Day 186 (2 Kings 12-13, 2 Chronicles 24) - Year 8

Tara-Leigh Cobble· Host0:00

[intro music] Hey, Bible readers. I'm Tara-Leigh Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. [intro music] Yesterday we covered the reign of King Jehu in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. And while he was on the throne, the Southern Kingdom got a king named Joash, also known as Jehoash, who was seven years old and probably needed a nickname that was easier to pronounce anyway. So we'll call this little guy by the shorter version of his name, Joash. Fortunately, young Joash had a wise advisor, the priest. And as long as the priest was alive, he seemed to keep Joash in line. The priest did get two wives for Joash, but it's possible that the second wife didn't show up on the scene until after the first wife died. For the most part, Joash followed God's commands, with the exception of tearing down the high places for idol worship. He even commanded the restoration of the temple. It had fallen into disrepair since the people had been so focused on worshiping idols instead, and they'd even used some of the temple instruments in their worship of Baal. Ugh. But the priests of the temple don't follow his orders for how to finance the restoration process. They either don't collect the taxes God has required, or they collect them and embezzle them while they just lounge around for 23 years. Finally, Joash puts his foot down, makes an offering box, and the people are actually happy to give to this cause. He uses their money to hire some workers for the repair work since the priests can't be trusted.