Thoughts on 2 Kings 12

Today’s reading: 2 Kings 12; John 11

Jehoiada is a great example of a man who loved the Lord, tried to follow Him faithfully, had a huge impact through his faithfulness, and yet was still sinful and needed to be called out where he was falling short.

2 Kings 12 tells us that King Jehoash “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all his days, because Jehoiada the priest instructed him.” Jehoiada’s faithfulness with his duties as a priest and instruction of Jehoash meant that the king led the nation toward faithfulness to Yahweh. Jehoiada has a LOT to his credit here!

But this chapter also tells us that Jehoash commanded that certain money coming into the priests should be used for repairs on the temple, rather than going into the priests’ pockets, and that years into this, he had to call Jehoiada before him because none of the repairs on the temple had been made and the priests had continued to pocket the money themselves. On the one hand, it’s worth noting that this was not Jehoiada and the priests embezzling money or anything like that. The priests were supposed to make their living from the temple service, so they aren’t taking money they have no right to here. On the other hand, some of the money coming into the temple was intended for upkeep and maintenance as well, so it is a good and right command from Jehoash to make sure the repairs are being undertaken.

There are a couple aspects of this I feel like are worth pointing out this morning.

The first thing I want to point out is that all of us, no matter how faithful we may be in following the Lord, have blind spots. All of us have things we do well and areas where we maybe don’t see something as important that the Lord says is important. All of us have areas of sin we struggle with that maybe aren’t a struggle for other people around us in the same way. This is true for the average Christian, and is just as true for the pastor, missionary, ministry leader, or anyone else. Regardless of our faithfulness or position, we all have blind spots.

The second thing I want to point out then, following from the first, is that we all need people who are willing to call us out on our sin. Jehoiada was Jehoash’s mentor, so it would probably have been easy for Jehoash to excuse or downplay this issue out of personal love and gratitude for Jehoiada, out of respect for his position, or in light of his otherwise high level of faithfulness, but he doesn’t. Despite all of that, Jehoash is still willing to hold Jehoiada accountable for where he is failing short, and we all need people like this in our lives.

None of us, no matter how faithful, will ever be perfect, and this is part of the reason God has given us one another, so that we can call one another forward where we are falling short. So my question to you this morning is, do you have these people in your life? Do you have people in your life who know you well enough to recognize where you need to be called out, and who love you enough to do it? And if not, why not? Do you keep people at enough distance that they don’t know you well enough to recognize where there are issues? Do you punish the people who are willing to speak up in your life, making them regret speaking up and leaving them unwilling to do it again? Do you just not invest yourself at all in God’s people? What needs to change for you to have someone like this in your life?

If you don’t have these people in your life, but you want to live faithfully for the Lord, you need them. And if you have them, never fail to recognize how good and important of a gift the Lord has given you!