And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood up above the people and said unto them, Thus saith God Wherefore do ye transgress the commandments of Jehovah? And ye cannot prosper; for ye have forsaken Jehovah, and he hath forsaken you.
After Jehoiada the priest died, the king he had raised turned away, and Judah went back to idols. Here God makes His last appeal before judgment: the Spirit takes hold of a priest's son, who stands above the crowd and asks why.
The verse does not say Zechariah decided to speak. It says the Spirit of God clothed him. Other men were lifted out of ordinary life the same way, for one moment of testimony.
There were others like Gideon, Amasai, and Zechariah. The Spirit clothed Himself with them for the time being, so that He might witness through them… But in all these cases the Spirit acted on men from the outside. He used them for His purpose without regard to their inner moral character.
The words are not a fresh sentence God invented for Joash. They repeat terms Judah already knew. The covenant had two sides. God's part never fails, and Israel's does.
Both sides had to keep this covenant. The LORD always keeps His side, for He is faithful. But if Israel were unfaithful, they would certainly fall under the judgment of God, who must forsake them.
That is why the warning is framed as a cause, not a mood: they cannot prosper because they have left Him.
Since this was spoken by a priest of God who was Jehoiada's son, we should expect Joash at least to pay serious attention, but instead Joash issued the command to stone Zechariah to death in the court of the house of the LORD!
God did not pick a stranger to carry this warning.
God is still patient with Joash and with his people. He sends prophets to them, for though the judgment is so near, and as certain as their sin, He remembers His covenant with them. He sends a special messenger to Joash — one who has a strong natural claim on him, and who would be listened to more closely than anyone else. The All-wise God knows how to use natural feelings for His purposes of mercy. When those feelings are trampled, that is even greater evidence of Satan's power over man. Zechariah, son of Jehoiada and a cousin of the king, carries God's message and rebuke. Humanly speaking, the king owes his life to Jehoshabeath, and he will listen to her son, if only out of gratitude, even though he pays no attention to the One who sent the words.
The messenger's standing should have guaranteed a hearing.
A priest of God, Jehoiada's own son, spoke these words. We should expect Joash at least to pay serious attention. Instead he gave the command to stone Zechariah to death in the court of the house of the LORD! So Joash was guilty of despising the blessing he had received through Jehoiada, and of coldly rejecting the God of Israel.
Joash had done right for years. But what held him up was not his own trust in God. It was a good man standing beside him.
Yes, but it was more the influence of Jehoiada than faith in the living God. An influence, sooner or later, must fail. The influence of man is not the faith of God's elect.
The pattern did not end with Joash.
The case of King Joash shows this. A faith based only on training vanishes once the influences holding it up are gone.
Jesus spoke of "the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar." Did He mean this Zechariah, or a later prophet with the same name? Commentators differ. One line of reading points to the place of Chronicles in the Hebrew Bible:
This probably refers to Zechariah the son of Jehoiada, whom the king ordered killed. In one of the places "son" may mean "grandson." Chronicles closes the Hebrew Bible, so this murder of a righteous man may well count as the last, just as Abel's was the first.
Others hold that the father's name points elsewhere:
It seems clear that this refers to Zechariah the prophet, son of Berechiah. Another Zechariah, son of Jehoiada, died as a martyr in the court of the temple. But the son of Berechiah prophesied much later, to the remnant that had returned.
- Sent — Judah ran after idols. God sent prophets before He sent judgment, and this man came last.
- Spirit — Zechariah did not volunteer. The Spirit clothed Himself with him for that moment and bore witness through him.
- Cause — the warning names a reason, not a fate. They could not prosper because they had left the LORD. The covenant had two sides to keep.
- Mercy — God picked the speaker with the strongest claim on the king's heart. Trampling that tie showed how far Joash had fallen.
- Collapse — Joash ran on Jehoiada's faith, not his own. Borrowed faith fails when the person holding it up is gone.
And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the command of the king in the court of the house of Jehovah.
Joash owed his throne and his life to Jehoiada the priest, who guarded him as a child and made him king. Now that same king orders the stoning of Jehoiada's son in the temple courtyard. Two questions follow. How did a reign that began so well end in murder? And why did the Lord Jesus later lay this death at the feet of people born centuries afterwards?
Joash began well. One writer contrasts faith with mere human energy, which he calls the flesh:
Flesh may be even more zealous than faith. But there is this difference: faith continues, while the effort of flesh is short-lived. It may begin well, but the question is whether it continues. Its continuance is always the great proof of what is divine. Joash did not continue as he had begun.
Before judgment fell, God sent prophets. The last one had a claim on the king that no other messenger had. Zechariah was the king's cousin, and the son of the man who saved his life.
His mercy and patience are clearest toward Joash, for He sends him a special messenger. This man has a strong natural claim on the king, who would hear him and listen to him closely beyond all others. The all-wise God knows how to use natural feelings for His purposes of mercy. When those feelings are trampled on, that is so much greater evidence of Satan's power over man.
The warning came through a man the king had every reason to hear. His answer shows how far he had already gone.
A priest of God spoke this, and he was Jehoiada's son. So we would expect Joash at least to pay serious attention. Instead Joash issued the command to stone Zechariah to death in the court of the house of the Lord! So Joash was guilty of despising the blessing he had received through Jehoiada and coldly rejecting the God of Israel.
The verse fixes the blame exactly: the crowd threw the stones, but the order came from the king.
What ingratitude! What treachery toward the son of his own close relative, the man who had guarded his life! The Spirit of God records it in words that touch the heart: "Thus Joash the king did not remember the kindness that Jehoiada, Zechariah's father, had shown him, but killed his son."
Zechariah died asking God to see and repay. Within a year a small Syrian force destroyed the princes who had led the king astray. Joash's own servants then killed him in his bed.
And He did, and quickly too — for He does not ignore the dying prayers of men like Zechariah.
Zechariah's last words are often set beside Stephen's.
There is a difference between the last words of this martyr-prophet and the last words of the first martyr of the church. Stephen prayed, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." Zechariah said, "May the Lord see and avenge!"
Why the difference? One writer points to what had changed between the two deaths:
Zechariah died in a time ruled by law, where "every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution." Grace reigned in Stephen's day, as it still does in ours. That is why the two dying prayers differ. Both prayers, unlike as they are, exactly fitted the time in which each man bore witness.
Jesus charged the scribes and Pharisees with the blood of "Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar." He was reaching back to a killing long past. Matthew names the father as Barachiah, while Chronicles calls Zechariah the son of Jehoiada. One writer sets that puzzle beside the far weightier charge:
It may be that Barachiah was the grandfather of Zechariah, but we have no record of Jehoiada's father. Why did the Lord Jesus accuse the scribes and Pharisees of murdering Zechariah? It had happened years before. Because in opposing Christ they showed the same cruel, unbelieving attitude toward God. And Christ is an infinitely greater Messenger than Zechariah was. By their attitude they were identifying themselves with those who hated God.
- Zeal fades. Joash began well but did not continue. Human zeal can burn hotter than faith for a while. Only what lasts proves to be from God.
- Mercy sent. God chose the one messenger the king could least ignore. He used family ties to call Joash back before judgment fell.
- Mercy refused. The king answered the warning with stones, in the temple court, by his own command. He despised the blessing he had received and rejected the God of Israel.
- Mercy repaid. Zechariah asked God to see and repay. The answer came fast: a small Syrian force, a wasting disease, and murder by his own servants.
- Mercy refused again. Centuries later, men who opposed a far greater Messenger took the guilt of that old blood as their own.