THREE of the kings of Judah were crowned when they were boys. I want to tell you a little about each one of them.
Joash was the first of these boy-kings. He was the youngest son of the wicked King Ahaziah. And I am very sorry to say that the grandmother of Joash was even more-wicked than his father Ahaziah. Her name was Athaliah; she was the daughter of the wicked Jezebel; and she is called in the Word of God, “Athaliah, that wicked woman.” (2 Chron. 24:77For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken up the house of God; and also all the dedicated things of the house of the Lord did they bestow upon Baalim. (2 Chronicles 24:7).) And so bent upon wickedness was Athaliah, that even after her husband, King Jehoram, died, she led her son, King Ahaziah, into sin until he died. Still she went on from bad to worse. When her son died, she made up her mind to reign herself; and, for this purpose she cruelly murdered all she could find of the “seed royal of the house of Judah.” that is, all who would claim any title to the crown.
Poor little Joash! He was scarcely twelve months old yet his own grandmother would have killed him young as he was, if it had not been for the faithfulness and kindness of his aunt Jehosheba. This brave and good woman dared to hide little Joash and his nurse in a bedchamber. And thus, by the grace of God, the life of the little boy was preserved, whose right it then was to be the king over Judah. Now Jehosheba was the wife of Jehoiada, the high priest, and little Joash was with them hid in the house of the Lord six years.
All this while the wicked Athaliah reigned as queen over Judah. But when Joash was seven years old, the good and vise Jehoiada told some of the great men of Judah, whom he could trust, that little Joash was still alive. Then these men went about in Judah and gathered the people together. And when the people were assembled, Jehoiada told them about Joash, and they all agreed to crown little Joash as their king. Great and brave men stood in the temple, all around the little boy, with their weapons in their hands, ready to defend him if the wicked Athaliah came and tried to kill him. Then, when they were all ready Jehoiada brought forth the crown and put it on the head of Joash and anointed him in the presence of all the people. The people were so glad that they clapped their hands, and shouted, “God save the king.”
Athaliah heard the shouting, and she came to see what it meant; and when she saw her little grandson, standing in the temple where the kings were accustomed to stand, and that he had the crown upon his head, she cried, “Treason, Treason!” But the people were tired of having her as their queen; they would not let her kill Joash, but she was killed instead.
Then Joash reigned in peace over Judah. As long as Jehoiada lived, King Joash “did that which was right in the of the Lord?” and Toash was very zealous to have the house of the Lord repaired.
But there is one thing, dear young reader, that Joash did not do. He did not seek the Lord with all his heart. After Jehoiada died, a time of temptation came. Wicked men enticed Joash, and he gave heed to them, and they led him into sin. So that the good boy-king Joash, became the wicked man-king Joash.
Well does the Word of God say, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” Had Joash in his youth, “sought the Lord,” the Lord would have established him, and kept him from evil.
The Lord sent prophets to Joash, and to his people, but they would not listen. Then, last of all, the cousin of Joash, Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, spoke to Joash, and to all the people, by the Word of the Lord; and he told them, that as they had forsaken the Lord, He also had forsaken them. But Joash would not listen, and he set the people on to stone his own cousin to death, in the court of the house of the Lord. King Joash came to a bad end.
Dear reader, if you seek the Lord, He will be found of you; but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off Forever. O, do not forsake Him as Joash did!
(To be Continued.)
ML-04/04/1920