Sunday, July 29, 2007

2 Chronicles 24:1—25:28

CM’s commentary:

Joash was seven years old when he became king and reined for 40 years. Important to keep in mind the potential for this to be symbolically important. 40 days of flood, forty years I the desert. I wonder what is significant about this guy’s reign, because he starts so well and so dramatically—saved from a certain execution by a doting aunt and generous chief priests who then fervently follows the Lord and leads Israel to follow the Lord as well. Then upon Jehoida’s death, he finishes so terribly by turning to Ashera Poles and even killing Jehoida’s son, Zecharia, because of his prophesying against the Pole practices. Amazing.

24:17

“Paid homage…and he listened to them.” What kind of homage was this. Kind of a form of worship? Whatever the “homage” was, it evidently caused Irael to start back into paganism. How could a man’s goldly leadership turn back in such a short time? Jehoida ruled as priest, but perhaps did he lead people to love God or just fear God through externalities? The text says nothing about this, but think it’s a good exercise to consider the various possibilities explaining how Joash and Jehoida ended poorly.

In their youth, it seems they were on fire. But in their old age, they seemed to dim. Joash, and the rest of Israel, seemed ready to simply turn over their affections to idols, so it prompts one to wonder just what kind of spiritual workout was not taking place during the time leading up to this season in which Jehoida’s life was sunsetting. Maybe Jehoida was fervent to the end. Still, did he use his youth to set up rules and regulations that had the appearance of godliness but not the power?

Perhaps there was not a David-like octane to worship of Jehoida’s day, where leaders danced and loved God openly, not just for counsel on whether/how to wage war, collect taxes, or sacrifice in the temple, but for daily small and big life matters. It seems that Israel was just an old fragile county ripe for takeover, given how quickly they turned from the Lord to paganism after Jehoida’s death.

24:23

What & Where is Aram?

Wikipedia:

Aram is the name of a region mentioned in the Bible located in central Syria, including where the city of Aleppo (aka Halab) now stands. The name is traditionally derived from Aram, a grandson of Noah in the Bible.

The Aramaeans (speakers of the Aramaic traditionally descended from Aram) began to settle in Aram and Mesopotamia in the late 12th century BCE. Two medium-sized Aramaean kingdoms, Aram-Damascus and Hamath, along with several smaller kingdoms and independent city-states, developed in the region during the first millennium BCE. The Chaldeans who settled in southern Babylonia around 1000 BCE were founders of the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 625 BCE are also believed to have been an Aramaean tribe.

As Christians began to inhabit that area of Syria, a dialect of Aramaic, Syriac, was born. Hence Syriac has been associated with Christian Syrians.

Today in this same area, there are several Eastern Catholic Churches that are distinct from the Latin Rite. Two of these are the Maronite Church and the Melkite Greek-Catholic Church, both common to Syria and Lebanon.

Crosswalk.com:

The son of Shem (Genesis 10:22); according to Genesis 22:21, a grandson of Nahor. In Matthew 1:3,4, and Luke 3:33, this word is the Greek form of Ram, the father of Amminadab (1 Chronicles 2:10).

The word means high, or highlands, and as the name of a country denotes that elevated region extending from the northeast of Palestine to the Euphrates. It corresponded generally with the Syria and Mesopotamia of the Greeks and Romans. In Genesis 25:20; 31:20,24; Deuteronomy 26:5, the word "Syrian" is properly "Aramean" (RSV, marg.). Damascus became at length the capital of the several smaller kingdoms comprehended under the designation "Aram" or "Syria."

Matthew Henry’s Commentary

I particular enjoyed this commentary from MH:

He that will not be counselled cannot be helped. It is especially prudent for young people to take advice in their marriages, as Joash did, who left it to his guardian to choose him his wives, because Jezebel and Athaliah had been such plagues, v. 3. This is a turn of life which often proves either the making or marring of young people, and therefore should be attended to with great care.