“Do you now believe? Jesus replied. A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me. I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”—Jesus, John 16:31-33 

Jesus is our victory over sin and death when we choose Him first and always!  In choosing Jesus and His gift of salvation; we become children of God, the Father who loves, cares, and completely forgives us when we repent of our sins in Jesus’ Name. 

By God’s grace we overcome because Jesus overcame the enemy!  So, as overcomers with Jesus, all temporary, passing troubles are just that—temporary!

By God’s mercy we are in right standing with him with a secure relationship with God, all because of Jesus. Our relationship with God, the most important relationship we will ever have and need, causes us to take heart and live a victorious life all because of Jesus. All we think, say, and do is now accomplished from the victory over the enemy Jesus provided for us!  “I’m dancing on the grave that I once lived in!” is not just a catchy phrase to a new song we sing—Jesus IS the Song!

Joash was only seven years old when he ascended the throne of Judah (2 Kings 11:21), and he had a long reign of forty years. A child of seven can’t rule a nation, so the high priest Jehoiada was his tutor and mentor. God provided a mentor who believed, trusted and chose to obey Him.  Joash, the impressionable young willing student, “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord”.  During all the years that Jehoiada instructed him, the king obeyed the Lord.  But later…

God provides all we need when we trust and obey Him.  Our true need is God! 

2 Kings 12

Joash Repairs the Temple

In the seventh year of Jehu, Joash became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem forty years. His mother’s name was Zibiah; she was from Beersheba. ² Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the years Jehoiada the priest instructed him. ³ The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.

⁴ Joash said to the priests, “Collect all the money that is brought as sacred offerings to the temple of the Lord—the money collected in the census, the money received from personal vows and the money brought voluntarily to the temple. ⁵ Let every priest receive the money from one of the treasurers, then use it to repair whatever damage is found in the temple.”

⁶ But by the twenty-third year of King Joash the priests still had not repaired the temple. ⁷ Therefore King Joash summoned Jehoiada the priest and the other priests and asked them, “Why aren’t you repairing the damage done to the temple? Take no more money from your treasurers, but hand it over for repairing the temple.” ⁸ The priests agreed that they would not collect any more money from the people and that they would not repair the temple themselves.

⁹ Jehoiada the priest took a chest and bored a hole in its lid. He placed it beside the altar, on the right side as one enters the temple of the Lord. The priests who guarded the entrance put into the chest all the money that was brought to the temple of the Lord. ¹⁰ Whenever they saw that there was a large amount of money in the chest, the royal secretary and the high priest came, counted the money that had been brought into the temple of the Lord and put it into bags. ¹¹ When the amount had been determined, they gave the money to the men appointed to supervise the work on the temple. With it they paid those who worked on the temple of the Lord—the carpenters and builders, ¹² the masons and stonecutters. They purchased timber and blocks of dressed stone for the repair of the temple of the Lord, and met all the other expenses of restoring the temple.

¹³ The money brought into the temple was not spent for making silver basins, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, trumpets or any other articles of gold or silver for the temple of the Lord; ¹⁴ it was paid to the workers, who used it to repair the temple. ¹⁵ They did not require an accounting from those to whom they gave the money to pay the workers, because they acted with complete honesty. ¹⁶ The money from the guilt offerings and sin offerings was not brought into the temple of the Lord; it belonged to the priests.

¹⁷ About this time Hazael king of Aram went up and attacked Gath and captured it. Then he turned to attack Jerusalem. ¹⁸ But Joash king of Judah took all the sacred objects dedicated by his predecessors—Jehoshaphat, Jehoram and Ahaziah, the kings of Judah—and the gifts he himself had dedicated and all the gold found in the treasuries of the temple of the Lord and of the royal palace, and he sent them to Hazael king of Aram, who then withdrew from Jerusalem.

¹⁹ As for the other events of the reign of Joash, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? ²⁰ His officials conspired against him and assassinated him at Beth Millo, on the road down to Silla. ²¹ The officials who murdered him were Jozabad son of Shimeath and Jehozabad son of Shomer. He died and was buried with his ancestors in the City of David. And Amaziah his son succeeded him as king.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Between the restoration of the temple and this account of war with Aram, Jehoiada the priest passed away. Without his godly mentor to keep him in line, King Joash showed the true colors of his human nature and abandoned the faith (2 Chronicles 24:15–17). Under pressure from the king of Aram, Joash robbed the temple and bribed King Hazael not to attack Jerusalem.

Friends, we learn that we need each other to stay in harmony with God’s will and purpose in our lives! The enemy is great but Jesus who lives in us is greater still and we need daily reminders of this power and victory!  Church is a command to Peter to build to help us. Church, built on faith and following Jesus, is a group of people who gather to build each other up, sing songs of encouragement, confess sins to each other knowing we will be unconditionally loved. Church, with Jesus as the Head of this Body of believers and the Source of Life eternal, is a gathering where we are taught how to “obey all the commands” of Jesus upon choosing to follow Him and professing our allegiance to Him in a public baptism in His Name!  (Matthew 28:20)

However, living as a disciple of Jesus does not exclude us from the troubles, struggles and trials of temptations that come and go as we live in on God’s created earth.  The world we live in as been tainted by sin. The first sin against God was committed by His first created humans called Adam and Eve. Maybe we need to go over that story again.  I love to tell the story…

Before Adam and Eve decided to sin against God, they were prompted by the Enemy of God. This couple would “meet with God in the cool of the evening” as companions and friends of God.  “And He walks with me and He talks with me and He tells me I am His own.” Was that the song on their hearts before sin corrupted their relationship? Imagine walking and talking with God in beauty beyond our imaginations in a perfect garden!  Imagine no biting mosquitoes!  Okay, that’s just me.

Adam and Eve had full access to God in the perfect garden that he had created for them. There was no reason to repent and sacrifice to cover sin for sin had not been chosen yet as a way to make themselves feel better or soothe their need to want more.  They had it all and were perfectly satisfied to avoid the tree God said not to eat.  But herein lies a chose to be made. The Enemy of God slithers in to present a different choice for he cannot bear for God to be worshiped. Satan wants to be the object of worship!  Satan cannot bear this pure and holy relationship between God and humans created in his own image.  He is cunning and sly for he has dealt with God before and it got him kicked out of heaven.  The Enemy also knew that God also gave these newly created humans with a mind to make choices on their own.  So, he went to work on their minds. 

Our enemy knows God well as he used to be in the heavens with God until God threw him out for his attempts to be God. In fact, our enemy also knows the Son of God, Jesus who is a part of God.  His demons tremble before the Son of God!  Satan also knows God as the Spirit of Truth.  You see, Satan wanted to be God so he rose up against God in an attempt to overthrow God! God threw him out of the heavens along with his demon foot soldiers.  This act created choice for all humans. God or Satan.

Adam and Eve have a choice. Follow, trust and obey God or follow Satan’s deceiving words of that lead to death of a relationship with God.  Satan, the fallen angel, presents himself cunningly as the best choice to make.  Please know that Satan’s power is limited but still tempting as he knows just the right words to distract and deceive God’s created by tickling our ears with thoughts that entice our need for immediate gratification and self-satisfaction. Satan’s goal is to distract humans from God, deceive them with his words that distort God’s Word, so that he can destroy their relationship with God.  He succeeded with Adam and Eve. Satan performs regularly for us using the same old, tired tricks of deceit on you and me.

“Do you now believe?” Asks Jesus daily.  Be an overcomer of darkness, temporary troubles, and temptations and choose to trust and obey God.  He will use everything in our lives to build our faith and give us hope as victors with Jesus!  Choose Jesus!

It is written in the Chronicles of kings that the people buried Joash in Jerusalem but not in the royal cemetery of the kings where Jehoiada the high priest had been buried (2 Chronicles 24:16, 25). The boy king, who had such a good beginning because he chose to listen to Jehoiada who obeyed God, had a bad ending because he chose later to go his own way instead of the way of the Lord.

Lord,

I choose you because of your unconditional love for me. I choose to learn from Your Word and be filled more and more with knowledge of You so I can become more like you. I chose to trust in you alone and worship You with all that is in me—even when troubles come and go. When the enemy presents foolishness, I choose to lean on You and your wisdom, truth, and strength who lives in me. I choose your power to overcome the darkness. I chose freedom long ago and have no desire to be enslaved by the sins of my past.  I trust you with my life because you are Life!

In Jesus Name, Amen