The Transformation of the House

We can say we love God and say we believe and truth Him, but the rubber hits the road when we give to and go to work on His house - the Church.

In 2 Kings 12, we have a righteous king on the throne following the debacle that was the wicked queen Athaliah.

2 Kings 12:2–3 (ESV) And Jehoash did what was right in the eyes of the LORD all his days, because Jehoiada the priest instructed him. 3 Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away; the people continued to sacrifice and make offerings on the high places.

Now Jehoash's first move as the king in the narrative is incredible. He decides to call for a rebuilding campaign over the Temple.

2 Kings 12:4–5 (ESV) Jehoash said to the priests, “All the money of the holy things that is brought into the house of the LORD, the money for which each man is assessed—the money from the assessment of persons—and the money that a man’s heart prompts him to bring into the house of the LORD, 5 let the priests take, each from his donor, and let them repair the house wherever any need of repairs is discovered.”

Two specific offerings are mentioned here. One is the temple tax by which all Hebrew boys were redeemed for the Lord and the freewill offering which referred to the gifts someone would give as their heart moved them. Jehoash wants the money to be used by the priests to do what it was intended to do... repair and maintain the Temple. 

For whatever reason, we find the priests were lazy in making repairs of the house. 

2 Kings 12:6–7 (ESV) But by the twenty-third year of King Jehoash, the priests had made no repairs on the house. 7 Therefore King Jehoash summoned Jehoiada the priest and the other priests and said to them, “Why are you not repairing the house? Now therefore take no more money from your donors, but hand it over for the repair of the house.”

The point is interesting here. Because Israel has experienced a cleansing of sorts from their idolatrous practices but they still needed to do more than just get clean, they needed to have a place to meet with God. The problem with many people is that they want to be free from the effects of sin but they do not have a heart to be in communion with the Lord. This is an impossible form of religious belief wherein we bounce in and out of church seeking only relief from sins curse but remaining disconnected from God's power. 

The house must be built and Jehoash demands it to be done beginning with the priests taking the money that was brought and then reinvesting it in the house. This is a call to worship! The Lord's house must be ready for God's people to come and meet with Him. 

Jehoida enacts a plan. 

2 Kings 12:9–10 (ESV) Then Jehoiada the priest took a chest and bored a hole in the lid of it and set it beside the altar on the right side as one entered the house of the LORD. And the priests who guarded the threshold put in it all the money that was brought into the house of the LORD. 10 And whenever they saw that there was much money in the chest, the king’s secretary and the high priest came up and they bagged and counted the money that was found in the house of the LORD.

There is an interesting picture here of making sure the money was claimed for the purposes for which it was given. There was to be no allowing it to slip through the cracks or be remitted for other projects. The money ends up going to the renovators and the priests who work in the Temple. The structure had to be sufficient and the leaders had to be well able. 

In Christ, we have a true Temple wherein we meet with God. Only we do not just set aside money for Him, we offer our very bodies to Him as living sacrifices. He takes us and renovates us as a dwelling place for His Spirit to work through us as a light to the nations. Without His power we cannot do anything. With His power, we have more than religious practice, we have God's Spirit to work with Him in the world and do more than cleanse it, we can change it.