The Kings Of Israel And Judah. Day 147, Joash King Of Judah, Part Three

In Wednesday's study we talked about the marriages that King Joash's mentor, the priest Jehoiada, arranged for him. We discussed the possible reasons why the priest would have chosen two wives instead of just one wife for the king. We know that the Lord's perfect pattern for marriage is for a man to only have one wife and for a wife to only have one husband (as He demonstrated this for us when He created Adam and Eve) but we talked about some reasons why the Bible only speaks against a king having "many" wives and says nothing about a king having more than one wife. 

Today we move on to Joash's concern for the condition of the temple during his reign. He wants money allocated for repairs and upkeep. "Some time later Joash decided to restore the temple of the Lord." (2 Chronicles 24:4) 

Why was the temple in need of repair? Joash's wicked grandmother, Athaliah, reigned for six years afer her son, King Ahaziah died. During that time she ordered the temple broken into and many of its fine objects stolen for use in the temple of her heathen God, Baal, according to 2 Chronicles 24:7. Her late son King Ahaziah was also a Baal worshiper; we don't know whether or not he took anything from the temple but we can be sure he didn't donate any funds toward the temple. Ahaziah's father, King Jehoram, had become a Baal worshiper after marrying Athaliah and I wouldn't expect Jehoram to have shown any concern for the temple either. I imagine nothing has been done toward the upkeep of the temple since Joash's great-grandfather, the godly King Jehoshaphat, sat on the throne of Judah. 

There isn't enough money in the royal treasury to donate toward this important project but Joash has a plan for raising the funds. While the Baal cult flourished in Judah the collections for the house of the Lord had fallen by the wayside. Now Joash orders the priests and Levites to go through the land of Judah and collect tithes and offerings, along with the annual taxes, to raise the money. "He called together the priests and Levites and said to them, 'Go to the towns of Judah and collect the money due annually from all Israel, to repair the temple of the Lord. Do it now.'" (2 Chronicles 24:5a) The author of 2 Kings describes the king's instructions like this: "Joash said to the priests, 'Collect all the money that is brought as sacred offerings to the temple of the Lord---the money collected in the census, the money received from personal vows and the money brought voluntarily to the temple. Let every priest receive the money from one of the treasuries, then use it to repair whatever damage is found in the temple.'" (2 Kings 12:4-5)

For some reason the men do not act quickly to obey his orders. "But the Levites did not act at once." (2 Chronicles 24:5b) "But by the twenty-third year of King Joash the priests still had not repaired the temple." (2 Kings 12:6) We don't know how much time has passed since the giving of the orders. We know the orders were given after Joash became old enough to be married, for in yesterday's passage we learned he had married two wives chosen for him by Jehoiada and then we were told in today's passage that the subject of the temple came up "some time later"---some time after he got married. Joash became king at the age of seven and he is thirty years old in 2 Kings 12:6. Assuming he married in his mid to late teens (it would have been important to sire a male heir as early in his reign as possible) he may have given the orders to the priests and Levites as much as ten to fifteen years prior to verse 6. The wording of 2 Kings 12:6 indicates that far more time has gone by than necessary for the repairs to be done. It sounds as if the repairs had never even been started, much less completed.

Up until now we have assumed that Jehoiada is the high priest because he took charge of everything in regard to overthrowing Athaliah and placing Joash on the throne, but now the author of 2 Chronicles makes it clear that he is "the chief priest", which means he is the high priest. "Therefore the king summoned Jehoiada the chief priest and said to him, 'Why haven't you required the Levites to bring in from Judah and Jerusalem the tax imposed by Moses the servant of the Lord and by the assembly of Israel for the tent of the covenant law?'" (2 Chronicles 6) The author of 2 Kings describes the scene like this: "Therefore King Joash summoned Jehoiada the priest and the other priests and asked them, 'Why aren't you repairing the damage done to the temple? Take no more money from your treasurers, but hand it over for repairing the temple.' The priests agreed that they would not collect any more money from the people and that they would not repair the temple themselves." (2 Kings 12:7-8)

Some scholars take verse 8 to mean that the priests were helping themselves to money collected at the temple, while others take it to mean that the collecting of funds would no longer be conducted by the priests. Either way, Joash is removing the responsibility for the collection and for the repairs from the priests. They have somehow mismanaged the funds and the work (either through a lack of skill in this area, no feelings of urgency about the project, a lack of interest in the project, or an inability to schedule their time properly to complete the repairs while conducting their duties). The king relieves them of these extra duties and they agree to his decree. It may have been a relief to them to have the responsibility removed from them or they may simply be agreeing with him because as the king he has the last word on the matter.

In tomorrow's text we will study Joash's new plan for the repairs. The work will finally be completed.