The recent fad of decorating the skin with tattoos has turned superficiality into an art form.
In His Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus stressed the importance of inward reality over outward appearance. Whether in prayer, fasting, giving, or godly conduct, it’s what’s inside that counts. We’ve had hints that Joash’s reforms have been more the result of Jehoiada the high priest’s conviction, rather than from the king himself. The child king rightly depended on Jehoiada in his tender youth, but never developed his own relationship with God. Now we read, “Jehoiada grew old and was full of days, and he died; he was one hundred and thirty years old when he died” (2 Chron 24:15). The evidence that he was the power behind the throne is given at his funeral: “they buried him in the City of David among the kings” (v 16). And it turned out that the king’s shallowness was a reflection of the thin veneer of spirituality in the land. “Now after the death of Jehoiada the leaders of Judah came and bowed down to the king. And the king listened to them. Therefore they left the house of the Lord God of their fathers, and served wooden images and idols” (vv 17-18). But spirituality had not quite been extinguished. The Lord “sent prophets to them, to bring them back to the Lord” (v 19), but it fell on deaf ears. So “the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada” (v 20)— son of the rescuer of the monarchy and restorer of the nation—to plead with them to return. But at the king’s command, the people stoned him right in the temple court. Did they think they could break God’s resolve by breaking Zechariah’s body? In his last breath, Zechariah prayed in imprecation, “The Lord look on it, and repay!” (v 22). Silly people! The death of the servant was not the death of his Master. And his Master always balances His books.