2015-09-02 ILC Chapel — Joash Repairs the Temple
2 Chronicles 24:2–13 (Listen)
2 And Joash did what was right in the eyes of the LORD all the days of Jehoiada the priest. 3 Jehoiada got for him two wives, and he had sons and daughters.
4 After this Joash decided to restore the house of the LORD. 5 And he gathered the priests and the Levites and said to them, “Go out to the cities of Judah and gather from all Israel money to repair the house of your God from year to year, and see that you act quickly.” But the Levites did not act quickly. 6 So the king summoned Jehoiada the chief and said to him, “Why have you not required the Levites to bring in from Judah and Jerusalem the tax levied by Moses, the servant of the LORD, and the congregation of Israel for the tent of testimony?” 7 For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken into the house of God, and had also used all the dedicated things of the house of the LORD for the Baals.
8 So the king commanded, and they made a chest and set it outside the gate of the house of the LORD. 9 And proclamation was made throughout Judah and Jerusalem to bring in for the LORD the tax that Moses the servant of God laid on Israel in the wilderness. 10 And all the princes and all the people rejoiced and brought their tax and dropped it into the chest until they had finished.1 11 And whenever the chest was brought to the king’s officers by the Levites, when they saw that there was much money in it, the king’s secretary and the officer of the chief priest would come and empty the chest and take it and return it to its place. Thus they did day after day, and collected money in abundance. 12 And the king and Jehoiada gave it to those who had charge of the work of the house of the LORD, and they hired masons and carpenters to restore the house of the LORD, and also workers in iron and bronze to repair the house of the LORD. 13 So those who were engaged in the work labored, and the repairing went forward in their hands, and they restored the house of God to its proper condition and strengthened it.
Footnotes
[1] 24:10
(ESV)
Hymn: TLH 788, st. 1,2 :
Lord, You Love the Cheerful Giver
1. Lord, You love the cheerful giver
Who with open heart and hand
Blesses freely, as a river
That refreshes all the land.
Grant us, then, the grace of giving
With a spirit large and true
That our life and all our living
We may consecrate to You.
2. We are Yours Your mercy sought us,
Found us in death’s dreadful way,
To the fold in safety brought us,
Nevermore from You to stray.
Your own life was freely given
As an off’ring on the cross
For each sinner,now forgiven
From eternal shame and loss.