THE SEVEN-YEAR-OLD KING
Part Two
by Uncle Aaron
Taken from 2nd CHRONICLES Chapter 24
Did you enjoy the story of Joash, the youngest king of the Israelites?
Do you remember I told you his story is in two parts?
This is the second part of his story.
However, before we go on, let us quickly remember these facts:
- Joash was the son of King Ahaziah, the evil king of Judah who listened to his evil mother Athaliah and did bad things that did not please God.
- Ahaziah was killed, and his mother Athaliah killed all her grandsons so that she would be the Queen of Judah.
- Joash was not killed because Jehoiada, the High Priest, and his wife Jehoshabeath saved him and hid him in the temple where he grew up.
- When Joash was seven years old Jehoiada anointed him and crowned him king.
- Athaliah tried to stop Joash from being made king, but she was killed.
- Jehoiada broke down all the altars of the god Baal and killed all the priests of Baal.
- The people came back to God and worshipped him
- King Joash, at age seven, began to rule Judah and Jerusalem, and he was the youngest ever king to rule in Israel.
This second part of King Joash’s story makes me so sad!
We are going to learn about the terrible things that could happen if we betray the people who love us, and especially if we betray God!
You remember how good the High Priest Jehoiada was, and how he and his wife hid Joash for six years and took care of him. You also remember how Jehoiada met the army commanders secretly and planned things so well that Joash became king and wicked Athaliah was killed!
Well, when Joash was king he did everything that pleased God because Jehoiada gave him good advice, and directed him! God was pleased with this and blessed King Joash very much. Joash and Jehoiada did many great things for God. The people of Israel worshipped God again and received many blessings.
Joash even wanted to rebuild the temple of the true God! He passed laws and demanded taxes, and he got enough money to rebuild the Temple.
He and Jehoiada used this money to pay masons, carpenters and iron and bronze workers to build the temple.
The temple was built quickly, and King Joash used the remaining money to buy utensils and materials for the temple!
This pleased God very much!
High Priest Jehoiada soon became very old, and died when he was one hundred and thirty years old!
King Joash and the people of Israel mourned him for many days, and they buried him in the City of David, at the place where only kings were buried!
Sadly, after Jehoiada’s death, things began to go bad.
Jehoiada had carefully brought up King Joash to fear God, to respect God, and to worship only God. When Jehoiada died, King Joash soon began to listen less and less to the High Priests of God.
His visits to the Temple of God became fewer and fewer until he was no longer going to the temple to worship or make sacrifices to God!
Very soon, he made friends with other people who did not worship God and were idol worshippers!
Oh, how sad! How could King Joash do this? He should have remembered all the troubles he went through and how God saved him, but he did not!
And then, to make matters worse, King Joash began to worship a god named Asherim, and he built idols and worshipped them! That was so bad! This did not please God at all!
Slowly, the people of Judah also started worshipping Asherim and idols! They had once again forsaken the true God who had been so good to them! They had gone back to the evil days of Queen Athaliah!
However, God did not leave King Joash.
God made many prophets visit Joash and speak to the people.
“King Joash, your idol worship is taking God away from you!” the prophets would say to the king. “Please come back to God!”
King Joash would not listen to them.
He had become a very strong worshipper of Asherim!
Now, when Jehoiada died, God filled Jehoiada’s son with the Holy Spirit.
Jehoiada’s son was called Zechariah, and he became a High Priest of God. Zechariah knew King Joash well. They all grew up in the temple before Joash became king, and they were almost like brothers!
Several times Zechariah went to King Joash to come back to God and stop worshipping Asherim. Zechariah would also preach in the Temple, and wherever he went, asking the people to return to God.
One day, Zechariah took to the streets.
He was so distressed that the people of Israel had become idol worshippers again. The spirit of God moved in Zechariah, and one day he moved all across the city, shouting out a message from God.
“People of Judah, King of Judah, listen to what God is saying!” Zechariah shouted. “Why are you breaking God’s commandments? Why have you stopped worshipping God and now worshipping idols and Asherim? You will never be successful because you have abandoned God, and so God has also abandoned you! You will never be successful in anything again!”
Zechariah kept preaching this message, and it made the people angry.
They complained bitterly about him.
The friends of King Joash who had given him bad advice also went to him.
“This High Priest is turning the people against you, Your Majesty!” they told him. “You must do something about it before it gets out of hand!”
When Zechariah kept preaching to the people to repent or lose God’s favour, King Joash did a very wicked thing!
He ordered that High Priest Zechariah be stoned to death!
Oh, dear!
Can you just imagine that?
Remember all the risks Jehoiada took for King Joash. How he kept Joash hidden in the temple and later helped him to become king?
Joash should have remembered this!
If it had not been for Jehoiada and his wife, the wicked Queen Athaliah would have killed Joash!
So how could King Joash give an order for Jehoiada’s son to be stoned to death?
That was a betrayal of friendship, a betrayal of trust!
That was simply unacceptable!
That was so wicked!
The people went to the courtyard of the Lord’s Temple and stoned Zechariah to death! Do you remember that it was the same courtyard where Zechariah’s father, Jehoiada, anointed and crowned King Joash as king of Judah?
This was simply so wicked!
And as Zechariah lay there dying, he raised his eyes to the sky and shouted loudly:
“May the Lord watch this and avenge!”
This act displeased God very much, and from that instant, God removed all His blessings from King Joash!
God punished King Joash by letting the Aramean army from Damascus attack Judah and Jerusalem!
The Aramean Army was small compared to King Joash’s huge army, but God gave power to the Arameans, and they defeated Judah and Jerusalem. The army killed all the senior officials of Judah who had led King Joash to abandon God and worship Asherim, and carried all their possessions back to Damascus.
King Joash was very sick and weak after this attack by the Aramean Army.
He was on his sick bed when he called his servants to bring him some food.
Some of his servants came, and amongst them were two servants named Zabad and Jehozabad.
“You’re a wicked man,” Zabad said to King Joash.
“What are you talking about?” King Joash asked weakly.
“Look at how Jehoiada was good to you!” Jehozabad said. “He saved you, and made you king, and you repaid his love by letting the people stone his son Zechariah!”
King Joash was so sorry, and he began to weep.
“I have sinned against God, and against Jehoiada!” he cried. “Please forgive me!”
The Bible says that the servants killed King Joash in his bed for this evil thing he did.
He reigned as king of Judah and Jerusalem for forty years.
His son, Amaziah, became the new king!
So sad, isn’t it?
Well, that is the story of the youngest king that ever reigned in Israel.
I hope you learned some lessons here and will learn to always believe, trust and worship the true God.
Remember:
King Joash betrayed both God and Jehoiada!
He should have remembered all that Jehoiada did for him, and spared Zechariah’s life, but he didn’t!
We should learn to be kind, and to repay good deeds done us by good deeds! We should never repay good with evil, and we should always have a repentant heart.
Look at this: when Jehoiada was alive, King Josh never left God’s company! He did everything that pleased God, but when Jehoiada died, Joash made new friends with the top officials of Judah, who led him astray!
We should always try to keep good company! We should have friends whose lives and beliefs are rooted in God, and try and shun a company that will lead us astray!
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