THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

The Books Of Kings: The Kings Of Israel And Judah From Solomon To The Babylonian Captivity

III. The Latter Era Of The Divided Kingdom, 2 Kings 2:1-27:41

S. Joash: Overcoming The Gateway Lust Of Pride

(2 Kings 12:17-21 with 2 Chronicles 24:17-25)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

1 John 2:16 teaches that worldliness involves indulging in one or more of three lusts -- the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, and many even presumably respectable people indulge in these lusts today:

(1) The owner of the New England Patriots has indulged in the lusts of the eyes and the flesh: Terry Spencer and Joshua Replogle ("Kraft on tape" (Ibid., February 23, 2019, p. 1A) wrote, "Robert Kraft, the billionaire owner of the New England Patriots . . . was twice videotaped in a sex act at a shopping-center massage parlor . . ."

The "Patriots won the Super Bowl" last month, "their sixth NFL championship in the past 18 seasons . . . the most successful team in pro sports during that span," (Ibid.), but Kraft indulged in the lusts of the eyes and the flesh!

(2) The hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church indulges in worldly lusts: Marc Thiessen's column, "Francis' lost opportunity" (Ibid., February 28, 2019, p. 6A) claimed, "Pope Francis' closing address to the Vatican Summit on Child Protection was a disgraceful display of excuses and evasions . . . (T)he pope has squelched efforts to expose and punish those responsible for covering up abuses . . . Until the bishops repent of their sins, and accept the temporal consequences of their actions, there will be no forgiveness from the laity." The pride of life leads the hierarchy to fail properly to confront and punish abusers who have indulged in the lusts of the eyes and the flesh in gross immorality!

(3) Worldly lusts affect even evangelical leaders, too: in a February 9, 2019 letter, Larry M. Brown, CEO of Ethnos 360, a mission organization under which a missionary family we support serves, reported: "On February 7th, 2019, NBC's Today Show and NBC Nightly News reported on allegations of sexual abuse within our organization in Senegal and the Philippines. These allegations were from the 1980s and early 1990s. It was gut wrenching to see the five women share their experiences . . . We continue to pray for our MKs who experienced abuse."

Need: So, we ask, "In an era when even many presumably reputable people indulge in lusts, what must WE do?!"

I. After High Priest Jehoiada passed away, king Joash faced a great temptation for pride, 2 Chron. 24:17:

A. Joash had been greatly influenced by Jehoiada who had protected his life as an infant, put him on Judah's throne as a boy and guided him there into adulthood (2 Kings 11:1-12:16), so only at Jehoiada's passing could Joash act in full independence of Jehoiada's great influence in his life, and Judah's officials knew it.

B. So, after Jehoiada died, these officials came to Joash and appealed to his pride, bowing down before him to acknowledge his sovereignty over them in contrast to Jehoiada's past influence over Joash, 2 Chron. 24:17a.

C. Joash then yielded to the lure of these officials to become proud, and he heeded their advice, 2 Chron. 24:17b.

II. However, Joash's pride then became a gateway lust for the other lusts of the world, 2 Chronicles 24:18a:

A. By yielding to the lure for pride and heeding the advice of his officials, Joash turned from God to worship Asherim and related pagan gods, to indulge in sensually appealing, grossly immoral "Canaanite fertility rites," 2 Chronicles 24:18a ESV; Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 637; Zon. Pict. Ency. Bib., v. One, p. 431-433.

B. Thus, Joash's indulgence in pride was a gateway lust for the other two worldly lusts, cf. 1 John 2:16.

III. The king's departure from God led to the nation's apostasy, inciting the Lord's anger and leading to His sending Joash repeat prophetic messengers to call him to repent, 2 Chronicles 24:18b-19a.

IV. However, neither king Joash nor the people of Judah heeded God's prophets, 2 Chronicles 24:19b.

V. Finally, God's Holy Spirit came upon the late High Priest Jehoiada's son Zechariah, leading him to call Judah and Joash to repent in a setting full of major precedents for the king and people, 2 Chron. 24:20:

A. The late High Priest Jehoiada's son Zechariah became filled with the Holy Spirit and stood at the temple before the people to warn that king Joash and the people of Judah should return to the Lord, 2 Chron. 24:20.

B. This site was full of divine precedents: the late High Priest Jehoiada had kept Joash alive there since infancy and crowned him there under protective guard to the joy of the nation, and Jehoiada had then elicited a covenant from the king and the people present there at the temple to follow the Lord, 2 Kings 11:4-17.

C. Motivated by this event, the people had destroyed the slain queen Athaliah's Baal temple and its priest, bringing the city of Jerusalem and Judah great joy and peace, 2 Kings 11:18, 20.

D. Jehoiada had then protectively conducted Joash from the temple courtyard to the nearby palace to seat him on the Davidic throne, and then to work with Joash as he matured into an adult king, 2 Kings 11:19; 12:1-16.

E. Thus, God's use of Jehoiada's SON Zechariah at the TEMPLE COURTYARD should have reminded king Joash and the people of Jehoiada's many good deeds for them so they might heed the words of his son!

VI. However, Joash and the people overlooked Jehoiada's deeds and slew his son in the temple court that was so full of his good precedents of righteousness and goodness in their behalf, 2 Chronicles 24:21-22a.

VII. As Jehoiada's son lay dying, he said, "May the Lord see and avenge!" (2 Chronicles 24:22b ESV)

VIII. God heard Zedekiah's dying words and punished the wrongdoers, 2 Chron. 24:23-25; 2 Kings 12:17-18:

A. That very year, the Aramean army attacked Jerusalem, destroying all its officials and sending the spoil to the Aramean king, 2 Chronicles 24:23. Joash gave the Arameans all the treasures of God's temple and his palace to send the Arameans away, 2 Kings 12:17-18. Thus the officials who lured Joash to succumb to the lust of pride and led him to practice sensuously immoral idolatry were thus slain by God's use of the Arameans.

B. The number of Arameans who attacked Jerusalem were far fewer than Judah's men, but Judah and its king had forsaken God, so the Lord no longer helped them, but used foreigners to punish Judah, 2 Chronicles 24:24.

C. The Arameans also left Joash badly wounded, and his servants conspired to kill him on his bed for slaying Jehoiada's sons, 2 Chronicles 24:25a. For forgetting how God had used Jehoiada's wife to save his life as a helpless infant by way of a mattress storage room (2 Kings 11:2; Ryrie St. Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to 2 Kings 11:2), God had Joash slain as he lay helplessly wounded on his own mattress as a king!

D. In contrast to the people having honorably buried the late High Priest Jehoiada with Judah's kings for doing good in Judah for God and His temple (2 Chronicles 24:16), they buried king Joash in the city of David, but apart from the kings in dishonor for rejecting God and slaying Jehoiada's sons, 2 Chronicles 24:25b.

Lesson: When Joash succumbed to the temptation of the pride of this life, it proved to be a gateway lust to the other worldly lusts, what incurred God's anger so that He gave Joash repeat prophetic warnings, one of which was even couched in circumstances full of divine precedents to remind him of the late High Priest Jehoiada's godly influence and goodness to him. However, Joash refused to repent, so God punished all the wrongdoers involved.

Application: (1) May we believe in Christ for salvation from sin, John 3:16. (2) If confronted with the temptation to yield to the lust of the pride of this earthly life, (a) may we realize that it is often a gateway lust to the other worldly lusts of the eyes and the flesh, leading to other sins, even sexual immorality, and may we (b) heed God's repeat warnings of His Word (c) in the power of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:16) for victory over sin and blessing from God (d) especially if those warnings are associated with precedents of God's past leading and goodness.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

(1) The recent exposure of Robert Kraft, the principle owner of the New England Patriots, being caught on videotape in sexual immorality, should not come as a surprise to believers in Christ. As we noted in our introduction, worldliness is composed of three lusts -- the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of this life, and pride can easily become a gateway lust to the other lusts as occurred in the case of king Joash of Judah.

That is what occurred in Robert Kraft's case: he faced a huge temptation to be proud, for he is the principle owner of the most successful professional team in our nation's most popular sport, a team that last month won its sixth and record Super Bowl. If anyone in the nation was a candidate for falling for the lust of pride, it was Mr. Kraft!

If one then falls for the lust of the pride of this earthly life, he is already worldly, so yielding to the other two lusts of the world -- the lusts of the eyes and of the flesh -- is often just a matter of time! Robert Kraft succumbed to the lust of pride, opening the door for him to indulge in the other two lusts of the eyes and flesh in sexual immorality.

(2) However, the same is true about the problem of lust in the Roman Catholic Church's hierarchy: pride opened the door for numerous priests to indulge their lusts of the eyes and the flesh in sexually abusing parishioners, and pride keeps the hierarchy from dealing with the problem by fully punishing the wrongdoers to its own discredit!

(3) Likewise, the abuse of missionary children in the mission organization Ethnos 360 began with the gateway lust of pride: conservative evangelical missionary caretakers of missionary children serving the Lord on the mission field would be considered by most other Christians to be the most spiritual of the evangelical world. This belief was evidently adopted by the caretakers themselves, producing pride in their hearts due to their position that led them to indulge in the other two worldly lusts due to the opportunity their oversight presented them to indulge in those lusts. The result was the unconscionable sexual abuse of some of the children of missionaries who were serving the Lord.

May we trust in Christ for salvation. May we then rely on the Holy Spirit to heed God's repeat Scripture warnings and circumstantial precedents that warn of worldly lusts, especially the gateway lust of pride that leads to the other destructive lusts of the world, that we overcome worldliness with God's blessing.