2 Kings 12:6-16: a reflection

6But it was so, that in the twenty-third year of King Jehoash the priests had not repaired the damage to the house. 7Then King Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and for the other priests, and said to them, “Why aren’t you repairing the damage to the house? Now therefore take no more money from your treasurers, but deliver it for repair of the damage to the house.” 8The priests consented that they should take no more money from the people, and not repair the damage to the house. 9But Jehoiada the priest took a chest and bored a hole in its lid, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one comes into the LORD’s house; and the priests who kept the threshold put all the money that was brought into the LORD’s house into it. 10When they saw that there was much money in the chest, the king’s scribe and the high priest came up, and they put it in bags and counted the money that was found in the LORD’s house. 11They gave the money that was weighed out into the hands of those who did the work, who had the oversight of the LORD’s house; and they paid it out to the carpenters and the builders who worked on the LORD’s house, 12and to the masons and the stone cutters, and for buying timber and cut stone to repair the damage to the LORD’s house, and for all that was laid out for the house to repair it. 13But there were not made for the LORD’s house cups of silver, snuffers, basins, trumpets, any vessels of gold or vessels of silver, of the money that was brought into the LORD’s house; 14for they gave that to those who did the work, and repaired the LORD’s house with it. 15Moreover they didn’t demand an accounting from the men into whose hand they delivered the money to give to those who did the work; for they dealt faithfully. 16The money for the trespass offerings and the money for the sin offerings was not brought into the LORD’s house. It was the priests’.

King Joash sets out to repair the neglected temple, and a system is set up for handling the money: a chest for the offerings, overseen by trusted men who pay the carpenters, masons, and stonecutters doing the work. And the passage notes something striking about how the money was handled: they did not demand an accounting from the men into whose hand they delivered the money to pay the workers, for they dealt faithfully. These men were so trustworthy that no audit was needed; their honesty was simply assumed, and rightly so.

Notice what earned that trust: they dealt faithfully. Handed large sums with little oversight, these men did not skim, embezzle, or cut corners; they used every coin for its purpose, honestly, whether or not anyone was checking. Their integrity was consistent enough that no one felt the need to demand an accounting. They were faithful in what they were entrusted with, in the handling of money that was not their own.

That is a quiet but searching example of integrity. We are all entrusted with things that are not ours, money, resources, responsibilities, and often with little oversight, where we could cut corners or take advantage without being caught. The workmen's example commends the kind of faithfulness that can be trusted without an audit, that deals honestly whether or not anyone is watching. Be that kind of person. In whatever you are entrusted with, deal faithfully, so that your integrity could be assumed without checking. Let your honesty be consistent enough that, like these men, you would need no one to demand an accounting.

Lord, the men entrusted with the temple money dealt so faithfully that no accounting was demanded of them; their integrity could simply be assumed. Make me that kind of person. In whatever I am entrusted with, money, resources, responsibilities, often with little oversight, help me deal honestly whether or not anyone is watching. Keep me from skimming, cutting corners, or taking advantage in the unseen places. Let my integrity be consistent enough to be trusted without an audit. Make me faithful in what is not my own.