Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Year 8, Day 10: 2 Kings 12


Theological Commentary: Click Here



2 Kings 12 is a very vanilla chapter after the last 3 or 4 chapters!  Joash takes over the throne and starts a campaign of reform.  I find it absolutely telling that the first comment that is made about the success of Joash’s reign is because he was mentored by a very faithful priest, Jehoiada.  This goes to show us the importance for all people – especially those in positions of power – to be mentored into faithfulness.



What’s interesting about this routine chapter is that although Joash seems to have a very faithful regime, the temple is not repaired as he would like.  In my blog for several years back, to which I link above, I detail some reasons for this.  It could be that the voluntary donations weren’t enough to feed the priests, much less pay for the temple repairs.  It could be that there has been so much Ba’al worship under the prior kings that there either aren’t many worshippers of God or the people are so angry at the removal of Ba’al that they aren’t willing to give.  One way or another, the repairs just don’t get done.



There is a lesson in practicality here.  We can have faithful leadership.  We can have God’s blessing.  But that doesn’t mean we will live a life where everything goes perfectly and we never experience setbacks.  We shouldn’t think that our life won’t have its little hiccoughs.  Here is Joash, who seems to be an upright king.  He is Jehoiada, who seems to be a legitimate priest.  Yet the people don’t respond all that quickly.  The repairs don’t get done as fast as they should.



It isn’t that God’s blessing failed, or the leadership was bad, or that it was time for the Hebrew people to be punished.  The reality is that life conspired against the plans of Joash.  It took more time and more effort than Joash expected.  That’s not anyone’s fault!  It’s just life.  Life has a way of conspiring against even the best of plans.



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