Context No. 3977 of 4322 · 2 Chronicles

2 Chronicles 24:20-27: in context

20The Spirit of God came on Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people, and said to them, “God says, ‘Why do you disobey the LORD’s commandments, so that you can’t prosper? Because you have forsaken the LORD, he has also forsaken you.’” 21They conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the LORD’s house. 22Thus Joash the king didn’t remember the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but killed his son. When he died, he said, “May the LORD look at it, and repay it.” 23At the end of the year, the army of the Syrians came up against him. They came to Judah and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people, and sent all their plunder to the king of Damascus. 24For the army of the Syrians came with a small company of men; and the LORD delivered a very great army into their hand, because they had forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers. So they executed judgment on Joash. 25When they had departed from him (for they left him seriously wounded), his own servants conspired against him for the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, and killed him on his bed, and he died. They buried him in David’s city, but they didn’t bury him in the tombs of the kings. 26These are those who conspired against him: Zabad the son of Shimeath the Ammonitess and Jehozabad the son of Shimrith the Moabitess. 27Now concerning his sons, the greatness of the burdens laid on him, and the rebuilding of God’s house, behold, they are written in the commentary of the book of the kings. Amaziah his son reigned in his place.

King Joash had been raised and protected by the godly priest Jehoiada, and while Jehoiada lived, Joash did well. But after the old priest died, Joash turned away, and when Jehoiada's own son Zechariah, moved by God's Spirit, called the people back to obedience, Joash had him stoned to death in the very courts of the temple.

The chronicler names the tragedy directly: Joash did not remember the kindness that Jehoiada had shown him, but killed his son. It is a bitter picture of ingratitude, a man turning on the family of his benefactor, repaying the one who had saved and raised him by murdering his son. And the passage records how judgment fell: Joash was defeated, wounded, and finally killed by his own servants. There are sober lessons here. The danger of forgetting the kindness shown to us; Joash's ingratitude toward Jehoiada was the root of his fall. And the danger of drifting when a godly influence is removed; Joash had done well only as long as Jehoiada guided him, and collapsed when that support was gone.

Do I remember with gratitude those who have helped and guided me, and is my faithfulness rooted in God himself, so that it will not collapse like Joash's when the godly influences who once supported me are gone?

Sources

2 Chronicles 24:22: "Thus Joash the king didn't remember the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but killed his son."
2 Chronicles 24:20: "Because you have forsaken the LORD, he has also forsaken you."
2 Chronicles 24:24: "The LORD delivered a very great army into their hand, because they had forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers."