The Arithmetic of Apostasy: Text: 2 Chronicles 24:23-24
Introduction: The High Cost of Cheap Grace
We live in an age that has mastered the art of spiritual bookkeeping with cooked books. We want to count our blessings but refuse to acknowledge the Blesser. We want the benefits of a Christian heritage, the stability, the liberty, the prosperity, but we have grown embarrassed by the Christ who purchased it all. We want a king, but we want a king who will leave us alone to be our own little gods. This is the story of King Joash, and it is a story that is being reenacted in our own day with terrifying precision. It is a cautionary tale about what happens when a man, or a nation, is merely mentored in righteousness but never truly converted by it.
The story of Joash begins like a fairytale. He is the boy king, rescued from the murderous rampage of his grandmother Athaliah, hidden in the temple by the high priest Jehoiada, and restored to the throne of David. For as long as Jehoiada lived, Joash did what was right in the sight of the Lord. He repaired the temple, he restored true worship, and the nation flourished under his hand. He had the best tutor a king could ask for. He had a front row seat to godliness. He knew all the right words, all the right ceremonies, and all the right policies.
But Jehoiada died. And when the restraining influence of a godly man was removed, the true nature of Joash's heart was revealed. He was not a man of God; he was a man who had been managed by a man of God. Once the princes of Judah, the slick and sophisticated courtiers, came and flattered him, he abandoned the house of the Lord and began to serve idols. When Jehoiada's own son, Zechariah the prophet, confronted him with God's Word, Joash had him stoned to death in the very court of the temple where he himself had been saved. It was an act of breathtaking ingratitude and apostasy.
Our text today picks up right at this point. It is the divine response to this treachery. And we must pay close attention, because God’s response to apostasy is not complicated, but it is severe. God does not grade on a curve. He is not interested in our good intentions or our past service record when we have turned our back on Him. He keeps His covenant, and the curses of that covenant are just as real as the blessings. What we see here is the terrifying mathematics of divine judgment. God is about to demonstrate that He can subtract a great army with a small one when a nation has forsaken Him.
The Text
Now it happened at the turn of the year that the military force of the Arameans came up against him; and they came to Judah and Jerusalem, destroyed all the officials of the people from among the people, and sent all their spoil to the king of Damascus. Indeed the military force of the Arameans came with a small number of men; yet Yahweh gave a very great military force into their hands, because they had forsaken Yahweh, the God of their fathers. Thus they executed judgment on Joash.
(2 Chronicles 24:23-24 LSB)
The Turn of the Year (v. 23)
We begin with the timing and the nature of the attack.
"Now it happened at the turn of the year that the military force of the Arameans came up against him; and they came to Judah and Jerusalem, destroyed all the officials of the people from among the people, and sent all their spoil to the king of Damascus." (2 Chronicles 24:23)
"At the turn of the year." This phrase, which often means springtime, is when kings typically went out to war. There is a rhythm to the world, a created order. Seasons turn, armies march. But for Judah, this is not just another campaign season. This is the season of consequence. Joash had turned from God, and now, at the turn of the year, God was turning a pagan army toward him. God is sovereign over the timetables of men. He uses the ordinary course of events, the political ambitions of Syrian kings, to accomplish His extraordinary purposes. The Arameans thought they were coming for spoil and territory. They were, in fact, God's ordained instrument of chastisement.
Notice the precision of the judgment. The Arameans "destroyed all the officials of the people." These were the very men who had come and bowed down to Joash after Jehoiada's death, the flattering sycophants who encouraged his apostasy. They whispered sweet nothings about power and prestige in his ear, leading him away from the house of Yahweh. Now, the sword falls on them first. God has an exquisite sense of justice. The punishment is tailored to the crime. The architects of the nation's rebellion are the first to be demolished by it. When a nation's leadership becomes corrupt, God has a way of cleaning house, and it is often not a gentle process.
They "sent all their spoil to the king of Damascus." The wealth of Judah, which should have been dedicated to the Lord and used for His glory, is now carted off to a pagan capital. This is what idolatry always does. It promises enrichment and autonomy, but it always ends in impoverishment and servitude. When you forsake God, you do not become your own master. You simply get a new, and far crueler, master. The wealth that Joash and his officials prized more than God is now in the hands of their enemies. What you worship, you serve, and what you serve, you will ultimately be enslaved by.
The Divine Calculus (v. 24)
Verse 24 is the theological heart of the matter. It pulls back the curtain of history and shows us the hand of God at the control panel.
"Indeed the military force of the Arameans came with a small number of men; yet Yahweh gave a very great military force into their hands, because they had forsaken Yahweh, the God of their fathers. Thus they executed judgment on Joash." (2 Chronicles 24:24 LSB)
Here is the divine arithmetic. On one side, you have "a small number of men," the Aramean force. On the other, you have "a very great military force," the army of Judah. In any normal human calculation, this is a foregone conclusion. The larger army, defending its home turf, should win handily. But God is not a spectator in these affairs. The text is explicit: "Yahweh gave a very great military force into their hands."
This is a direct reversal of the covenant promise. In Leviticus, God had promised that if they were obedient, "five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight" (Lev. 26:8). But if they were disobedient, He promised, "you shall flee when none pursues you" (Lev. 26:17). Victory does not belong to the big battalions; it belongs to the Lord of Hosts. Military might, economic strength, and political power are nothing when God has set His face against a people. He can make a small army great and a great army small. He can unravel a superpower with a handful of determined men because the battle is His.
And why did this happen? The reason is stated with stark clarity: "because they had forsaken Yahweh, the God of their fathers." This was not a random geopolitical event. It was a covenantal lawsuit. Joash and Judah had broken contract. They had forsaken the God who had saved them, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who had established their throne. The word "forsaken" is key. It implies a conscious turning away from a known good. This was not ignorance; it was apostasy. They knew the Lord, and they left Him for the worship of wood and stone. They traded the fountain of living waters for broken cisterns that can hold no water.
The verse concludes with the verdict: "Thus they executed judgment on Joash." The Arameans were the executioners, but the judge was God. The pagan army was an unwitting scalpel in the hand of the Divine Surgeon. This is a profound truth that our modern, secular mindset cannot grasp. We see history as a clash of impersonal forces, economic trends, and human ambitions. The Bible sees history as the unfolding of God's righteous judgments. God is always judging. He judges individuals, and He judges nations. And when a nation that has been as blessed as Judah, or as blessed as our own, turns its back on Him, judgment is not a possibility; it is an inevitability.
Conclusion: The Un-propped Man
The story of Joash is a tragedy, but it is a deeply instructive one. Joash was a man who was propped up his entire life. He was propped up by the temple walls that hid him, by the priest Jehoiada who mentored him, and by the traditions that guided him. As long as the props were in place, he stood straight. But when the props were removed, he collapsed. His religion was secondhand. It was a borrowed coat, not a new heart.
This is a piercing word to us. How much of our own righteousness is simply the result of our environment? How much of our faith is simply a cultural habit, a set of behaviors we learned from our parents or our church, but which has never truly taken root in the soil of our own hearts? Are we Christians, or are we merely well-managed religious people? The test comes when the props are kicked out. It comes when the godly mentor dies, when the culture turns hostile, when flattering voices tell us that the old ways are foolish and restrictive.
The judgment that fell on Joash is a pattern. When a people who have been in covenant with God forsake Him, He will use their enemies to discipline them. He will demonstrate that all their apparent strength, their great armies, their wealth, their officials, are nothing. He will show them that a small band of nobodies can rout them, because He is the one who gives the victory.
But the story does not end with judgment. The entire reason God brings such sharp, painful discipline is to call His people to repentance. He does not desire their destruction, but their restoration. The story of Joash is a dark backdrop against which the grace of the true King, Jesus Christ, shines all the more brightly. Jesus is the king who was not propped up by righteousness, but who is righteousness itself. He is the one who, unlike Joash, was perfectly faithful to His Father, even to the point of death. He is the one who, unlike Joash, did not kill the prophet sent to him, but is Himself the Prophet, Priest, and King who was killed for our apostasy.
The only safety from the kind of judgment that fell on Joash is to be found in the King who took the ultimate judgment for us. Our secondhand faith, our cultural Christianity, our propped-up morality will all collapse under pressure. We must have a faith that is our own, rooted and grounded in the finished work of Jesus Christ. We must forsake our own self-righteousness and our idols and cling to Him alone. For if we are found in Him, then even when God brings judgment upon the nations, we are secure. He is our fortress, and He is the only king whose kingdom will never be handed over to another.