2 Chronicles 24:1-27 - Homiletics

The sad and strange unreliableness of human disposition and life here.

One of the strangest of all the sadnesses of human life is the uncertainty and unreliableness of human disposition, which it is so constantly exposing to view. Not only has the fairest promise vanished (like the sun of many a morning) long before the character could be supposed to be firm or even fairly formed, but after the period justly esteemed critical has passed, after fruit has set, and even after some fruit has been gathered ripe, alas for the failures and falls, the disappointments and distressing desolation, which have laid waste the scene! The turn in the life of Joash, with his miserable end, of which this chapter bears record, is a very distinct and typical instance of what has been and is still often. And in reading the present chapter, we are forcibly reminded of the apostle's language "All these things were written for our admonition." We cannot afford to regard the contents of this chapter as of merely historic interest; they are of terrible though kindly import for modern life and all life. In connection with this thought, the following points may be picked out in the matter of the present history. The life which thus in its afternoon, let us say, turned aside to evil, was—

I. ONE WHICH HAD BEEN , IN THE VERY INCEPTION , NURSING , AND FIRST REARING OF IT , ALMOST MIRACULOUSLY SAVED AND GUARDED — THE VERY CREATURE OF PROVIDENCE , THE CHILD OF DIVINE CARE AND WATCHFUL LOVE . Many an analogy really every whit as strong and impressive may be found and instanced by the practical preacher here; also cases which may be well within the knowledge of the parish or the country.

II. ONE THE RIGHT BEGINNING OF WHICH WAS CONSPICUOUS BOTH FOR THE GREATNESS AND THE WORTHINESS OF ITS ZEAL .

III. ONE WHICH HAD ENJOYED THE SUSTAINING HELP OF THE BEST AND MOST FAITHFUL OF FRIENDS . These friends had been of the kind that well remind us of the psalm of Joash's ancestor; for his "father and mother had indeed forsaken him," when "the Lord took him up," in the persons of. the. priest and. his wife. All. the incalculable advantages of the best of early associations and religious prepossessions had been the happy portion of Joash, now—when every recollection and reminiscence should have been gilding itself with fresh sacredness—to be flung away to the winds, as though they were presences to the mind as much to be dreaded as in fact they were worthy to be cherished.

IV. ONE THE WRENCH OF WHICH WITH THE PAST WAS SURPRISINGLY VIOLENT AND ABSOLUTE ; AND ITS MOTIVE AS SURPRISINGLY UNJUSTIFYING OF IT . This apparently absolute reversal of what had hitherto seemed character and goodness was above all witnessed to by one central blackest blot in the conduct of Joash. Guiltily did he forget the debt his own very pulse and beating heart owed to the preservers of his life, when he commanded that Zechariah, the son of their love, be stoned to death for his righteous remonstrance and warning. His dying words, "The Lord look upon it, and require it," no doubt did not mark the spirit of unforgivingness; they did mark, and justly, the turpitude of the sin which was bound to "find out' the perpetrator of it! And then the motif of the conduct of Joash! It is written in verse 17. The brief suppressed language, which does there write it, tells the more significantly of its dishonourableness and despicableness, only fit to shun the eye of day! And the warnings of the Lord God of the fathers of Joash and his people, are so touchingly expressed, especially in verse 19! These preclude the possibility of our deducting anything of blame from Joash, on the ground of his being taken unawares, or surprised by some sudden gust of temptation. This type of thing has indeed numbered its antitypes, times without number; but was it not thus forcibly delineated, deeply graven or etched, that whoso should have eyes to see might see, and ears to hear might hear?

V. ONE THE END OF WHICH REVEALED MOST FEARFULLY ALIKE THE REVULSION OF MAN AND THE SOLEMN RETRIBUTION OF GOD . With what smitten wonder our awed thought follows unwittingly, but trembles to essay to track the ways of God's hidden judgment, when the account of this present life is once summed up,—hidden because that account is summed up! What solemn need for every man to watch and pray; to walk humbly; to take heed how he stands; and to remember the warnings of those of whom this is the record, that they "did run well"!