Context & Key Themes
2 Chronicles 24 is the chapter of Joash’s temple repair — and then his betrayal. All his days while Jehoiada the priest lives, Joash does right in the eyes of the Lord. He organizes the collection for temple repairs, insisting on the chest Moses commanded, and the priests and Levites do the work and the temple is restored. When Jehoiada dies at a hundred and thirty years old and is buried with the kings, everything changes. The officials of Judah come and bow down before Joash and he listens to them, abandoning the house of the Lord and serving the Asheroth. The Lord sends prophets to warn them. Zechariah son of Jehoiada stands up and prophesies. Joash orders him stoned in the court of the house of the Lord — the son of the man who saved him and crowned him. Zechariah’s dying words are: may the Lord see and avenge. Hazael king of Syria comes against Jerusalem. Joash is wounded by his own servants, who murder him in his bed. They do not bury him in the tombs of the kings.
Key Verse
“Joash did not remember the kindness that Jehoiada, Zechariah’s father, had shown him, but killed his son. And when he was dying, he said, ‘May the Lord see and avenge!'”
— 2 Chronicles 24:22
Summary
Joash is seven years old when he begins to reign and reigns forty years in Jerusalem. He does right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest. Jehoiada gets two wives for him and he has sons and daughters. Joash decides to restore the house of the Lord. He gathers the priests and Levites and commands them to go out to the cities of Judah and gather money to repair the house yearly. But the Levites do not act quickly. The king summons Jehoiada and asks why the Levites have not been required to bring in the collection. A chest is made and set outside the gate of the house of the Lord and a proclamation is made through all Judah. All the princes and all the people rejoice and bring money and cast it into the chest until it is full. The chest is brought to the king’s officers and counted and craftsmen are hired. The temple is repaired. When it is finished the rest of the money is brought to the king and Jehoiada and with it vessels of gold and silver for the house of the Lord. They offer burnt offerings continually all the days of Jehoiada. Jehoiada grows old and full of days and dies at a hundred and thirty years old and is buried among the kings because he had done good in Israel, and toward God and his house. After the death of Jehoiada, the officials of Judah come and bow down to the king. Then the king listens to them and they abandon the house of the Lord, the God of their fathers, and serve the Asheroth and the idols. Wrath comes upon Judah and Jerusalem for this guilt of theirs. Yet he sends prophets among them to bring them back to the Lord. These testify against them but they would not pay attention. Then the Spirit of God clothed Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, and he stands above the people and says: thus says God, why do you break the commandments of the Lord, so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the Lord, he has forsaken you. But they conspire against him and by command of the king they stone him with stones in the court of the house of the Lord. Thus Joash the king does not remember the kindness that Jehoiada, Zechariah’s father, had shown him, but kills his son. And when he was dying, he said: may the Lord see and avenge! At the end of the year the army of Syria comes against Joash, invading Judah and Jerusalem, and destroying all the princes of the people from among the people and sending all their spoil to the king of Damascus. Though the army of Syria had come with few men, the Lord delivers into their hand a very great army, because Judah had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers. Thus they execute judgment on Joash. Joash’s servants conspire against him because of the blood of the son of Jehoiada the priest, and kill him on his bed. He dies and they bury him in the city of David but not in the tombs of the kings.
Reflection
The Chronicler’s note — Joash did not remember the kindness — is the verdict on a reign that illustrates the danger of faith that is entirely dependent on an external mentor. All his days while Jehoiada lived he did right. Not because of personal conviction but because of proximity to conviction. When that proximity ended, the officials who had been waiting came and bowed and Joash listened. The same susceptibility to influence that made him faithful while Jehoiada lived made him faithless when Jehoiada died. Personal faith and mentored faith are not the same thing, and when only the second is present, death of the mentor reveals the gap.
Zechariah’s stoning in the court of the temple is one of the most shocking acts in 2 Chronicles. The king who was saved as a baby, hidden in the house of God, crowned by Jehoiada, orders the death of Jehoiada’s son in the house of God. The location matters. The same courts where Joash was protected as a child become the execution ground for the man whose father protected him. Jesus will later recall the blood of Zechariah son of Jehoiada as one of the markers of Jerusalem’s long history of killing the prophets sent to it.