2 Chronicles 24:1-7: a reflection

1Joash was seven years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah, of Beersheba. 2Joash did that which was right in the LORD’s eyes all the days of Jehoiada the priest. 3Jehoiada took for him two wives, and he became the father of sons and daughters. 4After this, Joash intended to restore the LORD’s house. 5He gathered together the priests and the Levites, and said to them, “Go out to the cities of Judah, and gather money to repair the house of your God from all Israel from year to year. See that you expedite this matter.” However the Levites didn’t do it right away. 6The king called for Jehoiada the chief, and said to him, “Why haven’t you required of the Levites to bring in the tax of Moses the servant of the LORD, and of the assembly of Israel, out of Judah and out of Jerusalem, for the Tent of the Testimony?” 7For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken up God’s house; and they also gave all the dedicated things of the LORD’s house to the Baals.

The young king Joash sets out to repair the temple, which had fallen into disrepair and been plundered under the wicked queen Athaliah. He commands the priests and Levites to gather the money and see to the repairs, and to do it quickly. But the passage notes a snag: the Levites did not act quickly. The work was good and needed, the king had commanded it with urgency; but those charged with it dragged their feet, and the repair was delayed by their slowness.

Notice the slowness that delayed a good work. The need was real, the temple was in disrepair; the king had given the command, even urging haste. But the Levites did not act quickly; they delayed, dragged their feet, and the good work languished. It was not open refusal, but slowness, procrastination, a failure to get on with what was clearly right and needed. And their slowness held up the restoration that should have been pursued.

That slowness is a familiar temptation in our own good intentions. We can know a good work is needed, even feel the urgency of it, and yet delay, drag our feet, put off getting on with it; and the good languishes, not through refusal, but through procrastination. When you know a good work is needed, do not fall into the Levites' slowness, delaying and dragging your feet while the good languishes. Get on with what you know to be right and needed; do not let procrastination hold up the good you are called to do. The temple repair was delayed by those who were slow to act; do not let your good intentions be defeated by mere slowness. When you know what needs doing, do it, promptly, rather than putting it off; for a good work delayed by slowness is a good work languishing, and much good is lost simply to the failure to get on with it.

Lord, the young king Joash set out to repair the neglected temple and commanded it done quickly; but the Levites did not act quickly, and the good work was delayed by their slowness. Show me that familiar temptation in my own good intentions. I can know a good work is needed, even feel the urgency of it, and yet delay, drag my feet, put off getting on with it; and the good languishes, not through refusal, but through procrastination. When I know a good work is needed, keep me from falling into the Levites' slowness, delaying and dragging my feet while the good languishes. Help me get on with what I know to be right and needed; do not let procrastination hold up the good I am called to do. The temple repair was delayed by those who were slow to act; do not let my good intentions be defeated by mere slowness. When I know what needs doing, help me do it, promptly, rather than putting it off; for a good work delayed by slowness is a good work languishing. Keep me from procrastinating the good, Lord, and help me get on with it.