Topic: Almost Revival: King Joash (II Kings 12 & II Chronicles 24)
In June of 1995, after years of planning and research costing multiple billions of dollars, the space shuttle Discovery was scheduled to launch for the first of seven missions which would join with the Russian Space station Mir, in preparation for the launch of the international space station in 1997. The date had been carefully chosen, weather conditions were favorable but strange noises were coming from Launch Pad 39-B, upon investigation technicians discovered about six dozen holes in the insulating covering of the main external fuel tank. All the complex planning and high-priced preparation were useless as the mission ground to a halt because a family of woodpeckers decided that the space shuttle looked like a good place to live.
King Joash had a tumultuous beginning. After a steady decline in the kingdom from a bloody coup led by his grandmother Athaliah, who had killed all the royal family and set herself upon the throne. But Joash’s great aunt (Jehoshabeath) had snuck the infant Joash out with his nurse, and they hid for six years in a secret place at the Temple of God. When Joash was seven years old the priest Jehoiada staged an uprising against the wicked and idolatrous grandmother, placing the boy Joash upon his rightful throne. The temple of Baal in the city was destroyed, the priest of Baal was put to death, the covenant was re-established and proper temple worship was re-established. It looked like revival was coming. The plans had been laid, the process had begun but then something went wrong. You could say woodpeckers were discovered in the fuel tank of the revival.
The question to answer is, "why?" Why did such a perfect opportunity for revival slip away? What did Joash do wrong?
In the life of Joash, 4 things seem to stand out as roadblocks to revival.
1. King Joash was a follower of the Priest.
Second Chronicles 24:2, “Joash did what was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest.”
Second Chronicles 24:17-18, “But after the death of Jehoiada the officials of Judah came and bowed down to the king, and the king listened to them. 18 They abandoned the house of the Lord, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherim and the idols; so wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their guilt.”
Joash was a follower, and that can be OK as long as you’re a follower with conviction, but Joash seemed to be a follower primarily because He had no convictions.
2. Neglecting the Strongholds
Second Kings 12:3, “Only the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.”
The high places were centers of idol worship on mountains and hill tops. Often poles to the goddess Asherah were erected. Altars, similar to the ones in the temple, for animal and even human sacrifice were often found there.
But they weren’t in the cities, and the pagan priests who operated these franchises were often very politically powerful. It sounds as if Joash, once he reached an age where he could have been aware and done something about them, simply wasn’t willing to make the effort.
3. Surrender of the Sacred
Second Kings 12:17-18, “About this time Hazael king of Aram went up and attacked Gath and captured it. Then he turned to attack Jerusalem. But Joash king of Judah took all the sacred objects dedicated by his fathers—Jehoshaphat, Jehoram and Ahaziah, the kings of Judah—and the gifts he himself had dedicated and all the gold found in the treasuries of the temple of the LORD and of the royal palace, and he sent them to Hazael king of Aram, who then withdrew from Jerusalem.”
When faced with a crisis, Joash doesn’t turn to the Lord. He doesn’t call upon the nation to fast and pray. Instead, he surrenders the sacred objects, the things dedicated to the Lord. He uses them as a bribe to get his enemy—and the enemy of the Lord—to leave him alone. This is another example of Joash’s weakness and lack of conviction.
4. Ignoring the call to Repentance
Second Chronicles 24:19-22, “Yet He sent prophets to them to bring them back to the Lord; though they testified against them, they would not listen. 20 Then the Spirit of God came on Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people and said to them, “Thus God has said, ‘Why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord and do not prosper? Because you have forsaken the Lord, He has also forsaken you.’” 21 So they conspired against him and at the command of the king they stoned him to death in the court of the house of the Lord. 22 Thus Joash the king did not remember the kindness which his father Jehoiada had shown him, but he murdered his son. And as he died he said, “May the Lord see and avenge!”
Even after Joash had strayed far from the path that the Lord had marked out for Him, God in his mercy sent messengers to warn him, to invite him back, to offer revival, restoration. But, Joash didn’t want to hear that what he was doing was wrong so he killed the messenger.
Learn from the life of King Joash: Live with conviction and listen to the messengers God sends to you.
See you Sunday!
Dr. Scott Kallem