MINISTER, Rev. Thomas
Scarborough.
2 Chronicles 24-25.
King Joash (Part 2).
We
are continuing
in the book of 2 Chronicles
this morning. Two weeks ago,
we saw how the high priest Jehoiada staged a coup against an evil
regime, and how he placed a young boy
on the throne, who was a direct descendant of David.
The
temple worship was restored -- the temple of Baal was destroyed --
the nation returned to God -- and there was rebuilding and prosperity
and peace. And this young boy
-- whose name was Joash
-- eventually ruled for forty years in Jerusalem -- and we read in 2
Chronicles 24 verse 2: "Joash did what was right
in the eyes of the Lord, all the years of Jehoiada the priest."
But
notice that qualification
-- he did right in the eyes of the Lord -- all the years of
Jehoiada the priest. Remember that Jehoiada is the man who staged
the coup,
and placed
King Joash on the throne. And when Joash began to reign at the age
of just seven
years, Jehoiada the high priest was the real power behind the throne.
Now
in our text this morning, the high priest Jehoiada dies,
at the ripe old age of one-hundred-and-thirty.
And we come to see now just how powerful was the influence of
Jehoiada as long as he was alive.
Let
us turn to the death of Jehoiada -- in 2 Chronicles 24 verse 15: "Now
Jehoiada was old and full of years -- and he died at the age of a
hundred-and-thirty. He was buried with the kings
in the City of David, because of the good he had done in Israel for
God and His temple."
And
then we continue in verse 17: "After the death of Jehoiada, the
officials of Judah came and paid homage to the king -- that is king
Joash
-- and he listened
to them. They abandoned
the temple of the Lord, the God of their fathers, and worshipped
Asherah poles and idols. And because of their guilt, God's anger
came upon Judah and Jerusalem."
* * * * * * * * * *
Now
the time-period
we are looking at -- the length of time in which things changed for
the worse -- is in fact very short. And we know
it is very short by looking at verse 23. Verse 23 shows us that all
that went wrong
happened before
-- quote -- the turn of the year.
So it all took place in the very last year of King Joash's reign.
This
apostasy of King Joash was not a long
affair -- he ruled for thirty-nine years in righteousness -- then in
less than one year he turned away from the Lord completely.
And
the way
in which he turned away from the Lord is quite spectacular.
We
read that he abandoned
the temple of the Lord -- he didn't even keep it ticking over out of
tradition -- as other
kings had done. He set up idol
worship. He rejected the prophets.
He ordered the murder of the high priest Zechariah -- between
the porch and the altar of the temple. He gave away the sacred
objects of the temple to a foreign ruler -- and so on ...
Now
you wonder what happened
here.
What
happened to King Joash -- so that in the space of less than one year
after the death of the high priest Jehoiada, he completely turned
around. How could
this happen, after he had ruled in righteousness
for thirty-nine years?
The
book of 2 Chronicles shows us that Joash had been zealous
for the temple -- he even pulled up Jehoiada the high priest for his
neglect of the law of Moses. We see this in chapter 24 verse 6 --
“Therefore the king summoned
Jehoiada the chief priest,
and said to him ‘ Why
haven’t you ...’” et cetera.
He pulled him up.
And
yet -- all that righteousness of thirty-nine years -- it turns out --
was only something second-hand.
All
the righteousness of Joash turned out in the end to be a borrowed
righteousness -- borrowed from the powerful influence of Jehoiada the
high priest.
* * * * * * * * * *
Now
what this story shows us so plainly is that King Joash had never in
fact been standing on his own.
King
Joash had no personal
inner spiritual strength. His life wasn’t personally rooted in the
Lord his God.
Although
it seemed
for thirty-nine years that he was so zealous and so sincere, it turns
out in the end that he had never really acted out of the depths of
his heart
-- but merely in compliance with the high priest Jehoiada.
When
we looked at King Jehoshaphat
a few Sundays ago -- the last good
king we looked at -- we read that he
set his mind on seeking the Lord.
He set his heart
on the Lord his God.
But
this book of 2 Chronicles does not
tell us that King Joash
sought the Lord. We read in Chapter 24 verse 2
that Joash did what was right
in the eyes of the Lord. And just below
that, in verse 6,
we see that he was zealous
"for the Tent of the Testitmony"
-- that is the temple.
But
nowhere
do we read that he was zealous for the Lord
-- or sought
the Lord, or loved
the Lord. That just doesn’t feature.
He
served the temple.
He served good morals.
But did he really love and honour the Lord?
We don't read
that about King Joash.
* * * * * * * * * *
Now
this is a phenomenon which is in fact very common in this world --
and this is something I would like to focus on some more this
morning.
Jesus
spoke about the farmer
who scattered the seed -- and some of that seed he scattered on the
rock.
The seed sprouted, and it shot up, green and young -- and then
suddenly it withered.
And
Jesus explained it this
way: "Those on the rock," He said, "are the ones who
receive the word with joy
when they hear it -- but
they have no root."
(Mark 4:6).
That was the case with
King Joash -- he had no root.
What
did Jesus mean
when He said that some people have no root?
Well the commentator Matthew Henry says it means that they had no
salvation.
In fact Matthew Henry puts it very forcefully.
He says: “Many continue in a barren, false
profession,
and go down to hell.”
The
profession
is there
-- just as it was in the life of the righteous king Joash
-- but the root
is not.
I
would like to look at three ways this morning in which people serve
the Lord without root
today -- plants without root, which wither away when the sun comes
out.
* * * * * * * * * *
In
the first place, there is the person who serves the Lord through
the influence of someone else -- just like King Joash. I have seen
this a number times in my ministry.
You have a couple, for
instance -- a husband and wife -- who are staunch Christians -- they
attend the Church like clockwork, and never fail in their devotion to
the Lord.
Then
the husband dies -- or the wife dies -- and suddenly the atmosphere
of the home is not the same -- it is no longer
the quiet, secure place it used to be.
The remaining spouse begins to neglect
his or her faith
-- they may hardly be seen
in Church. And it is then clear
that that spouse
was living off the borrowed influence of a good husband or a good
wife.
You
find it also when young people become independent of their parents.
Under the influence of their god-fearing parents, they support the
Church as faithfully as their parents do -- then they become
independent -- and not only does the Church
not see them again -- but the Lord Himself
hears very little from
them.
Do
you have root
in your relationship with the Lord? Do you really know
Him through Jesus the Son
-- or are you powered by someone else’s influence?
Be sure that you have a
firm spiritual life that is single-mindedly between you and the Lord,
and is not founded on the influence of others.
* * * * * * * * * *
Secondly,
there is the person who becomes very attached to the example
of other Christians
-- and lives on the borrowed strength of example.
They are not under the influence
of anyone so much, but they simply admire
Christians they know -- or they admire
the Church.
They can look to the whole Church
as an example, and say, “What a wonderful Church.”
But
so often it happens that someone has good Christian friends, whom he
or she look upon as role-models in life. Then the friends
take a fall -- they fall into sin, or they turn their backs on the
Lord -- and that someone says: "I'm quitting this Christianity,
because the Christians I know are just hypocrites
-- they are phoney."
I
recently received an e-mail from a missionary while he was on
furlough
-- on long leave -- about his boss.
His boss had suddenly turned his back on his Christian profession.
This
missionary wrote to me: “He has abruptly
resigned and our organization is chaotic at best. I don't know what
to think. ... We are very tired and a bit depressed. This is not a
good furlough; we're supposed to be resting and recuperating from the
field. I am very disappointed and angry, feeling betrayed by my
boss. He lived a double life and fooled us all.”
Now
this particular missionary has recovered
from the blow, and he is continuing
in the mission.
But some people do not
recover -- they do not have the root
to get them back on track.
So
the question is, again, are you serving the Lord Jesus Christ
single-mindedly?
Are you involved in His Church and in His Kingdom because you have
your heart and mind single-mindedly set on Him?
Or is your heart set on other believers -- or is it set on the
Church
-- is it set on the minister,
or the leadership
-- instead of the Lord?
The
Lord certainly doesn't want you to stop serving Him
because of some other human being. He certainly doesn’t want you
to fail in your faithfulness to His Church
-- the Bride of Christ
-- because some people
were less than they were supposed to be.
* * * * * * * * * *
In
the third place, there is the person who falls away when persecution
comes -- or when hardship
comes. As soon as things get tough
for them as Christians, they waver and fall away.
Sometimes
persecution can be very bad
-- and there are Christians throughout the world today who suffer
severely
for their faith. Some years ago, we heard the testimony here
of a young man who was nearly beaten to death for witnessing to Jesus
-- he needed corrective surgery to repair the damage. Just this
week,
Glenys
was interviewing a young man for our Book of Testimony,
who has suffered greatly
for his faith.
But
even if we suffer,
we need to be faithful.
Or if we struggle
-- for whatever reason
-- we need to be faithful.
The Bible says: "Be faithful
even
to the point of death,
and I will give you the crown of life." (Revelation 2:10).
This
is not saying, “You had better be faithful
-- or you are in trouble.”
Rather it is saying, “If
you are saved,
you will
be faithful to your God and Saviour.
You will
be faithful -- if you truly know the Lord."
But
if someone is like King Joash on the other hand -- with only a
second-hand faith -- then they may very well fall away when
persecution comes -- or when opposition
comes -- or even when a hard time
comes along.
The
point is -- some people fall away from the Lord because it becomes
too tough. And in that case, they did not have real roots to their
faith.
The
true
Christian, who does
have roots, is able to endure opposition and persecution and
difficulty even with thanks
-- because they know that the Lord is using it to bless them and to
refine them.
James,
the brother of the Lord, said: "Consider it pure joy,
my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds." (James 1:2).
That is not something that every Christian can do from day one -- but
the further you get in your Christian walk, the more you see the
oppositions as the blessing of God on your life.
* * * * * * * * * *
Let’s
then focus just for a moment on the positive.
Notice that King Joash -- for thirty-nine years
-- was actually a good king.
The fact that he had no root only became clear
only thirty-nine
years into his reign.
And
there is something else that we learn from this -- and that is that
there are good non-Christians -- who at times outdo even believing
Christians in their good works -- and sometimes, if they belong to
the Church,
even outdo believing Christians in the Church.
King
Joash, as we saw, was more zealous for the temple even than the high
priest.
He was a fantastic example
-- but that didn’t mean he knew the Lord,
or was a good man in the deepest sense of the word.
All
the goodness that a person shows in their behaviour is not enough to
please the Lord God. That is one of the plainest and simplest
messages of the Bible.
And
it often happens that seemingly good people, who love their families
and are upright members of their community, suddenly reveal something
quite different.
I am not talking about mistakes,
and sudden failures
-- but rather I’m talking about a turning away from the Lord.
Even genuine
people fall into sin,
and this doesn’t have to mean that they have abandoned the Lord.
King David
was a good example of that -- or a bad
example.
Some
years ago they had the trial of a man they called the Butcher of
Lyons -- he murdered many people in Word War II.
And
one of the things that the court found astonishing
was that this man had otherwise been so kind to his family, and such
an asset to his community.
And
yet his good side was much like the good side of King Joash -- it was
due to the influence of good learning, and good culture, and a good
environment -- but it did not
have any real root.
When
he came under bad influence -- when the good
influence upon him weakened -- he became an evil man. And perhaps,
if there had never been a war,
he would have been a good, upstanding citizen all his life.
So
even if someone is a moral and upright person, he or she is not
necessarily acceptable in the sight of God. What God
requires is that we should have roots
-- that we should have come to know Him personally,
through repentance and faith and by receiving the Holy Spirit.
* * * * * * * * * *
Lastly
this morning -- and very briefly -- God very quickly brought
judgement
upon King Joash when he fell away.
That
judgement came in the form of a small
army that marched across the border from Aram -- from the northeast.
In other words it wasn’t even a head-on attack
-- it was coming from a weak position.
Let
us look at chapter 24 verse 24: "Although the Aramean army had
come with only a few
men, the Lord delivered into their hands a much
larger army."
Now
this is the very reverse of what we have seen in previous chapters --
where the Lord gave small armies a victory against tremendous odds,
because they trusted in Him.
* * * * * * * * * *
And
there is also a picture
here as to what so often happens to a person who is without root
in the Lord -- like King Joash.
They might coast along
for many years without trouble -- and then suddenly, it is something
small that completely sinks them.
That
does not happen when you are walking with the Lord.
The Bible says that if you walk with the Lord, then even floods of
great waters
will not come near you. (Psalm 32:6).
But
if you are not
walking with the Lord -- if the Lord is not your Rock -- a small
thing can sink you.
People
say: "I don't need the Lord. My life is secure and I
am secure -- why do I need religion?"
But
because they are not rooted in the Lord, very often that day comes
where quite unexpectedly, it is that small company from Aram that
destroys everything -- and they are swept away, because they have no
root in the Lord. And if they are not swept away here,
they will be swept away with the wicked on the judgement day.
* * * * * * * * *
If
you would like to step out of a second-hand
Christianity today, and make a personal decision and commitment for
the Lord Jesus Christ -- and if you would like some help in doing
that -- I shall have a little booklet with me at the door that will
lead you through the steps you need to take. Just ask
me for a copy as you leave.
AMEN.
