Joash rules as king of Judah. He embarks on a large-scale mission to renovate the Temple in Jerusalem-much to the dismay of the priests, who argue that a budget should be allocated for this purpose. A compromise is eventually reached and reparations are carried out. A designated safe for collecting donations is placed inside the Temple. The money inserted here is used to pay craftsmen, thus ensuring that the living allowances of the priests are left intact. Repentance is a precondition for redemption. Just as the reconstruction works of the Temple revealed God’s light, we too must expose our hearts in order to attain personal salvation.
The Aramean armies attack Judah from the north. Hazael, their king, demands a ransom-or else he will besiege Jerusalem. Joash is forced to give away the Temple’s treasures. This act comes as punishment for the forbidden altars, worship of Baal, and murder of Zechariah-whose father, Jehoiada, had saved Joash and raised him.
“And the priests consented to receive no moremoney of the people, neither to repair the breaches of the house” (2 Kings 12:7)
“And they laid it out to the carpenters and builders, that wrought upon the house of the LORD, And to masons, and hewers of stone, and to buy timber and hewed stone to repair the breaches of the house of the LORD, and for all that was laid out for the house to repair it” (2 Kings 12:11-12)
Saintliness is achieved when we overcome negativity and possess absolute certainty that the light of the Creator informs every thought and every deed.
