Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible recap.

Yesterday we covered the reign of King J. Who in the Northern Kingdom of Israel.

And while he was on the throne, the Southern Kingdom got a king named Joe Ash, also known

as Jeho Ash, 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, Joe Ash.

Fortunately, young Joe Ash 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 Joe 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 Baal.

Ugh.

But the priest 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.

Luckily 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.

...