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 Jehoash, 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 Joash in line. The priest did get two

wives for Joash, 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, Joash followed God's commands, with the exception

of tearing down the high places for idol worship. He even commanded the restoration of the temple.

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

and they'd even used some of the temple instruments in their worship of Baal. 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 God has 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 priests can't be trusted. The workers are honest guys and they manage to get

things rolling along nicely. It's all going fairly well for Joash'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 Joash's people respond to the

priest's son with humble repentance, right? No, they stone him to death. Terrible. Not long after that,

God sins 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,

...