Joash Murders Son of Jehoiada
20 Then the Spirit of God [l]came on Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people and said to them, “Thus God has said, ‘Why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord and do not prosper? Because you have forsaken the Lord, He has also forsaken you.’” 21 So they conspired against him and at the command of the king they stoned him [m]to death in the court of the house of the Lord. 22 Thus Joash the king did not remember the kindness which his father Jehoiada had shown him, but he murdered his son. And as he died he said, “May the Lord see and [n]avenge!”
Aram Invades and Defeats Judah
23 Now it happened at the turn of the year that the army of the Arameans came up against him; and they came to Judah and Jerusalem, destroyed all the officials of the people from among the people, and sent all their spoil to the king of Damascus. 24 Indeed the army of the Arameans came with a small number of men; yet the Lord delivered a very great army into their hands, because they had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers. Thus they executed judgment on Joash.
25 When they had departed from him (for they left him very sick), his own servants conspired against him because of the blood of the [o]son of Jehoiada the priest, and murdered him on his bed. So he died, and they buried him in the city of David, but they did not bury him in the tombs of the kings. 26 Now these are those who conspired against him: Zabad the son of Shimeath the Ammonitess, and Jehozabad the son of Shimrith the Moabitess. 27 As to his sons and the many [p]oracles against him and the [q]rebuilding of the house of God, behold, they are written in the [r]treatise of the Book of the Kings. Then Amaziah his son became king in his place.
So ends the reign of a king that started out with so much promise. Joash was hand-raised by a priest of God, protected so that he might end the reign of evil which his grandmother began. But after his adopted father was dead, he kills a man who was effectively his “half brother” because he dared to speak the word of the Lord against the king and the other leaders of Judah.
All the leaders are then killed by a band of Aramean raiders, and Joash isn’t even buried with the other kings. There’s no such thing as “having arrived” this side of heaven. We are either striving towards God, or we move away from him due to our complacency. There’s no standing still, because you can’t unintentionally serve God when your flesh is forever waging war on your heart and mind.
Instead, as Paul encouraged, we must take every thought captive, and we must press on. Not sometimes, not every once in a while, but every day. Live today on purpose, and leave nothing to happenstance.