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Context No. 2670 of 4322 · 2 Kings

Context · Reflection

2 Kings 12:17-21: in context

17Then Hazael king of Syria went up and fought against Gath, and took it; and Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem. 18Jehoash king of Judah took all the holy things that Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah, his fathers, kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own holy things, and all the gold that was found in the treasures of the LORD’s house, and of the king’s house, and sent it to Hazael king of Syria; and he went away from Jerusalem. 19Now the rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 20His servants arose and made a conspiracy, and struck Joash at the house of Millo, on the way that goes down to Silla. 21For Jozacar the son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad the son of Shomer, his servants, struck him, and he died; and they buried him with his fathers in David’s city; and Amaziah his son reigned in his place.

King Joash of Judah had once been a restorer, repairing the temple that had fallen into disrepair. But now, with the Syrian king Hazael threatening Jerusalem, Joash makes a different choice. He takes the sacred things dedicated by his forefathers and himself, and all the gold in the temple treasury, and sends it to Hazael to buy him off. Hazael withdraws. And not long after, Joash's own servants conspire against him and kill him.

Watch the reversal in one man. Joash had gone from restoring God's house to stripping it, from repairing the temple to plundering it, all out of fear of an enemy. He sacrificed the holy things to purchase a sense of safety. And the bitter irony is that it did not save him; he bought off Hazael and was murdered anyway by his own men. Fear tempts us to sacrifice what is sacred for a feeling of security, to hand over what belongs to God to buy protection from a threat. But safety purchased by compromising the holy is a poor bargain, and often no safety at all.

What do I strip from the holy, what compromise of what matters most to God, to buy a sense of safety from a threat, when it never truly secures me?

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