Month: May 2021

King Amaziah starts off strong at a young 25 and he follows the way of the Lord, at least for a short time.  It is interesting that in vs.2 it states that he did what was right in the sight of the Lord but not with his whole heart and then this whole chapter is about him murdering and worshipping other gods,  strange.

He gets ready to go into battle after he has killed those who killed his father.  But he spares the children of those who killed his father because of the mosaic law that states you cannot blame the children for the sins of their fathers.  That seems almost kind even in the face of cold-blooded murder.

As he gets ready to go into battle he listens to the Lord and pears down his soldiers and those he sent home are so angry that they end up invading the home land and killing three thousand people and taking a lot of loot.  For me this is a bit unfair because Amaziah does what God asks him to do.  Okay, granted he comes home from battle with other gods and begins to worship them, but that was after the fact.  

He tries to get nice with the king of Israel, the northern king, but it backfires and as a result they kill him in Lachish and bring him back on horses.  Not a fun way to day.

Joash is 7 when he takes over the throne and become king.  We know that he has Jehoiadah who is guiding and directing him which is a good thing because what could a 7 year old do that would be helpful.  He reigns for ten years and he is only 17 at that time.  What good could a 17 year old do.  We do see that he reigns for a total of 40 years which would make him 47 when he was killed at the end of this chapter.

Now, Jehoiada continued to give him direction and guidance and together they rebuilt the temple and did all things that needed to be done in order to restore the presence of the Lord back in Jerusalem at the temple.  This included a temple tax which the people joyfully gave and celebrated because they could see the direct impact that tax had on rebuilding the temple.  That is the key component to any giving.  If you can see a direct result of your giving you will be more than likely grateful to give.

Once Jehoiada dies, then things go downhill fast.  Not even his son, Zecheriah, is able to prevent the downslide.  Joash kills Zecheriah and as a result he opens himself up to an invasion which comes shortly after that.  This invasion then leads to his death.  Upon his death his son, Amaziah, succeeds him.  You wonder if the cycle is going to continue or if Amaziah is going to lead the people in the direction that God would want them to go.  We will see the next chapter.

Talk about cleaning house.  While in the past we see the king take the initiative in ensuring that God’s will would be done and that order was established in the land, here it is the high priest who takes the reins and reinstates the king, drives out the false queen, Athaliah, and throws out the gods and their temples and reinstates not only the political king but also the presence of the Lord as the sole presence of the deity.  Jehoiada is the reformer who brings back that which the Lord wanted from Israel all along.

The most pernicious cycle that we see happening in the life of Israel is that they do that which is evil in the sight of the Lord which primarily consists of worshipping false gods.  God raises up someone to bring order and a refocus on the priorities of the people of God, that person reigns and then they die and then confusions reigns.  

We find ourselves in the state where Athaliah is dethroned.  She enters the temple and see that Joash is being crowned the new king, he was the son of the king after all, and she yells treason expecting the crowd in the temple to follow after her.  Well, they do follow after her but only to kill her.  Joash is now king and we hope that this also means an instilling of peace and the pursuit of God as a result.  Let’s see what happens next.