Today's reading in the One Year Bible Chronological Reading Plan: 2 Kings 13:1-11; 12:17-21, 2 Chronicles 24:23-27, 2 Kings 13:14-25
The phrase "what does around comes around" comes to mind in this passage - especially the 2 Chronicles one.
It seems like King Joash never learned how to make decisions. He began ruling at age 7 but obviously it wasn't him doing the ruling. It was the Priest Jehoiada. And it seems like King Joash simply ruled by listening to his advisors. Which means he was only as good as the people advising him. And when Jehoiada died, King Joash listened to the wrong men. And he ended up betraying the son of the man who, for all intents and purposes, saved his life.
He betrayed Zechariah.
It seems only fitting then that he ends up being assisinated by his own men and, as we're informed in 2 Chronicles, it was due specifically to his betrayal of Zechariah/Jehoiada.
His officials conspired against him for murdering the son of Jehoiada the priest, and they killed him in his bed. 2 Chronicles 24:25
We need to learn how to make our own decisions, measuring them against the Word, so that we don't fall into the same trap as King Joash did. It's so easy to listen to people's advice - after all, we can physically see and hear them and often their advice is what we want to hear. It's much more difficult, yet so much more important, accurate and crucial, to listen to the advice of God as given to us in His Word and by His Holy Spirit.
Tomorrow's reading: 2 Kings 14:1-14, 2 Chronicles 25:1-24, 2 Kings 13:12-13, 2 Kings 14:15-16, 2 Kings 14:23-27, 2 Chronicles 25:25-28, 2 Kings 14:17-22, 2 Kings 15:1-15, 2 Chronicles 26:1-21, Jonah 1-4. For less flipping read 2 Kings 13:12-13, 2 Kings 14:1-27, 2 Kings 15:1-15, 2 Chronicles 25-26:21, Jonah
4 comments:
July 19th!! Am I losing time again or is summer really almost half over already?! ;)
Good thoughts, Tammy. It is so important to KNOW what we believe and WHY; to do our own thinking. And to consult God in our decision-making.
You know what also caught my eye? That the men who conspired against Joash and killed him because he'd murdered Zechariah, were "half-breeds." Their mothers are named because they were foreigners. So these two men weren't even from among God's chosen people and yet they were the ones who carried out what 2 Chronicles calls God's judgement on Joash because they seemed to have a higher regard for the priestly role in the kingdom than the king himself did.
Oops - changed it to June :)
My Life Application study Bible also mentions that King Joash is not mentioned in the genealogies of Jesus. Wow.
That IS rather telling, isn't it?! Interesting how we've always been told his is such a great story.
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