Shakespeare, in “As You Like it,” wrote that “all the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and entrances, and every man in his times plays many parts.” The poet went on to say that man’s life has seven acts:
(1) “Infancy, when he is mewling and puking in the nurses’ arms;
(2) Whining schoolboy with satchel and shining morning face, creeping like snail unwilling to school;
(3) Lover, sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad made to his mistress’ eyebrow;
(4) Soldier, full of strange oaths . . . sudden, quick in quarrel, seeking the bubble reputation;
(5) The justice, in fair round belly . . . eyes severe and beard of formal cut, full of wise saws;
(6) The sixth age shifts into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon (pants), with spectacles on nose . . . his big manly voice turning again toward childish treble, pipes and whistles in his sound;
(7) Last scene of all, that ends this strange eventful history, is second childishness and mere oblivion; sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.”
Long before Shakespeare set forth the stages of the life of humans on earth, the Psalmist had said, “We spend our years as a tale that is told….” (Ps. 90:9)
In the Old Testament books of Kings and Chronicles, brief biographies are recorded of 39 kings of Judah and Israel that ruled over the northern (Israel) and southern (Judah) kingdoms following the passing of King Solomon. These histories are instructive and profitable for their lessons in life.
This post turns the spotlight on the eighth king of Judah, Joash, setting forth his providential rise, his privileged rule, and his pathetic ruin.
His providential rise
When Joash’s godless father, Ahaziah, was slain following his eight-year rule, his mother, Athaliah, slew all the royal seed of the house of Judah. (2 Chronicles 22) However, King Ahaziah’s sister, hid his young son, Joash, in the temple for six years until Jehoiada, godly priest, organized a coup against the wicked Athaliah. As a result, Joash was anointed king, and Athaliah was slain at the door of the temple. Young Joash was only seven years old when he was crowned king, but his mentor, Jehoiada, guided him wisely so that he had, for the most part, a “good,” 40-year reign in Judah. The Chronicler notes: “And Joash did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest.” (2 Chron. 24:2) The infant Joash was left fatherless and motherless; but God turned a tragic start in life into something that was, for Judah, a blessing. One can only imagine the story had Joash lived under the tutelage of his grandmother, Athaliah. It was a wicked age for, as we read in 2 Chron. 22:3, 4, Ahaziah was counseled in the ways of the notoriously wicked Ahab.
His privileged rule
As noted, Joash had a spiritual mentor—the priest Jehoiada—who lived to be 130 years old. Therefore, during the reign of Joash, badly needed repairs were made to the temple. Jehoiada made a covenant between “the Lord and the king and the people, that they should be the Lord’s people.” (2 Kings 11:17) Altars built to Baal were broken to pieces, and Mattan, the priest of Baal, was slain. The revival brought a period of peace, and “all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet.” Joash reigned 40 years and “did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all his days wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him.” Jehoiada’s spiritual counsel, and his special concern for the things of God, was such that Joash heard and heeded his guiding words and ways all of the pious priest’s days.
His pathetic ruin
After the aged Jehoiada died, the princes of Judah presented themselves before King Joash sadly and “made obeisance to the king. Then the king hearkened to them.” (2 Chron. 24:17) We then read that the people left the house of the Lord and once again turned to groves and idols. Jehoiada’s son, Zechariah, rebuked this U-turn back to idolatry, but the people, with the approval of Joash, slew Zechariah, whose dying words were: “The Lord look upon it and require it.” (2 Chron. 24:22). A full year had not passed before the king of Syria came to war against Jerusalem with a small force, and “the Lord delivered a very great host into their hand because they had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers. So they executed judgment against Joash.” (2 Chron. 24:24) When the Syrian forces left Jerusalem, Joash was full of diseases, and the sons of Jehoiada the priest finished him off by killing him in his own bed. His son, Amaziah, took the reigns of rule when he was 25 years of age, reigning over Judah for 29 years. Of him it was said, “he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart.”
Such was the record of a king that had been providentially preserved, prepared, and presented to reign at the ripe old age of seven. Joash had such a privileged opportunity to live and die with God’s approval, primarily because of his closeness to the godly priest, Jehoiada. But, when Jehoiada died, Joash made critical misjudgments in departing from the covenant he had led the people of God to enter into with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. His lapse of faith and obedience resulted in a tragic end to his life—and a dismal final chapter to his story.
All of these Old Testament biographies were written and recorded for our learning and admonition. (I Cor. 10:11) We can surely learn from the life and death of Joash, king of Judah, that a good start in ministry with God’s blessings, and a good life of service before God, does not guarantee a good conclusion. As Yogi Berra, legendary Hall of Famer for the New York Yankees, is known for saying: “It ain’t over till it’s over.” Selah
“Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we received a full reward.” (2 John 8)
YOU and GOD 