In Tuesday's study we learned that he fell into idolatry after the death of his uncle, Jehoiada the high priest. He allowed wicked advisors to guide him and, due to a conspiracy they plotted against Jehoiada's son Zechariah, he ordered Zechariah to be put to death. Zechariah said as he lay dying, "May the Lord see this and call you to account." In today's study we find King Joash being called to account. He will have to deal with an enemy invasion and then he will lose his own life to a conspiracy that forms against him.
We are studying passages from 2 Chronicles 24 and 2 Kings 12 combined. These accounts differ somewhat in regard to the invasion of the Aramean army. A number of scholars interpret these passages as describing two separate invasions by the enemy, while others think these differing accounts are the same invasion described by two different authors who chose to highlight two different parts of the story. The narrative unfolds more smoothly if we consider it as two separate attacks by the enemy, so we will look at the verses from 2 Kings 12 first and then the verses from 2 Chronicles 24.
"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 predecessors---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." (2 Kings 12:17-18) Joash essentially pays King Hazael off by sending him these valuable objects. As a result, Hazael calls off the attack. But the peace Joash bought is short-lived. Hazael's army will come up against Judah again and this time Joash will have to engage the Arameans in battle.
"At the turn of the year, the army of Aram marched against Joash; it invaded Judah and Jerusalem and killed all the leaders of the people. They sent all the plunder to their king in Damascus. Although the Aramean army had come with only a few men, the Lord delivered into their hands a much larger army. Because Judah had forsaken the Lord, the God of their ancestors, judgment was executed on Joash. When the Arameans withdrew, they left Joash severely wounded." (2 Chronicles 24:23-25a) We can see why, in comparing the accounts from the books of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles, it makes more sense to consider these accounts as describing two separate events. In the account from 2 Chronicles we find Joash avoiding a battle with the Arameans by giving a great deal of tribute to their king. No mention is made there of a battle or of Joash being wounded. Instead we are told that the enemy army withdrew from Jerusalem upon receiving the payment. In the account from 2 Kings we find the Arameans invading the land and causing many casualties.
The Bible makes a clear connection between the people's idolatry and their defeat in battle by an enemy. The Lord promised the people back in Deuteronomy 28 that if they would be faithful to Him, "The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven." (Deuteronomy 28:7) But He warned them that if they turned from Him to idols, "The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven." (Deuteronomy 28:25a)
King Joash receives a serious wound in battle and is killed by conspirators while he is incapacitated by his injury. "His officials conspired against him for murdering the son of Jehoiada the priest, and they killed him in his bed. So he died and was buried in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings. Those who conspired against him were Zabad, son of Shimeath an Ammonite woman, and Jehozabad, son of Shimrith a Moabite woman." (2 Chronicles 24:25b-26) The men who conspire against him to kill him are the sons of foreign women---women of idolatrous nations. We do not know whether these women had married men of Judah (making Zabad a half-Ammonite and Jehozabad a half-Moabite) or whether these two men were fully foreign and fully idolatrous employees of the king.
Why would two foreigners care that King Joash was resposible for the death of Zechariah the son of Jehoiada? The author of 2 Chronicles states that they conspired against him "for murdering the son of Jehoiada the priest" but I am not certain whether this means the men wanted to avenge Zechariah or whether this means the Lord allowed Joash to be murdered in his bed as judgment for ordering the execution of the innocent man Zechariah. I think it's highly likely that Zabad and Jehozabad simply saw the physical weakness of Joash as a good opportunity to end his life. I think they are probably motivated by dissatisfaction with Joash's political administration rather than by any outrage over what happened to Zechariah. I find it difficult to understand why an Ammonite and a Moabite would want to avenge the blood of Zechariah unless their fathers are men of Judah who faithfully serve the Lord or unless they are complete foreigners who converted to the God of Israel.
Because he turned away from the Lord, Joash doesn't even receive the honor of being buried in the same burial complex as men like his godly grandfather, King Jehoshaphat, and where his ancestor King David is also buried. Joash's reign began on a very promising note but it ends on a very sad note forty years later. He will be succeeded by his son, Amaziah.
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