Joash the Boy King
Photo Credit: www.kids.christiansunite.com

Picking up where we left off yesterday, God has faithfully spared Joash (also known as Jehoash), the only living son of Ahaziah.  Despite the best efforts of the evil Queen Athaliah, Joash is hidden in the house of the Lord for what appears to be roughly a year.  I have to say, threat of death aside, that an awesome year that would be!  Anyway, after some time Jehoiada the priest took courage and rallied the people behind Joash.  He put a plan in place and set up Joash as King of Judah and had Athaliah put to death.  The reign that followed was mostly good, at least until after Jehoiada died.  As the narrative goes, Jehoiada was Joash’s counselor and directed him in the ways of the Lord.  During this time, the temple is rebuilt and the people follow after the ways of the Lord once again.  You’d think that this would be something coming out of the heart of the king, the one who has been saved by the faithfulness of God and spent a great deal of time living in God’s house, but it seems that most of this came on the counsel of the faithful priest Jehoiada.

Joash Repairs the Temple
Photo Credit: www.somepcguy.com

When Jehoiada dies, King Joash appears to turn quite quickly from the ways of God.  We read that he ignores the temple and even the prophets that God sends to him.  Sadly, even the son of Jehoiada, the man that risked his life to install Joash as king, comes to Joash and tries to counsel him into returning to God.  Instead of listening though, Joash forgets his past and has the young priest put to death.  This act winds up getting him assassinated.

Amaziah, son of Joash begins his reign in much the same way the his father did, by following the ways of the Lord.  Looking back, he has a lot to be thankful for too for the Lord was faithful in protecting his father and seeing him brought back to the throne of Judah that is rightfully his.  Amaziah does a great deal of good at the beginning of the his reign, and listens to and follows the way of the Lord.  Yet later on he too falls victim to the allure of other gods.  Even in the face of warnings from the prophets he strays from the Lord, bringing the people down with him.  His sin eventually winds up with his capture and the plundering of the city of Jerusalem by the Northern Kingdom.  In the end, Amaziah dies in shame, overseeing the a major back-slide in Judah.

I think that both of these stories, similar as they are, open our eyes to an apparent problem that is being encountered time and again in Israel.  Every time a king back-slides or does evil in the sight of the Lord it is because they are having a fundamental identity crisis in their lives.  Both Joash and Amaziah have a great deal to be thankful for.  In reality, both of their lives, and the lives of all of their descendants to come after them, have been spared by the faithfulness of God alone.  They are children of the covenant in a very real way, because God has spared Joash’s life in the face of great evil so that the Covenant with David may be fulfilled.  One would think that this would be easy to see, or at least remember, living in the house of God for a time.

To be honest though, I don’t think that this is just a problem with them… I think it is the fundamental problem that plagues all of humanity.  We are made in the image of God, creations of a loving God who seeks to have a relationship with us.  For Christians this takes an even more prominent role as God’s people, His covenant community here on earth.  We are united to Christ because of the grace that is shown us and the salvation that is offered to us.  This fact belies a fundamental identity shift in our lives that changed both who we are and whose we are.  Yet this world has no shortage of things that also would seek to help us define or “re-identify” ourselves.  We see who we truly are and who we are truly meant to be in Christ, and when we sin we see that we are not ourselves… at least not completely… not yet.  The next time that you sin and find yourself dwelling in the shame and guilt that would seek to bog you down, remember, you are who you are truly in Christ, the one who has taken away your sin and shame.  Remember too that day by day the Holy Spirit is working in you to re-identify and re-image you (sanctification) in the image of Christ, through whom we are made new and complete.

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