Bible Commentaries
2 Chronicles 24

Verses 1-27

Chapter 24

In verse 2 Chronicles 24:15 of chapter 24, find Jehoiada, the priest that exercised such a good influence, died in a ripe old age of a hundred and thirty years.

And they buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he had done so much good in Israel. But at his death the princes of Judah made obeisance to the king. And the king began to hearken unto them. And they left the house of the LORD God of their fathers, and they began to worship the pagan gods in the groves and the idols: and the wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this trespass. And yet he sent prophets to them, to bring them again unto the LORD; and they testified against them: but they would not give ear ( 2 Chronicles 24:16-19 ).

So God was angry. He sent His prophets, but they wouldn't listen to the prophets.

And so the Spirit of God came upon [this prophet, his name was] Zechariah and he stood above people, and he said unto them, Thus saith God, Why do you transgress the commandments of the LORD, that you cannot prosper? because you have forsaken the LORD, he also has forsaken you. And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the LORD. And thus Joash the king remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but he slew his son ( 2 Chronicles 24:20-22 ).

Now this Zechariah was the son of the priest. Actually, he probably grew up with Joash. But Joash is turning against God, against the early roots.

And when he died, he said, The LORD look upon it, and require it ( 2 Chronicles 24:22 ).

Now it is interesting that the Jews later on began to always almost worship their fathers. "Our fathers. Our fathers." I mean, that was always their cry, "Our fathers," in almost an ancestral worship that developed by the Jews in later years. And it was a thing that when Jesus was talking with them, it was a thing of debate almost as they would say, "But our fathers," you know, as though their fathers were so righteous and so holy. And Jesus one day got after them and said, "Which of the prophets did your fathers not kill?" Their fathers that they always revered in such righteousness and all killed the prophets that God sent to them.

Of course, Stephen points out the same thing in when he stood before the Sanhedrin. He tore down this concept of, "Our fathers were so righteous." And he tore down that concept, and he really laid it out on them. And they got so angry they began to gnash their teeth and they dragged him out and stoned him.

So Jesus gave the parable of how that this lord had gone away and he left his goods, the vineyard and all in the hands of his servants. And so the time came for harvest and he sent a servant to them that he might gather the fruit or the money from the sale of the fruit and all and bring it to him. But they mistreated and killed the servants. And finally he said, "I will send my own son. Surely they will respect him." But when the son came, they said, "Hey, this is the heir. Let's destroy him and then it will be ours." And Jesus actually was speaking a parable concerning Himself and how the Father had sent the prophets and how they had actually killed the prophets. But then when He sent His own Son, they even sought to kill Him. And He said, "What will the father do? He will take the vineyard from those or the goods from those evil servants and he will give it unto others," as Jesus was then prophesying the gospel, God's grace coming to the Gentiles and God's Spirit being poured out upon us.

So here is another account, the prophet of God, Zechariah, son of Jehoiada the priest, the faithful priest who was put to death by Joash in the later years as he turned, really. And so as the result of this, God allowed the Syrians to come to pass at the end of the year and He delivered Judah and Jerusalem to the hands of the Syrians. Now the Syrians didn't have a big army at all when they came down in this invasion. There were just a few of them. But God delivered a whole host of Judah into the hands of just a few Syrians because of their sin against the Lord.

The death of Joash is then recorded beginning with verse 2 Chronicles 24:25 .

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