JOASH: AMAZING START, DISAPPOINTING FINISH

Today’s One Year Chronological Bible Reading combines several readings from 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles to give us a picture of the life of Joash from being an infant until his coronation as king of Judah at the age of seven and through a 40-year reign.

Saved by his aunt when his grandmother was executing the rest of his father’s family, Joash was mentored by a godly priest Jehoiada and, being in the lineage of King David, he was established as king at a young age by this godly priest.

“Joash did what was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest,” 2 Chronicles 24:2. Joash supported temple repairs and opposed Baal worship. But when Jehoiada the priest died at 130 (and was honored by burial among the kings of Judah), Joash was influenced by some of his officials to abandon his earlier devotion to the Lord and to worship idols.

When a prophet, the son of priest Jehoiada, spoke against this evil, he was stoned to death at the command of the king. “Thus Joash the king did not remember the kindness which his [the prophet’s] father Jehoiada had shown him, but he murdered his son,” 2 Chronicles 24:22. Read more of the details in today’s One Year Chronological Bible Reading.

We can learn at least a couple lessons from the life of this king and leader in Israel: 1) Our lives, even as infants, are in God’s hands. 2) A strong start doesn’t guarantee a strong finish—we must ever remain alert to whatever might move us away from what God would want for us. May God help us.