2 Kings 12:17-21
"17 At that time Hazael king of Syria went up and fought against Gath and took it. But when Hazael set his face to go up against Jerusalem, 18 Jehoash king of Judah took all the sacred gifts that Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah his fathers, the kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own sacred gifts, and all the gold that was found in the treasuries of the house of the Lord and of the king's house, and sent these to Hazael king of Syria. Then Hazael went away from Jerusalem.
19 Now the rest of the acts of Joash and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 20 His servants arose and made a conspiracy and struck down Joash in the house of Millo, on the way that goes down to Silla. 21 It was Jozacar the son of Shimeath and Jehozabad the son of Shomer, his servants, who struck him down, so that he died. And they buried him with his fathers in the city of David, and Amaziah his son reigned in his place."
These verses make very strange reading. Have you noticed anything out of character in 18? Here is the man who has been so zealous in the reforming work of the Lord weakly sur- rendering the treasures of the temple to buy off the king of Syria. It will not do to say that it was a time of extreme crisis and that there was no option but to 'buy' freedom in this way. One has only to look back to 3:16ff or 6:15ff to see a very different story. Had God changed, then, that no appeal was made to Him in this emergency? Oh, Joash, what a lapse of faith this is, after your heroic and dedicated efforts in the restoration of the fortunes of Israel! What a betrayal of Israel's glory! And at the last, an ignominious end, by assassination at the hands of his servants (20). One is reminded of the inglorious end of Noah's career after his long faith- fulness in the service of God. Well might Paul speak of the necessity of putting on the whole armour of God that we might be able to stand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand!