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The same expression is used of Amasai, one of David's mighty chieftains, and of Zechariah, one of the priests during Joash's reign. A New Testament illustration is found in the book of Acts in the account of Philip and the Ethiopian stranger. This devout African official had a copy of the old Hebrew Scriptures, but needed an interpreter to make plain their newly acquired significance.
Apparently, Jehoiada's long life of one hundred and thirty years extended over the greater part of Joash's reign, during most of which he had Jehoiada to direct him and keep him right, and all this tragedy comes at the tag end of it.
They lingered here after Christ had gone, and turned tears into rainbows flashing with the hues of hope. II. We have in our second text the chariot and horsemen present though unseen. We are now in a position to appreciate the meaning of Joash's repetition to Elisha of his own words, spoken under such different circumstances. Elisha was by no means so great a prophet as Elijah.
I look around and I see the devil slaying his thousands by setting them to work in Christian associations and leaving them no time to think about their own Christianity. My brother! if the cap fits, go home and put it on. We see in Joash's life for how long a time a man may go on in this self-delusion of external and barren service and never know it. Joash came to the throne at the age of seven.
When the arrows, by God's strength operating through Joash's arm, had been shot, the prophet says, 'The arrow of the Lord's victory! ... thou shalt smite ... till thou have consumed. Yes, of course; if the arrow is the Lord's arrow, and the strength is His strength, then the only issue corresponding to the power is perfect victory.
So the whole nation, both high and low, was glad when the new arrangement brought a clear issue, and secured the right appropriation of the money. No doubt, too, Joash's earnestness kindled others.
The dying appeal was soon answered in the invasion of the Syrian army, a comparatively small company, into whose hands the Lord delivered a very great host of the Israelites. The defeat was complete, and possibly Joash's 'great diseases, of which the narrative speaks, refer to wounds received in the fight.
Direct opposition is easier to bear than apparent assistance which tries to slow down to half speed. Joash's command is imperative on all workers for God. 'See that ye hasten the matter, for time is short, the fruit great, the evening shadows lengthening, the interests at stake all-important, and the Lord of the harvest will soon come to count our sheaves.
Jehoiada made a solemn agreement between Jehovah and the new ruler and the people, that they should be Jehovah's people; also between the ruler and the people, and Joash ruled forty years in Jerusalem. Uzziah, Joash's grandson, was sixteen years old when he began to rule over Judah and he ruled fifty-two years in Jerusalem.
Human nature is the same in Jerusalem in Joash's time, and to-day in Manchester, or New York, or Philadelphia, and all men who live by the gifts of Christian people have need to watch themselves, lest they, like Ezekiel's false shepherds, feed themselves and not the flock, and seek the wool and the fat and not the good of the sheep.
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