Immerse: Kingdoms Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 256
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IMMERSE
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KINGDOMS
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| 11:21–12:16
Joash was seven years old when he became king.
Joash began to rule over Judah in the seventh year of King Jehu’s reign
in Israel. He reigned in Jerusalem forty years. His mother was Zibiah from
Beersheba. All his life Joash did what was pleasing in the Lord’s sight because Jehoiada the priest instructed him. Yet even so, he did not destroy
the pagan shrines, and the people still offered sacrifices and burned incense there.
One day King Joash said to the priests, “Collect all the money brought as
a sacred offering to the Lord’s Temple, whether it is a regular assessment,
a payment of vows, or a voluntary gift. Let the priests take some of that
money to pay for whatever repairs are needed at the Temple.”
But by the twenty-third year of Joash’s reign, the priests still had not repaired the Temple. So King Joash called for Jehoiada and the other priests
and asked them, “Why haven’t you repaired the Temple? Don’t use any
more money for your own needs. From now on, it must all be spent on
Temple repairs.” So the priests agreed not to accept any more money from
the people, and they also agreed to let others take responsibility for repairing the Temple.
Then Jehoiada the priest bored a hole in the lid of a large chest and set
it on the right-hand side of the altar at the entrance of the Temple of the
Lord. The priests guarding the entrance put all of the people’s contributions into the chest. Whenever the chest became full, the court secretary and the high priest counted the money that had been brought to
the Lord’s Temple and put it into bags. Then they gave the money to the
construction supervisors, who used it to pay the people working on the
Lord’s Temple—the carpenters, the builders, the masons, and the stonecutters. They also used the money to buy the timber and the finished stone
needed for repairing the Lord’s Temple, and they paid any other expenses
related to the Temple’s restoration.
The money brought to the Temple was not used for making silver bowls,
lamp snuffers, basins, trumpets, or other articles of gold or silver for the
Temple of the Lord. It was paid to the workmen, who used it for the
Temple repairs. No accounting of this money was required from the construction supervisors, because they were honest and trustworthy men.
However, the money that was contributed for guilt offerings and sin offerings was not brought into the Lord’s Temple. It was given to the priests
for their own use.