UNHEALTHY DEPENDENCIES – 2 Chronicles 24:1-27
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on February 20, 2011 under 2011 |
Preached Sunday, February 20, 2011
from
2 Chronicles 24:1-27
Theme: We must not let an unhealthy dependency on others rob us of a faithful walk with God on our own.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
Last week, we began looking at the life of one of the most fascinating of the kings of Judah—Joash, the small boy who narrowly escaped death in order to become the king of his people.
You remember his story, don’t you? He was born as heir of the promise that God had made to his great ancestor, King David—the promise that David would always have a descendant from his body who would sit upon the throne of the people of Judah. Joash’s wicked grandmother Athaliah stole the throne away from the lineage of David, and murdered all of her royal grandsons that she could find. But in the providence of God, the infant Joash was hidden in the temple from her murderous plot. And when he was seven years old, the godly old priest Jehoiada brought him out of the temple and revealed him to the people. The evil usurper Athaliah was removed from the throne, and little Joash was seated as the rightful king of Judah.
What a great adventure story! And it taught us an important lesson about God’s providential care for the royal lineage of our Lord Jesus Christ; and of how—even in times of great evil—God will keep all the promises He has made about our Savior.
Now all of that had to do with the first half of Joash’s story. Today, we’ll take up the second half. And it teaches us a very valuable spiritual lessons all its own.
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Look with me at 2 Chronicles 24, where the second half of Joash’s story begins. Verses 1-3 tell us:
Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah of Beersheba. Joash did what was right in the sight of the LORD all the days of Jehoiada the priest. And Jehoiada took two wives for him, and he had sons and daughters (2 Chronicles 24:1-3).
Throughout much of his life, King Joash had a wonderful advantage. He had the direct influence of a marvelous spiritual mentor—the great and godly high priest Jehoiada. Just to show you how wonderful that influence must have been, look at what it tells us in verses 15-16 about the time when the priest Jehoiada died. We’re told,
But Jehoiada grew old and was full of days, and he died; he was one hundred and thirty years old when he died. And they buried him in the City of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, both toward God and His house (vv. 15-16).
The old priest lived to a remarkable old age of 130 years! And from all that the Bible tells us about him, he remained active and deeply involved in the work of God all the way to the end. And when the end finally came, the people of Judah honored him in a way that they only honored their monarchs—burying him in the City of David among the kings, "because he had done good in Israel, both toward God and His house." The great spiritual devotion to the God of Israel that characterized him during the early years of Joash’s life didn’t appear to have ever abated; but it burned hot in his soul—and manifested itself in his labors—right up to the very end of his days.
And just think of the ways the Bible tells us that this priest brought his godly influence into the life of Joash. When the small boy was crowned king, one of the first official acts the priest Jehoiada performed was to set into the young king’s hands a written copy of the law of God that had been given through Moses (23:11). And you can be sure the old priest daily taught the young king to read it, reverence it, and obey it. In verse 3, we’re told, "And Jehoiada took two wives for him, and he had sons and daughters.” He wanted to make sure that Joash didn’t fall into the trap that his fathers fell into—marrying pagan wives that dragged their souls away from God. And so, he picked out wives for Joash that would enhance and support his devotion to God’s call on his life.
Faithful old Jehoiada was a godly mentor to King Joash. And the testimony of his influence is stated for us clearly in verse 2: "Joash did what was right in the sight of the LORD all the days of Jehoiada the priest."
But there’s an ominous tone to those last words. Did you notice them? Joash, we’re told, did what was right in the sight of the Lord—but not all his life. Instead it was limited to "all the days of Jehoiada the priest." So long as Jehoiada was alive to bring his personal influence to bear in the life of Joash, Joash was true and faithful to God. But as the Bible tells us, as soon as the priest Jehoiada was gone, so went Joash’s faithfulness to God. In verses 17-18, we’re told;
Now after the death of Jehoiada the leaders of Judah came and bowed down to the king. And the king listened to them. Therefore they left the house of the LORD God of their fathers, and served wooden images and idols; and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem because of their trespass (vv. 17-18).
Joash’s devotion to God under the influence of Jehoiada was not truly his own. He didn’t learn to be independently dependent upon God. And once the old priest’s immediate influence ended by death, Joash turned away from the God that he had been so diligently taught to follow.
And all of this, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, makes the warning to be taken from the second half of Joash’s story one of the most important we could ever hear.
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Stop for a moment and think of the people God has placed in your life that are influencing your walk with the Lord Jesus Christ right now. If they are truly from God, then their goal would never be to draw attention to themselves, or to draw you to a dependency upon their own spiritual qualities. Rather, their goal would be to point you to a deep personal relationship of love with the Lord Jesus; and to teach you to continually drink from the water of life for yourself, and to draw all that you need for life from Jesus on your own. They would seek to teach you to have an independently dependent relationship with Jesus Christ; so that once they themselves are gone, and their personal influence upon your life comes to an end, you have learned from them to walk in the strength of your own vital relationship with Jesus—just like they did!
There are some great New Testament examples about this. Think of the apostle Paul in his relationship with his assistant, Pastor Timothy. As Paul sat in a prison cell—arrested for his faithful preaching of Jesus Christ, and awaiting execution—he wrote his final letter to Timothy and told him,
For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing (2 Timothy 4:6-8).
Paul was about to depart from Timothy through death, and go to the presence of the Lord. He had finished the race, and was confident of the glory to come. But before he wrote those stirring words of victory, he told Timothy,
But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 3:14-15).
Paul bore a powerful impact on Timothy. Timothy knew well the things that Paul taught him—and the kind of dynamic Christian life through which those things were exemplified to him. But Timothy’s wonderful mentor was about to be taken from him, and it was now up to him to "continue"—for himself—in those things he had seen and heard “through faith which is in Christ Jesus".
Or think of the apostle Peter. In his final letter, he wrote some powerful and passionate words of instructions to the believers under his care. He told them;
But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:4-11).
Peter urged his fellow believers to work hard at building up their faith in Jesus. They were to cultivate a personal relationship of love with Jesus Himself; so that they could stand strong in him on their own—just as Peter had taught them. And then Peter said;
For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth. Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me. Moreover I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease (vv. 12-15).
The day was going to come when Peter would no longer be there to bear a personal influence upon them. The day was going to come when Timothy would no longer have Paul’s living presence to guild and encourage him. These all needed to make sure that they didn’t depend on their mentors—in a spiritually unhealthy way—to live the Christian life for them. They needed to live in a vital relationship with Jesus for themselves.
A failure to learn this important lesson, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, is one reason why so many professing Christians start out so promising and yet end so grievously. Many professing Christians relied too heavily on the influence of a particular, dynamic pastor to help guide them in their spiritual life. And when that pastor was taken away from them for some reason—perhaps because he was called to another ministry, or perhaps because he was called home to the Lord—they themselves stopped growing. They themselves stopped serving. They themselves stopped going to church. They themselves stopped living faithfully for the Lord; and the reason was because they had an unhealthy dependency on that pastor to live a dependent life with the Lord for them, rather than having learned to cultivate a dependent relationship on the Lord for themselves.
Many young people who grew up in a Christian home, and experienced the direct influence of godly parents, suffered the same sad outcome. They went to church with their parents. They read their Bibles with their parents. They prayed with their parents. But when the direct influence of their parents was taken from them—perhaps by them leaving home to go to college, or perhaps because their parents were taken from them in death—their spiritual walk declined. They got out of the habit of going to church. They neglected their Bibles. They no longer brought their trials to God in prayer. They started listening to ungodly ideas and following ungodly advice. And the reason was because—the whole time long—they had been depending on their parents to live the Christian life for them. They hadn’t learned to walk with Jesus for themselves.
Many professing Christians even rely on such things as Christian books, or seminars, or radio programs. They draw strength from the insights of other Christians that they read, or hear. And so long as they’re in contact with those things, they have a sense of spiritual vitality. And thank God for those things, by the way! They’re a great help to our Christian life! But they must never become a substitute for a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Some people who make abundant use of such things never learn to cultivate a deep, personal, dependent relationship of love with Jesus Christ—feeding on Him personally and directly for themselves. And when the books are closed, or the seminars are over, or the radio program goes off the air, their spiritual vitality dies out. They wander back to their old ways. The forget about the great things they may have learned.
It’s a dangerous thing to have an unhealthy dependency on others to live the Christian life for us. Such a dependency keeps us from developing in the most important thing that we could ever have—a loving, personal, dependent relationship with Jesus for ourselves. And once those secondary things we depended on are taken away, our spiritual life crashes.
That’s the thing that the second half of Joash’s life warns us not to let happen to us.
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It happened horribly to Joash.
So long as the priest Jehoiada was alive and able to bring a direct influence into the young king’s life, Joash had the appearance of being spiritually strong. After the Bible tells us about how Jehoiada got Joash’s life on a good course, we read;
Now it happened after this that Joash set his heart on repairing the house of the LORD (v. 4).
The temple that King Solomon had built was, at this point, 130 to 150 years old. It had been neglected by Joash’s grandfather and father. What’s more, in verse 7, we’re told of the waste his grandmother had made of it:
For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken into the house of God, and had also presented all the dedicated things of the house of the LORD to the Baals (v. 7).
And so—on his own initiative, it would seem—Joash set his heart to repair the house of God. We’re told;
Then he gathered the priests and the Levites, and said to them, “Go out to the cities of Judah, and gather from all Israel money to repair the house of your God from year to year, and see that you do it quickly.” However the Levites did not do it quickly. So the king called Jehoiada the chief priest, and said to him, “Why have you not required the Levites to bring in from Judah and from Jerusalem the collection, according to the commandment of Moses the servant of the LORD and of the assembly of Israel, for the tabernacle of witness?” (vv. 5-6).
I don’t believe that this was because the priests were being, in any way, dishonest. It was simply that it was too hard to gather the needed funds in the way that they were going about it. But notice Joash’s fervency. He wouldn’t let the project go undone. He even held old Jehoiada to account! No matter how hard it may have been to raise the necessary funds, the work of restoring God’s house must be completed!
Then at the king’s command they made a chest, and set it outside at the gate of the house of the LORD. And they made a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to bring to the LORD the collection that Moses the servant of God had imposed on Israel in the wilderness. Then all the leaders and all the people rejoiced, brought their contributions, and put them into the chest until all had given. So it was, at that time, when the chest was brought to the king’s official by the hand of the Levites, and when they saw that there was much money, that the king’s scribe and the high priest’s officer came and emptied the chest, and took it and returned it to its place. Thus they did day by day, and gathered money in abundance. The king and Jehoiada gave it to those who did the work of the service of the house of the LORD; and they hired masons and carpenters to repair the house of the LORD, and also those who worked in iron and bronze to restore the house of the LORD. So the workmen labored, and the work was completed by them; they restored the house of God to its original condition and reinforced it. When they had finished, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada; they made from it articles for the house of the LORD, articles for serving and offering, spoons and vessels of gold and silver (vv. 8-14a).
What zeal Joash demonstrated! What a thrill it must have been for the people see the house of God restored by him. What a joy it must have been to the priests to see God’s house honored by their king. When the work of restoration was completed, we’re told;
And they offered burnt offerings in the house of the LORD continually all the days of Jehoiada (v. 14b).
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But there’s those ominous words again: "all the days of Jehoiada". King Joash displayed a zeal for the Lord; but it was a zeal that was not really his own. He was living off the zeal of Jehoiada. And when the old priest was taken away from him through death, Joash’s outward display of zeal died with him.
Verses 17-18 tell us that, after Jehoiada died, the leaders of Judah "came and bowed down to the king. And the king listened to them." The old priest’s godly influence upon Joash came to an end; and their ungodly influence on him began to grow. We’re told;
Therefore they left the house of the LORD God of their fathers, and served wooden images and idols; and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem because of their trespass. Yet He sent prophets to them, to bring them back to the LORD; and they testified against them, but they would not listen (vv. 18-19).
It wasn’t simply that Jehoiada’s godly influence was forgotten. His influence was a gift from God that was meant to draw Joash to God Himself; and Joash was now actively ignoring God.
And look at how hard his heart soon became! We’re told;
Then the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest [that is, the very son of the very same Jehoiada on whose influence Joash had formerly been dependent], who stood above the people, and said to them, “Thus says God: ‘Why do you transgress the commandments of the LORD, so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the LORD, He also has forsaken you.’” So they conspired against him, and at the command of the king they stoned him with stones in the court of the house of the LORD. [Some versions of the text even suggest that Joash may have even killed off several more than just this one son of Jehoiada!] Thus Joash the king did not remember the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but killed his son; and as he died, he said, “The LORD look on it, and repay!” (vv. 20-22).
‘Look on it’ God did. And ‘repay’ He most certainly would. And it didn’t take long for that to occur, either. We’re told;
So it happened in the spring of the year that the army of Syria came up against him; and they came to Judah and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the leaders of the people from among the people, and sent all their spoil to the king of Damascus (v. 23).
2 Kings 12:18 tells us how far from his former zeal Joash had fallen. We’re told that he gathered up all the sacred things that his fathers (Jehoshaphat, Jehoram and Azariah) had dedicated to God—and even the things that, earlier in his life, he himself had once dedicated to God—and all the gold found in the treasuries of the temple and in his palace; and sent it all to the king of Syria to buy him off.
For the army of the Syrians came with a small company of men; but the LORD delivered a very great army into their hand, because they had forsaken the LORD God of their fathers. So they executed judgment against Joash. (v. 24).
Joash, who had once lived so zealously for God during the life of Jehoiada, now lived in such rebellion against God after Jehoiada was gone that God allowed his large army to be humiliatingly defeated by a small enemy army that took everything he had.
And even after all that, it still wasn’t over. We read on;
And when they had withdrawn from him (for they left him severely wounded), his own servants conspired against him because of the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, and killed 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 (v. 25).
Joash had lived off the strength of the faith of Jehoiada. But he hadn’t learned to walk with God for himself. When Jehoiada was gone, so was Joash’s devotion to God. When Jehoiada died, the old priest was buried with kings. But when the king died, he was buried somewhere else.
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Now; we should praise God for the godly pastors, preachers, teachers and spiritual mentors He brings in our lives. They are gifts from Him. They are necessary for our establishment in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and for our growth in the faith. But the lesson of Joash’s life is clear: We must not have such an unhealthy dependency on them that we fail to cultivate a vital, personal, dependent relationship with Jesus Christ for ourselves!
Let’s be sure, first of all, that we truly have entered into a personal relationship by faith with the very Savior—Jesus Christ—that those godly mentors point us toward. And having done so, let’s be sure that we put into personal practice the habits of the Christian life that those godly mentors have exemplified to us. Let’s be sure that we personally read our Bibles for ourselves daily—regularly nourishing our souls from the riches of God’s word. Let’s be sure that we personally bring our own trials and burdens to our Father faithfully through prayer—casting our cares on Him who cares for us. Let’s be sure that we personally prioritize fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ through regular attendance at church—worshiping together, learning together, serving together.
Let’s make sure that we walk in an independently dependent way with Jesus Christ. And when the work of those God-given mentors is done, and their personal influence is taken away from us, we’ll still be standing strong—and won’t suffer the loss that poor King Joash suffered.
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