2 Chronicles 24:20-25:220And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, which stood above the people, and said unto them, Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the Lord, that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken the Lord, he hath also forsaken you. 21And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the Lord. 22Thus Joash the king remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son. And when he died, he said, The Lord look upon it, and require it. 23And it came to pass at the end of the year, that the host of Syria came up against him: and they came to Judah and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people, and sent all the spoil of them unto the king of Damascus. 24For the army of the Syrians came with a small company of men, and the Lord delivered a very great host into their hand, because they had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers. So they executed judgment against Joash. 25And when they were departed from him, (for they left him in great diseases,) his own servants conspired against him for the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, and slew him on his bed, and he died: and they buried him in the city of David, but they buried him not in the sepulchres of the kings. 26And these are they that conspired against him; Zabad the son of Shimeath an Ammonitess, and Jehozabad the son of Shimrith a Moabitess. 27Now concerning his sons, and the greatness of the burdens laid upon him, and the repairing of the house of God, behold, they are written in the story of the book of the kings. And Amaziah his son reigned in his stead. 1Amaziah was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem. 2And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart. (2 Chronicles 24:20‑25:2).
IT WOULD seem that Joash walked more by the faith of the godly Jehoiada than by his own, for after the death of that faithful servant of the Lord we noticed a sudden, sad decline in the king and in the princes of Judah. Who can tell what a power for good and what a blessing to their generation has been the godly walk of those who have sought to go on for the Lord. Perhaps we have not appreciated such as we should while they lived, but after they were gone we felt the loss of that spiritual power in which they walked, that which helped to keep out evil and to sustain our own weak faith. May the Lord give us more of that spirit which would enable us now to value rightly those whose godly walk commends the doctrine of God (Titus 2:1010Not purloining, but showing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. (Titus 2:10)).
Joash, after Jehoiada's death, appeared to lean more on his nobles whose hearts were set on idolatry. We read that "they left the house of the LORD God of their fathers, and served groves and idols." But God in His faithfulness did not allow them to go on without sending them prophets who warned the people and sought to turn them again to the Lord. But they would not listen so His wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem.
Then the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada, who protested to them about forsaking the commandment of the Lord and warned them that they would not prosper on account of it. But sad to say, they conspired against him and at the commandment of Joash himself they stoned him to death. When he died he said, "The Lord look upon it and require it." So we are told that the king thus remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada the father of Zechariah had done unto him.
The judgment of God did not fail to come, however. At the end of the year the Syrians came with a small company of men, and the Lord delivered into their hand a great host of the men of Judah, because they had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers. The Syrians destroyed all the princes from among the people and sent the spoil of them unto their king. They left Joash himself in the midst of great diseases, and after they departed his own servants slew him, because he had slain the sons of the faithful Jehoiada. We are told that he was buried in the city of David but not in the sepulchres of the kings. It was a sad end for one who had begun so well and who had gone on so well in his earlier days.
After the death of Joash the people of Judah made Amaziah his son king, He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign and he reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. We read, "He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart."
This tells us that the Lord is keeping a faithful record on high of all our acts and ways down here. The actions of these kings, as recorded here, may look foolish as their lives are set out before us. But one day we shall learn what the notes are that are written down as to our actions and they will be just as foolish to us then. The Lord would have to weigh our actions in the light of His Word so that we might realize now what He thinks of them.
Messages of the Love of God 9/21/1958