Jehoiada the priest instructed him," already hints at a falling away after Jehoiada's death. From Chronicles we le:trn the nature of his apostllsy. 1. He yielded to bad cou11sel. His good adviser having died at the extreme age of a hundred and thirty, he listened to the fh,tteries and seductions of the princes of Judah, whose bent wns all towards evil (2 Chron. xxiv. 17). 2. He revived idolatry. If he did not actually participate in the renewed setting up of idols, he permitted it. Baal-worship, from which in infancy he had suffered so much, again lifted up its head in Jerusalem. l!'or this trespaBS it is said," wmth came upon Judah and Jerusalem" (2 Chron. xxiv. 18), 3. He shed innocent blood. This declension of Joash was not allowed to go unrebuked. God sent prophets to him to testify to him and warn him, especially Zechariah, the son, or perhaps grandson, of the priest Jehoiada. But so far had the infatuation of Joash gone that he actually permitted this son of his former friend and benefactor to be stoned with stones between the temple and the altar in the court of the Lord's house (2 Chron, xxiv. 20-22; cf. Matt. xxiii. 35). This ineffaceable crime completed his ruin. As Zecbariab died be had said." The Lord look upon it, and require it" (2 Chron. xxiv. 22); and God did require it. The Jews had a tradition that, at the capture of Jerusalem, t.bis blood of Zechariah bubbled up from the floor of the temple court, and could not be pacified. N ebuzaradan brought rabbis, and slew them on it, still it was not quiet; he brought children, and slew them on it., still it was not quiet; he slew ninety-four thousand on it, yet it W'iS not quiet. The fable illustrates at least the heinousness of the deed. II. HAZAEL's INVASION. The instrument employed to chastise Joash a,nd the people for their sins was the redoubtable Hazael. He invaded the land by the way of Philistia, and reduced it to great distress. We note regarding the invasion : 1. Its resistles, charader. It was but a very small company of men that came with Hazael, but they seem to have swept the" very great host" of Judah before them with ease, destroying the princes of the people, who had been ringleaders in wickedness, and sending the spoil on to Damascus (cf. 2 Chron. xxiv. 24). It is a fatal thing to break faith with God, to apostatize from solemn covenants with him, to provoke him to anger by open wickedness and deeds of blood. The strength of a nation stands not in its mighty men, but in the favour of God, and where that is withdrawn, a handful of armed men will chase a thousand (cf. Deut. iv. 25-27; xxvili. 27-48). 2. The ignominious tribute. What, in so deplorable a case, could J oash do? His princes, so bold in counselling him in courses of sin, were cowards in the field; and Hazael seemed bent on utterly over- throwing him. He had no alternative but to make the best terms he could, and buy the invader off. To furnish the requisite tribute he had to strip both the temple amd his own house of all their goodly treasures. He took the hallowed things of his fore- fathers out of the temple, and the gold that was found in its treasnries; he took also his own gold, and sent everything to Hazael. He, the restorer of the temple, is forced to become the spoiler of the temple. To such depths of ignominy and misery are men led by forsaking the ways of God. Yet nothing seems to avail sinners for warning I They go on as madly in ways of wickedness as if no one had ever tried these paths before them, and found them the ways of death. III. THE FATAL coNsPmACY. We have, finally the account of how Joash met his end by a conspiracy of two of his servants. 1. The ori,gin of the conspiracy. We can- not err in supposing that it had its origin in the seething discontent of the people, They saw the kingdom goiug to pieces in the hands of an unfaithful. ~ing; t~ey ~aw righteous blood sbed ; they had suffered severely from t~e barbarities o~ mvasion, The conspirators do not seem to have plotted any dynastic change. Their act only expr888ed the bitter hatred with which the person of the king had come to be regarded. How different from the day when the multitude shouted, "God save the king I" And that change had come about solely through Joash'1:1 departure from the right ways of God. 2. Its fatal result. The servants, whose names are given in the text, smote h(m in'' the house of Millo" so that he died, Thus Joash fell by the stroke of an assassin, unpitied, unlamented by his people. When the bonds ot go~lineBB are loosed, t~e bonds of fidelity between man and man are loosed too (Hos. 1v. 1, 2). 3. The dis- honowr to his body. The crowning ignominy put upon Joash was the refusal of the people to allow him to be buried in the sepulchre of the kings, as Jehoiad~ had been (2 Chron. xxiv. 25). This oonfi.rms what is said above of the odiuQl in which he was held by his people.-J. 0. 011. xm. 1-25.] 'l'HE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. 261
EXPOSITION.