, she set herself up as queen. Imagine a daughter of Ahab and Jezebel sitting on the throne, not of the idolatrous house of Israel, the northern kingdom, but on the throne of David, the house of Judah! How far the righteous have fallen!
The first thing she did was to try to eliminate any potential competition to the throne. Verse 10 says, “When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family of the house of Judah.” Now remember that Athaliah was the wife of the late king Jehoram and the mother of the late king Ahaziah. If she puts out a contract on Ahaziah’s descendants, that means she is bent on murdering her own grandchildren, as well as all other relatives of her late husband and son!
But Jehosheba hid her infant nephew Joash in the temple. Jehosheba was King Jehoram’s daughter, but apparently not Athaliah’s daughter. I assume she was the king’s daughter by another marriage, thus Athaliah’s stepdaughter. She took nephew, the infant son of Ahaziah and grandson of Queen Athaliah, and hid him, along with a wet nurse to feed him, so his grandmother couldn’t kill him. In fact, this little boy named Joash remained hidden at the temple of God for six years while Athaliah ruled Judah with a godless cruelty. By the way, the reason his aunt hid Joash in the temple was probably that Jehosheba herself was married to the high priest Jehoiada, who would later play such a major role in the life of Joash. Further, he was probably safe in the temple, because Athaliah was so wicked she probably never thought about setting foot there!
Joash succeeded his grandmother Athaliah. We read that in the seventh year of Athaliah’s reign, as well as the seventh year of Joash’s life, Jehoiada the high priest “showed his strength.” As high priest he was the spiritual leader of the nation, and while that didn’t give him any particular political power, he realized that the kingdom would not survive much longer with Athaliah on the throne. So he marshaled all the strength and influence he could muster, risked his own life, and decided to try to save the nation.
Jehoiada the high priest plotted to crown Joash at age 7. While seven is a pretty young age for anyone to become a king, any option was preferable to continuing with a ruler of Athaliah’s character. Of course, only a descendent of David was eligible to be king, and that left Joash as the only option. The account of the plan devised by the high priest to bring Joash forth as the new king makes for very interesting reading. In fact, it takes up the entire 23rd chapter of 2 Chronicles. Jehoiada involved the priests, the Levites, the army, and the leaders of families–all of whom must have been ripe for a coup against the evil queen. They crowned Joash, and all the people shouted, “Long live the king! Long live the king!” Athaliah heard the noise and headed for the temple, where she discovered the whole country bowing down before the boy king.
Ironically Athaliah protested, “Treason!” “Treason!” Isn’t it interesting how one who is so guilty of treason herself can accuse others of the same deed when they put the rightful ruler on the throne. But her protests were to no avail. Jehoiada was careful, however, not to shed her blood in the temple–he ordered her put to death on the palace grounds.
Jehoiada made a covenant between the people and God to the effect that “the people and the king would be the LORD’s people” (verse 16). A covenant was a public agreement to fulfill a set of requirements in exchange for promised blessings. Of course, making a public agreement to do something is no guarantee that it’s going to be done, but the chances are better than if one merely says, “I’m going to do that.” I think that’s why covenants play such a prominent role in the spiritual life of God’s people–they are a way of cementing and enforcing the gravity of a decision. And what better covenant to make than one in which believers agree to be God’s people! That’s even better than agreeing to do godly things.
But what does it mean to be God’s people? It means to live by God’s laws. It means to honor Him with our hearts and actions. It means to worship Him as He desires to be worshiped. Have you ever publicly covenanted to be God’s person? When I was growing up it was not uncommon in our circles to have revival services or special camp meetings where Christians dedicated their lives to full-time service or re-dedicated their lives to the Lord. There was at times a fair amount of emotionalism connected with some of those decisions, but some of those commitments were lasting and profound.
When five young missionary men were massacred in 1956 by the Auca Indians in Ecuador, I recall that literally hundreds of young people offered themselves publicly to take their place in service to God, and many of them actually went to the mission field. Some are retiring now after 40 years or more serving God. We should not look lightly on the importance of publicly witnessed covenants. A little later in this service six individuals are going to participate in the public covenant of baptism–stating before all of you that they are going all the way with Jesus. Others are going to stand before you to accept the covenant of membership in First Evangelical Free Church.
Well, after the people agreed to be God’s people, they immediately began to put legs to their commitment. They went to the temple of Baal, where Athaliah undoubtedly worshiped, and tore it down. They smashed the altars and idols and killed the priest of Baal in front of the altars. And what is the result of this coup? The last verse of chapter 23 says, “And all the people of the land rejoiced. And the city was quiet, because Athaliah had been slain with the sword.”
Now, as I said, that’s a lot of background material, but I think it’s important to grasp as we turn our attention to the reign of this boy-king, Joash.
Joash does what is right in the eyes of the Lord all the years of Jehoiada the priest.
There’s something both very encouraging and very discouraging about that statement, which comes directly from 2 Chronicles 24:2. How much better it would have been if the author could have written, “Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the days of his own life.” But not so–he only did what was right while Jehoiada was alive. We’ll see why in a few moments. The story first tells us that …
Joash enjoys a long reign and a large family. In the opening verses of chapter 24 we are informed that Joash enjoys a long reign as king–40 years–and a large family. This is offered as evidence that God’s blessing was on his life, though since he was only seven when he began to reign, that means he died at the young age of 47.
He decides to restore the temple and pursues the task relentlessly. What Joash is best known for is his effort to restore the Temple of Solomon, which had fallen into terrible disrepair in the century since Solomon built it and dedicated it. He first tries to finance this task by urging the priests and Levites to collect the money through a taxation system. “But,” according to verse 5,“the Levites did not act at once.” That’s an understatement if there ever was one, because the parallel passage in 2 Kings tells us that 23 years passed with little or nothing being accomplished (2 Kings 12:6)! Apparently the Levites were not receiving enough money both to live on and to carry out essential services, and they didn’t feel they should also be responsible to raise the huge sums of money needed to restore the Temple. But Joash steps up to the plate and demonstrates some very creative leadership.
He initiates a unique way to raise funds for the Temple. He orders a specially made chest to be placed outside the gate of the temple. He then issues a proclamation, encouraging everyone to bring to the Lord the tax that Moses had required of Israel in the desert 600 years earlier, but which had since fallen into disuse. Apparently instead of making this tax mandatory, people are encouraged to bring it voluntarily and freely. The result? It says in verse 10: “All the officials and all the people brought their contributions gladly, dropping them into the chest until it was full.” Nor does that happen only once. Again and again the chest is filled up, emptied, and then returned again to its place. It says, “They did this regularly and collected a great amount of money.” All of the funds are set aside for the repair and reconstruction of the temple.
I have a very vivid memory from about 45 years ago. My father was the pastor of Old Orchard Chapel in Webster Groves until he resigned in 1956 to become president of a small Bible College in downtown St. Louis. Our family remained in the church under the leadership of the next pastor, Bill Bishop, a godly man of whom I have very fond memories. Pastor Bishop and the Elders decided that some major renovations needed to take place to that old stone church building, erected, I believe, in 1896, so he had a little wooden chest placed in the sanctuary, called it a Joash chest, and invited the people to give to a fund to repair the church building. It was very effective.
For the people of Israel the Joash chest became a symbol of generous giving above and beyond the tithe, and it provided all the funds needed to fix the Temple and re-institute regular worship there. We read in verse 14 that “As long as Jehoiada lived, burnt offerings were presented continually in the temple of the LORD.” But then in the last paragraph of chapter 24 we read that Jehoiada dies.
It shouldn’t have been unexpected, for the poor man was really, really old, but few were prepared for the major change that his death would bring upon the nation. It says, “Now Jehoiada was old and full of years, and he died at the age of a hundred and thirty. 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” (2 Chronicles 24:15-16). Though this man was never the official ruler of the nation–only the power and influence behind the throne–he managed to keep the ship of state headed in the right direction and to keep the young king rightly focused for as long as he lived.
After the death of Jehoiada, Joash begins to listen to the wrong voices.
We read in verse 17: “After the death of Jehoiada, the officials of Judah came and paid homage to the king, and he listened to them.” These were the equivalent of lobbyists today, special interest groups who had agendas they wanted the king to follow. Since Jehoiada was no longer around to keep these men away from the king, Joash listens to them. They have persuasive arguments; they have money; they have culture. Why shouldn’t he listen to them? But then we learn that …
His counselors abandon God for idols. It says in verse 18, “They abandoned the temple of the LORD, the God of their fathers, and worshiped Asherah poles and idols.” This is amazing to me! After a nearly 25-year obsession with having the temple repaired, Joash listens to counselors who have abandoned the temple of the Lord. And he himself apparently does the same. How do you explain such a turn-around? The only way I can think of is to suggest that he was more interested in the temple than he was in the Lord of the temple. I think it is possible for any of us to develop a project-fixation in our walk with God. Get this task done; complete that program; accomplish this other vision, all the while we are neglecting the development of a close walk with God. Furthermore,…
The people refuse to listen to God’s prophets. Verse 19: “Although the LORD sent prophets to the people to bring them back to him, and though they testified against them, they would not listen.” One particular prophet is mentioned–Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada the high priest. He stood before the people and said, “This is what God says: ‘Why do you disobey the LORD’s commands? You will not prosper. Because you have forsaken the LORD, he has forsaken you’” (2 Chronicles 24:20). That’s where I got the epitaph for Joash. We simply must realize that we cannot forsake the Lord or abandon His Word with impunity. Everything will not be the same. Tragically, Joash and his counselors go way beyond refusing to listen to Zechariah.
Joash orders the execution of Zechariah the prophet in the Temple courtyard. Verse 21: “But they plotted against him, and by order of the king they stoned him to death in the courtyard of the LORD’s temple. King Joash did not remember the kindness Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had shown him but killed his son.” Stop and think about what’s happening here. If Zechariah is the son of Jehoiada, then he is also the daughter of Jehosheba, the very aunt who saved Joash’s life years earlier by hiding him in the temple. That would make Zechariah the cousin of Joash. Very possibly these two played together in the confines of the temple in their early years. Now Joash has Zechariah stoned to death in the courtyard of God’s house just because he doesn’t like this warning from God.
Interestingly, Jesus Himself refers to this incident in the New Testament when He denounces the Scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23:35:
“You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.”
The shedding of the innocent blood of Abel is recorded in the first book of the OT, while Zechariah’s innocent blood is recorded in the last book of the OT (the Hebrew OT was in a different order than ours and 2 Chronicles was the last book). In effect Jesus is saying that God will charge those who put Jesus to death with not only the guilt of His execution, but also that of all the innocent victims from Genesis to Revelation! These two murders stand out in God’s eyes above and beyond most other heinous sins, and they serve as precursors to the most inexcusable of all deaths–the death of Jesus on the cross.[i]
Joash is murdered by his own officials, in keeping with Zechariah’s last words.
Here is what Zechariah says as he lay dying: “May the LORD see this and call you to account.” The Lord does indeed see it, and within a few months, Joash finds himself in a war with Aram. Listen to the result, beginning in verse 23:
At the turn of the year, the army of Aram (Syria) marched against Joash; it invaded Judah and Jerusalem and killed all the leaders of the people. They sent all the plunder to their king in Damascus. Although the Aramean army had come with only a few men, the LORD delivered into their hands a much larger army. Because Judah had forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers, judgment was executed on Joash. When the Arameans withdrew, they left Joash severely wounded. His officials conspired against him for murdering the son of Jehoiada the priest, and they killed him in his bed. So he died and was buried in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.
Do you notice the stark contrast here with the experience of Jehoshaphat which we examined last Lord’s Day? Jehoshaphat went up against a much larger army, but the Lord gave him a total victory without his army even having to fight. Joash loses his battle, even though his forces outnumber the enemy by a huge margin. Clearly, “It is not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord.”
Joash is buried in the city of Jerusalem, but not in the tombs of the kings. That may not seem like such a big deal to most of us today, because we know that the resting place of the body does not affect the resting place of the soul and spirit, but I’m not sure the ancient Israelites understood that as well. The decision to not allow him to be buried in the tombs of the kings is a significant expression of shame upon Joash.
Principles to ponder and to pursue.
1. The task of mentoring is not done until the disciple is mature in Christ, and, I might add, dependent upon God rather than upon the mentor. Parents, you have not completed your job if all you do is get your child through high school sober, as a professing Christian, and still a virgin. If your child is unprepared to stand alone to face the challenges of life away from home, to claim his or her faith as their own, and to stand up to the temptations of an evil culture when mom and dad are not around, then perhaps all you have accomplished is to put a wall of protection, a cocoon, around them for the first 18 years of their lives. A cocoon is a good thing for a developing caterpillar, but once it is ready to metamorphose into a butterfly, that cocoon acts like a prison. The protection of your child is no small accomplishment, but it is not the greatest possible accomplishment. What would be greater is to have brought your child (or anyone you may have nurtured), to a place of spiritual maturity and dependence upon God rather than upon yourself.
Maybe you’re a Sunday School teacher or a youth worker and you’ve been able to see your charges survive adolescence in reasonable fashion. Your job is not done until that young person can stand on his or her own and defend his faith and make moral choices when no one is around.
But I see a message here as well for those who are being discipled. If you lean too heavily upon your mentor, whoever that may be, if you put that person on a pedestal and imitate him, rather than imitate his faith, you may face a very difficult situation when that person moves away or dies or for some other reason is no longer available to you. Make sure that your faith is not a second-hand faith but a personal faith. Make sure you’re not depending too much on your parents or your pastor or your best friend, but rather on God who wants to be your closest mentor and friend.
Don’t forget, He will become your prosecutor, judge and jury if you go your own way like Joash did. The epitaph. “If you forsake the Lord, he will forsake you,” has a wonderful antidote, found in James 4:8: “Come near to God and he will come near to you.” All who draw near to Him and call on the name of the Lord will be saved. And not only will they be saved–they will also be given the power to persevere in their walk with the Lord to the end.
2. You see, it’s more important how you end than how you start. Some of you may have gotten off to a real bad beginning, wasting enormous opportunities, getting involved in deep sin, and pretty much making a shambles of life. But it’s not too late to write a new epitaph. If you’re still breathing, you have the opportunity to end well. On the other hand, no matter how great our beginning, if we abandon the Lord and walk away from our covenants, He will say on that Judgment Day, “I never knew you.” May God teach us from the mistakes of Joash to become dependent upon Him rather than our mentors, and to end well.
DATE: July 21, 2002
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History of Judah
Temple
Joash Chest
[i] Though Matthew calls this Zechariah “the son of Berekiah,” he is probably the same man we meet in 2 Chronicles as “the son of Jehoiada.” There are several possible explanations of this discrepancy. D. A. Carson discusses the textual problem at length in his commentary on Matthew in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Volume 8, 485-6. After discussing four other possibilities for the identification of this Zechariah, he opts for the son of Jehoiada. He writes, “. . . it is possible Jehoiada was the grandfather (not father) of the Zechariah of 2 Chron 24–a suggestion that Jehoiada’s living to be 130 years old (2 Chron 24:15) makes more plausible, since Zechariah’s ministry immediately followed Jehoiada’s death. An otherwise unknown Berekiah would therefore have had time to sire Zechariah, live to a good age, and die before the death of his own father gave him the opportunity to serve as chief priest. That would allow time for a father named Berekiah.” All the other possibilities have even more difficulties.