Jehoash warns us that we can carefully invest our whole lives, but lose it all at the last. Watch out!
Years went by. Jehoash supposed that the work he had commanded to be done was making progress, repairing “the damages of the temple” (2 Ki 12:5). This was to be funded by revenue coming 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” (v 4). But nothing had been done! The king therefore removed the task from the priests, and established an independent source of funds for the project—freewill donations placed in “a chest…beside the altar” (v 9). In the same way, our giving is linked to the altar, where we are encouraged to give, and are then reminded, “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift” (2 Cor 9:15). When the funds were entrusted to the workmen—“carpenters and builders… masons and stonecutters” (2 Ki 12:11-12)—“they did not require an account from the men…for they dealt faithfully” (v 15). Isn’t it wonderful to labor with trustworthy servants? If only that was the end of the story! But when King Hazael of Syria “set his face to go up to Jerusalem” (v 17), rather than trusting the Lord, Jehoash decided it was expedient to pay protection money for his own safety. Even Satan knew that, without having our trust in God, “all that a man has he will give for his life” ( Job 2:4). Jehoash bankrupted the kingdom, sending Hazael “all the sacred things that his fathers, Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah…had dedicated, and his own sacred things, and all the gold found in the treasuries of the house of the Lord” (v 18). Hazael left, but it was a bad bargain. Jehoash was soon assassinated by his own servants! When you give away “the sacred things,” you don’t save your life; you lose it (see Mk 8:35).