2 Chronicles 24:17-22 - Homilies By T. Whitelaw

The downward career of a king.

I. JOASH 'S TEMPTATION . ( 2 Chronicles 24:17 .)

1 . When it came. "After Jehoiada's death,", when the weakling king, having lost his counsellor, was left to the guidance of his own vain heart and foolish understanding. Temptations mostly assail men in their moments of weakness. Eve was probably assaulted in the absence of Adam ( Genesis 3:1 ); David, certainly, in the absence of Nathan ( 2 Samuel 11:2 ); Job, when enfeebled through affliction ( Job 2:9 ); Peter, when deprived of strength through over-confidence ( John 13:27 ). The devil is too wary a warrior to besiege a heart when at its strongest.

2 . How it looked.

3 . How it fared. It prospered. Joash, poor fool! swallowed the bait. "He hearkened unto them," because either he wanted courage to refuse, or desired, in return for their flattery, to please them ( Daniel 11:32 ).

II. JUDAH 'S DECLENSION . (Verse 18.)

1 . The princes. These "left the house of the Lord God of their fathers," i.e. abandoned the worship of Jehovah, of which the temple was the centre, and embraced the abominable superstitions of the northern kingdom and of the preceding reigns in Judah. On the worship of the Asherim and idols, see 2 Chronicles 14:3 (homily).

2 . The people. The language of the Chronicler (verse 18), as well as of Zechariah (verse 20), implies that Judah and Jerusalem, in their people as well as princes, had transgressed; and, indeed, it is hardly likely that the princes would have ventured upon this step had they not been able to count upon the sympathy, if not the direct support, of the community.

3 . The king. Though "not stated that Joash himself worshipped idols" (Bertheau), and though, perhaps, at first he did not, it is too apparent, from the moral deterioration he suffered, as well as from the judgment he endured, that his offence was more than "not strictly maintaining the worship of Jehovah" (Bertheau).

III. JEHOVAH 'S CORRECTION . (Verse 19.)

1 . Its instruments. The prophets; in particular, Zechariah the son—perhaps grandson (Eadie, Ebrard, Lange, Morison)—of Jehoiada (verse 20), called also Barachias ( Matthew 23:35 ). The prophets, of whom many have appeared in this book—Nathan ( 2 Chronicles 9:29 ), Ahijah ( 2 Chronicles 10:15 ), Azariah ( 2 Chronicles 15:1 ), Hanani ( 2 Chronicles 16:7 ), Micaiah ( 2 Chronicles 18:8 ), Jehu ( 2 Chronicles 19:2 ), Jahaziel ( 2 Chronicles 20:14 ), Elijah (21:12)—were the recognized medium of communication between God and the people. The prophets at this time sent to testify for Jehovah against the people are not named, with one exception; which may suggest that one may be an honoured, true, and faithful servant of God in Church or state, and may render important services to both without having his name chronicled on the registers of time.

2 . its tenor. A testimony against the nation, in terms similar to those of Zechariah. Their idol-worship was:

3 . Its reception. "They would not give ear." Unwilling to obey, they would not listen. The truth was unpalatable, and hence they rejected it. They loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil ( John 3:19 ); they hated the truth, because it condemned them ( Psalms 50:17 ; Amos 5:10 ).

IV. ZECHARIAH 'S ASSASSINATION . (Verse 20.) A deed of:

1 . Atrocious inhumanity. Murdered by his countrymen, the princes of Judah, in some sort his near kinsmen, considering that he himself was a collateral descendant of the royal line, his mother having been Ahaziah's sister ( 2 Chronicles 22:11 ).

2 . Revolting cruelty. Stoned with stones. Lapidation, a peculiarly Jewish form of punishment, is described in the Mishna. "The condemned, if a man, was led naked to the place of torture, but a woman was allowed to retain her clothes. The offender was always taken out of the city … All that was necessary was that the place should be in a valley, or foss, with steep banks, from the top of which one of the witnesses threw the accused down. If he fails on his back and is killed, well and good; if not, another witness throws a stone on his chest. The first stones were cast at the head, so as to hasten death and shorten the sufferings of the victim. There were no regular executioners. In the time of the kings, the sovereigns appointed men to carry out the sentence". This terrible mode of executing capital punishment the Law reserved for aggravated offences (Le 20:2 , 27; 24:14; Numbers 15:35 ), in particular for practising and enticing to idolatry ( Deuteronomy 13:10 ; Deuteronomy 18:5 ). Victims of stoning were, in Old Testament times, Achan ( Joshua 7:25 ), Naboth ( 1 Kings 21:13 ), Hadoram ( 2 Chronicles 10:18 ), Zechariah; in New Testament times, Stephen ( Acts 7:58 ), Paul ( Acts 14:19 ), and (perhaps) Antipas ( Revelation 2:13 ).

3 . Gross profanity. Murdered in the court of Jehovah's house, "between the sanctuary and the altar" ( Matthew 23:35 ), always regarded as an aggravation of the original crime ( Lamentations 2:10 ), and a special form of defilement ( Ezekiel 9:7 ). Jehoiada would not shed there the blood of Joash's grandmother ( 2 Chronicles 23:14 ); Joash did not hesitate to spill there the blood of Jehoiada's son.

4 . Horrible impiety. Murdered, although a prophet of Jehovah ( 1 Kings 19:10 ); murdered, because he told them the truth (cf. John 8:40 ); murdered by men themselves guilty of death and deserving to be stoned (see above); murdered in Jehovah's house and before his altar, in defiance of his Law and contempt for his religion.

5 . Monstrous ingratitude. Murdered "at the king's commandment;" done to death by a man to whom his father (or grandfather) had given life, education, a crown, a kingdom, a reformed religion, a settled country (2Ch 22:11-23:21). The vocabulary of vituperation has been exhausted to set forth the wickedness, odiousness, and loathsomeness of this vice. It has been likened to "a sharp-toothed vulture," "a marble-hearted fiend, more hideous than the sea-monster;" it has been spoken of as "the most detestable act" a person can commit, a vice more abominable "than lying, vainness, babbling, drunkenness;" a monster whose tooth is keener than the winter wind. Nor is it too much to say that, amongst this hideous crew of God-forsaken wretches, Joash stands pre-eminent. A creature as mean anti despicable the earth surely is seldom called on to support and nourish.

6 . Unavoidable avengement. Zechariah himself, feeling this, ere his eyes closed and his lips became silent in death, uttered a prayer or invocation, "The Lord look upon it, and require it," in reality a prediction which soon became a history. Contrast the prayer of Stephen for his murderers ( Acts 7:60 ). Zechariah the murdered prophet, and Stephen the martyred deacon, each embodied and illustrated the spirit of the dispensation under which he lived; that under which Zechariah lived, a dispensation

that under which Stephen flourished, a dispensation

LESSONS .

1 . The danger of listening to flattery; it makes men, even kings, foolish.

2 . The duty of resisting the first approaches of temptation. Obsta principiis.

3 . The downward course of sin —Facilis descensus Averno (Virgil, ' AE neid,' 6.126).

4 . The folly of forsaking God; it can only end in being forsaken by God.

5 . The courage needed to be a true servant of God in any age. He who would speak for God will often require to speak against man.

6 . The surest evidence of original and innate depravity is the fact that men do not naturally care for, but rather dislike, and are averse to, God's Word.

7 . The certainty that they who will live godly must suffer persecution. God's witnesses are often slain ( Revelation 11:7 ).

8 . The baseness of ingratitude towards God; inferred from that of ingratitude towards man.

9 . The contrast between the Law and the gospel; illustrated by Zechariah's imprecation and Stephen's invocation. 10. The certainty of Divine retribution: God will avenge his saints ( Luke 18:7 , S).—W.