Commentary - 2 Chronicles 24:1-3

Bird's-eye view

This short passage opens the account of King Joash, a story that begins with great promise and ends in tragic apostasy. The key to the entire chapter, and indeed to Joash's life, is found in the crucial qualifying phrase of the second verse: he did right "all the days of Jehoiada the priest." This is a textbook case of what we might call borrowed righteousness. Joash's reign is propped up by the wisdom, faithfulness, and integrity of his mentor, the high priest Jehoiada. As long as this external support, this spiritual scaffolding, is in place, the kingdom flourishes and the king walks in obedience. But the narrative sets us up for the inevitable question: What happens when the scaffolding is removed? This passage, therefore, is a profound meditation on the difference between external conformity and genuine, heart-deep regeneration. It serves as a warning against a religion that depends on the presence of a strong leader rather than on a personal, covenantal faithfulness to God Himself.

The details provided are not incidental. A seven-year-old king is entirely dependent. A forty-year reign is a long time to demonstrate one's true character. And the actions of Jehoiada, even in arranging marriages for the young king, show the depth of his paternal oversight. He is, for a time, the functional father of the nation, guiding the boy king in all things. The stability and blessing that follow are a testimony to Jehoiada's faithfulness, but they also mask the fatal weakness in the king's own heart, a weakness that will be calamitously exposed later in this same chapter.

Outline

Context In 2 Chronicles

This chapter comes on the heels of one of the most dramatic episodes in Judah's history. In chapter 22, the wicked queen Athaliah, mother of the deceased King Ahaziah, seized the throne and attempted to exterminate the entire royal line of David. The Davidic covenant hung by a single thread: the infant Joash, who was rescued by his aunt Jehoshabeath and hidden in the temple for six years by her husband, Jehoiada the high priest (2 Chron 22:10-12). Chapter 23 recounts Jehoiada's courageous and brilliantly executed coup, where he revealed the boy king, overthrew and executed Athaliah, and re-established the covenant with Yahweh. Our passage, then, begins at the high point of this restoration. The usurper is dead, the rightful king is on the throne, and the faithful priest is guiding him. The nation has been pulled back from the brink of utter apostasy and the dissolution of God's covenant promise to David. The stage is set for a golden age of revival, but the character of the king himself remains the great unknown.

Key Issues

The Jehoiada Scaffolding

When a great cathedral is being built, it is surrounded for years by a complex web of scaffolding. From a distance, the scaffolding takes on the shape of the building itself. It provides the structure, the support, and the means by which the workers can put every stone in its proper place. But no one ever mistakes the scaffolding for the building. The purpose of the scaffolding is to enable the construction of a building that will one day stand on its own foundation. When the work is done, the scaffolding is torn down.

In the story of King Joash, Jehoiada the priest is the scaffolding. He is a magnificent, God-honoring structure. He surrounds the young king, protects him, guides him, and shapes his reign into something that looks, from the outside, like a righteous and faithful administration. And for as long as that scaffolding stands, the building of Joash's reign goes up, stone by stone. But the tragedy of Joash is that he never developed his own foundation. His righteousness was the righteousness of Jehoiada. His wisdom was the wisdom of Jehoiada. His faithfulness was the faithfulness of Jehoiada. He was the building, but he was leaning entirely on the scaffolding. This passage describes the glory of the construction phase, but it contains within it the ominous warning of what will happen when the old priest dies and the scaffolding is finally taken away.

Verse by Verse Commentary

1 Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Zibiah from Beersheba.

The account begins with the basic data of a royal reign. That Joash was only seven is crucial. He was not a king in any functional sense; he was a symbol, a vessel for the authority that would be wielded on his behalf. Having been hidden in the temple since infancy, his entire world had been shaped by Jehoiada. He knew nothing of statecraft, nothing of the world outside the temple courts. His dependence was absolute. The forty-year length of his reign is significant. This is a long time, the length of a generation. It tells us that God gave him ample opportunity to mature, to develop his own faith, to make the borrowed righteousness his own. This was not a short, failed experiment; it was a long and ultimately tragic life. The mention of his mother from Beersheba is a standard part of the record, but it reminds us of the deep historical roots of the people of God, reaching back to the patriarchs. Even here, in this fragile moment, God is weaving His story.

2 And Joash did what was right in the sight of Yahweh all the days of Jehoiada the priest.

This is the interpretive center of the entire story. On the one hand, it is a tremendous commendation. For decades, the king led the nation in righteousness. The temple was repaired, covenant worship was restored, and the nation experienced the blessing of God. And the standard is the highest one: in the sight of Yahweh. This was not just a matter of public approval; God Himself saw the objective righteousness of the administration. But on the other hand, the commendation is severely, and as it turns out, fatally, qualified. The righteousness of Joash had an expiration date: the death of Jehoiada. This tells us that the righteousness was not rooted in Joash's own heart. It was the result of the priest's influence, counsel, and restraint. When you see a child who is perfectly behaved, but only when his father is in the room, you are seeing a little Joash. The behavior is externally correct, but the heart has not been transformed. This is the essence of hypocrisy, not in the sense of pretending to be something you are not, but in the sense of relying on an external form without an internal reality.

3 And Jehoiada took up two wives for him, and he became the father of sons and daughters.

This verse demonstrates the totality of Jehoiada's regency. He is not just a spiritual advisor; he is a surrogate father, managing the most personal aspects of the king's life. His primary concern here is the preservation of the Davidic line, which Athaliah had so nearly extinguished. Securing heirs was a matter of covenantal faithfulness. God had promised David a son to sit on his throne forever, and Jehoiada acts to ensure that promise has a visible, physical continuation. While his motive was righteous, the means were typical of the age. Taking two wives, while common for kings, was a departure from the creational pattern of one man and one woman, and polygamy was a consistent source of strife and idolatry for Israel's kings. Even in the actions of the great and godly Jehoiada, we see the imperfections of the old covenant saints. His work was essential and heroic, but he was still just a man, pointing forward to the one perfect King and the one perfect High Priest who would need no external support and whose righteousness would be entirely His own.

Application

The story of Joash is a profound warning to every Christian parent, pastor, and elder. It is a warning against being satisfied with mere external conformity. We can create environments, whether in our homes, churches, or schools, where our children and our people learn to say all the right things, do all the right things, and maintain a pristine reputation. We can, in effect, become a Jehoiada scaffolding for them, propping up their spiritual lives with our own strength, wisdom, and constant oversight.

And for a time, this looks like success. But God is not interested in creating religious robots who function well as long as the authority figure is present. He is in the business of regenerating dead hearts through the power of His Spirit. The goal of Christian discipleship is not to build a permanent scaffolding of rules and external pressures. The goal is to see a true building erected, a life that is built on the foundation of Jesus Christ, a heart that has been made new and loves righteousness for its own sake, not because it is being watched.

We must ask ourselves: are we raising our children to be Christians, or just to be good kids? Are we leading churches that are dependent on the charisma of a pastor, or on the Word of God? The test comes when the scaffolding is removed. When the kids go off to college, when a beloved pastor leaves, when trials and temptations come, what remains? If the foundation is Christ, the building will stand. If the foundation was simply the approval of a human mentor, the whole structure will collapse into a pile of apostate rubble, just as the reign of Joash did.