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We're going to look in Second Kings. We're going to look in chapters 11 and 12. We're going to read through Second Kings 11 and 12. So for, for nothing else, you're going to leave here having read two chapters of the Old Testament through Second Kings. We'll look forward to that. Just want to recap a slide that I was with you two or three Wednesdays ago. And we, we looked at this just because we're trying to understand where, where are we at Second Kings? Because we were talking about how the Old Testament's not chronological, so Second Kings is not even chronological. So we're trying to understand. So we look at, okay, we start off in Genesis, creation in the fall. Then we go to the flood, and then the covenant that God gives to Abraham. The Israelites go into Egypt into slavery. Moses brings them out and into the promised land. Then the 12 tribes fill the land. And that's the story of the Judges. If you were here on Sunday, Pastor Tyler talked about, about Samson, one of those judges. So that was during that period. And then the kings of Israel, so we learn about King Saul, King David, King Solomon. And then the kingdom divides and there's a northern kingdom and there's a southern kingdom. Last week, when Austin was teaching, or two weeks ago, Pastor Austin was teaching about Jehu. Jehu was a king of the north. And if we just a quick review from 2 Kings 9, 10, a king in the north that came through. And, and because of what Prophet Elijah and Elisha shared with him, he took out the Ahab and Jezebel dynasty. So it was when Austin was we were reading through the killing spree. Jehu, the king of the north, who was a former commander in the northern army, was doing what God had asked him to do and was taking care of a lot of the wickedness that had reigned there. Because the Bible talks about Ahab and Jezebel being so wicked as kings of the north. And so that's what we talked about two weeks ago. Weeks ago. So this week when we're here in second kings 11, we're back in the southern kingdom because a queen, Athaliah, takes over as the queen of the South. And that's talking about the southern king of Judah. Athaliah is a daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. So we are going to start with verse one. Second Kings, chapter 11, it says this. When Athaliah, who was the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, the mother of Azahiah, saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the Royal heirs. But Jehoshaphat, the daughter of King Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son and stole him away from among the king's sons who were being murdered. And they hid him and his nurse in the bedroom from Athaliah so that he was not killed. So he was hidden with her in the house of the Lord for six years while Athaliah reigned over the land. In the seventh year, Jehoiada the priest sent and brought the captains of hundreds of the bodyguards and the escorts and brought them into the house of the Lord to him. He made a covenant with them. He took an oath from them in the house of the Lord and showed them the king's son. Then he commanded them, saying, this is what you shall do. One third of you who come on duty on the Sabbath shall be keeping watch over the king's house. One third shall be at the gate of Sur and one third at the gate behind the escorts. You shall keep watch of the house lest it be broken down. The two contingents of you who go off duty on the Sabbath shall keep the watch of the house of the Lord for the king. But you shall surround the king on all sides, every man with weapons in his hand. And whoever comes within range, let him be put to death. You are to be with the king as he goes out and as he comes in. So the captains of the hundreds did it according. All that according to Jehoiada. The priest commanded each of them, took his men who were to be on duty on the Sabbath with those who were going off duty on the Sabbath and came to Jehoiada. The priest and the priest gave the captain of hundreds the spears and shields which had belonged to King David that were in the temple of the Lord. Then the escort stood, every man with weapons in his hand all around the king, from the right side of the temple to the left side of the temple by the alt altar in the house. And he brought out the king's son, put the crown on him, gave him the testimony and made him king and anointed him. And they clapped their hands and said, long live the king. Now when Athaliah the queen heard the noise of the escorts and the people, she came to the people in the temple of the Lord. When she looked, there was a king standing by a pillar according to the custom. And the leaders and the trumpeters were by the king. All the people of the land were rejoicing and blowing trumpets. So Athaliah tore her clothes and cried out, treason. Treason. And Jehoiada the Priest commanded the captains of the hundreds, the officers of the army, and said to them, take her outside under guard and slay with the sword whoever follows her. For the priest had said, do not let her be killed in the house of the Lord. So they seized her and she went by the way of the horse's entrance into the king's house. And there she was killed. Then Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord, the king and the people, and they that should be the Lord's people and between the king and the people. And all the people of the land went to the temple of BAAL and tore it down. They thoroughly broke it into pieces, the altars and images and killed Matan, the priest of baal, before the altars. And the priest appointed officers over the house of the Lord. Then he took the captains of hundreds, the bodyguards, the escorts and all the people of the land. And they brought the king down from the house of the Lord and went by the way the gate of the escorts to the king's house. Then he sat on the throne of the kings. So all the people of the land rejoiced and the city was quiet, for they had slain Athaliah with a sword in the king's house. Joash was seven years old when he became king. So that's the chapter, chapter 11. And just to look at some of the characters in this chapter, we see Queen Athaliah, she's the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, the queen of Judah, the southern kingdom. We think of king as Ahayah King. He's the son of Queen Athaliah, the king of Judah, who was killed by Jehu, Princess Jehoshapha. This is the sister of Ahaziah who saved her nephew Joash from death, married to the priest Jehoiada. We don't know that from this, but there's a lot when you read through First Kings and Second Kings, there's a lot that you can gather by reading first and Second Chronicles. So if you want to mark in your Bible, 2nd Chronicles 23 and 24, it gives us more information of the story. And we find out that Jehoiada is married to Jehoshapha. Jehoiada is the priest who secured the throne for Joash. He's the one who helped with the plan. He's a father of Zachariah, the priest. And then Joash, the grandson of Queen Athali, hidden in the temple until he became he becomes king of Judah at age 7. So those are the players in the story. So when we think about chapter 11. Athaliah sees that her son is killed by Jehu and she goes and she basically tries to kill all the other heirs to the throne so that she can retain the throne for herself. Jehoshapha, Joash's aunt, hides Joash from her and she's only able to kill six of the grandsons. And she declares herself queen over Judah. Joash escapes. And then in year seven, for whatever reason, Je the priest decides seven is long enough. He brings Jo Joash to all the officers and he presents them and he says, this is King Joash. This is a line of the throne of Judah. Who's next in, who's an heir to the throne to be king? And he gives them a plan. And he says, I want you to guard it and guard him wherever he goes, guard him. And when the queen comes, I want you to kill her. And so they arrested her, took her outside the temple, and they killed her. Here's some of the important things. Jehoiada, the priest, it says he makes a covenant between the king, the people and the Lord, that the people of Judah would obey and respect the commands of the Lord. And so we see that restoration. Then the people go to the house of baal, they tear down the false worship that had been going on. So that was important. The Bible says they didn't complete all of it, but they tore down a lot of the house of baal, the idol worship was there. And then the Bible says the people of the land rejoiced and Jerusalem, the city, was at rest. And it's basically as if they lived happily ever after. The end. It's like a fairy tale story. When you read the story is literally the good overcomes evil. And the Bible says that the people were at rest. And we learned that Joash was king for 40 years. And so one principle that I want us to take from 2nd Kings 11 that stands out is this idea that we all have a role in God's plan. When I read 2nd Kings 11, when we just read that Jehoshaphat and Jehoiada, both names that probably most of us haven't heard of until tonight, we realized that they had a role to play in God's plan. That God had promised that the house of David would have an heir. And so Jehoshaphat the ant and Jehada the priest, they play a part in God's role to save the an heir from the line of Judah, from the line of David. And it impacted the next 40 years of history. No one knows if they actually knew what they were doing at the time. They just did the right thing in the right moment. She saw that the queen was trying to kill all the grandsons. She saved one. And in doing so she impacted the next 40 years. And so that idea that we all have a role in God's plan, some of us may not understand it while we're here on earth. We may not understand God. What role do I play? What impact is this having? We might never know the impact that we are having. But it's interesting that these two no namers in scripture come up and we're reading about it and the huge impact that they have in God's plan. And you think about what did they do to have such an impact. They simply did what was right in the moment. They just did what was right in the moment. She preserved life. She realized God loves life. I'm going to try to preserve life. They do that and then they save him. He grows up in the temple for six years and then in year seven, he becomes the king. So we all have a role, whether we understand it or not. Second Kings, chapter 12. Let's continue. The story says in the seventh year of Jehu, Joash became king. So Jehu's the king of the north, Joash becomes king of the south. And he reigned 40 years in Jerusalem. His mother name was Zabiah of Beersheba. Joash did what was right in the sight of the Lord, all the days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him. Let me read that one more time. Joash did what was right in the sight of the Lord, all the days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him. But the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. And Joash 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, all the money that a man purposes in his heart to bring into the house of the Lord. Let the priests take it themselves, each from his own constituency, and let's repair the damages of the temple wherever any dilapidation is found. Now it was so by the 23rd year of King Joash, the priests had not repaired the damages of the temple. So King Joash 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 any more money from your constituency, but deliver it for repairing the damages of the temple. And the priests agreed. That they would neither receive more money from the people nor repair the damages of the temple. 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 priest, who kept the door, put all their money there and brought it into the house of the Lord. 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, put it in bags, counted the money that was found in the house of the Lord, 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 carpenters and builders who worked on the house of the Lord, to masons and stone cutters for buying timber, hewn stone to repair the damage of the house of the Lord, and for all that was paid out to repair the temple. However, there was 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. But they gave that to the workmen, and they repaired the house of the Lord with it. Moreover, they did not require an account from the men in whose hand they delivered the money to be paid for workmen, for they dealt faithfully the money from the trespass offerings, the money from the sin offerings that was not brought into the house of the Lord. It belonged to the priest. Hazael, king of Syria, went up and fought against Gath and took it. And then Hazael set his face to go up against Jerusalem. And Joash, king of Judah, took all the sacred things that his father Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Hezekiah king of Judah, had dedicated in his own sacred things. And all the gold found in the treasuries of the house of the Lord and the king's house, and he sent them to Hazael, king of Syria. Then he went away from Jerusalem. 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? And her servants, arose and formed a conspiracy and killed Joash in the house of the Millo, which goes down to Silla. For Jozakar the son of Shimeath, and Jehazabad the son of Shomer, his servant, 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. All right, so a lot happening in this chapter and the. The players in this chapter, we're learning Joash, who ruled king of Judah, the Southern Kingdom, for 40 years. We know Jehoia, the priest who helps him rebuild the temp, the temple. Haziel, the king of Syria, or it's also called Aram, and then Amaziah, the son of Joash, who becomes the king of Judah. So to go back to looking at chapter 12, we read Joash reigned 40 years. Jehoiada was his advisor. And the Bible says as long as Jehoiada was alive, Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. During his reign, he determined to repair the temple of God in Jerusalem. We don't know exactly why, but we find out that 23 years of Joash's reign go by before the temple is actually rebuilt. For some reason, it wasn't a priority for the priest to do the repairs. There was a miscommunication where Joash is assuming all this money that's coming in is going to repair. And for some reason it wasn't until Joash and Jehoia got serious and said, literally, all the money that comes in, we're going to make sure it repairs. And so they gave it to the carpenters, the builders and the masons to do the repairs. And so Joash and Jehoiada played a huge role in repairing the temple of the Lord. The story shifts to Hazel, and this is where it helps to go into Second Chronicles to find out more of the story. Because if you just read 2nd Kings 12, it says, Hazel of Syria attacks city of Gath. And then he looks to Jerusalem, his men attack. And to appease the king, Joash basically takes all the treasure out of the temple of Jerusalem and gives it to Hazel as a bribe. And he's basically saying, hey, can you please back off? Please go back to where you're from. Take all this. And the Bible says that he did. But before that happens, Joash was seriously wounded. And so to go into Second Chronicles, we're going to try to understand a little bit more. And you don't have to turn there. I'm just going to show you on the slides that you can look on the screenshot. But we're trying to understand. Here's a couple things that 2nd Chronicles 24 tells us. It gives us a little bit more Insight into Joash. 2nd Chronicles 24:2. It says, Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the years of Jehoiada the priest in 2414, it says, as long as Jehoiada lived, burnt offerings were presented continually in the temple of the Lord in 2 Chronicles 24:17 and 18. Because after the death of Jehoiada, the officials of Judah came, paid homage to Josiah and the king, and the king, and he listened to them or Joash. They abandoned the temple of the Lord, the God, their fathers, and worshiped asher poles and idols. So this is a key verse that we're trying to understand. The idea was how important Jehoiada the priest was in Joash's life. So the Bible says as long as Jehoiada was alive, Joash followed the Lord and burnt offerings were built, were burnt in the temple. After Jehoiada's death, it says officials of Judah, so basically, politicians came in, leaders of Judah came in, and they turned Joash away from the Lord. It says they paid homage to him, and they listened to them. And by listening to them, they abandoned the temple of the Lord, the God of their fathers, and worshiped idols. Here's another slide that explains this from 2 Chronicles. In 2nd Chronicles, it says, the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah. So Jehoiada dies. His son, the priest, takes over. His son, the priest is there, and he's watching Joash worship these false idols. And the people of Jerusalem worship false idols. So the Bible says, the Spirit of the Lord came upon Zechariah, son of Jehoiada, the priest. He stood before the people. He said, this is what God says. Why do you disobey the Lord's commands? You will not prosper because you have forsaken the Lord. He has forsaken you. I like how simple this is. Sometimes when the prophets speak or have a message, it's paragraphs, pages, books. Zechariah, the Bible says, the Spirit of the Lord came upon Zechariah and he gave us this simple message. He basically says, this is what God says. Why do you disobey God's commands? You're not going to prosper because you've forsaken God. He's going to forsake you. The next verse says, they plotted against him, and by order of King Josiah, they stoned him to death in the courtyard of the Lord's temple. They did not remember the kindness of Zechariah's father, Jehoiah had shown him. And so at this point, we are looking at it and reading and realizing Joash had turned, Zechariah confronted them. And at the order of Joash they had Zechariah killed. And so we find out more just in reading 2nd Kings 12. It basically is like, hey, Zechariah isn't even in the picture. Joash offers all the. The. The treasure to Hazael the king, and Hazael leaves. But what we don't read about. And here's the next slide in second Chronicles 24, it says, at the turn of the year, the army of Aram marched against Joash. Although the Aramean army had come with only a few men, the Lord delivered into the hands to a much larger army. Because Judah had forsaken the Lord, the God of their father's judgment was executed on Joash. When the Arameans withdrew, they left Joash severely wounded. His officials conspired against him for murdering the son of Jehoiada priest, and they killed him in his bed. So we realized the trouble of Joash. Jehoiada, the priest had died. Zechariah, his son, was killed. And then we read that some of Joash's officials finished the job because the king of Aram and his soldiers, who was much smaller than the Judean army, killed him in his bed. And so we have to understand a principle from chapter 12. Basically, the idea that a good start doesn't guarantee a good finish. When you think about Joash, you think about how well he started, and you think about the 40 years and you read the story and you're thinking, and everyone was at rest and everyone lived happily ever after. And then his mentor dies, the rock, the one that he listened to, the one that led him, the one that taught him, the one that brought him up. And he turns. It reminds me of the verse in Hebrews 12 that I have on the. On the screens. It says, therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. Let us run with perseverance the race marked with for us fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set before him. He endured the cross scorning its shame, sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured since opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. See, the writer of Hebrews is encouraging us to finish well. Sadly, after the death of his mentor, Joash was influenced by the officials. Abandon the Lord in the temple. They abandoned the Lord in the temple that took so long to restore. And for some reason he was under the impression that he should Rely on wealth to protect him instead of the Lord. The Bible even says the king of Syria that came, Hazael, he brought a much smaller army than what the southern kingdom of Judah had. And yet Joash panicked. So we have to ask ourselves, what's going to get in the way of you and I finishing? Well? Interesting. God gave Moses instructions 400 years earlier for how the kings were to act. I'm going to turn to Deuteronomy 17. You can turn there if you'd like. In Deuteronomy 17, Moses gives us guidelines for the king. Simple instructions to all the Kings. This is 400 years earlier. This is before King Saul. This was before King David. This is before King Solomon, before the divine kingdom. In Deuteronomy 17, verse 14, the Bible says, you're about to enter the land the Lord your God has given you. So they're entering the promised land. He said, when you take it over and settle there, you may think, we should select a king to rule over us like the other nations around us. If that. If this happens, be sure to select the king as the man your Lord God chooses. You must appoint an Israelite. He may not be a foreigner. And the king must not build up a large stable of horses for himself or send his people to Egypt to buy horses. For the Lord has told you, you must never return to Egypt. The king must not take many wives for himself because they will turn his heart away from the Lord. And he must not accumulate large amounts of wealth in silver and gold for himself. When he sits on the throne as king, he must copy for himself the body of instruction on a scroll in the presence of the priest. He must always keep that copy with him and read it daily as long as he lives. That way, he will learn to fear the Lord his God by obeying all the terms of these instructions and decrees. This regular reading will prevent him from becoming proud and acting as if he were above his fellow citizens. It will also prevent him from turning away these commands in the smallest way. And it will ensure that he and his discipline descendants will reign for many generations in Israel. See, God gave instructions for a king, and the instructions were simple, simple warnings and instructions. The warnings don't rely on power. Don't rely on pleasure. Don't rely on wealth. It was simple, those three things. He's basically saying, hey, when you're going to be a king and when you're going to go into the land, when you're going to be a leader, I just want to make sure you don't rely on these Three things. And these three things, these apply to us. So you think, well, these only applied to the kings. You can. You can use some of these principles in your daily life. If you're a leader in your family, if you're a leader at your job, you can take these principles and use them. He's basically saying, hey, I don't want you to rely on power. Your military might, the size of your army is not going to dictate how well you do. All right? He says, I'm not going to. I don't want you to rely on pleasure. I don't want you to take many wives. I don't want power. I don't want sex. I don't want money to get in the way of you becoming the king that I want you to be. And yet, how many times does that happen? We look at Joash, instead of relying on the Lord, he gave all the treasures away from the temple as a bribe. And so the idea is, I don't want you to rely on power. I don't want you to rely on pleasure. I don't want you to rely on wealth. But here's the instructions. Basically, I want you to write the script. This is so interesting. I want you to write scripture down. So it's interesting that. That act of writing it. I want you to write the scripture, then I want you to read the scripture, and then I simply want you to observe it. Again, so simple. I want you to write it down. I want you to to read it, and then I want you to observe it. And these are the instructions that God gave. And yet we see so few of the kings of Israel and Judah applied these. And instead, what do we see? We see that they relied on power, on sex, or on money, and they turned from the Lord. It reminds me, there's a verse in Jeremiah 17, and in Jeremiah 17, verse 5, it basically says this. It says, cursed is the man who puts his trust in men. It says he will be like a bush in the wastelands. I remember those cartoons when I was growing up watching Bugs Bunny or watching Roadrunner, and you'd see the tumbleweed just kind of blowing through the town. And that's what it always reminds me as growing up, when you read about that cursed is the one who trusts in man, whose heart turns away from the Lord. They'll be like a bush in the wastelands. The Bible says they won't see prosperity when it comes, and they'll dwell in the parched places of the desert. But compare this in Jeremiah. He says, but blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord whose confidence is in him. He'll be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. His leaves will always be green and it'll never fail to bear fruit. We see this contrast so well. We see Joash relying on a king of Syria with a bride. And the Bible says, cursed is the one who trusts in man whose heart turns away from the Lord. They'll be like a bush in the wasteland. They won't see prosperity when it comes, and they'll dwell in the desert. But this is our prayer. Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord and whose confidence is in him. Not in power, not in sex, not in money, but whose confidence is in the Lord. He'll be like a tree that's planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes and never fails to bear fruit. To finish strong, we almost have to follow the instructions that God gave Moses to the king. We need to write down his word. We need to read his word. We need to observe his word and put our confidence and trust in him. Amen. Let's pray. God, examples, stories in your word. And God, I pray that we could learn from their example that we think about these. These kings that relied on themselves. They put their trust in man. They turned away from you and God, our prayer is that we would finish strong, that we would understand that we have a role to play no matter what age we are, that you have something for us. As long as we would continue to write, to read, to observe your word. As long as we would put our confidence in you, God, it doesn't matter the circumstance, it doesn't matter the size of the army that we face. Our trust is in you. And when we do, we'll be like a tree that never fails to bear fruit. That's such a great image for us just to rely on that, to think on that, to hope for that. God, we want to be like a tree, that his roots are deep, like by a stream. So, God, that's our prayer. In the middle of the summer, with fourth of July weekend upon us, God, our prayer is that we would finish strong. Our prayer is that we would persevere. Whatever it is that we're going through, God, I pray that it wouldn't get in the way, it wouldn't stumble us. We wouldn't put our focus on man. We wouldn't put our focus on our circumstances. But God, we would put our focus on you. And that would help us finish well, that's our prayer. Lord, we need your help. In Jesus name, amen.