Godless After All

Transcript

GRS 2-108
4/27/2008
Godless After All
2 Kings 12-13
Gil Rugh

We are in Second Kings in your Bibles and 12th Chapter, and I remind you again; we have a list of Israel’s kings and Judah’s king; if you didn’t get one or you have misplaced yours, there are some copies I believe at the information center, you can pick those up; they will help you track a little bit. We will be referring to this in our study together because we are going to have another situation where the names of the kings overlap. In other words we are going to have two kings, a king in the northern kingdom and a king in the southern kingdom and they are both going to have the same name.

So it just complicates the tracking a little bit. While mentioning this Book, some of you if you are going to teach or do some more study in this section of the word, you might find helpful, it’s a Harmony of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. Most of you are familiar with the harmonies of the Gospels where they take the parallel passages out of the different Gospels and put them in parallel columns, so you can track where you are. It’s in this Gospel and then this Gospel fills in a point. Well, a man named Crockett did a Harmony of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles.

I didn’t even check whether it’s still in print, but you could get it used if it’s not they will be able to tell you at Sound Words if it is in print, it was done I believe early 50s, 1951 and it has been reprinted since but I don’t know how long or if it’s still in print but that’s a resource if you are interested. It will take the accounts in Samuel and Kings and Chronicles, run them in parallel columns so you can see where the overlap is and it can be a helpful tool. We are in Second Kings, we come to Chapter 12, we have come through what in many ways is perhaps the darkest period particularly for the southern kingdom until we have the captivity of the southern kingdom because as you remember and if you look on your list of kings, there are 20 kings who rule over the northern kingdom, there are 20 kings who rule over the southern kingdom.

But of all 20 who rule over Judah; the southern kingdom there is only one who is not in the line of David and one who is a woman and that woman was Athaliah and the account of her reign and that dark period of Israel’s history when a descendant of David does not sit on the throne of David in Jerusalem during the kingdom period was recorded there. Athaliah was the daughter of the infamous couple Ahab and Jezebel, you remember and she had usurped the throne in Jerusalem following the death of her son, Ahaziah and then she had proceeded to murder all the potential heirs to the throne.

And we noted what a dangerous time this was because God’s promises to David in the Davidic covenant required a descendant of David to sit on the throne and you have one baby spared and hidden and through this the line of David will be perpetuated and he will come to the throne. The sister of Ahaziah who had been king, who had died, hid one of the sons of Ahaziah from the murderous rampage of Athaliah and this sister of Ahaziah is married to the high priest, the high priest name is Jehoiada.

So they work together to keep this descendant of David hidden until the right time for revealing him, six years will go by as Athaliah rules in Jerusalem and you can wonder what any Godly people in Jerusalem were thinking, what has come of the promises of God. We have got a child of Ahab and Jezebel sitting on the throne and all the heirs of David have been executed but God is sovereign and he has preserved one small young child. Chapter 11 ended in Second Kings, Jehoash was seven years old when he became king.

Seven years old when he became king. So very young person, the youngest person to sit on the throne, he is going to reign for forty years, so he has a long reign but he is still a relatively young man when he dies and he is going to be murdered, so his life will be cut short. His account is in Second Kings 12 and Second Chronicles Chapter 24. So if you were using harmony of these Books you would have these two portions or Scripture running together which would be helpful as they fill in the details. We will be looking into Chronicles in a moment.

Joash’s reign or Jehoash, same person; Jehoash and Joash, names used interchangeably, has a wonderful beginning and a catastrophic end. From the first part of his reign, you see him, he must be a godly man committed to the Lord, the last part of his reign you can’t believe it is the same person. He will die a premature death as I mentioned under the judgment of God. Chapter 12 begins, in the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash became king and he reigned 40 years in Jerusalem and if you have your list of the kings you can see Jehu is number 11 on the list of Israel’s kings.

And then you have Joash number 8 under the list of Judah’s king called Jehoash here but as we will see he is also called Joash for instance down in verse 19 of Chapter 12. The rest of the Acts of Joash as King of Judah but same person so that is where we are in the Kings, we are at number 11 in Israel’s list, the northern ten tribes and number 8 Joash in Judah. He did right in the sight of the Lord all his days, if it only ended there period, but it doesn’t.

All his days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him, that will be the dividing line in Joash’s life and reign. Jehoiada, it was his wife who arranged and preserved Joash from death at the hands of Athaliah and her husband Jehoiada the high priest and he nurtures and oversees Joash in the early years of his reign, are under the spiritual oversight of this godly man Jehoiada. With the death of Jehoiada the high priest, we will see there is going to be a drastic change in the character of Joash’s rule.

The high places weren’t taken away, we are constantly reminded of that, that in Israel these places of worship and Judah here, now we are in the southern kingdom, people still sacrificed and burnt incense on the high places, so we have this permeating influence in Israel. Even though the major centers like of Baal worship as we saw have been destroyed, that influence has been dealt with yet it is tolerated, that these more decentralized places of worship have been tolerated even by kings that are godly.

Verses 4 to 16 talk about the repair of the temple. As you might expect under the reign of Athaliah and previous rulers as well there has been no interest in the temple in Jerusalem so it has fallen into great disrepair and the major event of Joash’s reign is the restoration of the temple and the rebuilding the damage that had taken place particularly during the reign of Athaliah and that is talked about in Second Chronicles 24:7 as well. So Joash; I’m going to call him Joash instead of going back to Jehoash, I will just use the name Joash for him, he told the priest in verse 4; all the money of the sacred things which is brought into the house of the Lord incurred money, the money of each man’s assessment, all the money which each man’s heart prompts him to bring into the house of Lord, the priest are to take it, gather it together and then to use it to pay for repairing the damages of the temple and there is a series of offerings that would be used for this.

There was an annual census taken and there was an offering in association with that census gathered from the various towns in Judah, vow offerings, free will offerings, these are recorded in Exodus Chapter 30 verses 11 to 16, Leviticus 27, Leviticus 22, 18 to 23. So these are the offering that are gathered to use for the repair of the temple. Joash’s instructions are that; you have to get on this task and take care of it. Verse 6; but it came about in 23rd year of King Joash, the priest had not repaired the damages to the house.

So, king Joash called for Jehoiada the priest and the other priests and said to them; why don’t you repair the damages to the house. Now, don’t keep collecting money, just I want this taken care of properly, and so he is going to set up a new pattern. Now, he doesn’t accuse Jehoiada of misusing the money, of embezzling, he just hasn’t followed through on what he was supposed to get done. We are not told why it didn’t get done; part of this money may have been used just for the general ongoing expenses of the temple which would be considerable.

With all that going on, easy to let things slide and finally Joash says; I want it done, so the priest agreed, they would take no more money from the people nor repair the damage of the house. Somebody else is going to do it, so the priest will still receive money, different than was to be collected for the repairing of the temple, for their own support and the ongoing ministry of the temple but the money that is designated for the repair of the temple, now they will have different people overseeing it.

So that the repairs get done, so Jehoiada, the priest took a chess board, a hole in the lid, put it beside the altar, so as people come in they deposit money for repair of the temple, a specific offerings designated for that, was put there. When the chest is full, verse 10; the king’s scribe and the high priest came, gathered the money in bags, the money is weighed and then verse 11; it is put into the hands of those who did the work, who had the oversight of the house of the Lord, they paid it out to the carpenters, the builders, the masons, stone cutters, to buy timber, cut stone, repair the damages.

So that is how it is going to be handled, in other words the priests aren’t overseeing this any longer. Jehoiada is there along with the king’s representatives to count the money but the money is put into the hands of others than the priest to oversee the work of rebuilding. The priests have their own income and there are certain offering designated for the ongoing ministry of the temple that will continue. Verse 9 to 16; these repairs are pretty well accomplished; we are told that those doing the repairing, verse 15, didn’t have to give an accounting for they dealt faithfully.

So things are going well here now, the money from the guilt offerings and the money from the sin offerings was not but into the house of the Lord, it was for the priest and that is I was referring to. You have a variety of different offerings in Israel, just not one flat tithe, sometimes people have the idea but there are a series of offering and tithe required. The two specific mentioned here were for the priests; the guilt offerings and the sin offerings and so that doesn’t go to the repair of the temple.

Verses 17 and following, you have the opposition that comes to Jehoash’s reign or Joash’s reign and his death. And you say well, that is a quick account. But remember Kings is not primarily giving an account of the kings of the southern kingdom, now it gets into it, but it is not elaborating. Chronicles gives a fuller account of the southern kingdom. Second Kings is giving a fuller account of the Northern kingdom, so in verse 17 we are told; Hazael king of Aram, remember Aram is Syria, King of Aram went up and fought against Gath and captured it and Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem.

Jehoash, King of Judah took all the sacred things that Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah, his father, kings of Judah had dedicated, his own sacred things, all the gold that was found amongst the treasuries of the house of the Lord and the king’s house, sent them to Hazael, King of Aram, he went away from Jerusalem. So Hazael is coming to take over Jerusalem, what you do is; you buy him off, you give him everything of value out of Jerusalem, so you buy him off, why bother fighting over this city, we have already got what we want, we want the valuable things out of the city, they have already given to us, so we will give home.

So in effect Joash pays the King of Syria by giving him the precious things out of the temple and the King’s house and so on. Verse 19; all the rest of the acts of Joash, all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of Kings of Judah, his servants arose, made a conspiracy, struck down Joash at the house of Millo as he was going down to Silla, tell us who did it; his servants and he died, he was buried. Amaziah his son became king in his place. At this point I want to jump over to the second Chronicles Chapter 24 with you and just pick up a few more details.

Second Chronicles 24 and the first 14 verses of Chapter 24 review what we have already covered in Second Kings Chapter 12. Chapter 24 of Second Chronicles opened up with Joash who was seven years old when he became king, reigned forty years, talks about the temple being repaired and how it was done, then the celebration and so on with the finishing of the work and offerings there during the days of Jehoiada, the temple is now fully in function, fully operative, now we pick up with verse 15.

We talk about the death of Jehoiada and the apostasy of Joash, verse 15; now when Jehoiada reached a ripe old age he died, he was 130 years old at his death, that is a ripe old age, remember David died; he was 70. So this is an unusually old age here, they buried him in the city of David among the kings because he had done well in Israel and to God and to his house. He had been a faithful man in Israel, a faithful man before the Lord, faithful man in the ministry of the temple and that is a great testimony.

The challenge is to finish well. Joash will start well, he won’t finish well, many starts well, many fewer finish well. Joash had a long time to wander off and become unfaithful, he dies at 130 years and the testimony of his life is; he was faithful in all the areas, so great testimony to a man of God. Verse 17; but after the death of Jehoiada, the officials of Judah came and bowed down to the king and the king listened to them. They abandoned the house of the Lord, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherim and the idols.

The revival if we can call it that under Jehoiada was not very deep. The officials in Joash’s reign were not supportive and Joash; he is for it as long as Jehoiada is there providing the spiritual leadership but as soon as Jehoiada is off the scene, now those that are around him, his officials, they come, they have his ear and now Joash follows them and you look at and say; it is hard to believe. They abandon the house of the Lord, this king who called the priest to task because they hadn’t completed the temple and the repairs on the temple like he told them to do and now with Jehoiada’s spiritual influence out of the picture, he is ready to abandon the temple, the worship of the temple and now go after other gods.

So wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this guilt. God is gracious, he sends his prophets, verse 19; he sent prophets to them to bring them back to the Lord, though they testified against them, they would not listen. Now the spirit of the Lord, note this verse 20; the spirit of God came on Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada the priest. This is not the later Zechariah who writes the book after his name but this is a son of the priest, that priest who with his wife had hidden Joash as a young boy, a young baby, had kept him safe and preserved his life until he is seven years of age, then had arranged him to be installed as king.

Then he guided him in his reign and Jehoiada dies and his son is inspired by the spirit of God to come and he stood above the people and he said to them; thus God has said, why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord and do not prosper because you have forsaken the Lord, the Lord has forsaken you. You think this would make an impact on Joash, the people, this is the son of Jehoiada that godly man, they conspired against him and at the command of the king they stoned him to death in the court of the house of the Lord.

Thus Joash the king did not remember the kindness which his father Jehoiada had shown him, but he murdered his son and as Zechariah died he said; may the Lord see and avenge. And the Lord has seen, the Lord will avenge. Joash will come to his own terrible end for this murderous act that he does, so a sad time in Israel’s history and you see how quickly sin hardens our heart. You think of the early years, I mean he is been under Jehoiada’s influence from the earliest years, he couldn’t have got a better influence from the testimony that God gives of Jehoiada.

So from his earliest years he has been molded and shaped and directed but that doesn’t mean his heart has been changed. He has conformed but he hasn’t been converted and now with Jehoiada out, he is free, all of a sudden he can go the direction he wants to go and follow those he really wants to follow and even the word of the spirit of God speaking through Zechariah does nothing but intensify his animosity toward God and thus he murders the messenger of God, remarkable time in Israel’s history.

Verse 23; you have now the Lord bringing further judgment on Joash, now it happened at the turn of the year that the army of the Arameans, the Syrians came up against him, they came to Judah and Jerusalem, destroyed all the officials of the people from among the people, sent all their spoil to the King of Damascus. Indeed the army of the Arameans came with a small number of men yet the Lord delivered a very great army into their hands because they had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers, thus they executed judgment on Joash.

So now the Syrians are back and here they are and they cut off whatever is left and they evidently bring Joash to his knees, wound him or all of the activities here result in him being left very sick and now his own servants turn against him. So you see things have unraveled all around for Joash. Now within his own household, the household of the king, now the servants decide; we don’t want him, here is a king who can’t defend us, our leaders, our officials have been slaughtered by the Arameans, they have carried off everything of value, our king now lies in a bed, what good is he.

So they conspired against him because of the blood of Jehoiada the priest and murdered him on his bed. So he died, they buried him in Jerusalem but they didn’t bury him in the tombs of the kings. He is not honored with a royal burial, buried in the kingly city but not in the kingly tombs that they had there. You see the prayer of Zechariah at his death as they are stoning him under the instructions of Joash; may the Lord see and avenge and the Lord brings the Arameans in devastating judgment and the Arameans are all able to overwhelm the Jews even though they only have a small army. Verse 24; the Arameans came with a small number of men, yet the Lord delivered a very great army.

You see, you can’t frustrate the plans of the Lord, no matter the Arameans are; that is a little army, we can crush them, you can’t. Lord will use that little army to devastate the great army of the southern kingdom and now Joash is dead and we are told again who conspired against him and verse 27; as to his sons and the many oracles against him, the rebuilding of the house of God, they are written in the treatise of the Book of the Kings, Amaziah his son became king in his place.

Now we can come back to Kings, having seen a little bit, Second Kings Chapter 13. You see how you fill in some of the details Kings didn’t go into. The Chronicles elaborates more on what was going on in the southern kingdom. Chapter 13, we are going to turn our attention back now to the northern kingdom. So Chapter 12 has been about the southern kingdom still following along the reign of Athaliah in the southern kingdom in Chapter 11. Now we go back to what is going on in the northern kingdom, the northern ten tribes and two kings of the northern kingdom are dealt within this chapter.

The first nine verses, we will have Jehoahaz and then verses 10 to 25 we will have Jehoash or Joash. So if you look on your Kings of Israel, his number, he is at number 12 and number 13. And number 13 Jehoash is Joash, same names as you had of the King number 8 in the southern kingdom whose life and death we just looked at. Chapter 13 opens up and this chapter is of special significance to us because it records the death of Elisha the prophet from whom we haven’t heard for some time but his death will be a focal point when we get down to Chapter 14 of this chapter.

Chapter opens up in the 23rd year of Joash, the son of Ahaziah King of Judah. Jehoahaz son of Jehu became king over Israel and Samaria, he reigns 17 years, he did evil in the sight of the Lord, just like all 20 kings of the northern kingdom did. There wasn’t one good one there and he followed the sins of Jeroboam, the first king of the divided kingdom over the north who established the calf worship at Bethel and Dan. So the anger of the Lord, verse 3, was kindled against Israel, he gave them continually into the hand Hazael king of Aram and into the hand of Ben-Hadad, the son of Hazael.

So the kings of Syria plagued the northern kingdom because Syria is to the north, they have the border and it is an ongoing problem and God is using the Arameans, the Syrians as his instrument of judgment just as he did on Judah, he is using them as an instrument of judgment on the northern kingdom for their ungodliness. We come a little further down into this chapter, you are told in verse 5 the Lord gave Israel a deliverer because the king of the north and remember God honors Israel and cares for Israel because he has a covenant relationship with the nation Israel.

It is split into two but he has a covenant agreement with the 12 tribes of Israel, this is the nation he has chosen for himself. So you even have godless men who don’t worship the Lord reigning in the northern kingdom or the southern kingdom and yet they pray and God hears their prayer and answers them because he is operating on the basis of his covenantal agreement with the nation Israel even though the nation has turned from him. God is still honoring and dealing with them as a covenant people, even though for example the king who prays in verse 4 is not a godly man and will not be spending eternity in the presence of the God of Israel.

But when he prays to the Lord, the Lord listened to him because he saw the oppression of Israel and how the King of Aram oppressed Israel. You don’t get confused here, you have a godless man praying and the Lord answering his prayer because it fits God plan to deal mercifully with Israel, gives them chance after chance, so in verse 5 the Lord gave Israel a deliverer, so they escape from under the hands of the Arameans and the sons of Israel lived in their tents as formally, so there is relief. Now we are not told here in this passage what happens but we do know from history that the Assyrians are beginning to make their way west and they are beginning to encroach on the area here.

We know from secular history and the records found; that the Assyrian king in 803 BC moved into this area and that drew Syria’s attention or the Arameans attention, same people, away from Israel because they now they have to defend themselves. Adad-nirari III was the King of Assyria who moved the Assyrian armies here and this is a foreboding. 803 he is here starting to press in and now the Arameans who are headquartered at Damascus, have their capital at Damascus have to pull back from causing trouble for the northern ten tribes to deal with Assyrians.

In 722 BC, remember, the Assyrians will come and carry the northern ten tribes away into captivity. So that’s what the Lord is using here in verse 5, and he said the Lord gave Israel a deliverer, an amazing deliverer, Adad-nirari III, the King of Assyria. You see God rules over all ultimately, even the most pagan godless people do his bidding without knowing they are doing his bidding and he brings Assyria here to draw Syria or the Arameans away from the northern ten tribes.

Nevertheless they did not turn away, verse 6, from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, in accounts we have that reference; the sins of Jeroboam, the calf worship that the first king of the Northern ten tribes establish. They walked in them and the Asherah which remained standing in Samaria, that pole which becomes a center of worship. He left Jehoahaz, of the army, not more than 50 horsemen, and 10 chariots. It has been a devastating change in Israel’s military position here.

They have been decimated, when we read that the Arameans so totally devastated the armies of Israel and so on, that is not an overstatement, verse 7 tells us; he left Jehoahaz, of the army, not more than horsemen and 10 chariots. Now that is remarkable, Ahab at the battle of Qarqar in 853 BC, so not that many years earlier, sent 2000 chariots from Israel to the battle. Now all that the northern kingdom could muster is 10 chariots, when not too long earlier they were able to send 2000 to help in a battle. So you can see how completely they have been decimated and subjugated by the Arameans under the hand of God.

Jehoahaz dies, slept with his fathers, they buried him in Samaria. Joash his son became king in his place, now we have an overlap, you have the king of the southern kingdom Judah still reigning, remember because we go back and forth and then we go back in time. So we have already recorded the death of Joash as we overviewed Judah’s history but now we have backed up -- we have to back up and pick up the northern kingdom’s history. So you have that overlap that is why I gave you the list of the kings so you can at least compare them and track them a little bit and see the overlap of their reign.

So now the king of the northern kingdom is called Joash, the king of the southern kingdom Judah is also Joash. They are reigning at the same time, that overlapping time. Alright, so Joash king of Judah in verse 10, in the 37th year of Joash King of Judah, Jehoash who is also called Joash and Joash of Judah was called Jehoash so we have the name but they have separated them out here. The son of Jehoahaz became king of Israel and Samaria, he reigned 16 years, he did evil in the sight of Lord, didn’t turn away from the sins of Jeroboam and so on. Now the rest of the acts of Joash, all that he did and with his might which he fought against Amaziah, King of Judah, who will follow Joash, King of Judah.

He will do battle with the King of Judah, are they not written in the Book of Chronicles, the Kings of Israel, so Joash slept with his fathers. Now we have summarized his reign, now we go back and pick up an event out of his reign, Joash the King of Israel, northern ten tribes. So verse 14; when Elisha became sick with the illness of which he was to die, Joash the King of Israel came down to him and wept over him. So you see what he has done, he has given a summary of Joash’s reign. Now we go back and pick up a very important event in that reign and that is the death of Elisha the Prophet.

We haven’t had any record, any information on Elisha’s life and ministry since he anointed Jehu or had Jehu anointed as King over the northern tribes some fifty years earlier. So here is this mighty prophet of Israel and we assume that he has been carrying on his prophetic ministry in the northern kingdom and he is recognized by the kings of Israel and when he is on his death bed, the king of the northern ten tribes, even though he is not a worshipper of the God of Israel, comes to honor Elisha but you see how the scriptures just hits those main points that are necessary for us to know and understand the working of God in Israel’s history.

Back in Chapter 9, if you want to just jump back there, the first ten verses; Elisha gave the instructions to one of the sons of the Prophet to go and anoint Jehu King and then the instructions of how Jehu will deal with the house of Ahab and deal with Jezebel as well. You note on the Kings of Israel Jehu was number 11, that was 841, so we have come down a number of years and now Elisha is on his death bed. So Joash the king comes down to him, weeps over him and says; my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen in Chapter 13 verse 14.

That is an expression we have seen earlier, remember when Elijah was carried to heaven, was transported to heaven and Elisha said; my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen and we noted then Elijah wasn’t taken to heaven in a chariot. Elijah was taken to heaven in a whirlwind and this statement; my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen, is declaring that Elijah was the strength and might of the nation as God’s lead prophet if you will.

There are other prophets and sons of the prophets and so on but Elijah was the major prophetic figure and as such he was representative of God’s presence in Israel, God speaking in Israel. He was the might and strength of the nation as God’s spokesman and now that mantle came to Elisha and the King of the northern ten tribes acknowledges that. Isn’t that amazing, can acknowledge the prophet, honor him as God’s spokesmen and give no heed to his word.

Sin makes no sense and sinners don’t function rationally and so here he is weeping over Elisha and acknowledging him as the center of God’s work, as God’s spokesmen and gives no obedience to the God of Israel or to the word of the God of Israel, remarkable kind of settings. Elisha tells the king of Israel; put your hand on the bow so he tells him to take the bow and the arrow, shoot the arrow, Joash the King knows there is prophetic significance to what he is doing. This is Elisha, he has acknowledged his greatness in Israel, he is not just seeing how good a bowman the king is. Obviously the king would be an excellent marksman with the bow.

He tells him to shoot the arrow, then he tells him; take the arrows and strike the ground. After he shoots the arrow Elisha tells him in verse 17; the Lord’s arrow a victory, even the arrow a victory over Aram. You will defeat the Arameans at Aphek until you have destroyed them but here is key, what is going on here is symbolic and representative of what is going to take place, your victory. Now take those arrows and you know those arrows represent your victory over Aram, now strike the ground, Joash strikes the ground three times and stops and Elisha is angry in verse 19 and says to him; you should have struck five or six times, then you would have struck Aram until you would have destroyed it. Now you will only be victorious over Aram three times and he is angry because Joash should have known better.

He has already indicated that the arrow is the arrow of victory, so if he had any sensitivity to the word of the Prophet you should know, when you strike the ground with these arrows; these are the arrows of victory. You don’t stop and that prophecy will come true, he will have three victories over Aram, but he won’t completely defeat the Arameans. Then Elisha died, his ministry has come to an end, indeed he had been the chariots of Israel and its horsemen presenting might, the chariots, the horsemen in battle, symbolic of its strength, carried on his ministry in the northern kingdom.

What impact did it have, you are the king, stands at his death bed, spiritually insensitive, an ungodly man, the testimony of scripture; is he was a godless man. He worshipped the calves and you think this is Elisha, his ministry is centered in Samaria, doesn’t change the nation but his ministry was to be faithful with the word of God and obviously he was till the end but it didn’t turn the nation back. God gives out his word but the nation won’t turn. Elisha’s ministry would have gone on for a long time. As I mentioned it had been 50 years since Chapter 9 and so it was a long ministry, he would have been an elderly man as he is on his death bed here.

God has graciously spared Israel from destruction and you see his hand look in verse 20, one closing incident regarding Elisha; he died, they buried him. They buried him in a cave and so the Moabites come in with their marauding bands in the spring of the year, they come in the spring that is the time they go to war. There are crops that can be used and so on, they were burying a man, behold they saw a marauding band, they cast the man into the grave of Elisha. When the man touched the bones of Elisha he revived and stood up on his feet.

So a miraculous event which demonstrated the power of Elisha’s ministry in Israel and the failure of Israel is in no way a reflection on the ministry of Elisha. It simply reflects the absolute hardness of heart to the work of God and the word of God in the nation but verse 23; the Lord was gracious to them, had compassion on them, turned to them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, would not destroy them or cast them from his presence until now. No matter what happens God is committed to Israel, he has entered into covenant relationship.

Remember when, in Romans Chapters 9, 10 and 11, as Paul reflects on Israel’s place in God’s plan of salvation; has God cast away his people whom he foreknew, ME GENOITO, God forbid, such a thought is unthinkable. So here God was gracious, had compassion, honors his covenant. So he doesn’t allow the Moabites, the Arameans, these other nations to annihilate his people. And you have the conclusion of the Chapter, 3 times we are told here in these closing verses, verses 24 and 25, that Joash defeated the Assyrians. Joash the son of, chapter closes, of Jehoahaz, has took again from the hand of Ben-Hadad, the son of Hazael, the cities which he had taken in war from the hand of Jehoahaz his father. Three time Joash defeated him and recovered the cities of Israel just as Elisha said because he struck the ground three times.

He should have struck five or six and he could have totally dealt with the Arameans. Well couple of concluding observations on these chapters. Number 1, remember this, young people, adults, a good beginning does not guarantee a good end. Joash had the advantage of being raised in a godly environment, had a godly aunt and uncle who directed him in the ways of the Lord and under this godly influence he did right. But once he got out from that influence and he is on his own doing his own thing and we see that in our own young people, they can be raised in a godly home and a godly environment, that doesn’t mean now when they are out from under that influence, they don’t strike their own path and go their own way.

Strong warning, a good beginning does not guarantee a good end. Secondly zeal for religious activity does not guarantee a godly character. Zeal for religious activity doesn’t guarantee godly character, how many times we have been able to observe that somebody pouring themselves into the ministry, seems like they are really, something happens, they abandon all of it, turn against it, often become the most fierce opponents. Recently read of a man who had been a leader in evangelicalism, a leader of an evangelical organization, he just resigned his position in recent months because he is determined, he will return to Catholicism and that is where he finds truth. So zeal for religious things and religious activities does not guarantee godly character.

Joash he even rebuked the priest for not getting about repairing the temple. So you think oh boy here is a person who is zealous for the Lord. And the influence of Jehoiada had made an impact on him but it hadn’t changed his heart. Third observation, temptation and testing reveal character, come over to if you want to flip over to Chapter 24 of Chronicles verse 17; after the death of Jehoiada the officials of Judah came and bowed down to the king, the king listened to them. They abandoned the house of the Lord, the God of their fathers, they served the Asherim and the idols, so the wrath of the God came upon Judah and Jerusalem.

So that follow through, now the alarm is we think; O I want to protect them, I want to preserve him, I don’t want them to be influenced by anything, you know you can’t protect them from themselves and sometimes even as parents, grandparents whatever, we wring our hands and O maybe if we had done this, maybe if we have, we want to be wise, Jehoiada did what he could to provide a godly environment for Joash, but we understand and I just can’t keep them in isolation forever, and is when they get out, the temptations are there, the opportunities are there, their character is revealed.

And that’s not a reflection on Jehoiada and his wife, it’s not a reflection on the God of Israel, it’s a manifestation of the sinfulness of the human heart of the individual. Fourth observation, a person conforming without being converted has the potential for great evil. A person conforming without conversion has the potential for great evil, there is a pressure that builds when a person is just conforming externally and it seems that a man like Joash does deem more vile than you would expect from a normal unbeliever, he murders the son of Jehoiada for being the instrument, that the spirit of God communicates to him, God’s truth.

He had heard God’s truth repeated times from Jehoiada but now the oversight of Jehoiada is removed and the true character of Joash is revealed and he conformed but he didn’t get converted and now his character has been revealed. A fifth observation and it ties with what we have talked about, many who begin well end in ruin and disgrace. Joash dies at the hands of his own servants, they won’t bury him in the tombs of the Kings and he has lost respect of everyone, he ends in ruin and disgrace.

Proverbs 29:1, a man who hardens his neck after much reprove will suddenly be broken beyond remedy, sad testimony. Many who begin well end their lives in ruin and disgrace, had a good beginning, had a good home, godly environment. I say; oh I don’t want to think that could happen to my kids, my grandkids, I want to do everything I can, just direct them in the ways of the Lord but it is not in my hands. We give the idea and we need to be careful about this as parents and grandparents, we think we keep control that will guarantee the outcome.

I cannot change human heart, you cannot change the human heart, we can do all we can to fill them with the word of God to direct them in the ways of God but I can’t transform their heart from within. That only happens by the grace of God, they submit in faith to the savior, so many who begin well end in ruin and disgrace and men sin against the grace of God to their own ruin back in Chapter 13 of Kings verse 3 and following; the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, then Jehoahaz sought God’s favor and God was gracious but in verse 6; they nevertheless, they did not turn away from the sins of the house of Jeroboam so the result is the devastation, they are left with nothing of an army, the judgment of God has come upon them, and sin against the grace of God to their own ruin.

There is no other option, there is no other out, you cannot escape, you either in gratitude and faith submit to the grace of God or you bear the brunt of the wrath of God and a closing note on a positive side, God is faithful to his word even when his people are not. Chapter 13 verse 23; but the Lord was gracious to them and had compassion on them and turned to them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He would not destroy them or cast them from his presence, the nation as a nation will survive, sad though multitudes within the nation Israel are doomed to destruction.

God’s promise has come true, God’s promises for the church will come true, but sadly everyone who attends church won’t enter into the blessings of those promises, but we take comfort in knowing God is true to his word, and he is to be trusted. We trust him with our children, we trust him with our grandchildren, we trust him with our families, but ultimately every sinner is accountable for his own actions. I won’t be able to blame my parents, my kids won’t be able to blame me, God says, Ezekiel 18; I won’t hold the parents responsible for the sins of the children, the children responsible for the sins of the parent, everyone will stand accountable to me.

Let’s pray together. Thank you Lord for this record of Israel’s history. Lord it seems so much of it is a sad record. Even when it seems like there is a ray of sunshine and a spark of hope that there has been some spiritual response in the nation, it seems to quickly go out. Even in the presence of powerful servants that you used mightily like Elisha, then Zechariah, Lord, men whose words were rejected. Hearts were hardened against them even when a king would weep in the presence of death of your mighty servant Elisha, his tears are superficial, his heart is unchanged, he is willing to be the murderer of your spokesman Zechariah.

Lord, we will never understand the depths of sin, the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things. Who can know it, you the Lord search the heart, try to mould us and render the judgment. Lord, may we examine our own hearts, consider ourselves young people raised in Christian homes and Christian context but have never bowed in hardened mind trusting Christ as their savior. Lord, what a terrible position they are in, we desire them to come to know you. Adults, Lord we need to examine ourselves to see we are in the faith. How tragic that we would be about religious activity and be zealous for it and have unconverted hearts. Above all Lord, we thank for your grace, but for that grace none of us would be safe; none of us would have hope. Thank you for your faithfulness to Israel, thank you for your faithfulness to the church, thank you for your goodness to us. Bless us even in our fellowship that follows, we pray in Christ’s name, amen.