2 Kings 12: 1 – 21
Home Improvement
12 In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah of Beersheba. 2 Jehoash did what was right in the sight of the LORD all the days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him. 3 But the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. 4 And Jehoash said to the priests, “All the money of the dedicated gifts that are brought into the house of the LORD—each man’s census money, each man’s assessment money—and all the money that a man purposes in his heart to bring into the house of the LORD, 5 let the priests take it themselves, each from his constituency; and let them repair the damages of the temple, wherever any dilapidation is found.” 6 Now it was so, by the twenty-third year of King Jehoash, that the priests had not repaired the damages of the temple. 7 So King Jehoash called Jehoiada the priest and the other priests, and said to them, “Why have you not repaired the damages of the temple? Now therefore, do not take more money from your constituency, but deliver it for repairing the damages of the temple.” 8 And the priests agreed that they would neither receive more money from the people, nor repair the damages of the temple. 9 Then Jehoiada the priest took a chest, bored a hole in its lid, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one comes into the house of the LORD; and the priests who kept the door put there all the money brought into the house of the LORD. 10 So it was, whenever they saw that there was much money in the chest, that the king’s scribe and the high priest came up and put it in bags and counted the money that was found in the house of the LORD. 11 Then they gave the money, which had been apportioned, into the hands of those who did the work, who had the oversight of the house of the LORD; and they paid it out to the carpenters and builders who worked on the house of the LORD, 12 and to masons and stonecutters, and for buying timber and hewn stone, to repair the damage of the house of the LORD, and for all that was paid out to repair the temple. 13 However there were not made for the house of the LORD basins of silver, trimmers, sprinkling-bowls, trumpets, any articles of gold or articles of silver, from the money brought into the house of the LORD. 14 But they gave that to the workmen, and they repaired the house of the LORD with it. 15 Moreover they did not require an account from the men into whose hand they delivered the money to be paid to workmen, for they dealt faithfully. 16 The money from the trespass offerings and the money from the sin offerings was not brought into the house of the LORD. It belonged to the priests. 17 Hazael king of Syria went up and fought against Gath and took it; then Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem. 18 And Jehoash king of Judah took all the sacred things that his fathers, Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah, kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own sacred things, and all the gold found in the treasuries of the house of the LORD and in the king’s house, and sent them to Hazael king of Syria. Then he went away from Jerusalem. 19 Now the rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 20 And his servants arose and formed a conspiracy, and killed Joash in the house of the Millo, which goes down to Silla. 21 For Jozachar the son of Shimeath and Jehozabad the son of Shomer, his servants, struck him. So he died, and they buried him with his fathers in the City of David. Then Amaziah his son reigned in his place.
How much money should you set aside for your home repairs? You'll need more than just the mortgage payment.
One of the biggest mistakes that new homeowners make is that they assume that the cost of their mortgage represents their entire household home-related budget.
After all, when they were renters, they didn’t have any home-related expenses other than the cost of rent. They make a direct one-to-one comparison between rent and mortgage and assume that the story ends there.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t.
When you own a home, you’re responsible for all repairs and maintenance on the house.
If you don’t have any experience with this, this might sound like an incidental side note. But, as many homeowners can attest, this ends up taking a huge chunk out of your savings or can even require an additional loan.
That’s why people joke that a home is just a big pit that you pour all your money into.
What types of repairs and maintenance are we talking about?
Replacing the roof every 20 to 25 years
Trimming the trees and the tree limbs
Replacing the gutters
Cleaning the gutters
Fertilizing the lawn
Planting sod
Installing fences
Tearing out fences
Replacing vinyl windows every 35 years
Replacing the siding
Painting or rebuilding the deck
Replacing all the appliances
Replacing the carpet every 8 to 10 years
You get the idea. The list could go on and on for a very long time.
Given that you don’t know what repairs your home is going to need, and you don’t know when your home will need those repairs, how can you budget for this amount?
I recommend setting aside 1 percent of the purchase price of your home to cover home expenses. For example, if your home cost $200,000, set aside $2,000 per year, or $166 per month, in a "future home repairs" savings account. IF you live from pay day to pay day like most of us, you look at this amount and say, ‘no way.’
In reviewing this chapter, we can quickly derive that the Israelites never took into consideration that the great ‘Temple’ that Solomon built would need repairs in the future. Obviously, it did. The good king of Judah Jehoash realized this and wanted The Lord Yahweh’s House to not be in disrepair. He made it his personal policy to made sure the Temple was in top shape.
Our chapter begins with our Precious Holy Spirit giving Jehoash approval of his ways while Jehoiada was still alive. Then He describes the way in which the Temple was restored after its years of neglect and mistreatment by Jehoram, Ahaziah and Athaliah, and went on to indicate how later Jehoash split with the priests (presumably once Jehoiada’s influence had declined), and took over the arrangements for the maintenance of the Temple. He then finished off with a description of how the accumulated wealth of Judah finally passed into foreign hands, and how Jehoash was assassinated. We are left to draw the conclusion that in the later years of his reign Jehoash had drifted away from loving The God of Israel which made himself liable to God’s judgment.
12 In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah of Beersheba.
Jehoash (also called Joash) began to reign over in the seventh year of Jehu. Thus Jehoash, being seven years old, was born before Jehu came to the throne. Jehoash then reigned for forty years, and yet we are told little about his reign. The prophetic history was only interested in the activity which demonstrated his attitude and behavior with regard to YHWH. It is a reminder to us that that is also what God is concerned about with us. Forty years slipped by and in the end, he had accomplished little that according to the prophetic author was worth recording. Will it be the same with us?
2 Jehoash did what was right in the sight of the LORD all the days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him.
Jehoash did right in the eyes of YHWH all the while that Jehoiada was instructing him. We are left to gather that once Jehoiada’s influence had been removed Jehoash was unfaithful to YHWH (something confirmed in 2 Chronicles 24).
3 But the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.
However, even in the best days there was still a failing, for no great effort was made to remove the many high places where the people themselves sacrificed and offered incense. It was a natural but dangerous procedure for the people who lived at some distance from the Temple or other official high place, to make use of the ancient sanctuaries which had been set up from of yore in the hills for the worship of the ancient gods. They felt that they had a certain sanctity, and using such sanctuaries gave them an opportunity to personally express their faith. In many cases they were genuinely seeking to worship YHWH, but using the old sanctuaries was dangerous, both because they contained symbols of the old gods which could easily then be incorporated into their worship (the pillars and the Asherah poles/images), and also because they then absorbed the ideas associated with them, ideas which had already been the ruin of Israel. It was so easy to think of Baal (meaning ‘lord’) in terms of YHWH.
4 And Jehoash said to the priests, “All the money of the dedicated gifts that are brought into the house of the LORD—each man’s census money, each man’s assessment money—and all the money that a man purposes in his heart to bring into the house of the LORD, 5 let the priests take it themselves, each from his constituency; and let them repair the damages of the temple, wherever any dilapidation is found.”
The Temple had been allowed to fall to some extent into disrepair by Jehoram, Ahaziah and Athaliah even though the first two had, as was customary, laid up treasures in it. They had been more interested in the prosperity and welfare of the temple of Baal and had stripped the Temple to embellish Baal’s temple (2 Chronicles 24.7). And it was only too easy for even the most orthodox priests of YHWH to feel the sanctity of the ancient building and thus be hesitant about ‘modernizing’ it.
So, Jehoash decided that something had to be done about the Temple, but not from the royal treasury. We may well see this as the first sign of his spiritual decline. He thus commanded that the priests be given the funds pouring into the Temple from the ‘holy offerings. These included anything ‘devoted’ to YHWH, moneys collected from the people for the specific purpose of repairing the Temple (1 Chronicles 24.5-6) through the possibly previously neglected yearly poll tax (Exodus 30.11-16), the votive offerings paid according to age and sex (Leviticus 37), and the freewill and thanksgiving offerings. The aim was for these to be used to finance the repairing of the breaches in the Temple.
6 Now it was so, by the twenty-third year of King Jehoash, that the priests had not repaired the damages of the temple.
But in the twenty third year of his reign it came to Jehoash’s attention that the Temple was still not being properly maintained, and that there were still ‘breaches in the house’. The failure may have been because of their reverence for the building as it was (they may have considered that they had done what repairs were strictly necessary and that to do more would desecrate the Temple), or it may have been because they considered their ritual duties more important than repairing even an old and revered building, or it may have been simply due to negligence or ignorance, or even to embezzlement. Whichever way it was they were called to account.
7 So King Jehoash called Jehoiada the priest and the other priests, and said to them, “Why have you not repaired the damages of the temple? Now therefore, do not take more money from your constituency, but deliver it for repairing the damages of the temple.”
Jehoash therefore called to him ‘the Priest’ Jehoiada, and the other priests and asked them why they had not seen to the proper repair of the Temple. Then he commanded that the priests were no longer to take money from Temple funds to repair the Temple but should deliver it to those who would see to it that the work was done properly (appointed by the palace).
8 And the priests agreed that they would neither receive more money from the people, nor repair the damages of the temple.
This was agreed on by the priests who consented to the fact that they should no more take funds from the people, nor be responsible for repairing the Temple building.
9 Then Jehoiada the priest took a chest, bored a hole in its lid, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one comes into the house of the LORD; and the priests who kept the door put there all the money brought into the house of the LORD.
Then Jehoiada made a large collection chest, and bored a hole in its lid, so that any ‘moneys’ being brought to the house of YHWH by the Levites on their annual collection of the poll tax, and any other ‘monetary’ gifts or payments by people paying their poll tax at the Temple, could be put into it. And ‘the priests who kept the threshold’ (see 2 Chronicles 24.8) ensured that all the funds accumulated were put into the chest. This collection chest was seemingly placed in the court of the Temple near the entrance but on the right-hand side of the altar.
10 So it was, whenever they saw that there was much money in the chest, that the king’s scribe and the high priest came up and put it in bags and counted the money that was found in the house of the LORD.
Once the offerings in the chest had accumulated sufficiently, and they saw how much there was in the chest, the king’s scribe and the high priest came up and put it in bags.
11 Then they gave the money, which had been apportioned, into the hands of those who did the work, who had the oversight of the house of the LORD; and they paid it out to the carpenters and builders who worked on the house of the LORD, 12 and to masons and stonecutters, and for buying timber and hewn stone, to repair the damage of the house of the LORD, and for all that was paid out to repair the temple.
The ‘money’ was then given to those who oversaw the work who accordingly paid the skilled workmen who worked on the house of YHWH and bought any necessary materials.
13 However there were not made for the house of the LORD basins of silver, trimmers, sprinkling-bowls, trumpets, any articles of gold or articles of silver, from the money brought into the house of the LORD. 14 But they gave that to the workmen, and they repaired the house of the LORD with it.
The ‘money’ was all used for building and repair work. None was used to make the required accessories required in the Temple such as the silver cups, the snuffers, the basins, the trumpets, and the vessels of gold and silver. It was used strictly for its correct purpose.
15 Moreover they did not require an account from the men into whose hand they delivered the money to be paid to workmen, for they dealt faithfully.
The overseers were not required to make a report on how the costs were distributed, because it was recognized that they dealt honestly and fairly. This may be intended to contrast with how the priests had previously acted, but not necessarily. It may just have been a commendation of the overseers.
16 The money from the trespass offerings and the money from the sin offerings was not brought into the house of the LORD. It belonged to the priests.
‘However, the ‘money’ in respect of guilt offerings and sin offerings was not brought into the house of YHWH and put in the chest. That was for the priests.
So, the work went on and the Temple was repaired and then constantly maintained. Jehoram’s reign seemed to be providing a bright spot in Judah’s history. But, alas, once Jehoiada was removed from having direct influence over him Jehoash appears to have fallen into evil ways (2 Chronicles 22.10-24.27) with the result that judgments came on him. Our Holy Spirit expects us to recognize that something was wrong when he mentions these judgments. The first judgment was the invasion by Hazael, king of Aram, which caused all the treasures of Judah to vanish into the coffers of Aram, and the second was Jehoash’s assassination.
17 Hazael king of Syria went up and fought against Gath and took it; then Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem.
We have already come across Hazael’s attacks on Israel. But he looked wider than that and raided Philistia, where he besieged Gath and took it. His aim was possibly to secure the trade routes so important to Aram, and as always to obtain spoils. Then he decided that his victorious army should invade Jerusalem. To additionally point out Jehoash’s slide from following Yahweh with all his might, he should have sought out YHWH for deliverance. But instead of that he bought Hazael off. Such was his spiritual deterioration.
18 And Jehoash king of Judah took all the sacred things that his fathers, Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah, kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own sacred things, and all the gold found in the treasuries of the house of the LORD and in the king’s house, and sent them to Hazael king of Syria. Then he went away from Jerusalem.
He did what some of his ancestors had done before him. He took all the treasures accumulated in Judah, both the hallowed things and the gold stored in the Temple and the treasures and hallowed things in his own palace and store rooms and sent them to Hazael in return for immunity from invasion.
19 Now the rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 20 And his servants arose and formed a conspiracy, and killed Joash in the house of the Millo, which goes down to Silla. 21 For Jozachar the son of Shimeath and Jehozabad the son of Shomer, his servants, struck him. So he died, and they buried him with his fathers in the City of David. Then Amaziah his son reigned in his place.
Our Holy Father YHWH’s final anger against Jehoash (Joash) was revealed in that he allowed him to be assassinated. Some of those who served him entered a conspiracy against him, and the two assassins, Jozacar and Jehozabad, slew him. This took place while he was in his bed (2 Chronicles 24.25) at the house of Millo, on the way which goes down to Shur.
The fact that it happened in such a way that he was replaced by his son, suggests widespread feeling against him. He was buried ‘with his fathers in the city of David’, but not in the royal tomb (2 Chronicles 24.25) and was replaced by his son Amaziah. The important thing as a member of the Davidic house was to be buried in the city of David.
