Hey Bible Readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap. Yesterday we covered the reign of King Jehu in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and

while he was on the throne the Southern Kingdom got a king named Joash, also known

as Joachsh, who was seven years old and probably needed a nickname that was easier to pronounce anyway.

So we'll call this little guy by the shorter version of his name, Joash.

Fortunately, young Joash had a wise advisor, the priest. And as long as the priest was alive, he seemed to keep

Joe Ash in line. The priest did get two wives for Jo Ash, but it's possible that the second wife didn't show up on the scene until after the first wife died.

For the most part, Joe Ash followed God's commands, with the exception of tearing down the high places for idle worship.

He even commanded the restoration of the temple.

It had fallen into disrepair since the people had been so focused on worshiping idols instead,

and they'd even use some of the temple instruments in their worship of Ba'all.

Ugh. But the priests of the temple don't follow his orders for how to finance the restoration process.

They either don't collect the taxes got as required or they

collect them and embezzle them while they just lounge around for 23 years. Finally, Joe Ash puts

his foot down, makes an offering box, and the people are actually happy to give to this cause.

He uses their money to hire some workers for the repair work, since the priest can't be trusted.

The workers are honest guys guys and they manage to get

things rolling along nicely. It's all going fairly well for Joe Ash's reign until the priest dies. Then he goes off the rails.

He starts seeking counsel from the local princes who

flatter him and eventually lead him into idolatry. The priest's son warns

him about the consequences of this sin and Joeash's people respond to the priest's son with humble

repentance, right? No, they stone him to death. Terrible. Not long after that, God sends the very judgment the priest's son had prophesied in his last words.

This judgment comes in the form of the Syrian army. They're small, but they manage to defeat the army of Judah and severely wound their King Joe Ash.

...