“Joash did what was right in the eyes of the LORD all the years Jehoiada the priest instructed him.”
~ 2 Kings 12:2
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you have significant others in your lives? A guy, gal or kid who is a significant other has a genuine interest in the wellbeing of a guy, gal or kid who he or she knows. A significant other will have an innate desire to have a positive influence in the life of a guy, gal or kid who he or she knows. A significant other will assume a mentor or coach role with a guy, gal or kid who he or she knows. A significant other for a guy, gal or kid is an older guy, gal or kid. A guy, gal or kid may be in daily contact or he or she may be in infrequent contact with a guy or gal who is a significant other to him or her. A significant other for you would not be your dad or ma. Your dad and ma have been given different roles by their Father God regarding their relationships with you. Your dad and ma have been given challenging responsibilities by their Father God to care for you, feed you and see to it that you also know Him as your Father God. Your grandpaa does not remember having one specific significant other in his life. Your grandmaa had Rev. Eckardt as a significant other in her life. Rev. Eckardt encouraged your grandmaa to go to Dordt College. If your grandmaa had not been encouraged by Rev. Eckardt to go to Dordt College, your grandpaa knows that he would never have met the beautiful gal who is your dad’s ma and your grandmaa. A guy, gal or kid who wants the help of a guy, gal or kid to help him or her make what he or she considers to be a very important life decision will unconditionally accept the insights and counsel of a significant other. A guy, gal or kid who exerts or enforces his or her influence on a guy, gal or kid through insisting that the guy, gal or kid continue to stay on a self-destructive lifestyle that he or she is living is not a significant other. A significant other will invariably put the guy, gal or kid who he or she is genuinely interested in or concerned about before his or her own personal life goals and dreams. A significant other will invariably bring in a third party – God the Father, to help with the right words to say, the right posturing to communicate open receptivity and the right kind of modeling lifestyle for a guy, gal or kid to ape.
Jehoiada was a high priest. Jehoiada was a really good guy. Jehoiada put his mark against wickedness when he saw to it that Athaliah – a really wicked queen, was murdered. Jehoiada replaced Athaliah with a kid by the name of Jehoash or Joash. Jehoiada was by this time an old dude – maybe somewhere around 100 years old. Joash was still a really young kid – maybe about seven years old, when Jehoiada positioned Joash as king over God’s specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group’s guys and gals, who were living in the land area of Judah and in the city of Jerusalem. Jehoiada became the significant other to Joash. As long as Jehoiada was alive, Joash did what Jehoiada suggested and/or instructed him to do. It was 835 B.C when Jehoiada installed or positioned Joash as the king over God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the land area of Judah. Joash would be the king for the next forty years over God’s specially chosen guys and gals who lived in the land area of Judah. Joash decided twenty-three years after he had been installed or positioned as king over the guys and gals who were living in the land area of Judah that it was finally time to move ahead with a major temple restoration project. Joash had several years earlier decided to begin this restoration project on the temple of God – which had been built 150 or so years earlier in the city of Jerusalem, which had deteriorated and needed to be restored. Joash took the royal authority that he had as the king over the guys and gals who were living in the land area of Judah when he took charge of seeing to the beginning of the restoration project of the temple of God that was in the city of Jerusalem. Your grandpaa thinks that Jehoiada was behind Joash deciding to finally move ahead with the restoration of the temple of God that was in the city of Jerusalem. Your grandpaa thinks that Jehoiada helped Joash figure out a way how to raise the funds to pay the guys who would do the work of restoring the temple of God. The fee that was attached to certain types of vows that guys would make to God, the half a shekel that a military conscript would give as a registration fee when he turned twenty years old and the voluntary gift offerings that were given by God’s specially chosen guys and gals when they came to the temple of God were used to pay the workers who worked at restoring the temple of God that was in the city of Jerusalem.
2 Kings 12 recounts Joash’s life story. The Kings Books historian went from describing Joash as a kid with the right stuff to describing Joash as a guy who was coward when he gave to an Aramean king – Hazael, the sacred temple objects and gifts that were in the treasuries in the temple of God as a ransom payment so that he would not kill the guys and gals who were living in the land area of Judah and in the city of Jerusalem. The guy who scribed the Kings Books went from describing Joash as a kid who listened to a high priest – Jehoiada, to a guy who was done in by a couple of his very own officials. The Kings Books historian did not include it in his overview of the kings who ruled the land areas of Judah and Israel but Joash is also known for having killed Zechariah – who was one of Jehoiada’s kids. Verse 2 says, “Joash did what was right in the eyes of the LORD all the years Jehoiada the priest instructed him.” When Jehoiada died, Joash lost his life mentor and accountability coach. Once he no longer had the guy around who had been mentoring him, Joash’s life became a life of apostasy or a life that was no longer servient to God. It is good to have significant others in your lives who will mentor you and who will always be there to hold you accountable to live your lives how God expects you to live them – or you could pull a Joash and crash.
2 Kings 12 (482)