Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
2 Kings 12:7

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

True worship restored in Judah (12:1-21)

Under the influence of Jehoiada, Joash encouraged the worship of Yahweh (12:1-3). But his project for repairing the temple (damaged by Athaliah and her followers; 2 Chronicles 24:7) was hindered by the priests. They lacked enthusiasm and were inefficient, and possibly dishonest, in handling the finances (4-8). Joash therefore separated the funds for the priests’ personal use from the funds for the temple repairs, and placed the latter under the supervision of an official of the royal treasury. He then hired workmen who had a desire to do the work properly and honestly (9-16).

After Jehoiada’s death, Joash, no longer under the strong priestly influence of his life-long adviser, turned to idolatry. When rebuked by the new high priest Zechariah, Joash had Zechariah murdered (2 Chronicles 24:15-22; Matthew 23:35). Judgment on Joash was swift and severe. Hazael led his troops across Israel and south into Judah as far as Gath. He then turned to attack Jerusalem, and Joash saved the city only by robbing the temple treasury and sending the money to Hazael (17-18; 2 Chronicles 24:23-24). But he could not buy off the judgment that was to fall on him personally. Soon after the battle he was assassinated by his officers, and was not even given a royal burial (19-21; 2 Chronicles 24:25-27).

The prophecy of Joel

It was possibly during the early part of Joash’s reign that the prophet Joel wrote his book. During that time Joash was still a boy and the government was largely in the hands of Jehoiada. If that is so, Joel was the first of the writing prophets (i.e. prophets who wrote books of the Bible).
However, the book of Joel mentions no date of writing, and it could possibly have been written many years later, perhaps after the return from captivity and even later than the time of Nehemiah. If that is the case, Joel was among the last of the writing prophets. The message of the book is straightforward and can be readily understood regardless of its date of writing.

Joel’s reason for writing was a severe plague of locusts that devastated Judah. He interpreted this as a judgment on Judah for its sin, and urged the people to repent. In response to their repentance, God removed the locusts and promised to give the nation productive crops again (Joel 1:4; Joel 2:10-14,Joel 2:25). Joel saw the events as symbolic of God’s future judgment on all enemies and his coming blessing on all the faithful (Joel 3:16-19).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

JOASH TOOK THE TEMPLE REPAIR BUSINESS INTO HIS OWN HANDS

"And Jehoash said to the priests, All the money of the hallowed things that is brought into the house of Jehovah, in current money, the money of the persons for whom each man is rated, and all the money that cometh into any man's heart to bring into the house of Jehovah, let the priests take it to them, every man from his acquaintance; and they shall repair the breaches of the house, wheresoever any breach shall be found. But it was so that in the three and twentieth year of king Jehoash the priests had not repaired the breaches of the house. Then king Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and for the other priests, and said unto them, Why repair ye not the breaches of the house? now therefore take no more money from your acquaintance, but deliver it for the breaches of the house. And the priests consented that they should take no more money from the people, neither repair the breaches of the house."

"In current money" "Three kinds of money are mentioned here: (1) the half-shekel required by the Law (Exodus 30:13); (2) the money paid by those who had devoted themselves or made vows, a variable sum depending on age, sex, and property (Leviticus 27:2-8); and (3) the money offered in the way of free-will offerings."Albert Barnes, Kings, p. 260.

The narrative in this paragraph indicates that the king ordered the priests to repair the breaches in the temple, but that for some indefinite time (not indicated in the text) they did not do so, continuing to use all the money they received for themselves. With ten of the twelve tribes now under a separate system of government and no longer giving anything whatever for the support of the temple and its priests and Levites, coupled with the unfavorable economic conditions, the priests might not have been receiving enough money to do what the king ordered. There also might have been some instances of dishonesty in their handling of the money, although the text does not say that.

"Every man from his acquaintance" It is not clear here just what this means; but in 2 Chronicles 24:5 we learn that "The collection was to be made throughout Judah, each of the priests and Levites collecting the temple tax in his own neighborhood."Ibid.

"The priests consented that they should take no more money from the people, neither repair the breaches in the temple" This indicates that the priests consented to take no more money "from the people," that is, the revenue from certain classes of the three sources of money mentioned above, and that they were also to be freed of any further obligation to repair the temple. See under 2 Kings 12:16 for the portion of the money that was strictly allotted to the priests.

The net result of this new arrangement was to take the affairs of the temple out of the hands of the priests and concentrate them in the hands of the king, which, of course, proved to be an unhappy development.

The fact that the twenty-third year of Joash's reign had been reached with nothing being done to repair the temple leaves an unfavorable impression regarding the priesthood of that period. The following paragraph shows that the king himself took charge of the temple finances. Thus, very early in Israel's history, we have evidence of the corruption of the Jewish priesthood, a corruption that reached its climax in the days of Malachi. when God Himself actually cursed that priesthood (Malachi 2:1-2).

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 12

Now in the seventh year in which Jehu was the king in Israel is when this king began to reign ( 2 Kings 12:1 );

Because you remember, he was just one year old when his dad was killed by Jehu. He was hid for six years and so in the seventh year in which Jehu was reigning, this young man began to reign.

Now Jehoash did that which was right in the sight of the LORD all his days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him ( 2 Kings 12:2 ).

And so, he was more or less a puppet leader. Jehoiada the priest was the influence behind the throne. However, there were high places of worship where the people burnt incense and offered sacrifices which was following after the pagan customs, and these they did not destroy. And of course, that remained the blotch on the kingdom.

Now Jehoash, this young king, as he grew older he ordered that they take all of the money that was brought into the temple and they use it to repair the temple, for the temple had come into a state of disrepair because the people were worshipping on the high places and they were worshipping Baal and all. And so the temple of God had come into a state of disrepair, and the king Jehoash ordered that they take the money and they repair all of these places in the temple. But after a period of time, the priest had done nothing in the repair of the temple. So Jehoash came and said, "What's happened? How come you haven't made the repairs?" And the priest were pocketing all of the money. So Jehoiada put this agape box in there. He got a box and put a hole in the top of it so that the people could drop the money in the box so that the priest couldn't get it. And they then took the money that the people would drop in the box and they began to repair the temple. And they gave it to the builders and the masons and so forth to begin to restore the temple building.

Now at this time, Hazael, who had taken and had captured the area where the Reubenites and the Gadites and the tribe of Manasseh were living, he now had moved his troops down into the area between Jerusalem and the coast, the city of Gath, which was a Philistine city. And he had taken the city of Gath and was now moving his Syrian army to besiege Jerusalem.

And Jehoash took all of the gold and the silver and all and he bought off Hazael. He gave him all of his money and said, "Hey look, we surrender and here's all of the money." So he paid him off and Hazael returned to the to Syria, but the temple was robbed of all of its treasures, the gold and silver vessels and all. They were taken by Hazael.

We come in verse nineteen to the death of Joash. He was killed by his servants who conspired against him, and his son Amaziah began to reign in his stead. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Jehoash’s restoration of the temple 12:4-16

This was the first such project the writer recorded in Kings. Later, Hezekiah and Josiah also repaired the temple. Until now, temple expenses came out of the royal treasury, but Jehoash moved this obligation into the private sector. [Note: Jones, 2:490.] Jehoash’s original plan was to use part of the money that the people contributed for the maintenance of the priesthood to pay for the restoration (cf. Exodus 30:11-16; Leviticus 27; Numbers 30). Apparently the priests did not cooperate with this plan, perhaps out of selfishness. Consequently the king adopted a completely freewill offering approach and appointed non-priests to supervise its administration. This plan proved effective. Many other ancient Near Eastern governments used this approach to maintaining their temples at this time. [Note: A. L. Oppenheim, "A Fiscal Practice of the Ancient Near East," Journal of Near Eastern Studies 6 (1947):116-20; Victor Hurowitz, "Another Fiscal Practice in the Ancient Near East: 2 Kings 12:5-17 and a Letter to Esarhaddon (Las 277)," Journal of Near Eastern Studies 45:4 (October 1986):289-94.] The administrators of the program proved trustworthy. Integrity returned to Judah, partially, when the people rededicated themselves to Yahweh (2 Kings 11:17).

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Then King Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and the other priests,.... The common priests, Jehoiada being high priest:

and said unto them, why repair ye not the breaches of the house? in which they appeared to him very dilatory; the reason might be, the people were not forward to pay in their money, and they might not choose to begin the repairs until they had got it all in, or at least what was sufficient to carry them through them:

now therefore receive no more money of your acquaintance; suspecting that what they had received they kept for their own use:

but deliver it for the breaches of the house; into other hands for that use, and so dismissed them at once from collecting the money, and being concerned in the repairs of the temple.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      4 And Jehoash said to the priests, All the money of the dedicated things that is brought into the house of the LORD, even the money of every one that passeth the account, the money that every man is set at, and all the money that cometh into any man's heart to bring into the house of the LORD,   5 Let the priests take it to them, every man of his acquaintance: and let them repair the breaches of the house, wheresoever any breach shall be found.   6 But it was so, that in the three and twentieth year of king Jehoash the priests had not repaired the breaches of the house.   7 Then king Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and the other priests, and said unto them, Why repair ye not the breaches of the house? now therefore receive no more money of your acquaintance, but deliver it for the breaches of the house.   8 And the priests consented to receive no more money of the people, neither to repair the breaches of the house.   9 But Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid of it, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one cometh into the house of the LORD: and the priests that kept the door put therein all the money that was brought into the house of the LORD.   10 And it was so, when they saw that there was much money in the chest, that the king's scribe and the high priest came up, and they put up in bags, and told the money that was found in the house of the LORD.   11 And they gave the money, being told, into the hands of them that did the work, that had the oversight of the house of the LORD: and they laid it out to the carpenters and builders, that wrought upon the house of the LORD,   12 And to masons, and hewers of stone, and to buy timber and hewed stone to repair the breaches of the house of the LORD, and for all that was laid out for the house to repair it.   13 Howbeit there were not made for the house of the LORD bowls of silver, snuffers, basons, trumpets, any vessels of gold, or vessels of silver, of the money that was brought into the house of the LORD:   14 But they gave that to the workmen, and repaired therewith the house of the LORD.   15 Moreover they reckoned not with the men, into whose hand they delivered the money to be bestowed on workmen: for they dealt faithfully.   16 The trespass money and sin money was not brought into the house of the LORD: it was the priests'.

      We have here an account of the repairing of the temple in the reign of Joash.

      I. It seems, the temple had gone out of repair. Though Solomon built it very strong, of the best materials and in the best manner, yet in time it went to decay, and there were breaches found in it (2 Kings 12:5; 2 Kings 12:5), in the roofs, or walls, or floors, the ceiling, or wainscoting, or windows, or the partitions of the courts. Even temples themselves are the worse for the wearing; but the heavenly temple will never wax old. Yet it was not only the teeth of time that made these breaches, the sons of Athaliah had broken up the house of God (2 Chronicles 24:7), and, out of enmity to the service of the temple, had damaged the buildings of it, and the priests had not taken care to repair the breaches in time, so that they went worse and worse. Unworthy were those husbandmen to have this valuable vineyard let out to them upon such easy terms who could not afford to keep the winepress in due and tenantable repair, Matthew 21:33. Justly did their great Lord sue them for this permissive waste, and by his judgments recover locum vastatum--for dilapidations (as the law speaks), when this neglected temple was laid even with the ground.

      II. The king himself was (as it should seem) the first and forwardest man that took care for the repair of it. We do not find that the priests complained of it or that Jehoiada himself was active in it, but the king was zealous in the matter, 1. Because he was king, and God expects and requires from those who have power that they use it for the maintenance and support of religion, the redress of grievances, and reparation of decays, for the exciting and engaging of ministers to do their part and people theirs. 2. Because the temple had been both his nursery and his sanctuary when he was a child, in a grateful remembrance of which he now appeared zealous for the honour of it. Those who have experienced the comfort and benefit of religious assemblies will make the reproach of them their burden (Zephaniah 3:18), the support of them their care, and the prosperity of them their chief joy.

      III. The priests were ordered to collect money for these repairs, and to take care that the work was done. The king had the affairs of his kingdom to mind, and could not himself inspect this affair, but he employed the priests to manage it, the fittest persons, and most likely, one would think, to be hearty in it. 1. He gave them orders for the levying of the money of the dedicated things. They must not stay till it was paid in, but they must call for it where they knew it was due, in their respective districts, as redemption-money (by virtue of the law, Leviticus 27:2; Leviticus 27:3), or as a free-will offering, 2 Kings 12:4; 2 Kings 12:4. This they were to gather every man of his acquaintance, and it was supposed that there was no man but had acquaintance with some or other of the priests. Note, We should take the opportunity that God gives us of exciting those we have a particular acquaintance with to that which is good. 2. He gave them orders for laying out the money they had levied in repairing the breaches of the house,2 Kings 12:5; 2 Kings 12:5.

      IV. This method did not answer the intention, 2 Kings 12:6; 2 Kings 12:6. Little money was raised. Either the priests were careless, and did not call on the people to pay in their dues, or the people had so little confidence in the priests' management that they were backward to pay money into their hands; if they were distrusted without cause, it was the people's shame; if with, it was more theirs. But what money was raised was not applied to the proper use: The breaches of the house were not repaired; the priests thought it might serve as well as it had done, and therefore put off repairing from time to time. Church work is usually slow work, but it is a pity that churchmen, of all men, should be slow at it. Perhaps what little money they raised they thought it necessary to use for the maintenance of the priests, which must needs fall much short when ten tribes had wholly revolted and the other two were wretchedly corrupted.

      V. Another method was therefore taken. The king had his heart much set upon having the breaches of the house repaired,2 Kings 12:7; 2 Kings 12:7. His apostasy, at last, gives us cause to question whether he had as good an affection for the service of the temple as he had for the structure. Many have been zealous for building and beautifying churches, and for other forms of godliness, who yet have been strangers to the power of it. However, we commend his zeal, and blame him not for reproving even his tutor Jehoiada himself when he saw him remiss; and so convincing was his reproof that the priests owned themselves unworthy to be any longer employed, and consented to the taking of some other measures, and the giving up of the money they had received into other hands, 2 Kings 12:8; 2 Kings 12:8. It was honestly done, when they found they had not spirit to do it themselves, not to hinder other people from doing it. Another course was taken,

      1. For raising money, 2 Kings 12:9; 2 Kings 12:10. The money was not paid into private hands, but put into a public chest, and then people brought it in readily and in great abundance, not only their dues, but their free-will offerings for so good a work. The high priest and the secretary of state counted the money out of the chest, and laid it by in specie for the use to which it was appropriated. When public distributions are made faithfully public contributions will be made cheerfully. The money that was given, (1.) Was dropped into the chest through a hole in the lid, past recall, to intimate that what has been once resigned to God must never be resumed. Every man, as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give. (2.) The chest was put on the right hand as they went in, which, some think, is alluded to in that rule of charity which our Saviour gives, Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. But, while they were getting all they could for the repair of the temple, they did not break in upon that which was the stated maintenance of the priests, 2 Kings 12:16; 2 Kings 12:16. The trespass-money and the sin-money (which were given to them by that law, Leviticus 5:15; Leviticus 5:16) were reserved to them. Let not the servants of the temple be starved under colour of repairing the breaches of it.

      2. For laying out the money that was raised.

      (1.) They did not put it into the hands of the priests, who were not versed in affairs of this nature, having other work to mind, but into the hands of those that did the work, or at least had the oversight of it,2 Kings 12:11; 2 Kings 12:11. Those were fittest to be entrusted with this business whose employment lay that way. Tractant fabrilia fabri--Every artist has his trade assigned; but let not those who are called to war the holy warfare entangle themselves in the affairs of this life. Those that were thus entrusted did the business, [1.] Carefully, purchasing materials and paying workmen, 2 Kings 12:12; 2 Kings 12:12. Business is done with expedition when those are employed in it that understand it and know which way to go about it. [2.] Faithfully; such a reputation they got for honesty that there was no occasion to examine their bills or audit their accounts. Let all that are entrusted with public money, or public work, learn hence to deal faithfully, as those that know God will reckon with them, whether men do or no. Those that think it is no sin to cheat the government, cheat the country, or cheat the church, will be of another mind when God shall set their sins in order before them.

      (2.) They did not lay it out in ornaments for the temple, in vessels of gold or silver, but in necessary repairs first (2 Kings 12:13; 2 Kings 12:13), whence we may learn, in all our expenses to give that the preference which is most needful, and, in dealing for the public, to deal as we would for ourselves. After the repairs were finished we find the overplus turned into plate for the service of the temple, 2 Chronicles 24:14.

Kelly Commentary on Books of the Bible

But in the eleventh chapter we have another scene of deep import and interest. There is a wicked woman and when a woman is wicked there is no wickedness like hers. "And when Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead, she arose, and destroyed all the seed royal. But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king's sons which were slain; and they hid him (even him and his nurse) in the bed-chamber, from Athaliah, so that he was not slain" (2 Kings 11:1-2).

We know what the love of a parent and of a grandparent is, but here in Athaliah was no right feeling. Her very blood was corrupted in her veins. And this wretched and selfish woman this inheritress of the wickedness of Jezebel, now, alas! in the line of Judah has the opportunity, as she thinks, to stamp out the royal line of Judah. Both the desire of dominion and the hatred of the purpose of God wicked allies strove together to accomplish this nefarious purpose. Had the line of Ahab been extinguished? Had Ahaziah and his brethren fallen? The guilty purpose rose in her heart to put an end to the seed-royal of Judah, as that of Israel had been already extinguished. What interest had she? How did she care for it? The word of God had distinctly assured them that the line of Judah should never go out the only real line that has remained unbroken from the beginning, and will throughout eternity. I speak now for the earth up to eternity at least, for even if we only look at the earth under the government of God, that line, and that line alone, so abides.

And yet there never was a line so slender: there never was a line that hung so often upon a single thread. Just contrast it with Israel. Think of seventy sons of one family! and, I will not say the promise, but the apparent moral certainty that that line must be perpetuated for ever! But no it was put out in one day! Who could have thought of it beforehand? And this too in the royal city, and by the royal servants, Such is man; such is the world. The word of the Lord had said it. Oh! what foolishness is ours that could ever doubt a word of God! And what has God given us all this for, but that we may know that if that word stands in what is evil, how much more in what is good? If God accomplishes His threats to the letter, can His promises fail for an instant? I grant indeed that His promises continually seem to fail, just for the very purpose that our faith should not stand in appearances, but in the word of God. There would be no faith about it if all seemed to be easy and flowing; but it is precisely the contrary. All appearance is against it, but God watches still. If it were only one feeble scion of that house, it was enough. It was a scion of that house, and that house stands for ever, because God has said it. And so we shall see in this chapter.

Athaliah then, Joash's own grandparent the one that ought most of all, from her sense of her relationship, to have been the guardian of that one only descendant of herself, who had her own blood in his veins this very Athaliah seeks to destroy the one last remaining scion of the house of David. Well, it seemed impossible! For think you that when she thought to kill the seed royal she forgot the little boy? Not she. She knew well about him. It is not for me to say how the thing was covered over how it was that Jehosheba knew how to guard the child from the suspicions and the inquisition that would naturally follow for one that was rescued, for if there was a woman that was crafty in what was evil it was Athaliah. I suppose it is not too much to imagine that there may have been a little conspiracy upon this good Jehosheba's part, also on the other side. At any rate, I have no wish to say anything to her disparagement, but I do say that, whatever the means, God employed the purpose of her heart for the shelter of the child. He was hidden then, and hidden where none could have expected in the temple. Such a state of things calls for no common screen for a royal child, and surely God was with the shelter that was given him. And although that temple was built for priests and not for a king in distress, still the grace of the Lord rises over all such merely ritual circumstances.

"And the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched the rulers over hundreds, with the captains and the guards, and brought them to him into the house of Jehovah, and made a covenant with them, and took an oath of them in the house of Jehovah." Here again we see that mere ritualism cannot stand against what is moral cannot stand against that which concerns the word of God in its accomplishment for him whom God had set over His people Israel. "He made a covenant with them and took an oath of them in the house of Jehovah, and showed them the king's son." The king's son was but a little boy, but he was the lawful king of Israel in fact only the king of Judah, but in title really of Israel. "And he commanded them, saying, This is the thing that ye shall do; a third part of you that enter in on the Sabbath shall even be keepers of the watch of the king's house; and a third part shall be at the gate of Sur; and a third part at the gate behind the guard; so shall ye keep the watch of the house, that it be not broken down."

All then is prepared. "And the captains over the hundreds did according to all things that Jehoiada the priest commanded: and they took every man his men that were to come in on the Sabbath, with them that should go out on the Sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the priest. And to the captains over hundreds did the priest give king David's spears and shields, that were in the temple of Jehovah. And the guard stood, every man with his weapons in his hand, round about the king, from the right corner of the temple to the left corner of the temple, along by the altar and the temple. And he brought forth the king's son, and put the crown upon him, and gave him the testimony; and they made him king, and anointed him; and they clapped their hands, and said, God save the king."

Athaliah was not long without hearing the tumult. So she comes to the people and to the temple of Jehovah. A strange place for her, the hater of Jehovah and the patron of idolatry in its worst form! She comes, and looks, and behold, the king stood by a pillar. The king! And this was all that her murderous policy had led to and ended in. "The king stood by a pillar; as the manner was, and the princes and the trumpeters by the king; and all the people of the land rejoiced, and blew with trumpets. And Athaliah rent her clothes and cried, Treason, treason;" The old voice the voice of her mother, before her, and the voice too of her son after her, and now her own. But the truth was, it was she who was the traitor. It was she that had tried to blot out the king from the throne; and, accordingly, she meets with the just reward of a traitor, for "Jehoiada commanded the captains of the hundreds, the officers of the host, and said unto them, Have her forth without the ranges; and him that followeth her kill with the sword. For the priest had said, Let her not be slain in the house of Jehovah." There was no one to follow. She was alone, not alone in her evil, but now her evil had not one sympathizer. "So they laid hands on her; and she went by the way by the which the horses came into the king's house; and there was she slain. "And Jehoiada made a covenant between Jehovah and the king and the people, that they should be Jehovah's people; between the king also and the people. And all the people of the land went into the house of Baal, and brake it down." And thus the worship of Baal was dealt with in Judah, as it had been before in Israel.

"In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash began to reign; and forty years reigned he in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Zibiah of Beer-sheba. And Jehoash did that which was right in the sight of Jehovah all his days wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him. But the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places" (2 Kings 12:0). Nevertheless, as long as Jehoiada was there there was a measure of care outwardly for the things of God; and, as the priests had watched over Jehoash in his childhood, Jehoash now in his maturity watches over them and says to the priests, "All the money of the dedicated things that is brought into the house of Jehovah, even the money of every one that passeth the account, the money that every man is set at, and all the money that cometh into any man's heart to bring into the house of Jehovah, let the priests take it to them, every man of his acquaintance; and let them repair the breaches of the house, wheresoever any breach shall be found. But it was so, that in the three and twentieth year of king Jehoash, the priests had not repaired the breaches of the house." That is, instead of applying the contributions for the house of Jehovah they had applied them to themselves.

"Then king Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and the other priests, and said unto them, Why repair ye not the breaches of the house? Now therefore receive no more money of your acquaintance, but deliver it for the breaches of the house. And the priests consented to receive no more money of the people, neither to repair the breaches of the house. But Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid of it, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one cometh into the house of the Jehovah: and the priests that kept the door put therein all the money that was brought into the house of Jehovah." And so it was done: the work proceeded, Jehoiada watched over it, and the house of Jehovah was repaired.

But however this might be, the heart of Jehoash was not with the Lord, and the death of Jehoiada gave an occasion to display it. This, however, I need not dwell upon now. "In the three and twentieth year of Joash the son of Ahaziah king of Judah Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned seventeen years. And he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which made Israel to sin; he departed not therefrom. And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hand of Hazael king of Syria, and into the hand of Ben-hadad the son of Hazael, all their days. And Jehoahaz besought Jehovah, and Jehovah hearkened unto him" (2 Kings 13:1-25). How gracious is the Lord! We see, alas! that the one who began so fair at last slips away from his original integrity. But we see that the man who hearkens and bows to the Lord is never without, at any rate, some measure of recognition on God's part. "And Jehovah gave Israel a saviour, so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians: and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents, as before-time. Nevertheless they departed not from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, who made Israel sin."

But, after this, we find, "In the thirty and seventh year of Joash king of Judah began Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz to reign," and he comes in contact with the prophet Elisha. This is a point that I wish to direct your attention to for a moment. Joash comes down, and weeps over Elisha's face, and says, "O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof!" the same words that Elisha himself had used when he saw the prophet going up to heaven that is, he acknowledged him to be the strength of Israel. What makes it so touching is, that he was dying; all natural vigour was departing from him. But just as Elisha owned that the strength of Israel was not in horses or chariots, but that he was the one that he was all their strength as far as God had employed him for that purpose so here in the same way Joash the king of Israel owns the dying Elisha, and God owns the word. "And Elisha said to him, Take bow and arrows; and he took unto him bow and arrows. And he said to the king of Israel, Put thine hand upon the bow; and he put his hand upon it." But there was another and a mightier hand, although the hand of a dying man. "Elisha put his hands upon the king's hands," and God saw, and God gave the power, the needed power. "And he said, Open the window eastward. And he opened it. Then Elisha said, Shoot. And he shot. And he said, The arrow of Jehovah's deliverance." Truly dying Elisha was the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof; for God would show that the strength of his people does not lie in what man can see, but in the vigour that He himself imparts. "The arrow of Jehovah's deliverance," said he, "and the arrow of deliverance from Syria: for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek till thou have consumed them. And he said, Take the arrows. And he took them. And he said unto the king of Israel, Smite upon the ground. And he smote thrice and stayed."

Why did he stay? Did he not know what the prophet meant? Did he not apprehend the grace of God that was now at work? Why did he stay? Alas! a man never stays out the grace of God, even were it an Abraham who leaves off when he ought to go on! Yet the grace of God never fails of its purpose. Here, however, it was the judgment of God. The grace of God prevailed over the intercession of Abraham, for if Abraham dared not to ask for Sodom and Gomorrah to be spared for the sake of ten, and if God did better than simply spare the guilty cities for the sake of ten if God delivered the one righteous man and delivered for the righteous man's sake more than one that were not righteous if God's grace so abounded above the weakness of the interceding servant then, now in judgment God would hold strictly to the letter. Had he struck thrice to the ground with the arrows? Then thrice should the Syrians be smitten and no more. "And the man of God was wroth with him and said, Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times; then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it; whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice." Truly Elisha was the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof.