I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Chronicles 23-25.

    The priest Jehoiada engineered a coup to place Joash, the great grandson of Jehoshaphat, on the throne in place of his (Joash’s) grandmother, the daughter of Ahab. Jehoiada had raised Joash from infancy and served as his regent until he reached majority. Jehoiada used his influence over Joash to bring about spiritual renewal in the land. As long as Jehoiada lived, Joash worshiped and served the Lord. Joash was even more enthusiastic about worshiping God than Jehoiada, chiding Jehoiada for failing to restore the Temple. Joash instituted a system to collect money for the restoration of the Temple and saw to it being used for that purpose. However, after Jehoiada’s death, Joash fell under the influence of less godly men and turned away from God to worship idols. He even went so far as to kill Jehoiada’s son, who would have been raised as his brother. The account here of Joash, and his son Amaziah, serve as a warning that youthful enthusiasm for the Lord does not necessarily last.

    In many ways the account of King Amaziah is sadder than the story of Joash. When King Amaziah had established himself as king, he went to war against Edom. As part of his preparations he hired 100,000 warriors from the Northern Kingdom. These men made up one quarter of his army. When he receive instructions from God to dismiss these warriors Amaziah did so on the basis of God’s promise of victory without them. However, despite gaining the victory which God had promised him, Amaziah promptly set up the idols he had plundered from Edom and began worshiping them. We get a hint of what was going on here with Amaziah’s next act, which was to declare war on the Northern Kingdom. Rather than give God credit for his victory over Edom, Amaziah chose to believe it resulted from his own skill as a war leader.