This week, as I meditated on Joash king of Judah, I saw God’s personal qualities and humility. Athaliah the daughter of Ahab, the most wicked king of northern Israel, marries Joram king of southern Judah. Later when Athaliah saw that her husband and her son were dead, she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family of David and crowned herself as the queen; but only prince Joash was saved by his uncle Jehoiada the priest. After remaining hidden at the temple of the Lord for seven years, Joash eventually killed Athaliah and became the king with the help of Jehoiada’s courageous act.
Though Joash became king at a young age, he reigned with excellent politics including the restoration of the destroyed temple. However, the problem was that after the death of his uncle Jehoiada, he fell for the words of his servants who had helped him to become king, abandoned God and began to worship other idols overnight.
Although the Lord sent many prophets bring him back, he did not listen. The Spirit of God even came on Zechariah son of Jehoiada, who made Joash become the king, to testify God’s words. God sent Zechariah, thinking ‘no way will he not listen to Jehoiada’s son’, but Joash killed Zechariah in the Lord’s temple at the end.
What I focused on was not Joash’s ingratitude but the way God chose to take him back to God. If He really wanted, God Almighty, the creator of the entire universe, was more than able to humiliate Joash and make him beg for forgiveness and mercy; but why did He only send the rather insignificant and easily dismissive prophets to speak to Joash?
This is the way God works. God comes and speaks to us unnoticeably. In other words, God comes to us in a way that He can be easily denied if we had ignored Him. If God reveals all His true self, we would die from not being able to endure His glory. He works in the way we can decide and behave freely, not by force or threat.
This is why God let Adam and Eve be even when they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; this is why our great God, the creator of the entire universe, sent His only Son to us and let Jesus die in the hands of people who keep leaving and disobeying God; this is why He continues to surprisingly yet definitely appear in my life and satisfy my curiosity upfront; it is also why He does not grant my wishes all at once. How respectful is our God, how humble is He! If you look around with care, you will be able to realise His word and manoeuvre.
Every day, we should not ignore the words of the people around us who God sent, but listen well and voluntarily live a life of obedience. On the other hand, I also should not try to manipulate other people for my own benefit, but make a constant effort to persuade them until they are willing to follow and treat people the way God continues to pray and wait for us even if it may require a lot of our time and effort. Indeed, it is difficult to treat people in God’s way. However, it is the closest to God’s way.
